How did you lower your cholesterol?

[Mrs. Ciz]

I just had blood work done, and my cholesterol has crept up over the healthy limit. The doctor has given me 8 weeks to bring it back down on my own. I'm going to make a point of exercising on my nordic track ski machine every day. I also need to change my diet a bit. What worked for you? I'd love to hear some success stories!!!

 

[pryncess527]

Increasing my fiber intake. 25g a day is the recommended amount for women, and my doctor suggested I aim for 30. That was a pretty significant increase for me, so it took my digestive system some time to adjust, but it did and helped my numbers go down, along with exercise.

 

[Bilberry]

I no longer believe in the cholesterol theory of heart disease. I stopped testing my cholesterol levels.

When I did believe in the theory, I found limiting sugar/ carbs effective at lowering my cholesterol levels.

I've been posting a number of health article of late, unintentionally. Not to over do it, but a heart disease web sight I enjoy learning from is Dr. Kendrick's. He covers a wide range of topics largely concerning heart disease. Of late he has been writing a series of articles on his ideas on the causes of cardiac events. If interested the sight can be seen here:

https://drmalcolmkendrick.org

 

[Monykalyn]

Yeah cholesterol-as an overall number- is NOT a good indicator of heart disease risk. Mine is just over 200 (210) but my triglycerides are low (<100) and my HDL is 75. ratios are better. The drug pushers push that statin HARD to keep making money off it since it's been around so long. Guess what the top prescribed drug in America is? Statin. guess which death rates haven't changed in 20 years? death from heart disease.

Cut processed food (ALL fast food, nothing/very minimal to come from a box or can or bag regardless of how it is marketed-vegan gluten free no fat cookies STILL aren't a health food LOL), eat more vegetables (non starchy are best to load up on-cut or keep to a minimum corn, potatoes) of all kinds , fresh fruit-do high antioxidant-berries, red grapes, mangoes. Lean meats, use regular dairy few times per week (the low fat junk is loaded with chemicals and actually I just did a research paper on the protective effect of regular whole fat daily on diabetes, while it had zero effect or little protective effect on heart disease), keep starchy carbs to small servings 4-5 times daily-go for whole grain when available.

and the exercise will make a big difference too-
Keep in mind to ask the doc what the breakdown of the numbers are-overall total cholesterol number may not change too much but the ratio of the HDL/Triglycerides probably will.

Good luck!!
PS I am an RD and doctors rarely if EVER mention actual good sound nutrition advice-most of it is political stuff that actually has no science backing (low fat, high carb).

 

[Mizzoufan]

Exercise, cut out red meat.

 

[LilyWDW]

Exercise and lose weight. The cholesterol in foods has little to no impact on your blood serum levels.

 

[roseaster]

Fish oil. 1000-1200 mg 2-3x a day.
Increase your fiber intake. Lean proteins, foods high in omega 3 fatty acids.
Watch saturated fats, try switching to healthier fats such as olive oil, avocado.
Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.
Exercise.

Check out the Mediterranean Diet.

Also, understand that for some people cholesterol clearance is genetic and statins may be a necessity, but if your diet isn't the healthiest, try changing that 1st.

 

[PopSugar]

I take a statin
I have high blood pressure...it dropped my number from 230 to 160

 

[aprilchem]

Nothing really helps my DH. His cholesterol is very high - he's normal weight, exercises 2+ hours a day, doesn't eat red meat, and does pretty much everything physicians recommend to lower cholesterol. He even tried being a vegetarian and his numbers went up.

But, he has no clogged arteries whatsoever - he goes in for a full body scan every 2 years, and his arteries show 100% clear. So he's chosen to forego the statins because of the tenuous relationship between cholesterol and heart disease.

 

[WDWBarb]

I dropped mine by quite a lot (220 to 170) with a plant based diet. Exercise will help increase your "good" cholesterol.

 

[tvguy]

My Doctor put me on a statin. It only lowered my good cholesterol, and caused a spike in my blood sugar.
He took me off, and I eat oatmeal for breakfast 5 days a week. That got my bad cholesterol down without impacting the good cholesterol.

 

[Monykalyn]

Nothing really helps my DH. His cholesterol is very high - he's normal weight, exercises 2+ hours a day, doesn't eat red meat, and does pretty much everything physicians recommend to lower cholesterol. He even tried being a vegetarian and his numbers went up.

