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Just as eating certain foods — such as those high in saturated fats — can increase harmful cholesterol levels, eating fiber-rich foods can actually help lower it. Scientists are still trying to determine the exact mechanism by which fiber lowers cholesterol, says Linda V. Van Horn, PhD, RD, a registered dietitian and professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

What’s clear is that the cholesterol-controlling benefits are due to soluble fiber, one of two types of fiber. Soluble fiber is found in the flesh of fruit such as pears and apples, vegetables like peas, and whole grains, such as oats and barley. The second important type of fiber, insoluble fiber, is indigestible and also a necessary part of a healthy diet, but not for cholesterol-control reasons — it’s the kind that helps with digestion and regularity.

“High-fiber foods that contain soluble fiber appear to affect short-chain fatty acids in the bloodstream,” Van Horn says. “Soluble fiber has the same sort of potential benefit that something like a cholesterol-lowering (statin) drug would have, where it blocks the uptake of saturated fat or other harmful types of fat.” Soluble fiber may also help reduce insulin resistance, which seems to play a role in unhealthy cholesterol levels. “Fiber appears to have beneficial effects on both lipid and glucose metabolism,” Van Horn says. This can improve your overall lipid or “fat” profile, resulting in healthier cholesterol levels as well as lower triglyceride levels, another type of fat in the blood.

There are also practical reasons that foods with soluble fiber may help with managing cholesterol, Van Horn says: These foods tend to be lower in fat and more filling than foods without fiber. That means you’re more likely to stick to your diet and achieve a healthy weight with a diet rich in high-fiber foods.

Fiber to Lower Cholesterol: The Research

Research shows that simple daily changes for a diet to lower cholesterol can yield results within a matter of months. According to a controlled study of more than 300 adults published in the Nutrition Journal, people who ate 3 to 4 grams of cereal containing oat fiber daily for four weeks lowered their low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or “bad” cholesterol between about 4 and 6 percent. Also, this was the first study to show that including fiber in a diet for high cholesterol is helpful to people of different ethnicities.

More good news: Oats aren’t the only source of helpful fiber. A study of 160 postmenopausal women compared prune and dried apple consumption to find out how fruit fiber affects heart disease risk factors, such as cholesterol. Publishing in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the research team reported that women who ate the equivalent of two dried apples daily saw an improvement in their cholesterol levels within three months. Participants’ LDL or “bad” cholesterol dropped by as much as 16 percent in the first three months of the study (although prunes were also helpful for lowering total cholesterol).

Fiber supplements may be helpful for other health concerns, such as better digestion, but when it comes to fiber to lower cholesterol, your best bet is a varied diet of whole foods containing fiber.

A high-fat diet triggers chemical reactions in female mice that could explain why women are more likely than men to gain fat in the abdomen after eating excess saturated fat, new research suggests. The study also sheds light on why women gain fat following menopause.

Scientists identified events in female mice that start with the activation of an enzyme and end with the formation of visceral fat – fat that accumulates around internal organs and is linked to a higher risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

At least one function for this enzyme is the production of a powerful hormone, which then drives up the formation of visceral fat cells. The source of this hormone is vitamin A.

This enzyme appears to be activated at higher levels in females than in males when both sexes eat a high-fat diet. When researchers genetically altered mice by deleting the enzyme, female mice stayed lean, especially in the abdominal area, even when they continued to eat a lot of fat. Males without the enzyme also developed less fat, but the effect was far less significant than in females.

The results suggest the enzyme could be a target for sex-specific anti-obesity therapy.

“If you asked most people what they believe causes obesity, they would probably say high food consumption and a sedentary lifestyle. But we see that there are genetic factors telling the body what to do with fat,” said Ouliana Ziouzenkova, assistant professor of human nutrition at Ohio State University and senior author of the study. “A high-fat diet acts on our genetics to make us more fat or less fat. The diet is not powerful enough to do this on its own.”

Further experiments showed that fat cells in female mice lacking the enzyme could produce proteins that use fat for heat, meaning the fat in females was burned away.

Researchers also studied fat tissue from human surgery patients and found the same enzyme was present in human tissue, and its levels were markedly higher in cells extracted from the visceral fat tissue of obese women compared to cells from lean women.

