Doctor Ranj Singh has appeared on BBC Morning Live
A BBC Morning Live doctor has revealed how you can lower your cholesterol with one drink. Doctor Ranj Singh, a regular on the show, said that there is good and bad cholesterol and that even if you are healthy, you may be at risk.
The UK based GP explains: “Cholesterol is a fatty substance that is present throughout the body. Every single cell of your body is used to make things like hormones, bile acids, etc. It is really essential, but when you have too much of it, it can be a problem. We divide cholesterol into good and bad.
“So good cholesterol is called HDL, high density lipoprotein – that’s the stuff that is protected. Bad cholesterol, non-HDL, particularly low density, is if you have too much of it, which contributes to long-term issues like heart disease and strokes.”
So “what pushes up that bad cholesterol?”, he asked. He said that “if you have too much saturated fat in your diet”, this can be the cause. Interestingly, he shares that “having cholesterol in your diet doesn’t really affect your blood levels” and instead, it affects “your saturated fat level in your diet”.
How can I lower my cholesterol?
There’s a lot of things that people can do, says the doctor – one of which is your diet. For instance, you can:
- Cut down your saturated fat intake
- Increase your intake of good fats
- Increase your fibre
- Cut down alcohol intake
- Exercise more
- Take probiotics
- Take medications if you need to
- Increase consumption of whole grains
Dr Ranj revealed that one juice could help. He shares: “Tomato juice contains something called like a lycopene, which helps to lower cholesterol in some people. So, like I said, every little helps.”
You can pick up tomato juice from most supermarkets – and you can get it for under a quid. Currently the likes of ASDA are selling a large bottle for just 95p.
What are the signs and symptoms of high cholesterol?
The doctor says: “Most people find that when they’ve got high cholesterol, they don’t actually get any symptoms. So you may not have a clue at all.
“Some people do get, in the long-term, fatty deposits like in the eyes or in the knuckles and some people don’t actually find out till they’ve had an event or a complication format like a heart attack.”
What are the risk factors of high cholesterol?
Factors that can put you more at risk include:
- If you’re not exercising enough
- if you’re overweight
- if you’re drinking too much alcohol
- genetics
He notes that there are people out there who have Familial Hypercholesterolaemia which happens when “you have a genetic reason for your bad cholesterol levels being higher than they should be.” And because of this, people with this risk factor will need to “take extra steps to get under control”.
Co-host of the BBC show, Gethin Jones, revealed he has this condition, saying: “Mine is caused by genetics” adding that despite being healthy and eating well, his levels have “gone up again.”
In response, the health expert explains: “The problem with cholesterol is that contributes to cardiovascular disease. It blocks up the vessel and that’s what leads to things like heart attack and strokes.
“If you’re somebody who has got Familial Hypercholesterolaemia, you are naturally at a high risk from these things and therefore you need to put in extra modifications to try not and mitigate your risk. There are things that you’re not going to be able to change like your genetics – you can’t change your age, you can’t change your gender.
“But what you need to remember is that you’re a man in your 40s. Your heart attack risk could be the same as someone in their 70s who doesn’t have it. It just means that you’ve got to take extra precautions to keep under control.”
