 Hi guys, this is Dr. Ahmed Ergen. I'm an endocrinologist and endocrinologist education specialist. If you guys don't know what an endocrinologist is, we specialize in endocrinology and metabolism, which is hormones, lipids, everything included. Now today we are going to talk about how to lower your cholesterol naturally. If you have not watched the video where I talked about understanding cholesterol, please do so. The link is in the description below, because I want you to understand what a cholesterol is before you try to lower it. So you need to know what you're dealing with, why cholesterol causes heart attacks, all these are explained in the previous video. Link below as I explained. Now, we are going to talk about how to lower cholesterol naturally. And of course, probably most of you are on a cholesterol medication right now. That's kind of an easy way to go, but a lot of you also are not very happy that you're on cholesterol medication. Some of you are using statin drugs, some of you are using non-statin drugs that helps with the cholesterol. I'm not sure if you all understand exactly why you're taking these drugs as number one. Number two, I know for a fact that you guys want to get rid of these medications if possible, and also try to find other ways, natural ways to reduce cholesterol. Now, sometimes the medications are absolutely necessary. I'm not undermining that, but if you can do what I'm going to say right now, your chances of potentially coming off the medication is very good. And also, even if you're on medication, medication does not always 100% help, especially if you're genetically inclined to have high cholesterol. And when genetics are involved, the things you can do can only do so much, and at some point you may have to use cholesterol medications. Now, you will hear also, before I jump to what we can do about this, I'm going to point out the fact that LDL cholesterol is the most important cholesterol that you have to reduce in your blood. And if you hear people or doctors, chiropractors, whoever trying to tell you that LDL cholesterol is not a big deal, they're lying. And here's why. And I don't know why they do that. I have no understanding. But from what I read and what I know by experience, things are a little different. I'm going to approve you why high LDL actually can actually kill you. And very simple evidence, there is a disorder called familial hyperlipidemia. That means that because of your family, your LDL levels are high from the birth. These people can have LDL up to 500, but some of them are like around the 250-300 range. And these people will have heart attacks. And they will not have any insulin resistance. They will not have any diabetes. They will not have any other problem in their life. The only problem they have is high LDL. And they will die from a heart attack if they are untreated in their 20s, 30s, and latest 40s. So these people don't even see age 50 just because they have high LDL. Now, some people you will see that, oh, you know, if you stop eating sugar, you know, you're just fine. You can eat whatever you want other than the sugar. That sugar is the only problem that's not true. Now, I'm going to also go over, you know, saturated fat, unsaturated fat, etc. We're going to bust some of the myths together based on the evidence we have. And let's get started then. So, of course, to reduce cholesterol, you have to do a few things. One is, right, eating healthy. You've got to do that. And then what else can you do? Of course, we're going to talk about what to eat right, you know, what to do to eat right. But also we'll talk about exercise as well, because exercise also plays a huge role. Now, smoking sedation is another one we'll talk about. And, of course, losing weight. So how are these things going to play a role in your cholesterol panel? We'll go over that. Now, let's start with eating healthy. Now, eating healthy is something very subjective, right? So everybody says something different about eating healthy, but here's the truth. I'm going to make it very simple for you. All you have to do is replace your saturated fats with more unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Now, by the way, I'm not saying saturated fats are harmful for you. You can still have saturated fat in your diet. That's not necessarily proven to cause heart attacks. But what is proven is replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. So what are they? Now, saturated fats are found in red meat, you know, the eggs and dairy products. And as I said, you can eat those things. That's not necessarily going to cause heart attacks. So we used to say, you know, in the past, because of the, you know, not well-designed studies and so forth, that saturated fat is the only cause for heart attacks. But then as the studies, you know, progress and they have done better quality studies, they found that actually replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat is the cause for prevention of heart attacks. So sometimes you have to kind of differentiate association from causation. Now, I'm going to explain to you how that happens as well. I'm going to tell you what is polyunsaturated fat. So saturated means