5 Ways to Lower Your Cholesterol

By Jeanette Beebe   AARP En español Published August 04, 2022

Although cholesterol — a waxy, fatlike substance that can cause dangerous plaques to form in your blood, leading to a condition known as atherosclerosis — is more common among people in

their 40s and beyond, high cholesterol isn’t an inevitable part of getting older. And having high cholesterol isn’t something you should ignore.

Like high blood pressure, high cholesterol — which affects about 38 percent of Americans — leaves a mark on the body: It raises a person’s risk for heart disease and stroke.

Cholesterol levels typically plateau around the age of 65, research suggests. But even before that, those levels climb as we age, says Karol Watson, M.D., a cardiologist and professor of

medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles — and so do the risks for complications that can arise from high cholesterol.

In fact, Watson says, “atherosclerosis develops slowly every year, first [starting] in our teens.” If you let it go unchecked over the decades, “you’re going to end up having a problem in

your early 50s or even sooner,” she says.

Cholesterol isn’t inherently bad, though. The body needs it to build cells and make vitamins and hormones. But in most people, the body, specifically the liver, makes all the cholesterol we

need. (Some people — about 1 in 250 — inherit a genetic trait that affects how their body regulates and removes cholesterol, causing them to have high cholesterol from the get-go.)

The rest of the cholesterol circulating in the blood comes from food, which is why experts emphasize the importance of making healthy choices to help prevent or manage high cholesterol.

Even if your cholesterol is high, there’s still time to get it under control. Here are five ways to do that — and a few may surprise you.

One tricky thing about high cholesterol: It doesn’t come with symptoms. So you’ll miss it if you’re not looking for it.

“People should expect that they may have high cholesterol, no matter the age, and should have a blood test to check [their] cholesterol,” says Connie Newman, M.D., an endocrinologist and

adjunct professor of medicine at NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine.

Your annual exam is a great time to check these levels. If you have diabetes, or if it turns out that your cholesterol is too high, you’ll likely need to get tested more often.

Ask your primary care physician to run a full lipid profile. This tests for a few things, including the two different types of cholesterol — low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad”

cholesterol, which can lead to plaque buildup in the arteries; and high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good” cholesterol, which helps your liver get rid of cholesterol and can actually lower

your risk for heart attack and stroke. The blood test will also check your triglycerides — a type of fat in the blood that your body uses for energy — and your total cholesterol.