lowering cholesterol

ntlbell

Hi folks, hoping ye can help me out here.

Over the last two years or so I've been paying a lot of attention to my weight and diet.

I assumed I had a very good diet and I exercise about 6 hours a week.

Got test results back a few weeks ago and my cholesterol was very high.

so i was hoping you knowledgeable folk would have some tips on getting it down.

What I've done so far.

I've reduced my in take of red meat to one meal a week.

I've upped my fish in take to 3/4 dinners a week and eating more tuna in wraps etc for lunch.

I take one of those benacol jobs each morning

I'm not one for butter anyway but I have changed to the benacol spread but i don't use it very much.

I've always used very good olive oil when cooking so haven't changed anything there.

I don't eat take aways or pizza and over the last two years have reduced my drinking to almost being a non drinker, I'll have a few bottles of erdinger on the odd ocasion and maybe a small glass of red wine with dinners.

I don't eat white breads or past or rice.

all brown/whole etc

But most of the above I have been doing for a long time anyway so I'm at a bit of a loss at what else I can change, I'm just hoping it's not a gene problem.

I bought "how to reduce your cholestrol in 12 weeks" which is ok for understanding what it is and that but most of whats in it i do all ready.

something I haven't done yet is started taken fish oils which i'm going to look at this week

brettmirl

You could try a lecithin supplement.

I take fish oils and garlic too. Due to get another blood test in May, so will see if these three supplements make any difference.

Oh and try get as much oats/porridge into your diet as you can!

I try eat healthy as much as possible but my main downfall is my sweet tooth, plus i've inherited some of the problem from my dads side of the family too.

As for the Benecols and Flora Pro Activ's of this world, my GP told me that a lot of the health benefits are worthless. She said butter it fine in small amounts instead of tubs of chemicals. Exercise is important too. Even if it's just a 40min brisk walk a day.

ntlbell

mick_irl wrote: »

You could try a lecithin supplement.

I take fish oils and garlic too. Due to get another blood test in May, so will see if these three supplements make any difference.

Oh and try get as much oats/porridge into your diet as you can!

I try eat healthy as much as possible but my main downfall is my sweet tooth, plus i've inherited some of the problem from my dads side of the family too.

As for the Benecols and Flora Pro Activ's of this world, my GP told me that a lot of the health benefits are worthless. She said butter it fine in small amounts instead of tubs of chemicals. Exercise is important too. Even if it's just a 40min brisk walk a day.

Yup I eat porridge about 5 mornings a week.

I have to say I was very dubious about the benecol's but I thought I'd give them a go they're bloody expensive too

where do you buy your fish oil supplement?

are they all much of a muchness?

brettmirl

I get mine in Boots. They seem to always have 3 for 2 offers in there on vitamins and supplements.

Eskimo fish oils are meant to be good, but I use Boots own brand...but go to your local health shop or pharmacy, they will be able to point you in the right direction.

Benecol and Flora are VERY expensive, plus are loaded with sugar too.

October

You could also try Linseed - just sprinkle a tablespoon over your porridge or in yogurt.

The general rule of thumb I was told for when choosing food is if the saturated fat per 100g is 1.0 or below it's good, if it's 3.0 or above it's bad and I generally try to stick to this when choosing foods.

EileenG

Can you post what you do eat, rather than what you don't?

Also, what's the breakdown on your cholesterol levels? HDL, LDL and triglygerides?

Griffinx

I had the same problem....cholesterol wouldnt come down despite eating all the correct things and lots of exercise. From tests, it turns out that my liver produces too much cholesterol (genetic condition) so all the effort was never going to work.

Doc put me on a statin and cholesterol is now normal

EileenG

Don't want to sound as if I'm always beating the same drum here, but a lot of people respond well to a low card diet and find their cholesterol drops as a result. If you are not controlling it on a high carb diet (and most low fat diets are very high carb) then it might be worth doing some research on low carb diets to control cholesterol.

For instance, in a study where overweight middle-aged women where put on one of four diets (Atkins, Zone, LEARN and Ornish), the group on the Atkins group lost most weight and had the biggest improvement in cholesterol levels. The very low fat Ornish diet had th least improvement.

ntlbell

EileenG wrote: »

Can you post what you do eat, rather than what you don't?

Also, what's the breakdown on your cholesterol levels? HDL, LDL and triglygerides?

Sure.

