Lifestyle
- Reduce stress, take moderate exercise and don't smoke
- Keep your weight down, especially your waist size (Am J Epidemiol, 2006; 164: 1150-9).
Diet
- Avoid processed foods and refined carbohydrates (see WDDTY vol 13 no 12)
- Only use olive, coconut and palm oils
- Eat fatty fish and nuts, lots of fruit and vegetables and high-fiber foods
- Eat red grapefruit (J Agric Food Chem, 2006; 54: 1887-92)
- Drink apple and orange juice
- Eat dark chocolate (Am J Clin Nutr, 2005; 81: 611-4)
- Eat honey (J Med Food, 2004; 1: 100-7)
- Have some alcohol daily, preferably with meals (Arch Intern Med, 2006; 166: 2145-50)
- Drink green tea.
Daily supplements
- High-dose vitamin C (3 g/day; see WDDTY vol 16 no 11)
- Vitamin E, but use natural forms of mixed tocopherols (250-500 mg/day) (JAMA, 2005; 294: 56-65)
- Omega-3 fatty acids, such as cod liver oil (1.5 g/day) (Curr Atheroscler Rep, 2002;
4: 419-24)
- Vitamins B6 (50 mg/day), B12 (1000 mcg/day) and folic acid (200 mcg/day) to reduce homocysteine (Med Pregl, 2006; 59: 143-7)
- Grapeseed extract (100 mg/day)
- Coenzyme Q10 (100-300 mg/day) (Int J Cardiol, 1999; 68: 23-9).
If you already have CHD
- Lysine (2 g/day)
- Magnesium (300 mg/day) (J Am Coll Nutr, 2004; 23: 63-70).
If you really want to reduce cholesterol, try
- Niacin: up to 3000 mg/day, but beware of overdosing (J Am Coll Cardiol, 2005; 45: 185-97)
- Garlic (Allium sativum), which lowers cholesterol (Ann Intern Med, 1993; 119: 599-605)
- Guggul, an Ayurvedic remedy that can raise 'good' HDL by 60 per cent (J Assoc Phys India, 1989; 37: 323-8)
- Plant-derived phytosterols, such as campesterol and sitosterol (Am J Med, 1999; 107: 588-94)
- Herbs containing berberine such as barberry (Berberis vulgaris), goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) and Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium)
- Oats-the fiber lowers LDL cholesterol (JAMA, 1992; 267: 3317-25)
- Cranberry juice, which raises HDL cholesterol (Br J Nutr, 2006; 96: 357-64).