On Dec. 1, 2004 I had emergency quintuple bypass surgery. My cholesterol had been measured during my yearly check-ups and was always in the 180-210 range, high enough that my family physician woul mention it, but low enough that we never did anything about it.
Well - while in the hospital recovering the docs put me on a blood thinner and a Statin drug - Lipitor. It turns out that if your cholesterol is lower than 150 overall (and you have enough 'good' cholesterol) you should never have another problem.
About 30 days after getting out of the hospital I went in for a checkup and had my cholesterol checked - 143 and the bad was 67 - the doc was happy. BUT the Lipitor was causing me to have various aches and pains so I started to do research. Over the next 6 months I made sure to follow the docs advice and did my 2 mile walks 4 times a week, and I changed my diet. I went in for the 6 month check-up and my overall cholestrol was down to 123 and the bad was 63 - and it was at that point that I told the doc I had been cutting my Lipitor pills in half - no pains at that level.
You can have a MAJOR impact on cholesterol with moderate changes in diet - mostly by avoiding things with Trans Fats & eating things that have OMEGA 3 fats in them, partially by lowering the amount of cholesterol you eat and finally by eating more whole grains and beans.
The liver is the big meanie here - it makes most of the bad cholesterol that is in your system - you have to convince it that it doesn't need to work so hard. Statin drugs do that by brute force - which is what causes their side effects. Diet can do it more gently.
There is lots of good information on the web - Flax seed is excellent, whole grains, beans, smaller portions of meat but most of all - STAY AWAY FROM ANYTHING WITH TRANS FATS. Trans fats dramatically raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol.
If the words "Partially Hydrogenated" show up in the list of ingredients just put it back on the shelf. These things are deadly - the country of Denmark has totally banned them because of studies done there (Canada and Great Britain are debating it) that indicate that the equivalent of a single serving of Fast Food French Fries (all the fast food chains use Trans Fats to deep fry with) per day raises the chances of a 45 year old woman having a heart attack by 50%...according to the Danes eating a tablespoon of Trans Fats is 10 times worse for your body than a tablespoon of butter. Trans Fats are in MANY things - peanut butter, snack cookies (any baked goods designed to last a long time on the shelf), etc - now the the good news - lots of food manufacturers are cutting out the Trans Fats, but you really must check the list of ingredients.
