Take This To Heart

Seven simple measures to keep your cholestrol low

- Amy Packer

The NHS is set to roll out a new cholesterol-busting jab, inclisiran, the Daily Mirror revealed yesterday.

Given twice a year – initially to 300,000 people in England who have suffered heart attacks or strokes – it will boost the liver’s ability to remove harmful cholesterol from the blood. With experts saying it could save 30,000 lives in a decade, it’s good news for the nation’s heart health.

Currently, the British Heart Foundation estimates that close to half of adults in the UK are living with cholesterol levels above the recommended guidelines so, if successful, the jab may well one day be given to millions more of us.

While we wait, however, there are plenty of things we can do to start lowering our cholesterol. Here are a few.

NO LAUGHING MATTER

Not everything comedian Bob Mortimer says is a joke.

The Gone Fishing star, who has charted his own battle with high cholesterol following a triple heart bypass in 2015, has been extolling the benefits of pears, plums and chestnuts on Twitter – and it’s seriously good advice.

“Make pears, chestnuts and plums (or prunes) three of your five a day,” he wrote. “Send cholesterol down the pot.”

It seems there is some solid science behind the tip – all three contain types of fibre that can help to lower your cholesterol by blocking it from being transferred from the intestines into the bloodstream.