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Lowering my Cholesterol.?
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Default Lowering my Cholesterol.? - 03-27-2010, 09:54 PM

I had routine blood work done when I went to get my physical in June, here are my results.

Triglycerides: 105 (supposed to be less than 200)
Blood Sugar: 87 (Supposed to be between 70-110)
HDL (good cholesterol) 58 (supposed to be greater than 34)
LDL( BAD cholesterol) 144 (supposed to be less than 130)

Total Cholesterol 223 (supposed to be less than 200)

That being said, I'm in over-all excellent health except my cholesterol, I just started a running regimen, and would like to know if running and good diet reduce my cholesterol by next June when I get retested. Any suggestions for diet are also welcome.
I don't have hypertension, or heart disease, also I am not diabetic, I take no medications except birth control. I'm about 30 pounds overweight with a height of 5 foot 2 inches tall.
Also I'm a nonsmoker, I'm 20 years old, and I don't drink alcohol.
   
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Default 03-29-2010, 09:54 PM

ONE WORD cheerios Lil yeah cheerios are good MFAAI
   
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Default 04-01-2010, 09:54 PM

Your lab results are impressive, and you may be in better condition medically than you thought. I am a military veteran, and my total blood and urine are tested twice a year. I also choose to have some ingredients in my blood measured at a private lab that the VA does not measure. My VA physician praises me for my efforts to lower my Cholesterol when so many Vets are diabetic and highly overweight. I am told each time my blood is analyzed that Total Cholesterol is less important than LDL, HDL, Triglycerides. I do take Zocor stat in drug which reduces my Total Cholesterol to 145 mg/Dal. You are in good shape!

Harrald
   
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Default 04-03-2010, 09:54 PM

Hi Dentist Lady,

Let me just say THANK YOU for this question I hope many will read and learn from it.

First and foremost total cholesterol is USELESS due to the fact that that it does not take into account what the ratio of HDL and LDL are nor the ratio of HDL to Total Cholesterol. Another interesting fact that is always ignored is Lp(a) (Lipiprotein a). Lp(a) is similar in structure to 2 substances namely planking and tap (Tissue Plasminogen Activator) reducing fibrosississs clot destruction). Also because Lp(a) stimulates secretion of PAI-1 it leads to thrombogenesis (new clot formation). In addition, because of LDL cholesterol content, Lp(a) also contributes to atherosclerosis. What saddens me is that the role of the inflammatory response has not been properly studied until recently, however it has been known to be a powerful aspect of cardiovascular disease for decades. High sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP) is a better predictor of heart attack then cholesterol. Scientific studies have found that the higher the hs-CRP levels the higher the risk of having a heart attack. In fact, the risk for heart attack in people in the upper third of hs-CRP levels has been determined to be twice that of those whose hs-CRP level is in the lower third. The value should be less then 1mg/dL.

What is interesting is that the best predictor for women, according to one study, was the ratio of cholesterol to HDL. If a woman's total cholesterol is about 4 times or so her HDL level, her risk of heart disease increases dramatically up to 5x that of her normal counterpart. If her triglycerides are high, her risk goes up even further regardless of her total cholesterol levels.

So what kind of numbers should you be looking for?

Total Cholesterol/HDL Ratio: Should definitely be less then 3.5 (according to most studies) and preferably closer to 3. The lower the number the better.

Your Value: 3.8

You would like to lower that even further if possible, especially if you have risk factors such as smoking, hypertension AKA high blood pressure, early CAD - AKA Coronary Artery Disease in first degree relatives. If you are diabetic we consider this an automatic CAD risk equivalent.

LDL/HDL Ratio: This informs you of the ratio between bad and good. There is still no consensus on what this number should be.

Regardless of the ratios a patient must still have LESS then 100mg/dL of LDL (130 is a fairly old number).

Thus to finally answer your question a good way to increase HDL and further lower LDL is to take a minimum of 1g of Niacin (yes vitamin B3, nicotinic acid). The 1g can be slowly increased from a very low dose and titrated up to 1g. It can also be done in separate doses and thus decrease the side effects. This works by decreasing fatty acid release from adipose (fat) tissue and lowers hepatic synthesis of LDL. The problem with this is that many patients report flushing (which can be prevented in many cases with a simple aspirin), GI upset and intense itching. All of these symptoms seem to diminish with use. Of course there are also many medications out there however one should try to first improve cholesterol levels if possible without medication. However various studies have found that the use of statin medications (Atorvastating AKA Lipitor) has been shown to improve mortality risks.

Another interesting note is that in general we synthesize (make) 70% of our cholesterol and thus on average the other 30% is from what we ingest (eat). If we decrease our ingestion of high cholesterol foods, our body compensates and will increase synthesis up to 90%. What this means is that your body wants a certain amount of cholesterol and it will synthesize it to make up for the loss in the cholesterol we eat. Cholesterol itself is produced by using a precursor called Acetyl CoA (HMG CoA reductase is a substance that is required to make cholesterol and it is the target of the statin medications). To make things simple, we primarily synthesize cholesterol from fat and thus it is fat that must be avoided if one wishes to lower cholesterol levels.

Well I hope this helps you out, take care of yourself and good luck.

Sincerely,

Dan MD
   
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Default 04-19-2013, 11:04 AM

HI Angiegoog,
I was also suffering from similar high Cholesterol, specially LDL was much higher then required following steps helped me in lowering LDL

1.Switching to low fat oils like sunflower oil
2.Regular 1 hrs Yoga and Exercise
3.Low Cholesterol med Crestor was prescribed by my Doctor
Hope this helps you to recover fast.
   
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Default 04-20-2013, 11:27 PM

Before my operation my doctor would advice me to take metmorfin at least once a day. Now that my operation is over she gave me a fish oil tablet because according to her its good to balance my cholesterol. So far I'm doing okay.
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