High choleseterol diagnosis. What works(ed) for improving your numbers?

dbmata

FreakinFlabuless wrote: »

Thank you for your reply db. Mine is outrageously high. She suspects it is familial because it is so, but I'd like a shot at avoiding medications and therefore need to pick a path to follow for the next checkup. I had read that chia seeds and flax seeds/meal is good for lowering your cholesterol, so I have been consuming those, but those are grains. Sigh. <Confused>

Hereditary high numbers might be an issue.

First suggestion though, drop your bodyfat. Get into the lower to mid range of healthy. That's step one. Step two, get active. Step three, work on nutrition with your doctor. I would suggest setting a diet, having a blood test, run the diet for two quarters, get another blood test and adjust. Use data gathering and analytics in your favor.

You may one day NEED medication, but I would suggest doing everything in your power to optimize your intake and condition FIRST.

SteampunkSongbird

My mum has high cholesterol, her doctor told her to cut back on foods that are high in sat fat, like pastries, and that losing some weight would be helpful.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

mine is genetic and no matter what I do it doesnt help the large particle. my triglycerides are down and my hdl is up but they are more worried about my LDL particles being high. I have tried everything to get it down. even meds and nothing helps me.I had to stop the statins due to them creating many health issues for me.I would not recommend it unless the dr is ok with it. but for me no matter what I eat or dont eat it rarely changes.even when I was thinner and had less body fat it was still high.

JessDickman72

I have started a Paleo lifestyle and I have to tell you, I absolutely love it. You need healthy fats to battle the not so healthy fats. I've introduced coconut oil and avocado oil. I've struggled with my weight my whole life and when I switched to a paleo I lose a pound a day. Perhaps this is something you should really look into? It's not how much of what you're putting in your body it's what your putting in your body. Best of luck to you. Feel free to contact me with any questions about it. Id love to help.

MKEgal

Exercise & losing weight.
Eating less cheese (which is a real bummer, 'cause I like cheese a lot).
Triglycerides can get a bump from eating carbs, so if you know you have a blood test coming up, lay off the pasta & rice for a week or so ahead. (Which again, is a bummer, because I like them both.)
Possibly taking fish oil capsules every day.
My meat consumption was already pretty low (it's expensive!), but that can have an effect.
And oatmeal as a regular part of your diet.

dbmata

lose a pound a day. lol, no.

I knew it was only a matter of time before a paleo magician came in waving their wizard sleeves around.

cwolfman13

I took my LDL from the 160s to 93 now.

- I eat a diet (noun) rich in whole food nutrition and meals prepared largely from whole foods
- I eat a good 4-6 servings of veg daily and a couple servings of fruit
- Oats are a regular part of my diet
- Legumes are a regular part of my diet
- I eat eggs daily
- I eat primarily lean protein sources...poultry, fish, lean cuts of pork and beef
- I lost about 40 Lbs
- I exercise regularly
- I eat primarily whole grain options
- I get lots of fiber
- I eat healthy sources of fat daily from things like avocados and almonds
- I eat salmon at least twice per week...I eat a lot of other fish too.

It took me a long time to get my numbers down, it was a very slow process of about 2 years.

tennisdude2004

dbmata wrote: »

lose a pound a day. lol, no.

I knew it was only a matter of time before a paleo magician came in waving their wizard sleeves around.

It's very possible to lose a pound a day.

Granted you would need to stop eating protein and your long term health prospects would look bad. lol

But hey, who needs lean mass anyway?

20yearsyounger

FreakinFlabuless wrote: »

Thank you so much for all of your input everybody. I really appreciate it. I've been leaning more toward the low carb, more protein route simply because I don't necessarily eat badly as it is, but I do have some bad habits I need to kick, like pop. I've learned how sugar abrades the arteries causing fatty deposits to repair that damage. I have been reading about what diabetics do as far as watching the glycemic load too. I suspect this contributes for me personally based on examining what I may be doing wrong. Not sure that I understand it completely, but I think this is the avoidance of grains, no? When I saw the dietician, and she directed me to monitoring the saturated fats and cholesterol content of foods, I realized I was already usually meeting those goals.

There is this whole deal about hormones contributing as well, and I fit in there in my eyes. All of the medical appointments I've had in the last few years were female-issue related.

The medical profession is getting a bit scary for me these days. I feel like I am witnessing the deterioration of patients first. I can count on both of my hands how many times I've seen a doctor over the last 20 years, with the majority having been in the last 5 years, so having just established with this physician, I'm disturbed by how much she doesn't know about me. I know how establishing visits and histories and physicals should go, and she missed some pretty important systems to cover. I feel like she may have missed connecting some dots in my situation. However, when I call, I get the "see the nutritionist," "see a dermatologist", etc. referral instead of getting to know me. It isn't just her. I've noticed it with all of the physicians I've seen the last few years. I even asked the nutritionist about testing the particle sizes, and I got poo'd poo'd on that.

I don't believe in one size fits all and believe completely in our individuality and treatment plans. I'm just not having any luck finding a doctor willing to put in that time or with that attitude, so, again, I appreciate you all taking the time to share your experiences and to talk with me about it.

As to being unlucky knowing the people who were thrown into diabetes after starting their statins....those are family members, save a few outsiders and family through marriage, so it doesn't seem strange to me at all. In fact, it makes me that much more alert to the fact that I could be next and makes me want to avoid that even more.

thats why I started taking matters into my own hands. I am way past weight loss. I'm about doing what I need to do so that I dont have to see a doctor unless its really serious or its a yearly physical.

IammeCA

There may soon be an option to statins:

fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/23/amgens-future-rising-star-amg-145-gets-more-data.aspx

dbmata

tennisdude2004 wrote: »

dbmata wrote: »

lose a pound a day. lol, no.

I knew it was only a matter of time before a paleo magician came in waving their wizard sleeves around.

It's very possible to lose a pound a day.

Granted you would need to stop eating protein and your long term health prospects would look bad. lol

But hey, who needs lean mass anyway?

nobodies.

Let the winds take them all away!

feistypanda

i was diagnosed with high cholesterol yesterday (ironically, after running 7 miles) and am at a healthy body weight (5'4" female, 117lbs). I have a balanced diet but do eat lean meats, eggs, cheese, etc (more so over the last couple of years as my MD thought I was a little underweight. I was ranging from 101-105lbs. I have always been a runner and work out 3-5x week/5-7 miles but when I started incorporating weight training a couple years ago, I rapidly lost weight (101-105lbs). I stopped the weight training in favor of yoga and continue to run. My weight is now 117 so I would love any suggestions for lowering cholesterol for people who do not necessarily need to lose weight. My fear is if I follow a vegan/vegetarian or lowfat diet, I will fall back into the underweight range. Trying to figure out the lesser of the two evils (underweight or higher cholesterol). Thanks in advance for any insights.

md1093 wrote: »

I started eating a low fat, plant based, vegan diet back in October 2014. I mean I cut out all animal based products and I also stopped using oils to cook my food. I eat complex carbs, beans, veggies, and fruits and things like that. All of it very tasty and I eat until I'm full. All of my numbers including cholesterol and triglycerides went way down. I also went from 203 pounds down to 170 and feel great with only mild exercise. I got on to this eating lifestyle through Dr. John McDougall and Neal Barnard. On youtube you can watch their videos. I also watched the documentary Forks Over Knives. It presents a lot of good information.

20yearsyounger

nuts maybe? packs more calories but healthy fats

Mr_Knight

Running and losing weight did it for me. Went from problematic to perfect in just a few months.