Yashtimadhu (Licorice): Ayurveda’s Multi-Purpose Healing Herb

Hyperlipidemia is one of those things patients often find out about almost by accident, usually from a routine blood test rather than any symptom they noticed themselves. In plain terms, it means there’s too much lipid — cholesterol and triglycerides — floating around in the blood. Sometimes that’s genetic, and there’s not much you could have done differently. More often, though, I see it build up gradually, one habit at a time, over years.

Understanding Cholesterol Types

Cholesterol isn’t really one thing. It travels through the blood attached to lipoproteins, and which type you’re dealing with matters a lot for your actual risk. LDL is the one most people have heard of, often labeled “bad” cholesterol, since higher levels tend to clog up arteries over time. HDL works the opposite way — it actually helps clear excess LDL out of the bloodstream. Then there are triglycerides, a separate category of blood fat that raises heart disease risk on its own, independent of your cholesterol numbers.

There’s also a more specific term, hypercholesterolemia, which refers to high non-HDL and LDL levels specifically. Left alone, this leads to fatty deposits building up inside the arteries, narrowing them and raising the risk of serious cardiovascular issues. And when HDL drops too low, the body loses some of its natural ability to clear that buildup, which makes things worse rather than better.

Eventually, if this goes unaddressed long enough, it can progress into atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease — things like acute coronary syndrome or peripheral artery disease — both of which are directly tied to heart attacks, stroke, and angina.

What Actually Causes It?

Honestly, it’s rarely just one thing. In my consultations, I usually see some mix of the following:

• Poor eating habits
• Too much alcohol
• Smoking
• A sedentary lifestyle with little movement built into the day
• Ongoing stress
• Genetics that were simply inherited
• Certain medications — diuretics, steroids, hormonal birth control among them
• Obesity
• Hypothyroidism
• PCOS
• Diabetes
• Kidney, liver, or pancreatic disease
• HIV
• Even multiple myeloma, in rarer cases

What strikes me most is how often these overlap with other conditions I’m already treating — obesity, PCOS, diabetes. Cholesterol rarely shows up in isolation. It’s usually one piece of a bigger metabolic picture.

Managing High Cholesterol

On the conventional side, management usually comes down to a healthier diet, regular exercise, managing stress, cutting back on smoking and alcohol, keeping weight in a healthy range, sleeping properly, and medication plus regular blood work when levels are high enough to need it.

Where Ayurveda Fits In

Where Ayurveda comes in, for me, is in looking past just the lab numbers. I’m interested in your constitution, your habits, the patterns that got you here in the first place — not just the cholesterol reading on a printout. Ayurvedic treatment tries to work on both the symptoms and whatever’s driving them underneath, with the goal of improving cardiovascular health and gradually bringing lipid levels back into balance, rather than chasing a quick fix that doesn’t hold.

In practice, that usually means dietary guidance built around your specific constitution, herbal formulations aimed at supporting healthy lipid metabolism, and lifestyle counseling that’s actually realistic to stick with. A plan that’s too strict to maintain rarely produces results that last, no matter how good it looks on paper.

Diet and Daily Habits That Actually Help

A few things I tell almost every patient dealing with this: heavy, oily, hard-to-digest food tends to aggravate kapha dosha, which Ayurveda links closely to fat and lipid buildup in the body. Cutting back on fried food, excess dairy fat, and processed sugar, while leaning toward warmer, easier-to-digest meals, tends to help more than people expect.

Spices already common in Ayurvedic cooking — turmeric, ginger, garlic — have long been used to support circulation and metabolism. Movement matters too; even something as simple as a daily walk or gentle yoga session helps the body process fat more efficiently over time.

Stress plays a bigger role here than most people assume. Chronic stress messes with hormonal balance in ways that can quietly push cholesterol levels up, which is part of why I sometimes bring meditation, including Smrithi meditation, into a broader treatment plan alongside diet and herbal support.

If there’s one thing I’d want someone to take away from this, it’s that consistency beats intensity every time. Patients who make small, steady changes tend to see better, longer-lasting improvement in their lipid profile than those who go all in for two weeks and burn out.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is hyperlipidemia?

It means there’s an abnormally high level of lipids — cholesterol and triglycerides — in the blood, which raises your risk of cardiovascular disease.

What causes high cholesterol?

Usually a combination of poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking, alcohol, genetics, certain medications, and underlying conditions like diabetes, obesity, or hypothyroidism.

Can Ayurveda help lower cholesterol naturally?

Yes, through personalized diet, herbal formulations, and lifestyle changes, working alongside regular monitoring rather than replacing it entirely.

Is hyperlipidemia dangerous if left untreated?

Yes. Left untreated, it contributes to arterial plaque buildup, which significantly raises the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular problems over time.

Bringing Ayurvedic practices into hyperlipidemia management offers a genuinely fuller path forward — one that deals with both the visible numbers and whatever’s driving them underneath. At Kottakkal Ayurveda, we build personalized treatment plans for high cholesterol aimed at improving cardiovascular health, balancing lipid levels, and supporting a healthier lifestyle that’s actually sustainable long term.

About the Author

Dr. Keerthi R. Panicker, BAMS, MD (Ay), is an Ayurvedic Physician at Kottakkal Ayurvedic Treatment Centre, Sharjah, specializing in Swasthavritta (Ayurvedic preventive and social medicine), with a research focus on lifestyle-related metabolic conditions.

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