Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine is a Toronto naturopathic clinic dedicated to providing safe and effective treatment of a wide variety of health conditions using natural therapies and the principles of naturopathic medicine.
High blood cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia) is well treated using naturopathic medicine. Cholesterol is found in every cell in your body, and is used by your body to build healthy cells and hormones. There are different types of cholesterol: Low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the type that builds up in the walls of your arteries making them hard and narrow, is considered the “bad” type.
Genetic factors, poor diet, obesity and sedentary lifestyle all contribute to high cholesterol. If your cholesterol becomes too high, you may develop fatty deposits called plaques in your blood vessels (atherosclerosis) which impair blood to flow through your arteries. Decreased flow of oxygen-rich blood flow may lead to complications such as coronary artery disease, heart attack and stroke.
Symptoms of high blood cholesterol
High blood cholesterol does not have symptoms, but is detected using blood tests.
Treatment of high blood cholesterol at Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine, the goals of high blood cholesterol treatment are to decrease chances of high blood cholesterol-related complications (e.g., heart attack, stroke), maintain healthy levels of blood cholesterol and manage side-effects of conventional treatments.
Conventional treatment for high blood cholesterol may include a variety of medications, including “statins” (e.g., Lipitor®, Crestor®), bile acid binding resins (e.g., cholestyramine) and cholesterol absorption inhibitors. These medications may have short- or long-term side effects. For this reason, you may choose to try natural treatment to possibly avoid use of conventional medications, or together with conventional medications in order to decrease dosages of conventional medications required to manage your high blood cholesterol symptoms.
Naturopathic treatment of any chronic health concern must be recognized as a process that involves identifying specific treatment goals, a thorough understanding by your naturopathic doctor of all factors affecting your health, including physical, psychological, emotional and lifestyle factors, development of a comprehensive treatment plan and execution of that plan through periodic monitoring and adjustment.
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine, a typical approach to treating high blood cholesterol may be to first identify and address underlying factors in your lifestyle (e.g., poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, poor stress management, smoking, use of the birth control pill) or general health (e.g., obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, family history of heart disease) that may be contributing to raised blood cholesterol levels, and using diet therapy, nutritional supplements and botanical (herbal) medicines decrease blood cholesterol levels and replace nutrients depleted by conventional medications use .
Where appropriate, a number of therapeutic options are available, to be used alone, or more often in a complementary fashion, including:
• Diet therapy
• Nutritional supplements
• Botanical (herbal) medicines
• Lifestyle counseling
• Exercise prescription
• Relaxation techniques
• Acupuncture
• Cleansing protocols
• Homeopathic medicines
• Homotoxicological medicines
References
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. High Blood Cholesterol [Online]. [cited 2010 Jan 16]; Available from: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-blood-cholesterol/DS00178.