A Healthier Heart: My Journey of Slashing Bad Cholesterol Levels in 12 Months

With the lifestyle we lead – travel, eating out, packaged foods, etc – it is no doubt that the bad cholesterol levels are going through the roof.

About 12 months ago I was shocked to find out that my LDL (bad cholesterol) had gone up to 170! ?????? Normal levels are below 100, so such levels are terrible and introduce high risk for cardio vascular disease. Being on the other side of my 30s now, it is important to keep a track on cholesterol levels. All of us have also witnessed many cases post covid about sudden heart attacks in young people, so suffice to say that I was spooked. I had fought getting diabetes successfully by giving up sugar and have continued to be in the green zone on my blood sugar levels since then. So, it was time to figure out what to do about this bad cholesterol problem.

I met a leading cardiologist who, to put it bluntly, made me feel that I will have a heart attack by the time I left his clinic :) Statins were prescribed and I was told this is my only hope to bring down the cholesterol levels and that I will likely need to take low dosage statins for the rest of my life. Now I had only heard the word statins until that point in the context of heart patients who were often at least 2-3 decades older than me. This may seem dramatic now, but I couldn't sleep for a few days with images of my young kids flashing in front of my eyes.

Once the shock subsided, I decided to figure out how to lower my bad cholesterol levels naturally without taking medicines for the rest of my life. Read up a lot. Talked to a bunch of naturopathy experts. Myriad ideas were thrown at me and eventually I decided to follow a simple regimen based on what I consistently heard and read were ways to reduce bad cholesterol.

So here's what I started doing -- a fairly simple regimen:

? Fresh wheatgrass juice in lukewarm water on a empty stomach as soon as I wake up, daily (found a nice lady who grows wheatgrass and sends across fresh bundles once a week)

? Oats in almond milk 1-2 times a week with some dry fruits and seeds

? Psyllium husk (aka Isabgol) in lukewarm water before sleep (half tbsp with lukewarm water)

? Replaced the above after 6 months with Triphla (half tbsp with lukewarm water before sleep)

Needless to say, I continued to be physically active, which I was earlier as well, but ensured that I was doing some form of physical exercise 5 times a week - weights, walk, squash, functional training, etc.

Combination of the above has gotten my bad cholesterol down to 103 :-)

Ofcourse it's taken a lot of consistency to daily consume things like wheatgrass juice, etc that aren't the most savoury food items, but one gets used to them. Also, I do want to caveat that this worked for me, but it may or may not work for someone else. Finally, please consult your doctor before doing any of the above. I have zero medical expertise, knowledge or training. I just hacked my way through to some regimen which thankfully worked for me, allowing me to stay away from cholesterol reducing medicines.

Stay Healthy, Stay Happy! ??