Go F yourself cholesterol

[Stanathan]

So the doctor calls me a couple of days after I get blood work done and tells me that although I am only in my mid-thirties, I am at very high risk of heart attack and stroke.

Typically when I imagine a doctor giving me some bad news, it sounds like this, "listen sir, if you don't change your diet and start to exercise, you'll be at high risk of a heart attack or stroke in your late forties or early fifties". He didn't give me that good news, he said it's happening right now. Then he asked if there is any history of heart disease in the family or high cholesterol and I answered yes and he was troubled by that saying the two together are a recipe for early death.

Not one to bury my head in the sand, I start looking up information, diets, and meal plans. I spent enough time researching that I feel like I should have this all covered but instead I feel a little overwhelmed at the amount of contradictory information available that comes from legitimate sources. If I made a chart of the food I am supposed to eat and not supposed to eat based on all of the different sources, it would show every single food on both sides of the chart, it's ridiculous.

Now I understand the good and bad cholesterol types and really all I wanted was a weekly meal planner that tells me exactly what to eat for each meal and snack everyday. All I was able to find were a bunch of recipes and conflicting information.

Seriously, I don't care about all of the information, at this point I just want to type in my height, weight, and age and have something build me a meal plan that I can follow because there doesn't seem to be any consensus on anything. For anyone who knows how to build an app or website, there is probably lucrative business idea here as I am guessing most people in my situation just want an answer and immediate help without spending weeks sifting through contradictory information. Give me some kudos if you make it big.

Does anyone have any experience with this issue and found a solid meal plan that works and is easy to follow with foods and products that don't need to be flown in from the far corners of the planet?

Thanks in advance and my apologies if it seems I am not willing to help myself. I very much am willing to put in the effort, I just need a trusted source that has been there and can help me cut through the BS.

[Nehkara]

Perhaps ask your doctor for a referral to a Registered Dietitian?

Take care man.

[JiriHrdina]

Yeah I was delivered this news about 2 years ago. I made some pretty substantial changes to my diet at that time. In terms of foods you can eat to help lower your number:
- Almonds
- Orange Juice with plant sterols (easy to find)
- Yogurt with plant sterols (used to be easy to find - can't find them now)
- Cereal with whole grains

Exercise can also help of course

Now all that being said, I did all that and more, lost about 15 pounds and when I had my bloodwork done - my number hadn't changed AT ALL.

At that point my doctor said that most likely I was dealing with genetics - and that while I should continue the dietary steps - he also prescribed Crestor.

It has got my number to normal levels with no side effects.

Make some changes, but if it isn't working - as you doctor about Crestor (that sounds like an ad). The name drug is expensive but you have two choices there if you don't have enough coverage
- Ask your doc for a card that you give the pharmacist but basically gives you Crestor at the generic drug price
- Just get the generic drug - there is no difference.

Most important - keep calm - it sucks to hear news like this but it is completely manageable and probably gives you a necessary kick in the rump.

[Wastedyouth]

Excercise.

Don't eat like a piglet.

Your cholesterol will balance out just fine.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Excercise.

Don't eat like a piglet.

Your cholesterol will balance out just fine.

Oversimplification and poorly informed response

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Oversimplification and poorly informed response

Just passing along, verbatim, what my cousin who is a doctor, said to me.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Just passing along, verbatim, what my cousin who is a doctor, said to me.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Just passing along, verbatim, what my cousin who is a doctor, said to me.

And how did your cousin get a copy of Stanathan's medical records to provide such a complete diagnosis?

[skudr248]

You don't need a dietician, that is first and foremost, and you don't need a trainer. You don't need some kind of miracle drug, your cholesterol is high for a reason, and it's 99.99% because of your diet and lifestyle currently. Have someone support you through it - for example your wife/spouse whatever, if they do it with you it'll be ten times easier and make sure they buy in. I helped my dad through his cholesterol problem but it was my mom that always cooked him meals that made it ####ing ten times harder because that's the only way she knew how to cook and it was causing them problems.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Oversimplification and poorly informed Truculent response

Fixed.

If you're unsure of how to eat properly, a dietician is a good move (and I mean 'Registered Dietician', not 'nutritionist', that's a made-up word).

[Wastedyouth]

I will extrapolate on my response.

The issue with taking drugs for high cholesterol is, it doesn't fix the underlying issue. Which is you either don't get enough exercise, or your diet is so poor, whatever exercise you are doing can't compensate for it.

High cholesterol isn't a short term fix. You need to affect changes to your diet and activity for 6-12 months to see appreciable changes.

I apologize if my response was initially too abrupt.

I had similar news last year and like i said, my cousin said those exact words to me.

[psicodude]

Originally Posted by skudr248

You don't need a dietician, that is first and foremost, and you don't need a trainer. You don't need some kind of miracle drug, your cholesterol is high for a reason, and it's 99.99% because of your diet and lifestyle currently.

So the problem is 99.99% diet, but your advice is to stay away from the dietician?

I don't know enough about this issue to give an educated response, but I do know it's nothing to screw around with. Go speak to some professionals (doctors and dieticians) and ignore what the internet says.

