The way that you prepare all of these natural foods has a huge effect on your health. There is evidence that some foods can protect our heart, either by their effect on cholesterol, triglycerides or through other means. We looked into the best foods to eat and looked at the products you can buy.

There are natural foods you can eat to help protect your heart and products on the market that claim to lower your cholesterol – but do they work? They will advise you to cut down on saturated fat and increase your intake of fibre. Your GP can also refer you to a dietitian who can help. We have lots of advice on this in our article on exercise and diabetes.

If you smoke, get support to quit smoking.

Keep a check on how much alcohol you drink (even though evidence suggests that drinking alcohol in moderation can protect against heart disease, drinking an excessive amount can increase risk).

See our 10 tips for healthy eating with diabetes.

Eat a healthy diet based on more fruit and vegetables, nuts, oily fish and wholegrains.

Ask for support to lose weight if you are living with obesity or overweight.

Read our information on what care to expect during the coronavirus pandemic.

Things might be a bit different at the moment though. You should have your blood fat levels checked normally once per year.Steps you can take to help manage your blood fats Ask your healthcare team what your individual targets are for your cholesterol levels. If you have high cholesterol levels, you should have a blood test to measure total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol three months after starting statin treatment, with an aim of 40% reduction in non-HDL cholesterol. For primary prevention of CVD, people with type 2 diabetes who have a 10% or greater 10-year risk of developing CVD should be offered statins. Your healthcare team should explain what your risk of CVD is and how best to manage your blood fat levels. Those with established kidney damage or other CVD risk factorsįor people with type 2 diabetes, your overall CVD risk might be calculated using something called a QRISK calculator.Those who have had diabetes for more than 10 years.Those people with type 1 diabetes who should be offered statins, regardless of their cholesterol levels, include: This means you may not have high cholesterol levels, but statins help to keep them in a healthy range and reduce the risk of heart disease. Many people who have type 1 diabetes should be prescribed statin treatment for the primary prevention of heart disease. Your risk of high cholesterol and how it is treated You can find out why it's important in our video. And for people with diabetes, it is important that you have your levels checked every year. But if your bad cholesterol is high, most people need medication to lower it.

These can have bad effects on your health if levels are high, too.įor many people, eating a healthy, balanced diet and being physically active is enough to keep cholesterol levels healthy. There are also triglycerides (a combination of three fatty acids combined with glycerol, a form of glucose). If the levels of your bad cholesterol become too high and the good cholesterol too low, you are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular complications (also known as CVD or heart disease). There are two main types – HDL or high-density lipoprotein (good cholesterol) and LDL or low-density lipoprotein (bad cholesterol). Healthy levels of cholesterol are vital for our cells to function and to make vitamin D and some hormones. When we hear this word, we think of it building up in our arteries and contributing to long-term health problems, but cholesterol isn’t just a bad guy. Cholesterol is fat that is found in our blood.

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