How can you maintain or lower your cholesterol level?

Without testing, you can't know what your cholesterol is doing from day to day. However, we do know that following a healthy lifestyle can help to manage or lower cholesterol levels. Healthy lifestyle choices include:

• stopping smoking: smoking makes 'bad' cholesterol stickier and more likely to block your arteries. It also damages artery walls and reduces the level of 'good' cholesterol. If you smoke, click here for help in quitting.
  
  
• having a healthy, balanced diet: healthy diet and healthy weight help to reduce your blood pressure and lower the risk of having a stroke or heart attack and developing diabetes, heart disease and dementia. Click here for information on low-cholesterol foods.

• exercising: Regular moderate exercise such as walking can be enough to raise your 'good' cholesterol, lower your 'bad' cholesterol and also dramatically reduce your risk of having a stroke or heart attack. Strength work such as wall squats and planks have been shown to help reduce blood pressure too.
  See how much activity is recommended for your age group by clicking here.
  Click here for more information and some home exercise videos.
  
  
• reducing the amount of alcohol you drink: Alcohol raises your levels of both cholesterol and triglycerides (another type of fat found in your blood).
  Click here to find out more about alcohol and cholesterol.
  Work out your alcohol intake with the drinkaware unit and calorie calculator