Do you get a physical every year? Here’s why I think it’s important to do so.

Why Get Your Blood Tested Yearly?

Blood tests can offer a good snapshot of your overall health. They're also a good way to catch illness or disease early, and to see how well your body responds to treatments for various conditions. Many people get routine blood tests done at least once a year.

My lipid group is at risk because of my high LDL. The ratio of HDL to LDL is very important for heart health, since HDL helps to protect against the damage caused by LDL.

HDL cholesterol is the well-behaved "good cholesterol." This is the GOOD kind of cholesterol you want in your blood stream to scavenger your bloodstream to remove harmful bad cholesterol from where it doesn't belong. High HDL levels reduce the risk for heart disease -- but low levels increase the risk also.

LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol, sometimes called “bad” cholesterol, makes up most of your body’s cholesterol. High levels of LDL cholesterol raise your risk for heart disease and stroke.

I am serious about taking good care of my skin and weekly, I get asked what my skincare routine looks like.

If you want a personalized skincare recommendation, fill out my skincare questionnaire, and I’ll email you back, or you can email at angie@angiebloom.com. I know the Beautycounter skincare and makeup lines best, but if I think products from other brands will work well for you, I’ll share those too - I like to keep it real here over at Angiebloom.com and if there are other products that would be a better fit for you, you better believe I will share that with you!.

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Different foods lower cholesterol in various ways. Some deliver soluble fiber, which binds cholesterol and its precursors in the digestive system and drags them out of the body before they get into circulation. Some give you polyunsaturated fats, which directly lower LDL. And some contain plant sterols and stanols, which block the body from absorbing cholesterol. I know it’s a lot or can be but here is what I’m going to do to charge of my health and implement into my diet weekly:

I'm going to start adding another bean focused meal to my weekly rotation.
Add 1000mg of artichoke extract to my routine.
Bring back a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. I haven’t eaten oatmeal for a while since my SIBO and autoimmune diagnosis, but I’m going to try it because it can be an easy first step to lowering your cholesterol. Oatmeal will give me 1 to 2 grams of soluble fiber. Add a banana or some strawberries for another half-gram. Current nutrition guidelines recommend getting 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day, with at least 5 to 10 grams coming from soluble fiber. (The average American gets about half that amount.)
An apple a day keeps the doctor away! Well, as the saying goes, I’m going to bring back apples, I typically don’t eat a lot of apples because of the higher fodmaps, but you never know until you try! Also, I like the idea of adding in more grapes, strawberries, pear, brussels sprouts and citrus fruits, because these fruits are rich in pectin, a type of soluble fiber that lowers LDL. Soluble fiber can reduce the absorption of cholesterol into your bloodstream. Five to 10 grams or more of soluble fiber a day decreases your LDL cholesterol.
Eat more fatty fish - my kids don’t love fish, so I haven’t been eating a lot of it recently. Eating fish two or three times a week can lower LDL in two ways: by replacing meat, which has LDL-boosting saturated fats, and by delivering LDL-lowering omega-3 fats. Omega-3s reduce triglycerides in the bloodstream, so it’s a win-win to eat more salmon!

Meditation May Be Good for Your Heart

A study published June 29 in the American Journal of Cardiology examined data from 61,267 adults who participated in the National Health Interview Survey from 2012 to 2017, including 5,851 people (9.6 percent) who said they practiced meditation. These surveys ask about a broad range of health topics, including whether or not people meditate.

Compared with people who didn’t meditate, those who did have a lot of heart health benefits, including:

35 percent lower risk of high cholesterol
14 percent lower risk of high blood pressure
30 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes
24 percent lower risk of stroke
49 percent lower risk of coronary artery disease

“Meditation could reduce stress and anxiety — and we can certainly see some signals that meditation is probably beneficial to heart health,” says the study's lead author, Chayakrit Krittanawong, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. (site Everyday Health)

Bottom Line

This is your reminder to be proactive about your health! Schedule your yearly physical with your physician, which ultimately helps me stay accountable with my health since I test regularly. It's not my favorite thing to see my levels look wonky, but it feels wonderful to have solid recommendations for how to lower it and a doctor's point of view to make a game plan on how to lower it.

Does gut health affect cholesterol levels?

For better cardiovascular health, check your gut. Bacteria living in your gut may impact your weight, fat and good cholesterol levels, factors necessary to help maintain a healthy heart, according to new research in Circulation Research, an American Heart Association journal.

I wrote an entire blog post on the importance of gut health and which probiotics I like in my daily regimen.

You can purchase the JUST THRIVE Probiotic here >>

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