Breakfast's

Porridge, Sometimes with almonds/walnuts/rasins/honey/whey

when not having porridge it's usually a slice of wholewheat toasted a boiled egg and oj and some fruit.

lunches

wraps with lettuce/tomato/peppers/cucumbers/onion/etc

with tuna/chicken/turkey

cooked chicken with all the veg (rarley potatoes)

salmon with brown rice tomatoa and veg

Fruit. apples/pears/strawberries/grapes/etc

I'll have a handfull of nuts some afternoons or some fruit or a salad.

dinners

Salmon/mackrel/cod/whiting

brown rice/cous cous/salads

Chicken/turkey/ with veg /brown rice/whoewheat pasta/salads/

I have maybe a fillet steak once a week with mushrooms or some other form of red meat. lean cuts of pork etc

regarding the levels I don't have the actuall figures I must ring the doc and find out the breakdown.

corkcomp

ntlbell wrote: »

Sure.

Breakfast's

Porridge, Sometimes with almonds/walnuts/rasins/honey/whey

when not having porridge it's usually a slice of wholewheat toasted a boiled egg and oj and some fruit.

lunches

wraps with lettuce/tomato/peppers/cucumbers/onion/etc

with tuna/chicken/turkey

cooked chicken with all the veg (rarley potatoes)

salmon with brown rice tomatoa and veg

Fruit. apples/pears/strawberries/grapes/etc

I'll have a handfull of nuts some afternoons or some fruit or a salad.

dinners

Salmon/mackrel/cod/whiting

brown rice/cous cous/salads

Chicken/turkey/ with veg /brown rice/whoewheat pasta/salads/

I have maybe a fillet steak once a week with mushrooms or some other form of red meat. lean cuts of pork etc

regarding the levels I don't have the actuall figures I must ring the doc and find out the breakdown.

that diet looks pretty spot on / balanced to me - i wouldnt advice you to go cutting out any of the carbs you mentioned above as none of these will contribute to high cholesterol .. Was the test a fasting blood test? and have you had a repeat to rule out a false positive / mix up etc?

ntlbell

corkcomp wrote: »

that diet looks pretty spot on / balanced to me - i wouldnt advice you to go cutting out any of the carbs you mentioned above as none of these will contribute to high cholesterol .. Was the test a fasting blood test? and have you had a repeat to rule out a false positive / mix up etc?

Yup fasted the night before.

they said they would give me 6 months to bring it down and then come back for another one.

I'm going to ring today to get a break down of the numbers

cozmik

Unfortunately it can be hereditary...maybe no one else in your family knows that they have it?

Transform

you diet is fairly solid i would recommend you take in 4-6g of fish oils per day and check out below -

Angiology. 2009 Feb-Mar;60(1):93-8. Epub 2008 Nov 18. Links

Is there evidence-based hypolipidemic treatment with clinical benefit beyond statins?Goumas GS.
Cardiology Department, Athens Bioclinic, An. Tsoha 3, Ampelokipoi, Athens, Greece. ggoumasgr@yahoo.gr

Aggressive therapy with statins to lower the low density lipoprotein cholesterol decreases cardiovascular events. Nevertheless, administration of the highest approved statin dose only offers limited additional benefit at the expense of an increased incidence of side effects. Therefore, novel compounds that further reduce the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and at the same time have beneficial effects on other lipid parameters when added to statin therapy are under investigation. Nicotinic acid lowers the levels of the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides while raising the concentration of the protective high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. A significant inverse association exists between long-term intake of omega-3 fatty acids and cardiovascular mortality; these fish oils lower serum triglycerides levels. Fibrates substantially decrease triglycerides, increase high density lipoprotein cholesterol, and modestly decrease low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. Ezetimibe selectively inhibits cholesterol absorption in the gut. Combined therapy with ezetimibe and a statin provides an incremental reduction in the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels.

Transform

Might help also -

Chin Med J (Engl). 2008 Aug 20;121(16):1588-94.

Links
Statin alternatives or just placebo: an objective review of omega-3, red yeast rice and garlic in cardiovascular therapeutics.Ong HT, Cheah JS.
HT Ong Heart Clinic, Penang, Malaysia. htyl@stremyx.com