[Wastedyouth]

I also don't believe you need a dietician.

I believe simply staying away from traditionally high cholesterol foods and increasing your activity levels an appreciable amount should be able to help you.

It's gonna be a grind though, but if you are only in your mid thirties, you should be able to pull yourself away from the edge.

It's a battle, but if you approach it in a positive way, it shouldn't be life altering (Unless playing sports, biking, hiking, etc are deplorable to you. Or eating poorly is your favourite thing in the world (note: it was for me)).

[Street Pharmacist]

The effect of diet on cholesterol is certainly not a slam dunk:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1954418

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newswe...holesterol.htm

It's much more complex than poor diet/exercise. The relationship between cholesterol and CVD risk has been evolving for some time now, but genetics are hugely important. Familial hypercholesteremia (Genetic high cholesterol) is a major cause of high cholesterol in young people, and increasingly being pointed to when studying early CVD deaths. Diet doesn't change this.

Your body (liver) makes most of the cholesterol you get in a day, even if you eat a lot of fat. Quite often this is the culprit. "Statins" like Crestor and Lipitor lower bad cholesterol by interrupting that process.

People that believe that every person is a healthy diet and good exercise regime away from perfect health are flat out wrong. Bad diet and sedative lifestyle are a good prescription for poor health and an early death, but we aren't all born with genetics to live long. That's where medicine comes in.

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

The effect of diet on cholesterol is certainly not a slam dunk:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1954418

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newswe...holesterol.htm

Eh? From the Harvard article you cited:

The fact that Americans have higher blood cholesterol levels than citizens of the Far East or Africa could be due to differences in genetic factors, but most evidence suggests that our higher cholesterol levels are largely a product of our high-fat, high-cholesterol diet.

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First thing I want to say - medical school is 4 years followed by 3 to 7 years of residency training and in all those years of learning to be a doctor they are required to take ONE course in nutrition. One. Registered dieticians on the other hand have MOST of their courses dealing with nutrition.
On doctors being ill-prepared to council on nutrition:
http://www.weightymatters.ca/2013/04...ols-teach.html

So, with that information you may be tempted to go see an RD. Only one small problem with that. When they go to school the RDs learn all the ins and outs of.... CANADA'S FOOD GUIDE. Which is a horrible, horrible document put together by industry lobbyists.
On the food guide being a terribly flawed document:
http://www.weightymatters.ca/2006/11...hy-eating.html

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I was told to see an R.D. by my doctor. I sat down with the person and showed her my meal plan. She just shook her head and said it was all wrong and proceeded to hand me her meal plan she wanted me to follow based on the food guide. I told her that I had serious doubts about the information she was giving me and her response was: "This is the information I am trained to give you based on the best knowledge Health Canada has at this time. I get paid to give you this information. It is up to you if you want to follow it or not." From that point on I let her talk while I thought about the best ways to re-index the key tables in my schema to improve performance of my data processing application.

-------------------------------
I currently am on a leave of absence from work so that I can work on some side projects that I have been DYING to get to, but just never had the time. One of those projects is to start a podcast called "Healthy Skeptics" where we delve into all the information, misinformation and DISINFORMATION about diet and health. The idea was bore out of my TOTAL frustration with the glut of information, most of it contradictory, on diet. My PRIME targets are going to be doctors like Dr. Oz who are making a living spreading bad information. Oh, and spoiler alert - Thor has agreed to be our first guest on the show.

So WHAT is someone supposed to do in this environment to improve their diet?!? Don't ask me. Seriously. People come to me and ask me to design them a meal plan. I have found a diet that WORKS FOR ME doesn't mean it will work for you. That is the CORE of my belief and the general message I want to convey in the show. As Buddha says, you have to find your OWN path to nirvana. Currently my doctor says that my cholesterol is "equivalent to what you would find in a 12 year old". So what I am doing is working FOR ME. But I won't give you my meal plan because it probably won't work for you.

This link below isn't horrible. And by not horrible means that I have serious reservations about only 20% of the article:
http://www.wikihow.com/Raise-Good-Ch...ad-Cholesterol
Part 1: Lose weight and exercise
Part 2: Lower your LDL

I would recommend trying to lower your LDL by diet first as some people have very bad side effects from Crestor. Some have no side effects at all, but I'd at least TRY to avoid it IF YOU CAN. If you can't, then you should take it as the benefits outweigh the side effects. Crestor side effects:
http://www.crestor.com/c/about-crest...e-effects.aspx

I was going to recommend this until I see it recommending "tub margarine". Oi. There is a HUGE debate over margarine vs butter. I don't use either. But at least this is a starting point to look at improvements and you can be your own judge:
http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-man...gh-cholesterol

