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Christine
Christine Sendmail

What to do about High Cholesterol?

asked almost 2 years ago | Report

I'm a 40 year-old running newbie, and I have recently learned that I have some bad genes: High Cholesterol (thanks, Mom!). I've been exercising more, and trying to alter my diet (high fiber, whole grains, lots of fruits and veggies, etc) to avoid having to take medication. After six months, this hasn't produced great results.

So, some thoughts my doc had include: take fish oil; try the Ornish Diet; red yeast rice supplements. Has anyone had any positive results from these kinds of interventions? I'd appreciate any and all input!

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18 answers

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  • John W.
    John W. Sendmail

    Fish oil is a good supplement to take even if you don't have a cholesterol problem. Cutting out glutens does wonders for your numbers too. Take 3 months of no white bread, pasta, sugar, soda, basically no processed food and you'll see your numbers plummet. My problem is that I have low HDL which increasing exercise did help but was still too low (28) so I'm sentenced to a statin for life.

    answered almost 2 years ago |Report

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  • Janice B.
    Janice B. Sendmail

    You might try chia seeds. http://www.naturalremi-teas.com/lower-cholesterol-naturally.htm

    answered almost 2 years ago |Report

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  • Marsi K.
    Marsi K. Sendmail

    I went gluten free (for other medical issues) then started taking 4 fish oil caps, and a cholesterol supplement from my chiropractor. With that and more exercise, my numbers went down. Especially the triglycerides! I've recently stopped the stuff from the chiro (as it's been difficult for them to get it in for some reason) so am curious as to where my numbers are now. Still taking 4 fish oil and gf.

    Mine is high from heredity as well. Good luck getting your numbers to the right place! :-)

    answered almost 2 years ago |Report

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  • Lazaro R.
    Lazaro R. Sendmail

    I tried it all but genes are genes. I now take 10 mg of a statin and still have to eat right and exercise a ton just to keep my levels around the "safe" mark of 160 to 180. Good luck and report back if the non prescription methods work for you.

    answered almost 2 years ago |Report

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  • Nanette V.
    Nanette V. Sendmail

    You might want to consider Shakeology....its great for a lot of things. It may seem pricey at first, but its everything you need in one glass, so its simple and efficient use of your time and calories. But if thats not in the budget, flax seed oil and fish oil are great for this!

    answered almost 2 years ago |Report

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  • Charlie
    Charlie Sendmail

    try the Mediterranean Diet, ground flax seed increases HDL levels, good quality fish oil and aerobic effort exercise daily if your body can handle it, even walking 45 min in place of running or something more vigorous.

    dont worry, there are many excellent meds available but reserach all of them thoroughly before you and your MD decide which is the best pharmacological intervention.

    answered over 1 year ago |Report

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  • Jason O.
    Jason O. Sendmail

    It will sound counter intuitive at first but I advocate a paleo/primal diet. Many will say there is no way a diet high in fat and protein will reduce your cholesterol but in fact it does. Primarily for the same reason any of the other quality diets will, getting rid of the processed crap most of us eat on a regular basis. Cutting high fructose corn syrup and gluten will do tremendous things for your health. The reason I prefer the paleo/ primal to others is quite simple, I like meat and am rather ambivalent towards veggies so in order to get adequate caloric intake fat works as good or better than carbs.

    answered over 1 year ago |Report

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  • Christopher H.
    Christopher H. Sendmail

    Christine, your exercising and healthy diet will stand you in a really good position. However you are completely right about your genes. You can only alter your cholesterol levels by about 10-15% with diet alone.
    Reducing cholesterol is all abour long term cardiovascular risk reduction. This is usually calculated over a 10 year period so you have lots of time depending on your general health and family history.
    Things that increase risk:
    family history of cardiovascular disease.
    Smoking
    high blood pressure
    age
    male gender
    triglyceride levels
    weight
    If you have a very high cholesterol level you may have familial hypercholestraemia and this should be treated with medication.
    Listen to your phisician. If he or she advises medication think seriously about it. There is no reason why this should interfere with your life. If you have tried hard for 3 months with little effect this may be the way to go.
    Remeber healthy eating, fish oils etc are very good for you and will only add to your health drive.
    Try searching patient.co.uk and look for the cholesterol patient leaflets.
    Good luck.

    answered over 1 year ago |Report

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  • Joan R.
    Joan R. Sendmail

    One thing to think about as well is that part of what matters about cholesterol is the ratio of LDL to HDL. Personally, I have had abnormally high cholesterol since the age of 8, and have been pressured to go on statins all my life. I refuse, due to the documented side effects of liver damage, muscle damage, and cognitive impairment. The red yeast rice supplements are also statins; they're just "natural" rather than manufactured, so you can develop the same side effects from red yeast rice as you would from prescription statins. Do all the research you can on high cholesterol and statins before you make a decision. This is only my opinion, but I'm not convinced that the cause and effect deduction is correct between high cholesterol and heart disease...there are so many instances of the medical community making these connections,which are later proven to be not-quite-right. There is new research suggesting that an inflammatory factor is more crucial to heart disease than cholesterol is.

    answered over 1 year ago |Report

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  • Doug
    Doug Sendmail

    make sure you get a fish oil with almost no mercury. If the supplement doesn't say, that's because it has traces of mercury in it.

    answered over 1 year ago |Report

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  • Richard C.
    Richard C. Sendmail

    I fought high cholesterol for years and could not take the Statins due to a reaction. Now at age 70, I have my cholesterol well under control and take no meds for it. Solution: I eat a completely Plant Based diet. No animal products (meat, dairy, fish, cheese, etc.) Cholesterol immediatly dropped into the good range. Now I don't worry about it at all.