Finally, the study suggested that estrogen suppresses the enzyme’s activity, which might help explain why postmenopausal women with decreased estrogen in their bodies tend to accumulate fat in their bellies.

 

Factors That Affect Cholesterol Management

If you have high cholesterol, there could be a number of possible reasons behind it. Maybe your diet is high in saturated fats and low in fruits and vegetables. Or maybe you’re not getting enough exercise. While simple, these common risk factors are not always easy to remedy.

The first step is making lifestyle changes to reduce the level of cholesterol that’s in your blood and keep more from building up in your arteries and forming dangerous plaque. That starts with:

Making dietary changes. It’s important to monitor how much fat you consume and limit your intake of saturated fats in particular. When you have high cholesterol, you need to limit the amount of cholesterol in your diet to 200 milligrams per day. You’ll also need to monitor your sodium intake — not just what comes out of the salt shaker, but what’s already in packaged foods. Learn to read labels, and don’t consume more than 2,400 mg of sodium per day.

Watching your blood pressure. High blood pressure is another heart disease risk factor, so pay attention to your numbers. A healthy diet and exercise will also help keep blood pressure under control, but check it regularly and make sure it’s no higher than 120/80 mmHg.

Getting active. Exercise is essential for heart health and lowering cholesterol levels. Aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise on as many days of the week as you can, although doing a little bit every day is best. Keep a log of how much you exercise to make sure you’re meeting your goals.

Sticking to a healthy body weight. If you’re obese or overweight, losing weight will help with your cholesterol management plan.

Quitting smoking. Smoking is a huge risk factor for both high cholesterol and heart disease, so start a plan to quit — and finish it.

 

Sticking With Your Cholesterol Management Plan

Now that you know what’s involved in cholesterol management, it’s time to create your plan for making these changes and sticking with them. It may look simple on paper, but these are big changes that will take a little getting used to. Try these tips to help you stay on track and on time getting to better health:

Take your medication. Make sure that you understand how much you’re supposed to take and how often, and any special instructions such as taking them with food or extra water. Set a time every day to take your medication, such as with a meal or when you get up in the morning, and mark the calendar each day after you do it.

Create a meal plan. Get a heart-healthy cookbook or look up recipes on Web sites. Mealtime can still be fun and food still an adventure — just healthier. Make a grocery list of healthy foods to stock up on, and don’t stray down the chip or cookie aisle. Stick to your list so you’re not tempted to fall back into unhealthy eating habits.

Exercise with a buddy. When you just want to relax on the couch, a workout buddy can motivate you to go for a walk or bike ride, or play a game of tennis. Joining a gym or signing up for fitness classes may also give you an extra boost of motivation, and a fitness schedule can help keep you on track.

Set weight loss goals. It’s easier to lose weight if there’s something you’re working toward, like an end goal. Figure out how much weight you want to lose, and set a reasonable schedule. Don’t try to lose 20 pounds in a month and then get discouraged when it doesn’t happen. A pound or two a week is a steady, manageable weight loss that will pay off over time, and stay off, too.

Lowering your high cholesterol and reducing your risk of heart disease requires comprehensive change. It’s not about going on a diet; it’s about changing your unhealthy habits to healthy ones. And once you’ve made these changes and brought down your high cholesterol level, you’ll get to keep practicing those healthy habits for a long time to come.

Diabetes can cause various types of neurological conditions, including carpal tunnel syndrome. This is because persistently high glucose levels can lead to chemical changes that affect nerve conduction and cause structural abnormalities. In fact, about a third of the diabetic population has carpal tunnel syndrome.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is usually caused by median nerve compression at the wrist. Most commonly, carpal tunnel syndrome is associated with obesity, repeated trauma from the use of the wrist joint, build-up of fluid in the wrist space, and hypothyroidism. People who use their wrists for work-related activities such as typing are more likely to have repeated undetected trauma to the nerves at the wrist.

Developing this condition usually takes some time, so because you have just been diagnosed with diabetes, your carpal tunnel syndrome might not be due to diabetes alone. But unlike other neurological conditions, carpal tunnel syndrome is not clearly related to the length of time that diabetes has been present. In your case, it might be a combination of the effect of high glucose levels and mechanical trauma. Because you often work with your hands, protecting your wrists and maintaining a neutral wrist position (keeping your wrists and forearms level) when you work will prevent the continued damage.