Reducing LDL Cholesterol

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lsworkman1907
lsworkman1907 Posts: 1 Member
edited March 2023 in Food and Nutrition
I generally eat a pretty balanced diet including lots of fruits and veggies, and walk and exercise daily, but I still have really high LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. My goal is to avoid statins. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
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  • SuzySunshine99
    SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,984 Member
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    If you are overweight, then losing weight can have the biggest effect on your cholesterol. That would be the first place to start.

    For some people, though, high cholesterol can be hereditary. If you are a normal weight and already doing as much as you reasonably can, then it's possible you may not be able to reduce it much without statins.

    As an example, my sister eats an extremely healthy diet, is in a normal weight range, and runs marathons. She just started a statin because there was nothing more she could do to bring her numbers down.

    Hopefully, you can find a way to reduce yours without medication.
  • VegjoyP
    VegjoyP Posts: 2,715 Member
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    I would sincerely try a WFPB, plant based no oil added diet. It worked for me, my boyfriend and several people I know personally
  • shmmm3
    shmmm3 Posts: 255 Member
    edited March 2023
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    I second the suggestion of following a completely whole foods plant based diet for at least one week and check your levels again. It's true that eating more whole foods and completely eliminating ultra-processed foods and dairy helps significantly. Oatmeal (no added sugar) cooked in water or soy milk is proven to lower LDL cholesterol. Cook old fashioned oats with chopped up apple and cinnamon for breakfast or dessert. Look into Neil Barnard's talks or his books. It's the opposite of keto diet advice. A good friend recently died of heart disease and I will always wonder if following the keto diet exacerbated the cardiovascular damage.

    I started WFPB as an experiment and feel much better but haven't done blood tests to compare yet. It's been a few weeks of realizing I wasn't consuming nearly as many vegetables as I thought I was.

    The traditional Daniel Fast eliminates animal products and ultra processed foods for three weeks. Only 21 days can change everything you thought you knew about your diet.
  • vanmep
    vanmep Posts: 406 Member
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    Maintain a healthy weight, exercise and avoid eating animal products. Your body produces some of its own but your diet and lifestyle can prevent additional.
  • maria4560h
    maria4560h Posts: 41 Member
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    The keto diet of done properly can and does lower cholesterol as well. It must be done properly though. Olive oil and coconut oil are the more preferred fats. Many people do more of a “dirty keto” unfortunately.
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 909 Member
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    i find regular cardio helps lower mine.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,124 Member
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    vanmep wrote: »
    Maintain a healthy weight, exercise and avoid eating animal products. Your body produces some of its own but your diet and lifestyle can prevent additional.

    A person's liver produces 80% of their cholesterol. Only 20% comes from diet if I recall what I heard recently. Having said that, the 20% can make a difference.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,925 Member
    edited April 2023
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    rileysowner wrote: »
    vanmep wrote: »
    Maintain a healthy weight, exercise and avoid eating animal products. Your body produces some of its own but your diet and lifestyle can prevent additional.

    A person's liver produces 80% of their cholesterol. Only 20% comes from diet if I recall what I heard recently. Having said that, the 20% can make a difference.

    All dietary cholesterol is transported to the liver, and not the blood because cholesterol isn't water soluble and where it's then remanufactured by encapsulating the cholesterol into containers called lipoproteins like HDL, LDL, VLDL, IDL etc. Basically dietary cholesterol has no effect on our serum levels. It's misunderstood by most people and Doctors for that matter. But we don't eat cholesterol in isolation, it's attached to animal foods and most of these sources do have saturated fats and saturated fat can effect cholesterol levels, it influences the liver to produce both HDL and LDL lipoproteins which then obviously increases the amount in our blood. Cheers.
  • lisasays
    lisasays Posts: 142 Member
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    I agree with whole foods plant based and no oil. Get oil and animal based food out of your diet.
    Look up Well Your World, Broccoli Mum and Lean With Plants on youtube/instagram
    Books I recommend are The Starch Solution and How Not To Die.
  • 1clairedog
    1clairedog Posts: 2 Member
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    Watch your Carb intake and add omega 3/6 combo to your diet. This will also help with Triglycerides. And of course watch that sugar. Don't forget that fruits have alot of carbs and sugar so try limiting yourself to just 2 servings a day for a month and see if your numbers improve.
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,618 Member
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    1clairedog wrote: »
    Watch your Carb intake and add omega 3/6 combo to your diet. This will also help with Triglycerides. And of course watch that sugar. Don't forget that fruits have alot of carbs and sugar so try limiting yourself to just 2 servings a day for a month and see if your numbers improve.

