When your cholesterol is high, it can lead to plaque formation that blocks your circulation. Learn how to reduce plaque in your arteries.
When it comes to reducing vascular plaque buildup, it’s essential that you lower your LDL cholesterol levels and make changes. As your blood cholesterol levels increase, so does your risk of experiencing a heart attack and stroke.
Moreover, high cholesterol encourages the formation of vascular plaques, which you may be able to shrink with the right treatments. “Making plaque disappear is not possible, but we can shrink and stabilize it,” says Harvard cardiologist Dr. Christopher Cannon.
Causes of Plaque Formation
When cholesterol lodges in your arterial walls, the body traps it with white blood cells, turning into foamy, fatty cells. As a result, your muscle cells multiply and form a cap over the area, leaving dangerous soft plaque underneath.
“If your blood pressure spikes, it puts pressure on the thin wall of the plaque, which can break open, form a clot, and cause a heart attack,” says Cannon. To illustrate how dangerous this is, note that about 3 out of 4 heart attacks happen when plaques rupture.
Treating Plaque Buildup
“If we have a 30% blockage in the artery from soft plaque, the goal is to try to suck out the cholesterol from the inside, so the plaque shrivels down to 15% and leaves nothing inside it,” says Cannon.
You can get cholesterol out of the plaque by lowering your LDL cholesterols levels, which deposit into your arterial walls. To do this, you can take drugs called statins to block cholesterol production or ezetimibe to inhibit cholesterol absorption.
In addition to medications, you can make lifestyle changes to help shrink your plaque. Cannon suggests you eat a Mediterranean diet, avoid smoking, and participate in regular exercise activities.
By partaking in a Mediterranean diet, you can reduce your heart disease risk by 30% while enjoying a healthy diet. Moreover, you can increase your “good” HDL cholesterol through exercise and lower your blood pressure, burn body fat, and more.
The Outlook
While cholesterol gets a bad rap, your body actually needs cholesterol to make vitamin D, hormones, bile, and more. It’s important to note that there are two main types of cholesterol: HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.
As you work to decrease your cholesterol levels, you’re aiming to reduce LDL levels and increase HDL levels. Why? Because LDL cholesterol leads to plaque buildup while HDL cholesterol works to remove excess LDL cholesterol.
In addition to exercise and dieting, one way to promote your cholesterol health is through supplements like L-arginine Plus. Its ingredients effectively promote circulation, cholesterol health, blood pressure health, and more.
If you want to give your health the support it deserves, then start exercising, eating healthily, and taking L-arginine Plus.