that if they have, if they are hydrogenated, then we call them hydrogenated. So the saturated fats, they don't have any other hydrogen bonds that can be saturated. So they're called totally saturated. And there are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. So polyunsaturated is better than the monounsaturated helps with the LDL cholesterol. Now, well, how does that happen? Your liver preferentially converts these polyunsaturated fats into ketone bodies. And also your liver will produce more LDL receptors so that the LDL can be picked up from the blood because of these polyunsaturated fats. Same thing with monounsaturated fats, although it's to a lesser extent. Now, what are the foods that have polyunsaturated fats? Walnuts, flex seed or flex oil, fish, mostly salmon, trout, mackerel, sardines, also olive oil, corn oils. So all these things, what do they remind you? They remind you the Mediterranean diet, right? So remember, we talked about all about Mediterranean diet. So if you want to watch that video, you can also click the link below as well. But that is the essence of polyunsaturated fats. Now, what are the monounsaturated fats? Monounsaturated fats are found in olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, as well as safflower oil. So what else do the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats have? They have plant sterols in them. Plant sterols and plant stenols basically are the things that compete with cholesterol in your intestinal system and prevents the cholesterol absorption as well. So that is another benefit of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. So the bottom line is if you can replace the saturated fats in your diet, I'm not saying quit eating saturated fats, you should still have it. But instead of eating heavily meat products, especially processed meats, you should totally avoid. If you're going to eat red meat, you should go with the lean red meat, not the fatty one. And you should avoid the butter, you should avoid the margarines, anything, any fat that is solid at room temperature. If that fat looks solid to you at room temperature, stay away from it. That is the basic asset. Now, I'm not saying that don't eat it, you can eat it, but eat in moderation. But try to eat more of the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, which are what we mentioned is the olive oil, canola oil, walnuts. Pretty much most nuts actually have the polyunsaturated fats, almonds. And of course, fish is a big part of it. But you know, whatever you feel like eating, whatever you have the appetite for, you can choose from these things. But eating red meat every day is basically going to reduce the consumption of these polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. Okay, let's talk about trans fats. So trans fats are actually the worst thing you can have. I'm okay with you eating like red meat and even margarine. But, oh my god, the trans fats are the worst thing you can have. Fats are found mostly in store-bought cookies and store-bought pastry, just because they are hydrogenated oils. Trans fats are directly related to heart attacks. Again, that's the only proven fat that we know that causes heart attacks directly. Trans fats are horrible for you. They will increase your LDL. It will increase your triglyceride levels and will reduce your HDL levels. So as a result, you will be in big trouble. So if you want to avoid one thing in your diet, avoid trans fat. You will see those in the label as hydrogenated oils. So if they are saying that hydrogenated word anywhere, stay away from that food. Again, if you're having pastry at home and having a small portion, that's not going to be a big deal because I don't think you'll probably use some butter. Butter is definitely better than the trans fats. So all those mighty-looking cakes, pie crusts, even frozen pizzas that you see, and the stick margarines and all that stuff is definitely horrible for you. If you're going to eat the margarine, just eat something that is made with olive oil, canola oil, that is not hydrogenated and actually fortified with plant sterols. You can find them. Yes, they're definitely more expensive. But if you're addicted to it and if you want to have it, that's the way to go. And as I said, I left a link below for you to look at a product that I think may be good, although I do not necessarily recommend you eating margarine at all. But if that's something that you have to have sometimes, that's probably one thing you can have other than the store-bought margarine that are stick margarine fats. Another thing that actually helps your cholesterol is just like we discussed the plant sterols. And the plant sterols are not just only found in the monounstructurated and polyounstructurated fatty acids, but they are also found in grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Now, what does it remind you? Again, Mediterranean diet, right? So if you really follow Mediterranean diet, you will save yourself a heart attack. And that has been proven. It's not like this is something just I'm just saying first time, but it's been proven in studies. Now it's interesting also, not if you don't even have to do a study, if you