Dr Zac Turner on best ways to lower your cholesterol

Sydney’s Dr Zac Turner has shed light on the dangers of drinking too much alcohol - and the common misconception about having high cholesterol levels.

Welcome to Ask Doctor Zac, a weekly column from news.com.au. This week, Dr Zac Turner sheds some light on what causes high cholesterol and how to lower it.

QUESTION: My husband has been told by his doctor he needs to lower his cholesterol.

He’s goddam stubborn – so of course he’s ignoring this advice, which is driving me insane! The problem is I can’t tell him off because I don’t know exactly what cholesterol is, and I can’t nag him with ways to lower it. We’ve been together for almost 20 years, and I don’t want to lose him – even if he does drive me up the wall. I love him to bits and want to grow old together. Can you give me some tips on how I can help my husband lower his cholesterol, so we can live a long life together? – Kirsty, 42, Sydney

Kirsty asks Dr Zac Turner how to help her husband to reduce his cholesterol. Picture: Getty Images

ANSWER: Great question. Let’s get stuck into it. I’ll let you in on what cholesterol is, and then give you a number of Dr Zac tips on how to lower it.

We have all heard the word ‘cholesterol’ but how many of us actually know what it is? A common misconception is that cholesterol is fat.

Cholesterol is in fact a fat-like substance made in the liver that’s found in all the cells in your body. Its purpose is to help produce hormones, vitamin D, and substances that help digest your food.

It’s perfectly healthy to have cholesterol in your body.

The problems begin if you have too much of it, and unfortunately modern life has made that all too easy to achieve. Our body is perfectly designed to create cholesterol, however, it can’t figure out when to stop.

The common causes of high cholesterol are smoking, drinking alcohol, lack of exercise and diet.

Drinking alcohol can trigger high cholesterol. Picture: Getty Images

When we eat high amounts of foods with unhealthy fats such as fatty meats, butter, and deep-fried foods, cholesterol levels will rise in our body. Foods with healthy fats such as avocado, nuts, olives and fish do not cause such a surge in cholesterol.

Now that we know what cholesterol is, let’s go through how to lower it and keep it low.

• Focus your diet around mono-unsaturated fats such as olive oil, canola oil, tree nuts and avocados.

• Avoid trans fats. Read the label of your foods, and check to see if it says “partially hydrogenated”. If it says this, steer clear of it.

• Maintain high levels of fibre. Good sources of fibre will nourish the healthy probiotic gut bacteria and help remove unwanted cholesterol from the body. You can find this in foods such as beans, peas, lentils, fruits and oats.

• Move your body! Exercise will improve cholesterol levels, and the longer you do exercise the better the effect will be.

To lower your cholesterol, make sure that you avoid trans fats and move your body. Picture: Getty Images

• Avoid smoking. If you smoke, you are hindering your body’s ability to transport cholesterol back to the liver to be stored or broken down. If you do smoke, these effects can be reversed if you quit.

• Drink in moderation. Just like smoking, alcohol will increase your body’s cholesterol.

Kirsty, you can tell your husband that cholesterol has important functions in the body, but too much of it will cause clogged arteries and heart disease. Keep nagging him, and I recommend you adopt new practices together. Making changes to your life for the better is easier when you have someone by your side.

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Dr Zac Turner has a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Sydney. He is both a medical practitioner and a co-owner of telehealth service, Concierge Doctors. He was also a registered nurse and is also a qualified and experienced biomedical scientist along with being a PhD Candidate in Biomedical Engineering.