Cholesterol is a substance that can gather around the cells of your body and accumulate in your blood stream, reducing the flow of blood through your body. This can negatively impact your heart and can lead to coronary heart disease and heart attacks. Since heart disease is the leading cause of death among the general population and can rob you of a decade or two off of your life span it is important to keep your heart healthy. For good heart health you must lower your cholesterol levels and while there are a variety of medications on available for this purpose, there are also natural ways that you can reduce your cholesterol levels before they get that far or in conjunction with medication.

Eat More Garlic- Garlic has a wide range of health benefits including its ability to lower your bad cholesterol levels while at the same time raising your “good” cholesterol numbers. You can also get this benefit by taking garlic supplements that contain high levels of allicin, the substance found in garlic that gives its potent health benefits.

Add Soba Noodles to Your Meals: Soba noodles are a Japanese buckwheat noodle that you can add to your diet for better over all health and to lower those cholesterol numbers. They can be used in Asian meals, with stir fry, or as a substitution for other pasta in most recipes.

Take Omega 3's- All fat is not the same and your body needs the “good” kinds of fat that are found in Omega 3's that can be used for a number of health reasons, including a lower cholesterol number. Omega 3 fatty acids are found in fish is also available in capsule form. You can also get these essential fatty acids from plant sources such as flax seed oil and walnuts.

Take Vitamin E to Reduce Cholesterol- As important as the Omega 3 fatty acids are, vitamin E helps to protect them from oxidation in the blood stream so that your body can get the full health benefits from the Omega 3's and studies have shown that a combination of Omega 3's and Vitamin E can help cut cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart disease or heart attack and may be safer in the long term than use of aspirin therapy in some patients.

Get More Bran Fiber- Soluble fiber, like that found in oatmeal, helps to flush out acids that are found in bile before they can lead to the formation of cholesterol; there by lowering your cholesterol levels before it even has time to form. So including oatmeal and other foods that are high fiber sources can be an important part of heart healthy diet.

Cut Out The Red Meat- Modern American diets are extremely high in red meat which is a very high cholesterol food and one of the largest contributing factors to high cholesterol levels and heart disease. Cutting back on the amount of red meat in your diet and substituting healthier alternatives can improve your over all health, help you to lose weight, and get your cholesterol levels down.