    I really disagree with this. In many, many ways. Whole grain carbs generally decrease cholesterol. While refined carbs can increase triglycerides, I think most everyone would agree that too many refined carbs isn't "good" for us. But decreasing fruit? No. Just no. I'm sorry, but that's just a completely incorrect, problematic thing to recommend. Please don't. If you yourself want to reduce fruit, great. But don't... just don't, recommend it to other people. Beyond this, I'll just say that Neanderthin hit the nail on the head.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,189 Member
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    Relatively major changes in eating style may not be necessary, and may not even be sufficient. Can be worth a try, of course.
    lisasays wrote: »
    I agree with whole foods plant based and no oil. Get oil and animal based food out of your diet.
    Look up Well Your World, Broccoli Mum and Lean With Plants on youtube/instagram
    Books I recommend are The Starch Solution and How Not To Die.

    My LDL was high even as a vegetarian (admittedly not entirely WFPB, and ovo-lacto besides so some animal-based food in there). For me, eating the same range of foods, and not changing exercise routine, weight loss brought my LDL down relatively quickly (a few months, reached normal LDL even before reaching goal weight). It can matter whether there's a genetic component for OP; I don't think there was, for me.
    1clairedog wrote: »
    Watch your Carb intake and add omega 3/6 combo to your diet. This will also help with Triglycerides. And of course watch that sugar. Don't forget that fruits have alot of carbs and sugar so try limiting yourself to just 2 servings a day for a month and see if your numbers improve.

    Getting some good omega-3s may be helpful. Quite a few people already get omega-6s, and the issue is more about balancing with omega-3s IMU. Ironically, the WFPB diet recommended by another poster can make it mildly more challenging to get O-3s from food. (Generally, I figure it's better to get nutrients from food rather than from supplements, but I recognize that as more a personal preference than a strict universal rule.)

    Daily, I ate 150g+ carbs routinely while losing weight, 225g+ now. I went over my MFP default total-sugars goal every day while losing, and for sure in the 7+ years of maintaining a healthy weight since. Most of the sugars were and are from fruits, veggies, and no-sugar-added dairy, but some was/is added sugar. I pretty much always eat at least 3 fruit servings daily. Typical day yesterday, 251g carbs, 103g total sugars, 258g fruit, plus a couple of chocolates, and some molasses (which is added sugar, though rich in micros) in my oatmeal.

    As noted above, my LDL levels dropped during weight loss, and have been normal, sometimes low-normal, in all these years of maintenance. Pre-weight loss, my doctor was pushing statins pretty hard, because my blood lipids were awful. Since weight loss, it never comes up.

    The more dramatic changes in eating may be helpful or necessary for some people, but they're not universally required. May be worth a try, sure.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,925 Member
    edited April 2023
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    Yeah, excessive visceral abdominal fat is pretty much the major indicator for elevated oxidized lipoprotein LDL particles (apo b) and just reducing weight into the healthy range will influence most of these markers to correct themselves.

