Three years ago, I went in for what was supposed to be a routine yearly physical. I walked into the doctor’s office full of confidence waiting for full marks on my blood test results. Instead, he gave me the grim news that my cholesterol numbers were elevated. I couldn't believe this. How could this happen to me, a doctor? I felt that my body had betrayed me. I had no symptoms, no pain, no signs.
“I feel fine,” I insisted.He looked at me and said,
“You know, that is why it is called the ‘silent killer’”.He said that the only way to discover high cholesterol before any symptoms manifest was with yearly physicals. My diligence was probably going to save my life. Cholesterol. The very word makes you feel a little ill, a little heavy in the arteries, and a tiny bit achy in the heart. My doctor said that he didn’t want to me to start medication right away, and recommended a “wait and watch” strategy for a year - but only if my levels did not go up. He also said that I should educate myself on treatments other than medications. Being a medical doctor I had an inherent distrust of any remedy that wasn’t manufactured by a pharmaceutical company and didn’t come with an entire scroll of side effects. But I didn’t want to wage chemical warfare on my body until I was sure that it was the only way to go. I knew that I had to start working out more -- a resolution that I reserved for the new year, ‘every year’. I had to make healthier choices concerning what I ate, so basically I had to let go of most things I ate; as it turned out, I consumed only one type of food--fried. But I was looking for more information. Somewhere out there was cholesterol’s Achilles heel, and I was going to find it and deal it a deathly blow before it took me down. As with all great searches, the way to go was the internet. I sat at that computer for countless hours bookmarking pages, joining web groups and e-mailing purveyors of miracle cures for more information on their products. And after hours of squinting at a screen I found something that finally made sense. The main line of defence against high cholesterol is a healthy diet. Grease and oils have to be eliminated as much as possible substituted with foods high in dietary fibre and nutrients. The following are a few choices:
- Foods high in dietary fibre should be preferred, like legumes, beans, daals and psyllium husk commonly known as Isapghol.
- Switching to fat-free milk and dairy products eliminates fat from the diet while holding on to all the wonderful calcium and other nutrients.
- Garlic has been shown to lower cholesterol. This can be taken raw or cooked and is also available as a capsule.
- Grains and cereals are an excellent source of dietary fibre especially oats. Baked products containing whole grains are also a wonderful way of getting fibre and essential nutrients into the body.
- Substituting olive oil wherever you can in your diet has great benefits. The monounsaturated fatty acids in the olive oil lower the bad cholesterol and elevate the good cholesterol levels.
- All nuts, fruits and vegetable are a chock full of phytosterols which block the uptake of cholesterol in the intestines.