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review is to objectively access the trial evidence on the role of omega-3, red yeast rice and garlic in preventing clinical cardiovascular events. Given the large number of clinical trials favoring statin use in cardiovascular disease, it is important to see if evidence is available for these supplements and whether they could replace statin therapy. DATA SOURCE: A PubMed search was conducted using the keywords 'trial, omega-3, red yeast rice, xuezhikang, garlic, cholesterol, cardiovascular, outcomes'; the resulting trials were reviewed together with the references quoted in the papers obtained. STUDY SELECTION: The studies selected are prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled studies with predefined clinical cardiovascular end-points recruiting at least 2000 patients, with a follow-up over 2 years. RESULTS: Modest dose omega-3 fatty acid has been shown in GISSI-P (11 324 patients, follow-up 3.5 years) to produce a reduction in sudden death of 45%, and in cardiac death of 35%, acting probably via an anti-arrhythmic effect. In JELIS (18 645 patients, follow-up 4.6 years), high dose omega-3 given to Japanese patients on a high fish diet and already on statin treatment produced further benefit with a 19% reduction of nonfatal cardiovascular outcomes; fatal cardiac events are not affected. CCSPS (4870 patients, follow-up 4 years), a secondary prevention trial using xuezhikang, a commercial red yeast rice preparation, produced a 46% reduction in nonfatal myocardial infarction and coronary death. There has been no trial to show that garlic reduces clinical cardiovascular outcomes. A rigorous trial with constant assessment of chemicals in the study material in 192 patients found that over a 6-month follow-up, raw garlic and 2 commercial preparations do not significantly affect lipid levels. CONCLUSIONS: Omega-3 in modest doses reduces cardiac deaths, and in high doses reduces nonfatal cardiovascular events. Red yeast rice reduces adverse cardiac events to a similar degree as the statins. It is unlikely that garlic is useful in preventing cardiovascular disease.

Transform

One last one -

Nutr J. 2008 Oct 26;7:30. Links
Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet: a healthy cardiovascular diet for weight loss.Pérez-Guisado J, Muñoz-Serrano A, Alonso-Moraga A.
Department of Genetic, University of Córdoba, Campus of Rabanales, Córdoba, Spain. pv1peguj@uco.es

BACKGROUND: Ketogenic diets are an effective healthy way of losing weight since they promote a non-atherogenic lipid profile, lower blood pressure and decrease resistance to insulin with an improvement in blood levels of glucose and insulin. On the other hand, Mediterranean diet is well known to be one of the healthiest diets, being the basic ingredients of such diet the olive oil, red wine and vegetables. In Spain the fish is an important component of such diet. The objective of this study was to determine the dietary effects of a protein ketogenic diet rich in olive oil, salad, fish and red wine. METHODS: A prospective study was carried out in 31 obese subjects (22 male and 19 female) with the inclusion criteria whose body mass index and age was 36.46 +/- 2.22 and 38.48 +/- 2.27, respectively. This Ketogenic diet was called "Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet" (SKMD) due to the incorporation of virgin olive oil as the principal source of fat (> or =30 ml/day), moderate red wine intake (200-400 ml/day), green vegetables and salads as the main source of carbohydrates and fish as the main source of proteins. It was an unlimited calorie diet. Statistical differences between the parameters studied before and after the administration of the "Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean diet" (week 0 and 12) were analyzed by paired Student's t test. RESULTS: There was an extremely significant (p < 0.0001) reduction in body weight (108.62 kg--> 94.48 kg), body mass index (36.46 kg/m(2)-->31.76 kg/m(2), systolic blood pressure (125.71 mmHg-->109.05 mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (84.52 mmHg--> 75.24 mmHg), total cholesterol (208.24 mg/dl-->186.62 mg/dl), triacylglicerols (218.67 mg/dl-->113.90 mg/dl) and glucose (109.81 mg/dl--> 93.33 mg/dl). There was a significant (p = 0.0167) reduction in LDLc (114.52 mg/dl-->105.95 mg/dl) and an extremely significant increase in HDLc (50.10 mg/dl-->54.57 mg/dl). The most affected parameter was the triacylglicerols (47.91% of reduction). CONCLUSION: The SKMD is safe, an effective way of losing weight, promoting non-atherogenic lipid profiles, lowering blood pressure and improving fasting blood glucose levels. Future research should include a larger sample size, a longer term use and a comparison with other ketogenic diets.

If you have trouble translating all of that i am sure someone here can help

EileenG

ntlbell wrote: »

Porridge, Sometimes with almonds/walnuts/rasins/honey/whey

when not having porridge it's usually a slice of wholewheat toasted a boiled egg and oj and some fruit.

lunches

wraps with lettuce/tomato/peppers/cucumbers/onion/etc

with tuna/chicken/turkey

cooked chicken with all the veg (rarley potatoes)

salmon with brown rice tomatoa and veg

Fruit. apples/pears/strawberries/grapes/etc

I'll have a handfull of nuts some afternoons or some fruit or a salad.

dinners

Salmon/mackrel/cod/whiting

brown rice/cous cous/salads

Chicken/turkey/ with veg /brown rice/whoewheat pasta/salads/

I have maybe a fillet steak once a week with mushrooms or some other form of red meat. lean cuts of pork etc

Looks like a very clean diet, but might be a bit low in fat. Keeping fat low (you can always go for oily fish and olive oil to get your healthy fats) tends to push insulin levels higher which is very strongly linked to high cholesterol.

