Cholesterol

[SqeezeMasterFlash]

I had mine tested for the first time a year ago and it was 260. I started eating right, lost a bunch of fat, and tried to bring up my cardio. I just got it tested again and its 269. My triglycerides have come down by 80%, so that shows that I lost fat and ate right, but my HDL is 22 and it should be over 40. I plan on adding more frequent, more intense cardio sessions. Anyone have any other advise? Things to really avoid? Things I should eat more of?

Thanks

[patrick w.]

stay away from trans fatty acids, high amounts of saturated fat.

things you can eat more of.....fiber, even healthy fats like polyunsaturated fats.

try and rely on low glycemic carbs (low glycemic load) as there is a strange corolation between high amounts insulin (insulin resitantce possiblities) and cholesterol problems. see also syndrome x.

[Jay O'Neill]

Jeff...
It sounds like have a genetic predisposition for elevated Lipids. You may consider having your Doctor place you on Zocor or any other lipid lowering agent.

[Jesse Marunde]

unfortunetly diet and exercise don't seem to effect cholestrol that much. I train a doctor who told me that in his observation diet and exercise can effect cholestrol by 15% and that your level is hereditary. I tend to agree with him.

HOWEVER... My cholestrol was 150 last year. After eating Grassland beef every day for 9 months, it has dropped to 100. go figure!?

Jesse

[SqeezeMasterFlash]

Well I already take flax and wheat germ oil, I'll probably add some fish oil and CLA. I found a local source for grass fed beef and I've started eating that, although not every day. I already eat whole grains and raw vegetables with every meal, so I guess the big thing I've got left is more exercise. I'll stick with 3 days per week lifting and try to get 4-5 intense cardio sessions per week. I'm doing it anyway to lose fat for a contest, so I might as well up the intensity and frequency and retest in 3 months. If it's not at least down a little the doc wants me on meds for it. I'd rather try things like niacin before I take medicine, but we'll have to see.

[Jesse Marunde]

Zocor has other benefits besided lowing cholestrol. I'd look into it if I were you. Do some research and talk to your doc.

Jesse

[Jay O'Neill]

Since I work in Family Practice I'd be happy to field your questions as well.
I put lots of people on zocor and lipitor. The new Zetia is looking very promising as well.

[patrick w.]

Since I work in Family Practice I'd be happy to field your questions as well.
I put lots of people on zocor and lipitor. The new Zetia is looking very promising as well.


Maybe you could answer this for me. I was under the impression that once you are put on something like zocor or lipitor you are pretty much on for the rest of your life. There is no going off of it. Is that true??

[Steve Kirit]

Jeff,
I am no doctor but I have worked with quite a few cardiologists in my day, having suffered from pvc's and pac's (skipped beats) since I was 19. my cholestorel right now is 156, but in the summer when I was competing alot and on the road eating lots of junk food it was 215. I just had a stress test that I get every few years-no blockage found.

If you are under 35, don't have a big history of premature heart disease in your family, that number really is not bad. Remember this as well...inactivity, smoking and drinking kills quicker than elevated cholestorel. Remember that cholestorel is only one of many factors that can contribute to heart disease.

in lowering my cholestorel from 215 to 156 (my good is still only 32-needs to come up as well) I did this:

1. took a multi-vitamin and fish oil capsule each day.
2. went to sam's club, bought a 5 pound bag of frozen broccoli and ate 3 servings a day, when the bag ran out, I got another one. Vegetables have such a profound effect on health.
3. tons of vitamin c and garlic tabs

like I said...I am not a doc, but I would try to bring it down naturally before getting on the meds, which are very toxic and hard on the liver.

[Jesse Marunde]

I agree with Steve. But it sounds like you're already pursueing every natural means possible before resorting to medication.

Jesse

[Grant Higa]

My cholesterol results from January of this year:

Total cholesterol: 161
HDL: 43
LDL: 99
Chol/HDLC ratio: 3.7
Triglycerides: 93

I eat what I want, which could use some work, but thats what I do. I'm not a fried food guy, or fast food guy either.

I just like to do Circuit Training while in the gym, then bust ass when training events so that I get alot of cardio there too. I'll walk/run stairs with some of my clients too, and play occasional racquetball, or some shuttle runs/suicides in the racquetball court.

