I lowered my cholesterol 58 points in 2 months

When my doctor gave me "lipid panel" results from a Dec. 12 blood test, he suggested I consider taking statin drugs because my total cholesterol was at 261, and I have a family history of heart disease. I rarely even take cold medicine, so taking drugs every day to keep my cholesterol down isn't something I want to do.

So, here's what I did:

Stopped eating cheese almost entirely. I ate it maybe three times between Dec. 12 and Feb. 5, when I had my second blood test.

Started having oatmeal every other morning for breakfast.

Added a whole clove of fresh garlic to a meal (after the meal was cooked so the garlic was raw) on the days I didn't have oatmeal for breakfast.

Cut way back on eating omelettes and egg salad, having a serving of eggs less often than once a week.

Began incorporating a monounstaurated fatty acid (MUFA) into each meal. I used avocados, olives, peanut butter, almond butter, mixed nuts, pumpkin seeds and very dark chcoclate.

Got a pedometer and upped the number of steps I take in a day from about 3,000 to about 6,000.

Started using the elliptical trainer in our family room, maybe four times a week, sometimes only doing 10 to 15 minutes, other times doing 30 minutes.

Started listening to Learning Strategies Corp.'s "Perfect Health" CD either before I fall asleep or upon waking almost every day.

So, that's it. This was fairly easy to do. I feel better overall, lost 10 lbs. in the process, and now have LDL at 127 and HDL at 64, which is a very good ration of "bad" to "good" cholesterol in addition to being what is considered to be a normal level of cholesterol. And it took less than two months.I just thought it might be helpful information for anyone else whose cholesterol needs to come down.