El_Dangeroso

Standard cholesterol testing is a little inaccurate as they don't measure the size of the LDL particles (the proteins that are considered 'bad'), as if they are big and fluffy then they are heart-protective but if they are small and dense they are a major predicator for heart plaque.

There are a number of different subtypes of LDL cholesterol. Researchers have classified LDL-C into to distictive types: pattern A, with a higher proportion of large, more buoyant LDL particles, and pattern B, with a predominance of small dense LDL (sd-LDL) particles. Pattern B LDL is now what most research is pointing to as being the cholesterol component that is most damaging. Most of this research is less than 5 years olds so in the medical world it is still considered somewhat experimental. But if you start looking at the research I believe you will find there is more than enough evidence to start taking this seriously.

If you're serious about reducing your risk of heart plaque then give up wheat and cornstarch as there appears to be a connection between high triglyceride levels and Pattern B (dense) LDL. TG levels less than 70 normally do not have Pattern B LDL lipoprotein profiles. TG levels from 70-140 its a toss up, some have Pattern B some Pattern A. TGs greater than 140 and the chances of Pattern B LDL are very high. Grains, sugars and starches tend to increase triglycerides. There is also additional evidence that wheat in particular produces small dense LDL. Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist has found that when wheat is eliminated from the diet there is a significant drop in small dense LDL.

Now since most of us are stuck using the standard Cholesterol testing method and we do not have an accurate measurment of Pattern B (it is calculated and from what I've read not very accurate) we also do not know what our LDL pattern is. In addition we don't know the ratio of HDL2 to HDL3. HDL2 is the type believed to be cardio protective.

If your triglycerides are higher than 70 then I would look to cut the wheat and supplement with fishoil. Fishoil is very effective at reducing the TGs. Fishoil may very well be one of the most protective supplements you can take and has been studied a great deal. If you watch the sugar, starch and wheat plus use 4000-6000 mgs of fishoil per day most will have the TGs under 70.

Niacin is another supplement that also has been shown to reduce small dense LDL. It also increases HDL counts and shifts HDL particle size to the larger more protective HDL2. In addition it is the only effective treatment for those who have Lp (a) attached to their LDL.

Doing all the right things and your lipids still are not responding? Get your vitamin D levels checked. If they're low supplement or get some sun to bring it to an optimum level. There is growing evidence that vitamin D deficiency can be a risk factor for CHD and many times after it is corrected the body starts responding to the above therapies.

Best of Luck whatever you decide!

ambman

Flakseed or flakseed oil capsules work wonders;)

white apples

Hey NTLbell - I was just wondering how you are progressing with this. I just got results of a cholestrol test and it was 4.9 which is within the recommended levels but just about. It has given me a kick up the a*** to try and get a bit more healthy and I've a fair idea of what I need to do but just wondering how you were getting on and if you found anything that helped lower your cholestrol further.

ntlbell

white apples wrote: »

Hey NTLbell - I was just wondering how you are progressing with this. I just got results of a cholestrol test and it was 4.9 which is within the recommended levels but just about. It has given me a kick up the a*** to try and get a bit more healthy and I've a fair idea of what I need to do but just wondering how you were getting on and if you found anything that helped lower your cholestrol further.

Hey, I'm due back in August for a re-test.

I have increased my weekly exercise.

Taken fish oils daily and increased my intake of fish in general

So fingers crossed it'll come down a tad!

there's a good book i bought which was reccomend on another thread here

I think it's called reducing your cholesterol in 12 weeks but i'll check and make sure a lot of it is common sense and what i was doing all ready but well worth a read.

brettmirl

ntlbell wrote: »

there's a good book i bought which was reccomend on another thread here

I think it's called reducing your cholesterol in 12 weeks but i'll check and make sure a lot of it is common sense and what i was doing all ready but well worth a read.

Check out your local library too. They would often have books on lowering your cholesterol. Also, your GP should be able to give you information leaflets on it too.

EileenG

mick_irl wrote: »

Check out your local library too. They would often have books on lowering your cholesterol. Also, your GP should be able to give you information leaflets on it too.

Just be careful with doctors, so many people are not willing to alter their diet or lifestyle that doctors have got into the habit of prescribing statins a lot quicker than they should.