But, he has no clogged arteries whatsoever - he goes in for a full body scan every 2 years, and his arteries show 100% clear. So he's chosen to forego the statins because of the tenuous relationship between cholesterol and heart disease.

And statins can deplete CoQ10-which is necessary for healthy muscle function. and the heart is a pretty important muscle.

Watch saturated fats

Saturated fats are 1-not all created equal
and 2-have little to do with heart disease: red meat-grass finished and lean (grass finished beef, venison) actually have heart protective saturated fats. As does milk from animals allowed to graze naturally. Physicians also don't emphasize enough to patients to STOP smoking! (#1 thing to do to improve health!!) and they really have no idea about how to tell their patients to eat better-sugar/processed foods are FAR worse than your health than a steak.

Been in nutrition 20 years with ongoing research. Political junkies appointed to make "health" recommendations are bought and paid for - I don't care HOW many "letters" they have behind their name

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I just had blood work done, and my cholesterol has crept up over the healthy limit. The doctor has given me 8 weeks to bring it back down on my own. I'm going to make a point of exercising on my nordic track ski machine every day. I also need to change my diet a bit. What worked for you? I'd love to hear some success stories!!!

I lowered mine by paying attention to my doctor rather than those that play one on the Dis.

 

[yeahdisney]

I'll play. Mine was 270. I ate a lot of yellow cheese, nachos every day when I was younger, free at work. So breakfast became skim milk and Cheerios for one and a half years. Then yogurt with granola prob for 2 years.

Switched to skim milk. I normally do not eat cheese now if I do eat cheese it is a white cheese. I am not a big meat eater. And I switched to olive oil to cook. Number went to, drum roll 159. Two years later I think I am at 169 but I have been eating toast with butter for breakfast for over one year.

 

[Dancind]

MonyKalyn, it's so nice to see a nutritionist that is not still spouting the low fat, whole grain line.

Mrs. Ciz, listen to her. She's right AND she's a pro. Sugar and simple carbs put you at risk for heart disease, not cholesterol.

Whatever you do, don't go on statins. There are so many studies that for women especially, they do a great deal more harm than good. I have a dear friend that is on them, she's really thin and was just diagnosed with diabetes because of it.

Your BRAIN needs cholesterol from good fats! Eat your pastured egg yolks!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My Doctor put me on a statin. It only lowered my good cholesterol, and caused a spike in my blood sugar.
He took me off, and I eat oatmeal for breakfast 5 days a week. That got my bad cholesterol down without impacting the good cholesterol.

What kind of oatmeal do you use?

 

[tvguy]

What kind of oatmeal do you use?

Great Value quick oats.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

A vegan whole-foods diet.

 

[ronandannette]

MonyKalyn, it's so nice to see a nutritionist that is not still spouting the low fat, whole grain line.

Mrs. Ciz, listen to her. She's right AND she's a pro. Sugar and simple carbs put you at risk for heart disease, not cholesterol.

Whatever you do, don't go on statins. There are so many studies that for women especially, they do a great deal more harm than good. I have a dear friend that is on them, she's really thin and was just diagnosed with diabetes because of it.

Your BRAIN needs cholesterol from good fats! Eat your pastured egg yolks!

I'm currently on Crestor because my Dr. flipped his wig at my last set of cholesterol numbers. I don't remember what they were exactly but he said the "bad" number was so high that the "good" number couldn't even be measured. My blood pressure is perfect and my blood sugar is fine. I resisted complying with the Crestor scrip for a year or more until the doc basically threatened to drop me from his practise** if I didn't take it.

I've got 20lbs to lose which I'm currently working on with a low-carb diet. If that succeeds and it drops the numbers even slightly, I'm tossing the medicine. I simply can't stand the idea of taking a pill every day from now to eternity.

**Before anyone suggests dumping the Dr., lack of family physicians is a serious issue in many regions of Canada. I went for 4 years without one and I'm not anxious to go back to relying walk-in clinics and google as my primary source of health care.

 

[porschegrl]

A vegan whole-foods diet.

Me, too. My change in diet helped me achieve a fairly significant weight loss as well, so I can't say whether it was the plant-based diet or simply dropping some weight, which improved my cholesterol numbers. But in any case, it was a winning combination for me.