11 tips to cut your cholesterol fast

How's your cholesterol? If you think that the normal reading you got back in 2004 (or earlier) means you're safe, think again: Levels of the artery-clogging substance often rise with age. The NHS recommends that everyone between 40 and 74 years old should be screened for high cholesterol once every five years as part of a cardiovascular health risk assessment. A nurse or GP in your local surgery can use a “risk factor calculator,” which takes into account a number of factors, including your family history, age, sex, whether or not you are a smoker and blood pressure, as well as your cholesterol levels.

All adults, no matter their age, should ask for a risk assessment if there is a history of early heart disease or stroke in their family. This means if your father or a brother developed one of these conditions before reaching 55 years old, or in the case of your mother or a sister, before reaching 65 years old. You should also make sure you have a risk assessment if you have a parent, sibling or child with one of the rare hereditary lipid disorders such as familial hypercholesterolaemia or familial combined hyperlipidaemia.

If it's been a while since your last cholesterol screening, now's a good time to ask if you should make an appointment with your doctor or a nurse at your local surgery for a cardiovascular health risk assessment.

Although the government recommends people should have a total cholesterol (TC) level of 5.0mmol/l or less, about two out of every three people in the UK have a higher level. Doctors also look at other measurements such as low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol - the “bad” cholesterol - and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol - the “good” cholesterol, and the ratio between total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The recommended level for LDL cholesterol is under 3mmol/l.

The good news? Reducing your cholesterol to a safer level could be easier than you think. In fact, with simple lifestyle modifications - and, if necessary, medicine - people often see significant reductions in cholesterol within six weeks.

Here are 11 tips from our health experts on how to cut high cholesterol fast:

1. Set a target.

You know you've got to get your cholesterol number down, but how low do you need to go? That depends on several factors, including your personal and family history of heart disease, as well as whether you have cardiovascular risk factors, such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking.

If you already have cardiovascular disease, your aim is to get your total cholesterol down to less than 4.0mmol/l and LDL cholesterol to under 2.0mmol/l.

If you don’t already have cardiovascular disease the aim is to lower your cholesterol level to less than 5.0mmol/l.