The publicity given over to Cholesterol and its link with heart disease is vast. The consequence of that is many people think cholesterol is the only thing to worry about. And to get it down to as low a level as possible with drugs means a long and healthy life.

Well, I'm sorry to have to tell you it doesn't follow. Sure, high cholesterol is on the list of possible causes and doing nothing to get it down may prove damaging to your health. But the facts are that more than half of heart attack victims have normal cholesterol.

You should realise that cholesterol is essential to good health. The healthiest person on the planet has cholesterol. It's there to do a whole raft of things to help you maintain health. It's only when levels rise above normal that something should be done, and not necessarily with drugs. Drugs have side effects, so may cause more problems. Low cholesterol is not a good thing either. If you've got rid of much of it you lose the benefits to your health and you could well be heading for a different problem entirely.

So, first off, try non-drug ways of lowering cholesterol. There are a few that you can try. They are usually successful and will save the worry of side effects.

But, there are other markers that will give you an idea of your risk of heart disease.

They include your fasting insulin level. Raised insulin can point to increased risk of heart disease. Therefore, getting it back to normal is a good thing.

On the cholesterol theme, instead of just taking a total cholesterol measure, ask for a figure for both your total and HDL cholesterol. Then divide the HDL reading by the total value. The percentage should be higher than 24%.

If your doctor does a reading for triglycerides as well. Divide that number by the HDL and that should be below 2.

Finally, it seems that a major part of ageing and poor health is due to the ravages of excess iron that causes free radical damage and is said to be a more important measure of heart disease risk than cholesterol. Now it is possible to have a test for ferritin. This is an iron reading and a raised level will determing your risk of heart disease.

Even if you don't want to get involved in all this testing and mathematical calculation, you can do something to lower your risk of heart disease.

Get plenty of exercise on a regular basis. Make it part of your daily routine.

Work on changing your diet to remove processed foods and fast foods and increase fresh fruit and vegetables. Cook them yourself.

Get enough good quality sleep most nights. Seven or eight hours is average.

Get a handle on your stress levels. Too much stress can be a killer. So, try to identify what causes the stress and then work on reducing it. Relaxation is the key and there are lots of ways to achieve it. One will work for you.

Vitamin D has come to the fore as an absolutely essential thing for good health. So review how much you take regularly in food, and how much susnshine you get daily (5 to 15 minutes is good). Then consider whether you might add fish oil to your supplement list to help bolster levels.

To sum up, cholesterol is important but not to the exclusion of everything else. You can do some simple things to help your health without resorting to medication. That is the starting point. Leave the drugs until you absolutely must. You'll feel better for it.

Why not check out my site at http://www.healthexplored.co.uk and sign up to my newsletter. I have books on cholesterol and stress that you might find useful. Both explain the basics and discuss how alternative therapies and other non-drug approaches can help. You might be surprised to find how you can vastly improve your health without drugs - just some basic changes to lifestyle and perhaps one or two alternatives.