Rainforest Secret Crushes Cholesterol
By
Natalie Moore
Posted March 6, 2017
Dear Living Well Daily Reader,
For some of us, having high cholesterol seems to be an unpleasant fact of life.
No matter how strict your diet or how hard you work out, your doctor never takes you off those risky statins.
But you deserve a better way to fight cholesterol that doesn’t involve counting calories, Olympic-style workouts and dangerous drugs.
Fortunately, Brazilian scientists have discovered that an ancient South American remedy could also be the all-natural cholesterol solution we’ve all been searching for.
And believe it or not — it’s loaded with antioxidants and nutrients that can help you fight inflammation and oxidative stress, which are two of the culprits behind aging and disease.
This delicious cholesterol-buster is called yerba mate, a tea made from a holly bush native to the South American rainforest. Yerba mate has been a part of traditional medicine in parts of South America for centuries due to its rejuvenating properties.
More recently, scientists decided to put yerba mate to the test against cholesterol.
For the study, researcher gave 330 ml (about 12 oz.) of yerba mate tea to folks with high cholesterol (some were taking statins and some were not) three times a day.
After 40 days, the yerba mate reduced LDL (bad) cholesterol levels by an outstanding 8.7 percent and significantly increased HDL (good) cholesterol levels.
Even more remarkable, yerba mate reduced LDL cholesterol by 13 percent in folks who were taking statins and increased their HDL cholesterol.
This means drinking yerba mate every day is a great way to balance your cholesterol and either keep you off statins or make them work harder for you.
Heck, it might even help you get off them one day.
Additionally, yerba mate is chock-full of antioxidants that can bust up free radicals and help protect you from cancer, heart disease and blood sugar problems.
Yerba mate is traditionally made in a gourd, but these days you can find it as a loose leaf or bagged tea in natural health stores and through online retailers like Amazon.com. It’s available in green or roasted varieties. Both varieties were used in this study.
Live well,
Natalie Moore
Managing editor, Living Well Daily
Ed. Note: Please send your feedback: feedback@livingwelldaily.com – and click here to like us on Facebook.
Sources
[1] Yerba Mate
[3] 8 Health Benefits of Yerba Mate (Backed by Science)
Written By Natalie Moore
Natalie Moore is a dedicated health researcher with a passion for finding healthy, natural, and science-based solutions. After a decade of direct healthcare experience in western and natural medicine, she was involved in public health research before joining Living Well Daily.
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