Routes to a healthy heart:
Lower your cholesterol level

Nine simple ways to reduce your risk of another heart attack: Eat a healthy diet Take more exercise Loose excess weight Stop smoking Drink less alcohol Reduce high blood pressure Reduce high cholesterol levels If diabetic, maintain good control of blood glucose levels Keep taking your prescribed medication

High levels of cholesterol in the blood are bad for your heart – this is a fact proved by scientists over the past 20 years. If you have already had a heart attack it's important to get your cholesterol down to levels recommended by doctors to minimize the risk of another heart attack. The good news is that this can be achieved very successfully and reasonably easily with a combination of changes to your diet and medications.

Ways to help you lower your cholesterol:

• Improve your diet
  • cut down on all fatty foods
  • replace foods that contain saturated fats and that are high in cholesterol (e.g. red meat and butter) with those containing polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats and that are low in cholesterol (e.g. chicken and olive oil)
  • reduce your intake of salt to less than 6 grams per day (about one teaspoonful)
  • eat more fruit and vegetables (aim for five portions a day)
  • include more starchy carbohydrates in your diet (aim for up to six servings a day; one serving = one slice of bread or a small potato).
• Lose any excess weight (NOTE: it is important to discuss your exercise plans with your physician or rehabilitation clinic first)
  • improve your diet (see above)
  • take more exercise
    • take a 30-minute walk everyday
    • start (or resume) swimming. Aim for 30 minutes every day
    • join a gym – many gyms will assign you a personal trainer who will work with your physician’s guidelines and devise an exercise plan to suit you.
    • take up t’ai chi ch’uan or yoga – gentle exercises that do not strain the heart.

Remember: make sure you take your prescribed medication as directed by your physician.

 

Lower your high blood cholesterol

I am taking ……………..….tablets to lower my blood cholesterol
I take …….. tablets ………a day
My current cholesterol level is:     Date:

Tips for a low-cholesterol diet

	Allowed Daily	Moderation	Avoid
Fats	Limit all fats	Oils/margarine high in polyunsaturates; vegetable oils (e.g. sunflower or olive oil); low-fat spreads	Butter; dripping; lard; suet; margarines not high in polyunsaturates; hydrogenated fats/oils
Meats	Skinless chicken/turkey; veal; rabbit; game	Lean beef, bacon, ham, pork, lean mince, liver; meat paste	Fatty meat (e.g. lamb, duck), processed meat (e.g.  sausages, salami, pâté)
Eggs and dairy foods	Skimmed milk; low-fat cheese, quark; egg white;** very-low-fat yoghurt	Semi-skimmed milk; feta/ricotta cheese; half-fat cheese;* low-fat yoghurt	Full-cream milk; cream; cream cheese; full-fat cheese/yoghurt; evaporated/condensed milk
Fish	White fish; oily fish	Fish fried in suitable oil; occasional seafood; fish paste	Fish roe; fish fried in solid fats