[ColSpanker]

What's the best way to get it down without using drugs and making some pharma companies rich?
I had my 55,000 mile check last week. The c's came back high. And I don't want to start juicing to get it down.

[Hades]

Try to cut all sugar and grains out of your diet, allowing yourself one cheat meal per week if you need.

Also try to go on one uninterrupted 24 hour fast per week. IMO that will do more to get rid of cholesterol than anything.

[Architekt]

Make sure you check what kinds of cholesterols were high - it's actually a very necessary component for testosterone production. This article here has a good section on cholesterol

[n0000]

Weight training improves lipid profile:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3824017

If you are not lifting, check out the thread on Starting Strength, it is a great beginner weightlifting program that will yield fantastic results very rapidly.

Mindfullness may also improve your blood work:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19585761

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12683226

Here is a free book on mindfullness to get you started: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.

[reino341]

(07-10-2013 12:34 PM)n0000 Wrote:  

Here is a free book on mindfullness to get you started: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.

http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html

Great book.

[eatthishomie]

Just got my bloodwork back and my cholesterol levels are high also. Looking into ways to get them down without pwning my T levels.

Already lifting and doing other physical activity on the regular. Pretty good diet although I'm eating a shitload of fats of any kind. I'm at the end of a bulk so that has probably influenced my numbers a bit.

I'll report back.

[SamuraiJack]

(07-10-2013 12:16 PM)Hades Wrote:  

Also try to go on one uninterrupted 24 hour fast per week. IMO that will do more to get rid of cholesterol than anything.

I had high cholesterol and was able to bring it back into normal range doing a 24 hour fast once or twice a week as Hades recommends. I saw improvement after only a few fasts. I'm now doing daily 14-16 hour intermittent fasting.

Cholesterol is still normal range, never went high again once I started fasting on a regular basis, whether 24 hour fasting or daily IF.

[Thomas the Rhymer]

(07-10-2013 12:16 PM)Hades Wrote:  

Try to cut all sugar and grains out of your diet, allowing yourself one cheat meal per week if you need.

Also try to go on one uninterrupted 24 hour fast per week. IMO that will do more to get rid of cholesterol than anything.

The above is great advice, I'll just add my 2c.

Smoking also causes high cholesterol, I don't know if you smoke but when a patient quits smoking his cholesterol level always drops.

The refined sugars are especially important. I've cured people of high cholesterol by getting them to quit refined sugars - especially the sugar sweetened beverages. Frankly, coca-cola and other soft drinks should have warning labels. Solid fruits and vegetables, although high in natural sugars, don't seem to cause high cholesterol (although fruit juices do, and maybe vegetable juices do as well); the exact reason is still unknown, but it's thought that fibre alters the way sugars are absorbed from fruit and prevents the harmful effects associated with refined sugar.

Which leads to the question, why does it help? Cholesterol is basically blood fat. Excess carbohydrates are turned by the body into fat, some of it will be churned into the blood as cholesterol, and levels rise. On the other hand, drastically reducing carbs from the diet will force the body to adapt by relying somewhat on fat as an energy source - and the body will end up throwing blood fat, cholesterol, into the metabolic furnace in order to keep things going, which causes levels to drop. The same thing happens with fasting - your body will burn up the cholesterol to keep you going and the cholesterol levels will take some time to build up again once the fast is over.

[Baphomet]

Then read "The Cholesterol Myth." Only ONE specific type of LDL Cholesterol is a problem, not LDL in general.

Except in very, very specific circumstances, "High Cholesterol" scam to sell Statin drugs.

[Duke Main]

My cholesterol is high (above 330) and my doc wants to put me on 80mg atorvastatin. My ratio is in the healthy range and my triglycerides are low. I need to do some more research, but I'm leaning toward not taking the statins. I'm not smarter than a doctor, but these same people (mainstream doctors) bought in to the food pyramid for the last 60 years, driving diabetes cases through the roof. Tell me where I'm off base here.

