Cholesterol and all that mess!

[FarmerChick]

Tony called me from work....couple days ago he asked the Dr. to run his bloodwork to include chol., triglycerides, HDL and LDL and all that mess.

WOW ---his numbers are bad. His tri #s are definitely bad along with total chol. of 278. Hmm....I will be googling a low chol. diet and see what I can do to fix this.

I know these are heart attack numbers. All his are way on top of the "what not have" numbers,,,,and his good chol. (I think the HDL one) is LOW........40 being lowest recommended, he was 39.......LOL

So all that bad eating coming back to haunt ya as he gets older.......

Just wondering if anyone else is high on the chol. side and if they do anything to combat these numbers?????


any input would be fab! thanks

 

[me&thegals]

Sorry about that bad news! My cholesterol (I'm only 34) has always been a bit higher than I would like. It really dropped when I did a few things, so it's hard to tell which of them worked or if all them worked.

-Get in omega-3s. I mainly do this with nuts and ground flax, sometimes fish
-Go whole grains. I keep reading about sugar and white, refined grains actually increasing cholesterol and doing damage to the blood vessels
-Cut out all trans fats (lots of packaged foods, unless in the healthfood aisle), lots of fried foods
-Get lots of exercise
-Try to only get animal fat from non grainfed animals--"pastured". For some reason, animal fat from feedlot animals is quite different (and acts differently in our bodies) than pastured animals.

Hope this helps!

 

[MorelCabin]

Most times the reason for high cholestrol is not from eating high cholestrol foods...it usually means that you aren't putting enough fibre in your diet...you need to balance fat with fibre. Psylium husk is the best fibre...Bran Buds cereal has psyllium husk in it. Your local health food store will also have psyllium husk that you can mix with juice or water.
Another thing that works is green split peas...just swallow about 5- 10 of them every day for a while...they will absorb extra cholestrol just like the psyllium husk does. Garlic also helps with lowering chol levels. Most important though...is fibre...oh yes...and add RAW carrots to his diet while you're at it...everyday. carrots are amazing health enhancers!

 

[me&thegals]

Great points, Morelcabin! Soluble fiber (like in oatmeal) is known to pull cholesterol out of the body. A really great book to understand all of this better is You! On a Diet by Dr. Oz (on Oprah all the time). It really brings it down to a regular person's level.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

My biggest recommendation would be to cut back on red meat and things like butter and cream and try to eat more vegetable based meals. That should balance things out better.

Exercise would probably help, but make sure to start SLOW!

 

[keljonma]

Check his family history too, some of that is genetic.

 

[reinbeau]

Avoid high-fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils. The first drives up your blood sugar (never mind the fact that it's in most highly processed foods, which we should be avoiding also), the second drives up your cholesterol.

Hubby tends towards high cholesterol, he takes a product called Cholesta-Lo made by Futurebiotics. It contains Niacin, Cholestatin (which are plant sterols) and herbs that support a healthy circulatory system. He also takes Garlicin. My ex had high cholesterol, and had problems with Lipitor, so he wouldn't take anything, I found this stuff at the health food store and it works well. Both of them saw a 20 to 30 point drop in their numbers, and the HDL (the good one) went up.

I was watching Good Morning America the other day and they had a great segment on lowering cholesterol without medication (I'm sure the pharmaceutical industry is thrilled with this). Here is a link to the audio of the interview, it's well worth it to listen. They talk about nutrition and five foods that can knock 30% off your numbers. Nuts were first, they're really good for you. Then they mentioned soy - tofu, edemames, etc. Then you can take Metamucil or another one of the fiber in the can stuff, which is all made out of plants (psillium, for the most part). Oats, of course, as in oatmeal, and finally, those plant stanol products like Benecol (the butter substitute). Red yeast has statin like properties, that's worth investigating, also.

Meds like Lipitor can cause serious muscle wasting - and it's permanent, so if you take that stuff and you have aches and pains in your legs, especially, tell your doctor immediately and get off that stuff! That's what happened to my ex, his sister had the exact same problem with them, they're allergic to them and many people don't realize what those pains can actually mean.

Better living does not come through pharmaceuticals!

 

[FarmerChick]

wow ya'll thanks so much for the input!
I am analyzing all the posts and putting together a list of what to do to help lower all this mess!

I never had to deal with this...last time I did my bloodwork everything was more than perfect...LOL...so never had to research it at all.

Now with Tony I am on a mission of course...to fix the hubby..HA HA HA

Great info.

Me&thegals mentioned the omega-3. Yup surfing the net they sure said to up those good oils in fish. Good thing Tony likes fish, so about 4 meals per week will be fish for him now....he will like that!!

Morel ---- just swallow 5-10 green split peas. I need help here....LOL...you mean just get a bag of green split peas and have him take some with water like a pill? They will just work in the system as is from the bag????
Very interesting, never heard this....and yes we are currently upping his fiber intake big time!


drakemaiden---you are right but man I am going to have a fight on my hands....he is not a veggie person. UGH--I am, he sure isn't. this is going to be hard in general to get those better foods into him. he is like a monster baby! time for baby to grow up..HA HA


keljonma
yup, it runs in his family...chatted with his ma and his dad has heart trouble, etc....and many on his side have alot of traits passed down. I know this could easily be related in that line. ugh...that is hard to fight..LOL



Reinbeau---you ain't kidding about prescips. I hate them...Tony laughed and said, well guess I will be starting chol. meds, I said, NOPE, not yet. We will take fast steps to start to lower right now without meds and re-check in like 3 mos......but then again I am wondering, if he is not feeling well, and still might have heart related troubles which we are trying to discover, then maybe meds are fastest way to start...then wean off.....in a quandry in a way about that. Do the meds lower FASTER than just changing your eating style and such???? if not, then why bother right, I would start to lower by natural means vs. meds anyday. Hmmm...will have to check that!



thanks everyone...want a wealth of info to get me started on getting him on the right track. I think he has had a wake up call. He isn't feeling well, these number (and I call them heart attack numbers) are maybe the final step for him to wake up and start learning to eat better. I try with the good oils and such but in the end he does get his junkier foods etc. But I am working on making homemade versions of alot of things, well, you know, to cut out the crap in the processed foods. I am going as fast as I can to learn to cook better.HA HA HA

 

[inchworm]

FC,

I have to put in a plug for western medice here. My Dad knew high chol. ran in his family. His entire life, he has been a fitness nut, ate low fat, high fiber, and managed to keep his numbers low enough to avoid meds. We were all shocked (including his doctor) when he had to have an emergency quad. bypass this summer. Granted, he is 76 while his mother had her first heart attack in her 50's. But maybe if he had taken the meds earlier, we could have avoided surgery altogether. Definately start with the lifstyle issues, but don't absolutely rule out meds.

 

[MorelCabin]

Yes FC just pop the split peas like pills, they will help tremendously in increasing your fibre intake and they work to suck the cholestrol out of the body.

You have to be careful when using the word "inherited" Inheritance is often diet related...grew up on certain foods, love them, continue eating them through out life...mama's good cooking...you know...and inherited things are often parasite related. Just as a dog passes worms to her pups, a human mom does as well. Parasites cause all kinds of problems/disease in the body. I am a HUGE advocate of parasite cleansing...it works wonders through the whole body...cleaning all the systems and organs
Just because something is inherited doesn't mean you are stuck with it...trust me on that!