Natural cholesterol control: love your heart with drug-free options that reduce bad cholesterol and triglycerides, and raise good cholesterol.

Cholesterol-lowering statins are the best-selling family of drugs in the history of medicine, with annual sales exceeding $27 billion. But dollar figures don't reflect human costs, namely the side effects of liver damage, memory impairment, muscle weakness, and pain. Although listed on product packages, such statin-related symptoms are often dismissed by doctors, according to research at the University of California, San Diego, which also found the drugs can cause severe irritability, insomnia, and nightmares.

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Many people who start taking statins don't continue, and seek natural approaches, most often through diet. For example, the majority of people who look for drug alternatives online search for cholesterol-lowering foods and diet plans, rather than information about dietary supplements and exercise. What you may be surprised to learn, however, is that supplements and exercise, along with weight loss, can be important components for moderating cholesterol and maintaining a healthy heart. "Your body manufactures five times more cholesterol than you can take in from food," says Richard Collins, MD, cardiologist and director of wellness at South Denver Cardiology Associates. And that manufacturing process can be controlled. Read on to discover ways to easily get a handle on high cholesterol--and protect your precious heart in the process.

Move It!

"Exercise makes the liver burn fat in the bloodstream as energy," says Collins. In essence, the liver multitasks all the time, and making cholesterol is only one of its duties. When you exercise enough, of when you eat fewer calories than you burn (which results in weight loss), the liver has to work harder to generate energy, and cholesterol production decreases. It's somewhat like a person multitasking; when one task demands more attention, other tasks drop in priority. With exercise and calorie reduction, cholesterol production gets lower priority on the liver's "to-do" list.

Exercise can also raise HDL ("good") cholesterol and reduce triglycerides, another type of blood fat that doctors check along with cholesterol. Elevated triglycerides are associated with increased risk for diabetes and stroke, and in rare cases, extremely high levels of this blood fat can lead to pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas.

Exercise reduces levels of triglycerides and can help to normalize cholesterol. To reap these benefits, Collins recommends a 45-minute workout, three times a week, including aerobic and resistance exercise.