[Siddartha]

Thinking that high LDL reading are bad is the most soy thing I can think of.
Keto has blown the door open on the cholesterol lie and every study done to shove it back down points all fingers back to dietary carbohydrates and sugars of ANY KIND as being the source of the modern epidemic of diseases of civilization (cancer, auto-immune, fibromyalgia, heart disease, alzheimers, stroke).

http://cholesterolcode.com/
Rob does ground breaking work with this and I want to shout out about it in the streets.
TL;DR best 30 second way to see if you're good is to divide your triglycerides by your HDL, if the number is over 2, you may have a problem.
Though it's not that simple, and he has many research projects discussing this and all the granular aspects

P.S. Testosterone is best synthesized in those with high LDL, high LDL also reduces overall mortality risk

[Hell_Is_Like_Newark]

(04-18-2018 10:30 PM)Duke Main Wrote:  

My cholesterol is high (above 330) and my doc wants to put me on 80mg atorvastatin. My ratio is in the healthy range and my triglycerides are low. I need to do some more research, but I'm leaning toward not taking the statins. I'm not smarter than a doctor, but these same people (mainstream doctors) bought in to the food pyramid for the last 60 years, driving diabetes cases through the roof. Tell me where I'm off base here.

Reducing carbs (weight loss) had a dramatic affect on my blood panel (in a good way).

For supplements, look at taking 450 mg of Pantethine (form a vitamin B5) twice a day. The supplement went under clinical trials and was found to have a modest, but consistent positive affect on lipid levels. For me, taking it vastly improved my workouts when I first started out. I was in horrible physical shape at the time.

What constitutes a good or bad LDL is up for debate (see other posts in this thread). There are in fact, more than one type of LDL.. high density and low (fluffy) density). The former is believed by some to be an issue, whilst the latter is not.

Plaque build-up may also be more a result of inflammation within the body and not LDL. The theory is that the inflammation is caused by high carbohydrate diets and oils high in omega 6 fats (see oils like corn oil).

Getting the real deal on diet and health means dipping into a turbulent sea of facts and utter bullshit. Pharma is in the business of selling drugs to treat conditions.The money for research on how to prevent said issues... well.. not a lot of profit motive there.

In addition, you also have radical vegans who are on a Jihad against meat, who throw FUD of "research" into the mix, making people think that unless you are living off a potatoes, grain, and kale, you will die of a heart attack. One of my "favorites" was a "study" on how meat consumption would give you diabetes (being serious here).

[Hypno]

Dr. Linus Pauling, who won two Nobel prizes, recommended mega dosing on vitamin C and lysine (amino acid). Like 3-4000 mg of C, and at least half that of lysine. But be prepared that much vitamin C will soften your stools. Pauling died some years ago but if you search you can find some very old interviews of him on YouTube. His focus was not on cholesterol directly but improving heart health and arteriosclerosis. Iirc, his view was that high cholesterol meant your arteries were damaged and the cholesterol was needed for repair. The Vitamin C and lysine are intended to benefit your artery walls and make high cholesterol unnecessary.

I understand niacin can be helpful also. Some people get hot flashes from taking it, which is a harmless side effect, but start small.

Some info on niacin here: http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/20...td/Page-01

[TigerMandingo]

Went in for blood testing and everything came back good, except for a fairly low white blood cell count (3.6). I've also had abdominal discomfort for over a week and an xray showed a possible kidney stone. Hope it's not cancer....

[DJ-Matt]

Even at my healthiest weight and shape my cholesterol was still hovering at 200, according to my mother it was high as a child too. I was 6'1" and 185 pounds!

After a little research it seems that Niacin (Vitamin B3) lowers cholesterol by up to 20% so I bought a bottle. The pills are 500mg each, and the advice online says 1,000-2,000mg a day for best results. Anyone else tried this and did it work?

EDIT: crap the stuff I bought at the store, "flush free" inositol hexaniacinate, is listed as not effective for cholesterol. I need to buy SLO-NIACIN.

Quote:

By contrast, slow-release niacin preparations reduce the hot-flush effect by releasing niacin over an extended period of 12 hours or longer. Most of these preparations are unsafe and I do not recommend them. “No-flush” niacin preparations, such as inositol hexaniacinate and nicotinamide, are widely sold as niacin alternatives that do not cause hot flushes. In my experience, however, they simply do not work. In other words, no flush, no effect.

[Hypno]

My father used to take niacin. He would get hot flashes from it so he would take it then go to sleep. His cholesterol was always around 200 but he started taking niacin at around age 75 or 80 in lieu of statins. Lived to 93

There are a lot of folks, not just in alternative medicine, who don’t believe cholesterol needs to be managed. Some believe cholesterol is made to repair your body when it suffers inflammation, so try treating the cause of inflammation (wheat). Ironically someone above suggested reducing wheat to reduce cholesterol.

[Days of Broken Arrows]

Oatmeal has been found to lower cholesterol. But you have to have plain oatmeal (from the tub thingie), not flavored oatmeal (from the little packets). And you have to eat it regularly.