go to countries that strictly follow Mediterranean diet, you will see that they rarely ever get heart attacks. They don't die from a heart attack. So as a diabetic, if you have diabetes, if you're genetically inclined to have high cholesterol, then you should definitely follow Mediterranean diet today. But there are some also margarines. If you are big into margarine and butter and stuff like that, and you cannot give up on that, at least try to use the ones that are fortified with plant sterols. Now you have to be careful because you have to pay attention how much saturated fat they contain on their label. But I found one on Amazon when I was looking for a good one, and I have included the link below if you want to look at it. The next way of reducing your cholesterol is exercise. So how does really exercise help reduce your cholesterol? Well, if you understand the cholesterol metabolism a little bit, you will be able to tell. Now, as you know, cholesterol is not the cholesterol in our body or in our blood is not just cholesterol. It's mostly actually triglycerides. So triglycerides are the main energy source for our body after glucose. When there is not enough glucose, your body metabolizes fatty acids and triglycerides to make energy. So your muscles have a depot of triglycerides as well. Now, when there's too much triglycerides, if you have heard on my other lectures or my other videos, excessive triglycerides is an indicator of insulin resistance. So if you're insulin resistant, your body tends to produce more LDL cholesterol. And that is directly related to the enzymes in your liver. So when the doctor tells you that your liver is making too much cholesterol, yeah, as we age, it tends to happen more. But also insulin resistance is a huge factor of creating this cholesterol-rich particles, which we call them VLDL, LDL, I'm sorry, VLDL, Kylomicron, IDL. And LDL is the product that after the triglyceride is removed. Now, the problem with the LDL, especially when you're insulin resistant, the small particle LDL becomes very sneaky and get under your blood vessels, as we explained in the other video, especially in the presence of high triglyceride and low HDL. Your LDL will definitely collect and accumulate on your arteries. Now, when you exercise, you are basically depleting the triglycerides. And when you deplete triglycerides, basically you are reducing the total cholesterol load in your system. Also, you are reducing the insulin resistance. So when you are less insulin resistant, your liver will make less cholesterol. But also, remember, your liver is the main cleaner of all the lipids. So if your liver is opening its arms to try to eliminate the cholesterol from your blood, and it does that by converting your cholesterol to bile acids, and sometimes actually dumps the whole cholesterol into your bile as well. But that's the main way of your liver handling cholesterol. In the presence of insulin resistance, as I said, that is very inefficient. But when you break the insulin resistance with exercise, then your liver will produce less LDL, and it also will clean the LDL from your system. Now, smoking cessation is another one. Again, smoking, number one, makes you insulin resistant, just like alcohol does. But also, smoking, remember, destroys the endothelium, which is the lining of your arteries. When your arteries are destroyed, then the LDL starts leaking in, and then it creates a whole immunological reaction. So if you are smoking, LDL is going to get the destruction done a lot faster and easier. As a result, I believe that smoking, and not I believe, everybody believes, and science says that you have to quit smoking if you want to avoid a heart attack due to high cholesterol. And lastly, losing weight. Of course, losing weight, if you remember from our insulin resistance videos, basically it will reduce your insulin resistance. Just like we discussed about the exercise, losing weight will definitely improve your insulin resistance, and your body will produce less LDL. Now, what's interesting is that most of our cholesterol is actually made by our liver. So the cholesterol you eat in your diet is actually maybe 50% absorbed, but your body will make cholesterol even from glucose. And actually, ironically, people who try to reduce their fat intake when they increase their carbohydrate intake as a replacement, they will actually end up making more cholesterol, because your body is smart. When you are taking glucose in, the carbohydrate's in, and you're not burning them by not exercising, if you're just sitting on your soft part, and then it's going to turn into fatty acids. Those fatty acids will come together, and it's called triglycerides. And triglycerides get on the bus, we call that VLDL. And then they get off the bus, then we call this LDL. So this is how it circulates in the body. So as a result, I agree with people who says, you know, eating carbohydrate will definitely make things worse, 100%. If you eat too much carbohydrate, and you're not burning them, they're going to turn into fat, and that fat will circulate in your blood. Guys, remember to subscribe, and remember to give a thumbs up, and share this video with your family and friends.