    And the thought that it's just animal products that cause this is pretty much the dogma that's been repeated for decades and while excess of anything including saturated fat isn't healthy, most of the actual foods that contribute to metabolic syndrome, elevated LDL, diabetes, inflammation and obesity are plant foods like refined carbohydrates, sugar, salt and vegetable oils, especially the ratio of omega3 and 6's that are consumed in excess. Consuming a diet of mostly whole natural foods that should include some animal products (EPA & DHA), staying within a healthy weight range and getting some exercise that emphasizes strength will generally find that person having good health markers and lower LDL and AnnPT77 is a good example of how to make that happen imo. Cheers
  • Schazey45
    Schazey45 Posts: 2 Member
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    I just recently read somewhere that psyllium husk helps reduce cholesterol. Try that .
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,403 Member
    edited April 2023
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    Schazey45 wrote: »
    I just recently read somewhere that psyllium husk helps reduce cholesterol. Try that .

    No, don't just do things that someone random on the internet read randomly somewhere. I read recently that eating tinned dog food is super healthy. Would you eat it?
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,925 Member
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    yirara wrote: »
    Schazey45 wrote: »
    I just recently read somewhere that psyllium husk helps reduce cholesterol. Try that .

    No, don't just do thinks that someone random on the internet read randomly somewhere. I read recently that eating tinned dog food is super healthy. Would you eat it?

    Can you be more specific, which brand and can you list the ingredients and does it have psyllium husk in it, don't want that. :D Cheers
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,403 Member
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    neanderthin wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    Schazey45 wrote: »
    I just recently read somewhere that psyllium husk helps reduce cholesterol. Try that .

    No, don't just do thinks that someone random on the internet read randomly somewhere. I read recently that eating tinned dog food is super healthy. Would you eat it?

    Can you be more specific, which brand and can you list the ingredients and does it have psyllium husk in it, don't want that. :D Cheers

    Uh.. good one. No idea. Just dog food. But I also read that you'll become a millionaire if you transfer $1000 to me right now. So I totally suggest you do that.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,925 Member
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    yirara wrote: »
    neanderthin wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    Schazey45 wrote: »
    I just recently read somewhere that psyllium husk helps reduce cholesterol. Try that .

    No, don't just do thinks that someone random on the internet read randomly somewhere. I read recently that eating tinned dog food is super healthy. Would you eat it?

    Can you be more specific, which brand and can you list the ingredients and does it have psyllium husk in it, don't want that. :D Cheers

    Uh.. good one. No idea. Just dog food. But I also read that you'll become a millionaire if you transfer $1000 to me right now. So I totally suggest you do that.

    Sure, no problem. Give me all your banking information and I'll do that. :p
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,189 Member
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    Schazey45 wrote: »
    I just recently read somewhere that psyllium husk helps reduce cholesterol. Try that .

    Generally, adequate soluble fiber seems to be a contributor to lowering LDL, and psyllium husk is high in soluble fiber. (I've seen estimates from 30% to around 85% soluble fiber in psyllium/psyllium husk.)

    But lots of whole foods have meaningful amounts of soluble fiber (beans, oatmeal, lots of veggies and fruits, etc.) plus lots of nice micronutrients, insoluble fiber, in some cases meaningful levels of protein or fats (though the protein is often EAA incomplete in those foods).

    I think psyllium is touted a lot lately because there are certain kinda-trendy diets that limit ability to get fiber from food. (Calm down, people on those diets: I didn't say it was impossible.)

    I'd encourage anyone who's increasing fiber intake to do it gradually, no matter the source. It can be a little easier to inadvertently consume a lot with a supplement vs. in foods.
  • xrj22
    xrj22 Posts: 197 Member
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    Low fat, especially saturated fat. High fiber. If overweight, lose weight. There is some evidence that alcohol. sugars and high-glycemic foods can also contribute to high cholesterol. I went from a slightly unhealth diet to whole foods, vegan, low-ish carbs, and added 3 40min exercise sessions per week. I lost 35 lbs (going from moderately overweight to middle of "normal"), and lowered total cholesterol from 246 to 160 in 6 months.

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