It has been said that lower LDL cholesterol levels may be more beneficial to your health, than higher LDL levels.  

In fact, it has been shown that increased LDL cholesterol could raise your risk for developing heart disease and other chronic conditions. 

 LDL cholesterol, also known as “bad” cholesterol, is affected by many things including: diet, exercise habits, genetics, and other contributing factors (diabetes and heart disease).  

In order to have lower LDL cholesterol levels, you may need a multi-faceted approach that addresses many different lifestyle changes.  

However, before you learn the right way to lower LDL cholesterol, you must understand a little bit about what cholesterol is and how it is used by your body.  

The other type of cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, has been shown to circulate through your blood, trapping, and then transporting LDL cholesterol to your liver to be processed, then excreted by your body.  

LDL cholesterol has been termed “bad” cholesterol due to its ability to get trapped in your artery wall, which could lead to the development of plaques.  

These plaques narrow and harden the artery, making it harder for nutrient-rich blood to travel to your heart and potentially other cells of your body.  

This can be especially dangerous for your body because some of the plaque may be highly unstable.  When a plaque is unstable, it can burst, releasing fatty acids into your bloodstream, which may create a blood clot.  

This clot may break off and travel to your heart and other areas causing strokes, heart attacks, or even pulmonary (lungs) embolisms.  

Tips to Lower LDL Cholesterol  

There are many different ways to lower LDL cholesterol.  The most common are the following:  

Reduce the Amount of Harmful Fats in Your Diet  

There are two types of fat that have been associated with higher LDL cholesterol levels.  

Saturated fat, according to some studies, has been shown to increase LDL cholesterol.  

Saturated fats, which come mainly from animal fat sources, could raise your LDL cholesterol more than most other things commonly found in your diet.  

However, it should be noted that even though saturated fats have been linked to increased LDL levels, you do need saturated fatty acids in your diet for different physiological functions.  

Trans-fats, which are present in foods that have been hydrogenated (turning a liquid fat into a solid fat), have also been shown to raise LDL cholesterol but in much smaller amounts than saturated fats.  

In order to lower LDL cholesterol, you should try to limit your intake of both trans-fats and saturated fats and replace them with more mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fatty acids.  

Both mono- and poly-unsaturated fatty acids have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol, but more importantly, increase your levels of HDL cholesterol.