[Paul Sazy]

Last time I had mine checked it was 165 with an HDL of 39. It has never been over 200 and my triglycerides are always on the low end. One supplement you might want to try is policsanol. It's quite inexpensive and doesn't have the side effects of the statin drugs. If yo want to use fish oil try Carlson's Cod Liver oil. It's very high in EPA and DHA as well as being a great source of vit A and D. It tastes good too.

[Steve Kirit]

Grant-
Ever since the 2003 vegas Challenge your conditioning has never been a question I think to anyone who was there. I seem to remember a stalky guy who I (thought) was more of a static strongman smoke everyone in the keg race.

[Jesse Marunde]

do you have to bring up the keg race?

Jesse

[Steve Shafley]

First of all, realize that cholesterol numbers often have nothing to do with heart disease at all, and that the drugs like Zocor and other statins often have far reaching side effects that are more detrimental to your heart than cholesterol is. Many doctors, especially in HMOs, want to get you on as many drugs as they can because they get kickbacks from the pharm reps per prescription. My former doctor wanted me, first thing to get blood work done. My triglycerides were always a bit high, and they were high this time, but he wanted me to consider a statin drug. He also insisted on taking my blood pressure with a small cuff, and that always gives me a high reading (despite me telling him so) so he wanted to immediately prescribe me blood pressure medicine. I told him no thanks, and found another doctor.

Avoiding trans fats, avoiding excessive saturated fats, supplementing with fish oil and other EFAs and eating a variety of raw fruits and vegetables leads to a healthier body. Getting plenty of fiber helps. I'd consider a moderate intake of grain to be ok, but only if you are not sensitive to them.

Check out this:

http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm

The following excerpt is taken from the above website.


1 Cholesterol is not a deadly poison, but a substance vital to the cells of all mammals. There are no such things as good or bad cholesterol, but mental stress, physical activity and change of body weight may influence the level of blood cholesterol. A high cholesterol is not dangerous by itself, but may reflect an unhealthy condition, or it may be totally innocent.

2 A high blood cholesterol is said to promote atherosclerosis and thus also coronary heart disease. But many studies have shown that people whose blood cholesterol is low become just as atherosclerotic as people whose cholesterol is high.

3 Your body produces three to four times more cholesterol than you eat. The production of cholesterol increases when you eat little cholesterol and decreases when you eat much. This explains why the ”prudent” diet cannot lower cholesterol more than on average a few per cent.

4 There is no evidence that too much animal fat and cholesterol in the diet promotes atherosclerosis or heart attacks. For instance, more than twenty studies have shown that people who have had a heart attack haven't eaten more fat of any kind than other people, and degree of atherosclerosis at autopsy is unrelated with the diet.

5 The only effective way to lower cholesterol is with drugs, but neither heart mortality or total mortality have been improved with drugs the effect of which is cholesterol-lowering only. On the contrary, these drugs are dangerous to your health and may shorten your life.

6 The new cholesterol-lowering drugs, the statins, do prevent cardio-vascular disease, but this is due to other mechanisms than cholesterol-lowering. Unfortunately, they also stimulate cancer in rodents, disturb the functions of the muscles, the heart and the brain and pregnant women taking statins may give birth to children with malformations more severe than those seen after thalidomide.

7 Many of these facts have been presented in scientific journals and books for decades but are rarely told to the public by the proponents of the diet-heart idea.

8 The reason why laymen, doctors and most scientists have been misled is because opposing and disagreeing results are systematically ignored or misquoted in the scientific press.


Also, over at Dragondoor.com, there a book called "The Doctor's Heart Cure" or something that is a decent book too.

[SBaier]

A lot of the statin drugs can also cause muscle loss and weakness. If you go on statin meds make sure your doc knows all the supplements and meds you are on, statins are metabolized through the P450 pathway and so are a lot of other substances. The problem with this is that this pathway can 'bottle neck' rather easily. Thus, causing a reduction in the metabolism or rate of removal of the statins from the blood. The final result is a higher circulating concentration of the statin, which will increase all the negative side effects. I hope this info helps.