Cholesterol 6.36

CaraMay

Any advice on how to get my levels down. Am after getting a real fright. I have been pretty lazy about my diet but am very ready to buck up my act. Where do I start? Any websites people can refer me to or even reading materials? Should I visit a dietician?

WanabeOlympian

A year and half ago, I was around the same level.

I started off gym and kept at it. Now I go 3-4 times a week, run 6-7km each time and do some weights/mat work. But i think the cardio is most important. When i first started I was very unfit and took a couple of months.

Diet wise, I eat fish 4-5 times a week, fresh fish, not frozen processed stuff (salmon, cod, sole, trout, sea bass). 2-3 times a week I eat chicken/beef/ pork etc.. So diet is mainly fish. Lot's of vegetables too with it.

In morning I eat porridge (oats are great for lowering cholesterol).

I very rarely eat food that isn't fresh (processed foods have no nutrition worth speaking of and very bad cholesterol wise).

Hardly ever get take aways and don't drink much. That said, I'm not obsessed and do sometimes.

Stay away from sweets, deserts, chocolate as much as you can. But once a week or so isn't going to kill you.

I drink the plant sterol milk (the one with the green label on it).

Stress is also a major factor. I started mindfulness meditation (doctors in US are actually trained in mindfulness now for stress). Jon Kabat Zinn/ body scan is a great start. Think you can get it on grooveshark . com and listen to it online for free, see if u like it.

B-complex vitamins are great for stress and omegas 3-6-9. I use New Chapter vitamins which are non-synthetic and better for the body.

Result: after 6 months, my cholesterol was a bit lower but still high. After 1 year of doing this, my cholesterol is very low and back to healthy reading.

To summarize:

-only eat fresh food/ no processed food
-cut down on meat/ mainly fish
-exercise/exercise/ exercise
-don't be too strict, now and again, you can eat 'bad' stuff
-deal with any stress (meditation) or whatever works for you
-take omega supplement

That's what I do and it works for me.

If you find it hard to get motivated for exercise, go to gym when it's quiet and you have time to get used to the equipment. Also, i love exercising now soley for the rush you get or endorphin rush after a long run. I also feel 100% better after a good run. But see what works for you, cycling, walking, kettlebells... it's all a personal choice. Once heart gets pumping like mad and you are sweating a lot, then you know you're doing something right.

adox

Diet can have a big bearing on it but it isnt the same for everyone.

I had a reading of 6.2 a couple of months ago. I altered my diet to eat as much fresh food as I could, counted calories and nutritional values of food and cut out as much sugar as I could.

Eating porridge every morning with blueberries mixed seeds and wheat germ. I also cut down on the amount of bread I eat, dramatically lowered my portions of pasta and rice and only eat wholemeal pasta and brown rice now.

Got my cholesterol re-tested after 2 months and it had dropped to 5.5. Triglycerides had dropped from 3.8 to 1.9.

Snacks are fruit, raw almonds and dark chocolate with high cocoa content.

I found myfitnesspal a great help in understanding the nutrtional value of the food i was eating and also the calorie content.

Ive done little or no extra exercise in that time.

danlen

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor and am not giving you specific advice for how to approach test results.

A total cholesterol reading is largely irrelevant as an indication of imminent disease risk. Striving to only reduce a total cholesterol value in order for a blood panel to look better is totally missing the point to be honest.

One blood test is a snapshot in time. Unless, lipid panel numbers are constantly rising over time, there is little reason to get overly stressed.

The whole cholesterol thing is too big to get into, especially on an internet forum.

One place you may find good info, for self-education purposes only, would be to look at stuff by someone like Chris Kresser. His stuff is backed by actual real science.

CaraMay

Its not the first test. The previous one over 9 months ago was 6.2 but they thought that was pregnancy related

danlen

So... over a 9-month period your TC has gone from 6.2 to 6.3?

Looks stable to me.

There is so much scaremongering surrounding cholesterol it's probably easy to stress out when a doctor tells you that you need to drop your cholesterol number straight away.

Just be aware that it is far from 'reduced TC = improved health'.

hardCopy

danlen wrote: »

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor and am not giving you specific advice for how to approach test results.

A total cholesterol reading is largely irrelevant as an indication of imminent disease risk. Striving to only reduce a total cholesterol value in order for a blood panel to look better is totally missing the point to be honest.

One blood test is a snapshot in time. Unless, lipid panel numbers are constantly rising over time, there is little reason to get overly stressed.

The whole cholesterol thing is too big to get into, especially on an internet forum.

One place you may find good info, for self-education purposes only, would be to look at stuff by someone like Chris Kresser. His stuff is backed by actual real science.

Chris Kesser wrote:

My name is Chris Kresser, and I’m a licensed acupuncturist and practitioner of integrative medicine.

Right

danlen

And that necessitates not listening to his point of view?

His understanding of of the underlying biochemistry seems pretty spot on to me. Just read through it.

Although perhaps I am jumping the gun and you have already read his stuff, found flaws in his presentation of the science, and have an educated response ready for me as to why what he has to say on cholesterol is not worth listening to?

hardCopy

danlen wrote: »

And that necessitates not listening to his point of view?

His understanding of of the underlying biochemistry seems pretty spot on to me. Just read through it.

Although perhaps I am jumping the gun and you have already read his stuff, found flaws in his presentation of the science, and have an educated response ready for me as to why what he has to say on cholesterol is not worth listening to?

No, pretty much stopped at the first line.

CaraMay

Danlen and hardcopy would appreciate if you could take your debate elsewhere. I really appreciate the feedback received in the first couple of posts from adox and wanabe.

Oryx

Stick to the topic. Arguments about acupuncture practitioners belong elsewhere.

dragonkin

Do a search for Cholesterol myth on amazon, I've read Anthony Colpo's Great Cholesterol Con which is very good but there might be other more recent books. Also have a look at this webpage.