My uncle asked for help with his cholesterol and I gave him the same advice that I give to people who come to me asking for help losing weight. Write down what you are CURRENTLY eating during the week. After a week, look at what you have written down and see where you see problem areas... in your case, foods well known for causing higher LDL. Ask yourself how you could reduce or replace that food. For example, after my first week I looked at one of my meals: burger and deep-fried french fries and a milkshake - on week two I ditched the fries and replaced them with steamed veggies. I continued these small changes making one change to my meal plan ever week or so. So months later I came back to this meal and replaced the milkshake with small chocolate milk. Which later became milk. Which later became almond milk. I have been refining and fine tuning my eating for FIVE YEARS and am still tweaking it. For me, it was very much a DO-IT-YOURSELF project because I simply have NO FAITH WHATSOEVER in the medical community to provide nutrition answers. Well, except for Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, (who I REALLY hope to have as a guest someday) who preaches pretty much the same mantra in that you have to find a diet that WORKS FOR YOU. I am skeptical of just about every bit of nutritional advice I see because in two seconds I can usually find a study contradicting that advice. It is an absolute minefield.

I did mention that Dr. Freedhoff is a refreshing voice of reason when it comes to diet and nutrition. If you go to his web site (weightymatters.ca) and search for cholesterol, you will get his honest and well researched opinion on issues. Such as whether eggs are bad for you:
http://www.weightymatters.ca/2010/11...ble-downs.html

Good luck. As someone who has been where you are, struggling with the HORRIBLE glut of information out there and trying to distinguish the wheat from the chaff, I know it is frustrating. Which is why I felt the need to start the podcast.

(BTW - following Thor, on episode 2 I am bringing on my friend Brenda who lost over 100 pounds on her OWN self designed diet and is now a personal trainer.. but the interesting part I want to talk about is the thousands and thousands of dollars she wasted going to the Dr. Berstein clinics.)

[DoubleF]

I agree it's not as easy as just purely diet. I've know people who eat like pigs and have perfectly "average" cholesterol levels. I've known individuals who eat healthier than most with cholesterol at high levels.

I don't know much... I've been trying to munch more whole grains and almonds to hopefully reduce cholesterol levels and reducing greasy foods. My blood work said I'm average but slightly on the higher side so I've been hoping to do something preemptive about this. Interested to see the responses and hints of what I can do to slow the process.

[Devils'Advocate]

BTW - when I say a diet "won't work for you", that is meant in a multitude of ways.

First, we all have biological differences. My reaction to dairy could be very different than your reaction to dairy. You may have allergies/sensitivities that I don't have.

Second, cultural or lifestyle influences impact which foods you will and will not eat. For example, I am vegetarian for ethical and environmental concerns. Others have religious reasons for avoiding some foods. Others have cultural biases towards certain foods based on traditional cooking of their upbringing. (ie liking curry, being able to handle spicy foods)

Third, we all have different tastes. I *LOVE* radishes. My family think I'm part Fraggle. Did you know that even the doozer buildings are made from radish extract? Ah, what I would do for a nice plate of doozer building.... Anyhow, lots of others I know hate radishes. I think they are crazy. But we each have our own list of likes and dislikes when it comes to food.

If I walk into a new gym and meet with a trainer and he hands me a suggest meal plan, I immediately crumple it up and toss it in the recycling bin. These people think their "one size fits all" meal plans are the end-all be-all to proper nutrition and they DO NOT WORK FOR MOST PEOPLE. You need to find what works for your biology, your lifestyle and your tastes.

[DoubleF]

Any idea on foods that help to reduce?

I've been going on cheerios/psyllium fibre, oatmeal and almonds.

Heard some random report on black coffee and red wine helping (not sure if this is BS)
Heard some random report on egg whites helping (not sure if this is BS)
Other questionable foods include avocados, other nuts, certain rices and cinnamon

Biggest problem I find is that sometimes I would hear something helps (ie: Dark chocolate) then my doctor or nurse friend would say, "New article and research says it's bunk." then another would say "New article that said research said it's bunk is bunk". Research online sometimes yields stuff like, "Reduced by XX percent, but more testing is needed to support" so I haven't really done much in a while now.

I'm not at the stage where I need supplements to reduce cholesterol, I just want to include more cholesterol reducing foods in my overall diet. If reducing cholesterol was an easy as making an avocado, oatmeal, dark choco, cinnamon covered nut bar and eating it daily, I'd be a rich man. Any idea of foods to include with the potential towards healthy cholesterol would be helpful.

Apparently lack of vitamin D and lack of sleep affect it too, but... again, information overload.

[Devils'Advocate]

I'd trust the Mayo clinic as their work is based on what has been proven by multiple studies. Pick up a "Prevention" magazine at the supermarket and they will have an article saying "Study shows eating shoe leather reduces bad cholesterol".... but one study isn't near enough to convince me. But magazines are happy to report on one random study because new, fresh ideas - whether valid or not - sell magazines.

So the mayo clinic's list of foods to add to your diet to improve cholesterol levels:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-c...l/art-20045192

[Tinordi]

I have high cholesterol.

It sounds like you are like me with a genetic disposition to produce cholesterol.

Diet can help shave a percentage of your levels but really your liver is just producing it.

With that understood, you have two courses of action to pursue in tandem. Exercise with regularity and intensity and take statins.

Accept your fate.