Being more active will help increase your HDL (good) cholesterol levels and bring down your LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. It can also lower your blood pressure, help reduce your body fat, and help you keep to a healthy weight and shape, and reduce your stress and anxiety levels.
Aim for a minimum of 2½ hours of moderate intensity exercise each week (so 30 minutes, five days a week). If you can be active for longer than this, you should see greater health improvements.
For a healthy heart you should do aerobic exercise, such as:
(If you haven’t exercised for a while check with your GP first.)
Eat for a healthy heart and body
These steps are good for your overall health, not just for your heart. And the same goes for the changes to your diet. HEART UK has its own cholesterol-lowering plan, called the Ultimate Cholesterol Lowering Plan – UCLP* for short. It is a step-by-step process for getting your cholesterol down.
“We start by talking about motivation, and getting people to focus on why it’s important to get cholesterol levels down,” says Linda Main.
“So we look at what their triggers are for eating unhealthy food. Then we look at the basics – lowering saturated fats in the diet, replacing it with healthier fat, and including high fibre carbohydrates or whole grains, at least five portions of fruit and veg a day, and one portion of oily fish a week.”
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