High Triglycerides: 8 Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Complications
Published on September 17, 2026
If you’ve found out you have high triglycerides, you might be worried about how this will affect your health. Triglycerides are a type of fat in your blood, and too much can raise your risk for heart disease, heart attack, or stroke. High triglycerides can also cause pancreatitis, in which your pancreas becomes painful and inflamed.
The good news is that there are lots of things you can do to bring your triglycerides down and protect yourself from complications. This includes lifestyle changes that you can get started with today.
Here are some of the most effective steps you can take, plus when you should seek medical attention if you experience any concerning symptoms.
1. Review All Your Heart-Health Risk Factors With Your Doctor
“High triglycerides rarely travel alone,” says Joan Briller, MD, a cardiologist with UI Health in Chicago.
Often, they occur alongside other heart disease risk factors like high cholesterol, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and excess abdominal fat. These things can increase your chance for a heart attack or stroke.
Talk with your doctor to find out whether these other factors also apply to you. Once you have a big-picture sense of your heart-health risk, you can come up with a comprehensive plan to improve things as a whole.
2. Build Your Meals Around Whole, Plant-Based Foods
Dietary changes are a powerful tool for lowering your triglycerides. “Plant-based diets, particularly the Mediterranean diet, have been associated with lower triglyceride levels,” says Jeffrey Lee, DO, a cardiologist at Cooper and Inspira Cardiac Care in Turnersville, New Jersey.
Focus on enjoying meals with foods like:
- Fruits and vegetables
- Whole grains like whole-wheat bread, whole-wheat pasta, oatmeal, and brown rice
- Lean protein sources like beans and legumes, low-fat or fat-free dairy, and seafood (especially fatty fish like salmon, herring, mackerel, or sardines)
- Nuts and seeds
- Healthy fats like olive oil, canola oil, and avocado
Try to limit things like:
- Alcohol
- Sugary drinks
- Foods made with refined flour or added sugars, like white bread, white pasta, white rice, and pastries or baked goods
- Ultra-processed foods and snacks
- Fried foods
- Red and fatty meats
- Unhealthy fats like butter and hydrogenated oils
Finally, pay attention to your portion sizes. Triglycerides also come from extra calories that your body doesn’t need, which get stored in your body’s fat cells.
3. Make a Plan to Be Active Most Days of the Week
Regular exercise can lower your triglycerides after eating by as much as 30 to 50 percent. Try to get at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, like brisk walking, swimming, or cycling, five days per week. Also, aim for two days per week of resistance (muscle-strengthening) exercises.
“You should aim for an intensity at which you can [still] speak in complete sentences,” says Dr. Lee.
Find ways to move throughout the day outside of your workout, too. Park at the far end of the lot, march in place while folding laundry or doing the dishes, or pace when you talk on the phone. Small movements can also help bring your triglycerides down and protect against complications.
4. Lose a Modest Amount of Weight, if Recommended
One study of more than 500 overweight people found that those who lost 5 to 10 percent of their body weight saw about a 17 percent reduction in their triglycerides — and those who lost more than 10 percent of their body weight lowered their triglycerides by nearly 30 percent. It’s not known, however, if larger, more diverse groups of people would see the same results, researchers wrote.
“Exercise combined with calorie reduction gives the best bang for your buck,” Dr. Briller says.
Talk with your doctor if you’re having trouble losing weight with lifestyle changes. You can ask whether a weight loss medication like a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist can give your efforts a boost.
5. Get Enough Sleep
Logging the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night may not directly lower your triglycerides. But it’s an important part of protecting your overall heart health: There's strong evidence that people who regularly get less than seven hours have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular disease–related death.
One of the first things Lee recommends to his patients for better shut-eye: Go screen-free in the hour or two before bed and establish a relaxing bedtime routine. Let your doctor know, too, if you’re consistently waking up tired after a full night’s sleep. You could have an underlying condition like sleep apnea, which affects many people with high triglycerides.
6. If You Smoke, Quit
It’s not easy, but quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for your triglyceride levels — and your heart health as a whole. Fortunately, you don’t have to go it alone. If you need help quitting, your doctor can recommend smoking cessation programs or medications that can help.
7. Take Your Medication as Prescribed
Medications like statins, fibrates, prescription fish oil, and niacin can lower your triglycerides when lifestyle changes alone aren’t enough. Medication may be recommended if your triglycerides don’t decrease enough after 4 to 12 weeks of lifestyle changes and your triglycerides remain above 150 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), Briller says.
You’ll get the best results when you take your medication exactly as prescribed, so follow your doctor’s recommendations. If you have questions or concerns, let your doctor know.
8. Get Medical Care for Severe Symptoms
High triglyceride complications like a heart attack, stroke, or pancreatitis can be life threatening. So you should seek emergency care if you’re experiencing possible symptoms, such as:
- Chest pain or pressure
- Pain or discomfort that extends to the shoulder, arm, back, neck, jaw, teeth, or upper abdomen
- Shortness of breath
- Cold sweat
- Heartburn or indigestion
- Sudden trouble walking or dizziness
- Loss of balance or coordination
- Sudden vision changes
- Sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side
- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding speech
- Sudden severe head pain without knowing the cause
- Upper abdominal pain that gets worse after you eat
- Upper abdominal pain that radiates toward your shoulder or back
- Fever
- Rapid heartbeat
- Nausea and vomiting
Resources We Trust
- Cleveland Clinic: Triglycerides
- Mayo Clinic: Triglycerides: Why Do They Matter?
- MedlinePlus: Triglycerides
- American Heart Association: HDL (Good), LDL (Bad) Cholesterol and Triglycerides
- Harvard Health Publishing: Should You Worry About High Triglycerides?
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
- Triglycerides. Cleveland Clinic. August 9, 2023.
- Should You Worry About High Triglycerides? Harvard Health Publishing. April 6, 2026.
- Triglycerides: Why Do They Matter? Mayo Clinic. January 21, 2026.
- Flatscher M et al. Impact of Mediterranean Diet on Lipid Composition in the Colaus-PsyColaus Study. Nutrients. November 3, 2023.
- The American Heart Association Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations. American Heart Association. March 31, 2026.
- High Blood Triglycerides. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. April 19, 2023.
- Bhattacharya R. How to Lower Triglycerides with Medications and Lifestyle Changes. Mass General Brigham. December 9, 2025.
- American Heart Association Recommendations for Physical Activity in Adults and Kids. American Heart Association. January 19, 2024.
- Chiu C et al. Nonexercise Activity Thermogenesis-Induced Energy Shortage Improves Postprandial Lipemia and Fat Oxidation. Life. August 27, 2020.
- Dhana K et al. Effect of Weight Loss Through Dietary Interventions on Cardiometabolic Health in Older Adults. International Journal of Obesity. October 3, 2025.
- Zhou M et al. Associations of Accelerometer-Measured Sleep Duration With Incident Cardiovascular Disease and Cardiovascular Mortality. Sleep. July 12, 2024.
- Correlation Between TG/HDL-C Ratio and Obstructive Sleep Apnea in the Adult US Population: A Cross-Sectional Study. Frontiers in Neurology. June 19, 2025.
- Health Effects of Cigarettes: Cardiovascular Disease. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. September 17, 2024.
- Pancreatitis: Symptoms & Causes. Mayo Clinic. October 31, 2025.
- Heart Attack: Symptoms & Causes. Mayo Clinic. March 27, 2026.
- Signs and Symptoms of Stroke. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. May 19, 2026.
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