In many cases, a low-fat diet and exercise program and significant weight reduction will reduce an elevated cholesterol level. If they don’t, medication may be prescribed. The problem is that you may feel you can return to your previous diet and sedentary lifestyle since you’re taking medication. Unfortunately, this will only increase your cholesterol levels as well as your need for higher doses of medication. Since most cholesterol-lowering medications have some side effects, your physician will need to monitor you closely by testing your liver function and vision. He may also order other diagnostic tests according to the type of medication prescribed. As always, both the doctor and the patient should consider both the benefits and the risks before considering any medication program.
In my opinion, the total cholesterol consumption for one day should not be mote than 200 milligram, an amount many fast-food meals easily exceed. The total diet should certainly not have more than 30% of its calories in fat. There are many excellent books on this topic that will help you learn how to decrease your intake of fat, including my own, Dr. Bruce Lowell’s Fat Percentage Finder (published by Perigee Books).
You should keep in mind that your cholesterol level should not be taken as a simple number by itself. You should ask your doctor about the components of your total cholesterol reading, since a high total cholesterol reading could mean high LDL and low HDL cholesterol levels, which is a healthy balance to strive for.
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