Cholesterol Management Community

Sabra,

Try not to worry about cholesterol. The notion that cholesterol levels are tied to risk of heart disease, heart attacks and strokes is severely dated.

I have long dismissed the idea, and filed the theory away along with children's books on mother goose and other fairy tales.

But the Theory still exists, riding on the last wave of profits before the Statin drug fad fizzles out.

However If you are still concerned about cholesterol, just reduce total calorie intake and your lipid levels should drop.
Increasing metabolic rate thru exercise can also have a lipid lowering effect, and making sure thyroid function is performing well also impacts lipid levels.

Also keep in mind the cholesterol test is a fasting blood test. It represents what your cholesterol levels are after 12 hours of fasting. How often do you go 12 hours without eating anything?

Since people do eat thru the course of a normal day, their REAL lipid profile is considerably different from the fasting test results.

It is genetic and a food issue as well...

Well genetics you can't change. Food you can.

Have you had your vit D levels checked. There are less side effects if you have a high level of D.

Also has the doctor tried other types of statins? Some of the newer ones use a different pathway and some people can tolerate then better than the older statins.

One over the counter supplement that you can take is plant sterols/stanols. In most people they don't have any side effects. They are what is in some margarine. But I think that it is much better to take then separately in a pill such as CholestOff or CardioTabs.

There are many good diets (and even more bad ones), but the Mediterranean Diet is a good one that is easy to live with.

Following that, losing weight-if needed, and getting plenty of exercise will help control your cholesterols.

And there are other meds for cholesterol, but statins are the first choice.

But to really understand what is going on you need the lipid panel. That is total cholesterol, HDL, triglycerides, and LDL.

The comment that you have to be fasting for the test, but in real life you don't fast so the test don't mean anything is hogwash.

First to don't need to be fasting to test the cholesterol. Only for the triglycerides portion.

And most test, whether is car engine horsepower, or your blood pressure or you body temperature or taken at some baseline condition so that they are not affected by extraneous events.

For example if you have exercised or eaten you need to wait 2 hours, or more, to get an accurate BP reading.

Likewise, if you measure you temperature just after you got out of a sauna if won't be meaningfull.

"The comment that you have to be fasting for the test, but in real life you don't fast so the test don't mean anything is hogwash."


Disagree. Fasting lipid panels can be very different from non fasting.
People think they know what their cholesterol is, but REAL TIME numbers from a normal daily routine would be something totally different from the fasting test.

it would make sense that you need a baseline to measure against. how else would my doctor know how any changes i make work?

I also cannot take statins. I am on my fourth statin drug that I started 2 weeks ago - I just called my doctor yesterday for an appointment to discuss this with him. Even with a low cholesterol diet and exercise my count remained high - it is definitely genetic and my count is 297. I also would like to know what other options are available.

I also can not take statins. Have been vegetarian for over 30 years, exercise, and watch weight. My high cholesterol is due to genetics. What has worked recently is taking niacin (Niaspan) and going to a vegan diet. Best results yet.

I did not want to be on statins for the rest of my life, so I searched the internet and found Heart Savour. It lowered my cholesterol dramatically. My doctor could not believe it. Also it is all natural. They refill them automatically every 90 days and ship them to me for about $25.00 per month. You should try it! Just google it to find the website.

If you don't want to be on statins, why are you taking a statin.

http://www.heartsavior.com/Ingredients.php

"Red Yeast Rice forms naturally occurring HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors known as monacolins. The medicinal properties of red yeast rice favorably impact lipid profiles of people with high cholesterol (hypercholesterolemic patients).
Red Yeast Rice contains a family of nine different monacolins, all of which have the ability to inhibit HMG-CoA reductase which inhibits the production of cholesterol. Other active ingredients in red yeast rice include sterols, isoflavones, and monounsaturated fatty acids."


That is a statin. The first commercial statins where developed from red rice yeast.


The Niacin that is in the formula is not an active type that affects cholesterol or help endothelial function.


The plant sterol/stanols are helpful for lowering cholesterol. But I recommend getting them in stand alone pills such as CholestOff or CardioTabs.


Remember just because something is "natural" (whatever that means) is good for you are effective.


Just because it is natural would you eat a salad made from posion ivy leaves?

I reduced my total cholesterol from 259 to 114 in 6 weeks. My cardiologist was/or seemed angry because I wanted to stop the statins. He said that much of a decrease would not have happened without the statins, I missed over a week because of surgery. I eat oatmeal daily, haven't had a glass of milk a piece of cheese or an egg yolk. Eat raw almonts, take red rice yeast or whatever it is called, also have added niacin. He is giving me until January to try to keep or improve my cholesterol on my own. I am not thoroughly convinced that it was that lousy pill that reduced the total cholesterol.

I've been taking Cholestoff for several years, and it works fine. I love cruises, so you can imagine the tempting food, but with excercise and mediterranean diet seems to help. ofcause age has a lot to do with it too, as you get older your body changes that's what my boss a very good doctor said, if your HDL is good dont worry about the high cholesterol.

have you ck your Thyroid it controls the cholestrol levals in your body hec it controls everything . get it ck with a natural md