I'd recommend the 365 Organic Quick Oats from Whole Foods. Yes, I despise their pretentious vegan bullshit too, but these are excellent with a much better flavor and texture than Quaker Oats.


To make it more effective (info here), add a dash of cinnamon, specifically the organic ceylon type that's also available at Whole Foods and made by the Frontier Co-Op company.


High cholesterol has a large genetic component to it, so you're fighting an uphill battle. However, my aunt was able to take hers way down using this exact method, plus watching her diet (more vegetables, fewer rich foods). I assume this has worked for me too, but I have not gotten a cholesterol test in a while.

***

High cholesterol also often goes hand-in-hand with hypertension. To head that off at the pass, drink pomegranate juice, specifically the Landers brand, which is 100 percent juice, not chemicals.

An extra added benefit of this is that it dilates the blood vessels and therefore has a Viagra-like effect on men. Here is the hard science, pun intended.

[glugger]

Is cholesterol actually still thought of as a problem? If you are skinny with high cholesterol, would you be affected as much, or at all, compared to a fat guy?

[Duke Main]

(09-07-2018 12:46 AM)glugger Wrote:  

Is cholesterol actually still thought of as a problem? If you are skinny with high cholesterol, would you be affected as much, or at all, compared to a fat guy?

I've looked into this because I have high cholesterol and doctors have been trying to put me on statins for years, which I've resisted. I can't find the youtube video I saw the other day that seems to do a good job of breaking down the actual risk.

High triglycerides = high risk for heart disease
High HDL = low risk
High LDL = no correlated risk

So the conclusion is, if your total cholesterol is high it doesn't really matter as long as your HDL is high and triglycerides are low, which is my situation.

I'm not a doctor so take it with a grain of salt and do your own research, but this gave me some peace of mind.

[Duke Main]

If you really want to get in the weeds about cholesterol google Dave Feldman or Dr Peter Attia. Feldman takes an engineering approach (since he's an engineer) and Attia is a real doctor.

[DJ-Matt]

Had a blood test last week, only been on the niacin for about 2 months but my cholesterol dropped from 242 to 200 so I’m well on my way to healthy!

[Kid Twist]

Diet and exercise.

If you want more details, read Attia as Duke says. LDL ("bad") is calculated from total and triglycerides, and is not meaningful in and of itself. Why? We make it in our own body and store or transport is as necessary. What does matter is LDL-P (the number of particles) which is pretty much what apoB is, and may be concordant or discordant with LDL-C, the most commonly measured value that most laypeople quote when they talk about it. The most dangerous situation is to be high LDL-P and low LDL-C, because docs think you're ok, but this is the profile of most metabolic syndrome/diabetes patients that have the highest risk of all for a cardiac event.

I'll save you the time; LDL-P of less than 1060 nmol/L is low, usually taken as 30th percentile and lower.

[DJ-Matt]

The only thing scary about my cholesterol levels is the triglycerides didn't move much at all. I didn't just do the niacin but also changed my diet back to healthy and stopped going out now that I'm out of the LTR it's easy.

[MOVSM]

Marker for heart disease has always been high triglycerides. Triglycerides are associated with high carbohydrate intake.

USDA Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee

Quote:

642 Cholesterol. Previously, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommended that cholesterol intake
643 be limited to no more than 300 mg/day. The 2015 DGAC will not bring forward this recommendation
644 because available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary
645 cholesterol and serum cholesterol, consistent with the conclusions of the AHA/ACC report.2, 35
646 Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.

Lack of an association or an inverse association between low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality in the elderly: a systematic review

Quote:

Objective: It is well known that total cholesterol becomes less of a risk factor or not at all for all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) mortality with increasing age, but as little is known as to whether low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), one component of total cholesterol, is associated with mortality in the elderly, we decided to investigate this issue.

Setting, participants and outcome measures: We sought PubMed for cohort studies, where LDL-C had been investigated as a risk factor for all-cause and/or CV mortality in individuals ≥60 years from the general population.

Results: We identified 19 cohort studies including 30 cohorts with a total of 68 094 elderly people, where all-cause mortality was recorded in 28 cohorts and CV mortality in 9 cohorts. Inverse association between all-cause mortality and LDL-C was seen in 16 cohorts (in 14 with statistical significance) representing 92% of the number of participants, where this association was recorded. In the rest, no association was found. In two cohorts, CV mortality was highest in the lowest LDL-C quartile and with statistical significance; in seven cohorts, no association was found.