    I my opinion, you are on the right track ( fiber, fruits, veggies etc.) but unless you drop the animal fat and protein completely (including all dairy products) you'll either fight high numbers or have to suffer the side effects of meds. There is no magic food that will drop you numbers. Do yourself a favor and try a totally Plant Based diet for 30 days after your next blood work and then get you blood checked after 30 days. My bet would be on a significant improvement.

    answered over 1 year ago |Report

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  • Buddy C.
    Buddy C. Sendmail

    I think everyone has covered all the options but heres my story......the short version :)
    My dad died suddenly of heart disease....completely unexpected. As a result I got paranoid I was going the same way so my GP agreed to do yearly full blood tests for a couple of years and my cholesterol was high at first. I followed their advice and managed to get it down quite quickly. I cut out takeaways, chips, pizza etc. Ate more salad, rice, fruit etc. I also cut out a lot if red meat and replaced with chicken......grilled and roasted. Exercising a lot more now as well. I'm still guilty of smoking which I need to address, and I do like my beer. May be a New Year resolution to at least reduce the two.
    Not been back to the GP forva while but I'm interested to know if I've kept it down. It was around 3.6 at the last check.
    Good luck anyway....these things are not always easy

    answered over 1 year ago |Report

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  • Barbi C.
    Barbi C. Sendmail

    Christine, you can only fight your genetic makeup so much BUT with a strong exercise plan & eating properly you can make a difference. Please consider reading the books from EAT CLEAN by Tosca Reno, I got mine on Amazon. Very good, it's a easy change in diet eating more nature foods as opposed to eating processed. I even make my own protein bars now, love them. As for the cholestrol I tried this for 1 yr & saw a huge difference in my cholestrol levels & my Dr. was amazed, almost equilalent to a medicine drop. Have your oatmeal each morning with 3 tablespoons of flax seed. Now I run my flax seed thru a coffee grinder in the AM to help with the breakdown of it. I also use flavored oatmeal packets. Start with 1 tablespoon & build up to the 3. I think that you'll be surprised. I've switched to Ezekiel Breads & make my own Egg McMuffins with ezekiel english muffins, egg, cdn bacon & yogurt cheese, yummy! I'm 49 & can't say enough of how much better I feel when I eat clean, now I don't follow her meal plans I impromise things but it really does help. Just Food for thought, good luck!!

    answered over 1 year ago |Report

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  • Nathan C.
    Nathan C. Sendmail

    Take fish oil like the others have mentioned, have fish in your diet at least twice a week, eat more chicken than red meat, eat oatmeal sprinkled with flax seed several times a week, take Niacin (Flush Free at least 500mg. a day) also you could try cinnamon capsules, which I was told is good for high cholesterol and also high blood sugar.

    I do not have this problem or the high blood sugar, but one family member has borderline high cholesterol and I was told this was helping them. I hope it helps you too.

    answered about 1 year ago |Report

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  • Ryan
    Ryan Sendmail

    Massively cutting out processed foods, along with losing about 25 lbs (from 192 to low 170's) worked for me. I was borderline, and when I went back to the doctor and he saw my latest results, his reaction of 'What happened?!' was pretty priceless.
    My wife had incredibly high cholesterol, but her ratios were always very good so her risk was low. When she went to a more protein based diet, her numbers dropped like a rock. Over time we both learned that dietary cholesterol (meats, eggs, other animal based foods) does very little to effect your blood cholesterol.

    answered about 1 year ago |Report

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  • Joseph
    Joseph Sendmail

    Your doctor mentioned Ornish who says that you can reverse heart disease and lower cholesterol by adjustments in diet. I would say, read up on him, there are some good lectures on youtube which you might want to watch before getting his books.

    Besides Ornish there is dr. Cardwell Esselstyn who did extensive research into diet and lowering cholesterol and reversing heart disease (his books is called: Prevent and reverse heart disease). There is a very good lecture of him on youtube where he explains his theory in a very accessible way:

    Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYTf0z_zVs0

    I have been following Esselstyn and my cholesterol did indeed make a drastic drop in less then 3 months, much to the amazement of my MD as I was as well. I don't know in how far it works with someone who is genetically inclined to have high cholesterol.

    I would say, keep at it with the new diet habits and do your own research and make up your own mind.

    Good luck!

    answered about 1 year ago |edited about 1 year ago |Report

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  • Threekits
    Threekits Sendmail

    I come from a line of High Cholesterol, Hypertension, etc... I thank Dad on that one. ;) To avoid the cocktail of medication I started running and watching sodium intake etc. with mixed results. This year I switched over to the Paleo diet. In 3 months later I have made more progress in lowering BP and Cholesterol numbers than I have in the past two years. (I too am 40 going on 41) I started out with the Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf and have not looked back.

    answered about 1 year ago |Report

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  • Andrea P.
    Andrea P. Sendmail

    First of all, you're off to great start, Christine! Eating healthier obviously helps but if you're still having problems, there might be a few thngs you can do. STOP eating refined foods of any kind, white sugar, soy, canola oil, shortening, and any other "vegetable" oil, as these wreak havoc on your health. DO start eating LOTS of unrefined plant and plant-derived fats, grassfed dairy, meat and poultry. I cannot stress the importance of eating grass-fed animal products enough as they are NOT the same at ALL as conventional dairy, meat, and poultry products! For more info visit:

    http://www.foodrenegade.com/the-basics/

    My father eats butter, raw whole milk, cheese, and six eggs a day, and his cholesterol is a VERY healthy level. The same goes for the rest of our family. We are much healthier than the rest of our relatives, who don't eat a lot of those healthy foods I just described, in any amount!

    I hope this helps you, Christine. =)

    answered about 1 year ago |Report

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