High cholesterol

[Bethanial]

My Mom switched to all olive oil and butter, from the veggie/canola oils and butter - and her numbers went up! Some reason, olive oil affects her that way

My doc has recommended I take Red Yeast Rice, Mega Red Krill Oil (fish oil if can't find that), and incorporate ground flaxseed. Haven't been back to see what the numbers look like yet; it's getting close to time though.

I've been down this road before with triglycerides, and lowered them on my own with no medication by using fish oil, adding ground flaxseed, cutting Cokes from 3-4 a DAY to 3-4 a week, and not doing as much fried foods.

Hoped that was helpful - and to reiterate what somebody else said, everybody and every BODY is different. You've got to find what works for you.

 

[Wifezilla]

Lard is good. Peanut oil, not so much. It is high in omega 6 fatty acids which are inflammatory.

 

[abifae]

But then I've read other non-mainstream articles that say high cholesterol isn't actually linked to heart disease. What do you all think?

I think that quite frankly the research has not yet been done that would sufficiently clarify the issue for it to be more than a matter of more-or-less religious faith (rather than evidence)

JMHO,

Pat

I agree. They haven't done much real research at all. What they've done leads to a big cholesterol has nothing to do with much besides your cholesterol levels but maybe high of *insert type here* cholesterol could possibly think about effecting *insert favorite disease*

LOL

Diets in general have had almost no real research done.

If you think about it... how do you really do a solid study of it? They've well proven everyone lies about what they eat and how much even when trying really hard to be honest. They don't know how foods interact. There are so many variables. Unless you force everyone into a lab for the entire study and dole out the food and control every variation... but most food studies require months to see what happens.

 

[freemotion]

The Framingham Study. The entire town was studied for decades. The ones with the most saturated fats in their diets were the most active, the thinnest, and lived longer with less heart disease.

Of course, anything that proved that the current medical thinking on cholesterol numbers is accurate would reduce the phamaceutical companies' income by BILLIONS per year. You really have to search to find info.

Case in point: My father's cholesterol is considered high by the graphs and charts. He is in his 70's and on no meds of any kind. His doctors marvel at how healthy he is. Nurses call down hallways and other health professionals are brought into exam rooms to gawk at him.

 

[patandchickens]

The Framingham Study. The entire town was studied for decades. The ones with the most saturated fats in their diets were the most active, the thinnest, and lived longer with less heart disease.

Well that's the limitation of it, though, isn't it. High saturated fat consumption was confounded with activity, thinness, etcetera. So it is hard to tell what the real causal factor(s) are, versus what's just coincidentally along for the ride or an indirect side-effect of the real causal factor(s).

Not meaning in any way to diss the Framingham study, b/c it was a huge undertaking and has been extremely well mined for very useful data. It's just that any big correlational study like that is unavoidably going to run up against the limits of not being able to disentangle confounding factors very well.

In principle the appropriate study would be to MAKE people eat different specially-tailored diets while keeping all other factors the same among groups. This is not even remotely possible however, and not worth even thinking about

What's left, aside from doing more studies like Framingham, is to look more mechanistically at what's going on, WITH AN OPEN MIND (which is what seems to have been dreadfully lacking thus far in the vast majority of the field). There is still a real limit to how much it's wise to draw broad lifestyle-type conclusions from leetle mechanistic (physiology, biochemistry) type studies but there seems to be an inordinate amount not known yet. What reductionistic-type science HAS been done in the field -- a fair amount -- suffers badly from being apparently designed to more or less prove a point, rather than to actually find out how bodies WORK. Sigh.

Honestly I think that "what's healthiest to eat" is very likely to remain a matter more of faith and general "worked-for-my-ancestors-so-I'll-bet-on-it-too" than a matter of hard evidence and really well-understood mechanisms. At least for some generations hence. It's just too complicated, and humans make lousy lab rats

JMHO,

Pat

 

[Wifezilla]

Couple of points....

1) You cholesterol number really doesn't mean squat unless particle size is measured. You can have LDL that is big and fluffy and therefore NOT dangerous or LDL that is small and dense that increases your heart attack risk. If your test does not measure the actual size and instead uses calculations to reach the LDL number, you don't really know if you are at risk or not.

2) There have been some studies, but not the double blind placebo controlled definitive ones we would all love. There are signs...BIG ONES...that the whole "fats are dangerous eat more grains" idea was really really really stupid.

3) The funniest thing is many people are demanding that concrete proof before switching BACK to a diet we thrived on for millions of years (when things like polio weren't wiping us out, we had very little cancer, almost no diabetes, heart disease and obesity was rare). Where was the evidence to switch AWAY from an animal/natural fat based diet in the first place? The main study cited as a reason to avoid animal products (Ancel Keys 7 Nation Study) was bad science at best. Complete fraud at worst.

4) If you want to see the history of dietary research and how screwed up it all got (and why) I strongly recommend GOOD CALORIES BAD CALORIES by Gary Taubes. Not exactly light reading, but it will clear up so much.

 

[patandchickens]

There are signs...BIG ONES...that the whole "fats are dangerous eat more grains" idea was really really really stupid.

Despite my general despair over the state of what has/hasn't been convincingly shown in research studies, I would have to agree that there is pretty good evidence for this general statement!

(e.t.a. -- and I would especially agree with the 'was really really really stupid' part, as being precisely the correct and factual phrasing that the situation requires <g>)

What is not so clear, from anything I've seen anyhow, is the position of saturated fats specifically, independant of what they are replacing in one's diet; and the extent to which blood cholesterol is (or isn't) worth worrying about, risk-wise.

Pat

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I don't even want to TOUCH the diet aspect of it. Anything I say would be my own opinion.

But red yeast rice, taken AT BEDTIME, worked well to decrease the numbers of everyone who reported back to us (dozens of clients) with the exception of one (and he insisted on taking a 1/2 dose in the morning and only gave it two months -- which btw is generally long enough to see improvement if you follow directions). There were a few people -- probably about 15% -- who needed to take double the dose to see an effect. The brand we saw the best results with was Nature's Plus EXTENDED release (if they used the regular it usually took double the dose) but a few used other brands. I know some used Solaray. Not every brand may work though -- there can be a lot of variation in quality of herbal supplements and such.

Edited to remove the word "recommended". That was not a "legal" word to use in that state. How quickly we forget, sigh. Instead it was the brand we saw the best results from.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

My Mom switched to all olive oil and butter, from the veggie/canola oils and butter - and her numbers went up! Some reason, olive oil affects her that way

My doc has recommended I take Red Yeast Rice, Mega Red Krill Oil (fish oil if can't find that), and incorporate ground flaxseed. Haven't been back to see what the numbers look like yet; it's getting close to time though.

I've been down this road before with triglycerides, and lowered them on my own with no medication by using fish oil, adding ground flaxseed, cutting Cokes from 3-4 a DAY to 3-4 a week, and not doing as much fried foods.

Hoped that was helpful - and to reiterate what somebody else said, everybody and every BODY is different. You've got to find what works for you.

Betting that the olive oil was not pure. Research sources very carefully.
So many producers are cutting costs, and adding in processed vege oils

 

[freemotion]

It's just too complicated, and humans make lousy lab rats

Here's where I disagree. The biggest problem is the average American's complete disconnect with food of every kind. If everyone homesteaded like our ancestors did, and the city dwellers purchased their foods from farmers who raised it all naturally, the term "lifestyle disease" would not be such a common term in the medical field. Nor would it be a multi-billion dollar business.

It is not too complicated. It is really very simple.