High cholesterol, or hypercholesterolemia, affects every cell of your body, according to MayoClinic.com. An elevated cholesterol level can result in deposits of fat in your arteries, and in turn, problems with your blood being able to flow properly through your arteries. That can cause heart disease. There is more than one natural way to lower cholesterol, the Mayo Clinic says.

Change Your Lifestyle

It is very important to lose any excess pounds, because extra weight greatly contributes to high cholesterol, says MayoClinic.com. Losing five to 10 pounds can begin the cholesterol-lowering process, according to the website. MayoClinic.com also strongly urges you not to smoke. It says that when a person stops smoking, the following occurs: twenty minutes after quitting, your blood pressure decreases; within 24 hours of quitting, risk of a heart attack decreases; within a year, heart disease risk drops to 50 percent of the risk of a smoker. And within fifteen years, when it comes to heart disease, it's as though you have never smoked.

Exercise and Eating

Exercise! According to the Mayo Clinic, as long as your doctor feels you are healthy enough for exercise, then brisk walks, swimming, or anything else that gets you really moving for ahalf hour to an hour (even if broken up into 10-minute intervals) is a natural way to lower cholesterol. When it comes to eating, MayoClinic.com suggests eliminating trans-fats and saturated fats (they raise "bad" cholesterol) and eating monounsaturated fats instead (think olive oil and peanut butter). Healthy foods such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, healthy fish (such as salmon), paired with limiting your intake of daily cholesterol to about 300 hundred mg, will naturally help lower or cholesterol. Also, foods containing oats are a good source of soluble fiber that actually "soaks up" cholesterol from your digestive tract, according to Cheerios.com.

Alternative Medicine

Be sure your doctor has agreed to your use of any supplements to lower cholesterol, the Mayo Clinic warns; artichoke, barley and garlic are proven natural ways to lower cholesterol. Also, MayoClinic.com recommends beta-sitosterol and sitostanol (both used in certain margarines) and blond psyllium (often used in a mixable drink fiber supplement).

Source:

MayoClinic.com: High Blood Cholesterol

Cheerios.com: Get the Power of Oats Working for You!