| I Lowered My Cholesterol! |
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I did it! I lowered my cholesterol 21 points in 6 months! And best of all, I did it without any medication. At the beginning of the year, you may recall that I received quite a shock from my doctor when he told me that my cholesterol had taken a huge jump. We reviewed my diet, but found that I was a pretty healthy eater. We also looked at exercise, but I told my doctor that I powerwalk 5+ miles a day (Wisconsin weather permitting). High cholesterol does run in my father's family and it seemed I faced a daunting task. I was very frustrated and determined to stay away from medications. A nutritionist suggested that I boost my daily fiber from the recommended 25 grams per day to 35-40g. Studies have shown that a high fiber diet helps flush LDL (lousy cholesterol) from your body. In addition to that a girl friend shared with me that her mother also has high cholesterol and that she had great luck combating it with cinnamon supplements. So with those two bits of information I went into battle. It wasn't easy and I freely admit that I was not always a good girl. The winter was long and difficult; there were so many days of frigid cold and snow, depression was usually treated with fatty comfort foods. The crazy weather, snow and rain, made it hard to stick to my exercise plan. But I must have done something right because my LDL went from 178 down to 159. I moved from the High Risk category to Borderline. My total cholesterol is still high, 225; but if I stay on track maybe I'll drop it another 20 points by the end of the year!
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