[Advice] My Cholesterol is Shot

That looks like my cutting board and my chairs. If not for the dishes, I'd think that was my house.

 

I'd check the sodium content of that ramen if I were you.

 

My 36 yr old brother in law had the same problem. What he did was not eat anything with transfats (including fried food fried in vegetable oil) and high fructose corn syrup (hamburger buns, cola, many sweets that come in packages, some ice creams). Everything else he ate including red meat, some ice cream that didn't have artificial ingredients, and a lot of veggies. He figured that working out would burn off the saturated fats from the food he enjoys.

Cutting out fast food and cola eliminates most of that stuff. Try eating out at more expensive restaurants, ask the waiter of the ingredients. You'll take a hit in your wallet, but you'll eat better and tastier. Plus, it makes you want to prepare your own food.

Transfats act like saturated fats but are far more difficult to burn off. The shelf life of inside in your body is at least a year. HFC also doesn't burn naturally in your body and interferes with your thyroid gland. Messing that gland up causes some cancers, diabetes, and obesity.

The last part is soaking in more rays. At least 15 minutes of sunlight creates more vitamin D, and also the process requires breaking down cholesterol to make the vitamin in your body. It's a double benefit.

He went from 200 to 85 in his next insurance physical. The doctor thought he OD'd on cholesterol drugs despite not taking any.

 

Eat avocados.

 

My dr told me to take Niacin for a while to try and lower mine before he puts me on any meds.

 

Okay, I will try to answer most of your questions. First of all, Lipitor (statin), can cause constipation, diarrhea, and indigestion (all <2%). In rare occurences, patients may develop muscle pain or tenderness. Secondly, you should find out what your LDL goal. People may have LDL goals of less than 160, 130, 100, or 70. It depends on your risk of coronary artery/heart disease. If you have high blood pressure, family history of heart problems, currently smoking, etc. If you provide me with some information I can see how high your likely risk of CHD is and give you some recommendations. As for your lifestyle modifications, get on a low sodium (< 2.4 g Na/day) and DASH diet (rich in fruits, vegetable, low-fat diary products, reduced saturated fat and limited cholesterol intake). If that doesn't reduce your LDL to goal, you can get on simvastatin, which is much cheaper than Lipitor. An LDL of 185 is pretty high for a college student, but your HDL can counter the effects of LDL. I think you should definitely start reducing your LDL asap.

 

I just realized how many grammatical errors I made, but I don't have the ability to edit posts. Anyway, it's late and I guess I typed it up too fast.

 

Statin therapy is something that most people get on indefinitely and as your doctor stated, statins like Lipitor have other advantages as well. I don't know how low your LDL goal is, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to stop statin therapy when you're LDL is 140. If lipitor is too expensive, simvastatin would be a good statin to switch to.

 

Please do not make this recommendation to anybody. I have worked with many doctors and pharmacists and we have never made this recommendation. While it is technically correct in the sense that cholesterol is a precursor to vitamin D, the amount of sunlight that people take in every day is enough for vitamin D production. This also will not lower cholesterol enough to have that much of an effect. Therefore, it's not optimal to ask people to get in the sun more to reduce cholesterol.

Niacin is second line to statins because of it's main side effect of flushing. Statins are far more advantages in their LDL reduction capacity than niacin. Niacin can only reduce a maximum 26% of your LDL, while drugs such as Crestor can drop 63%. In a primary care clinic, I'd recommend most doctors to start on a low dose statin.

Omega 3 fatty acids and omega 3 fish oils have never been proven clinically to have beneficial effects in reducing cholesterol. Studies contradict each other and nobody right now knows for sure. Fish oils are pretty nasty smelling in my opinion, so I wouldn't really touch it. But then again, I see so many patients on it just because they don't want a take a "medication" haha.

 

My total cholesterol used to be 200 in college, but then I got on regimen of flax seed oil, fish oil and psyllium husk. When I got my cholesterol checked again three years later it was down to 120.

This obviously requires some clean diet, but taking those supplements especially psyllium husk can do wonders.

You can drink the flax seed oil in plain water. And you can mix the psyllium husk in a smoothie to mask the taste.

 

Will do. I neglected to emphasize that there's diminishing returns after 15 minute exposure, but it's still not a bad idea in a general health sense.

 

No problem. There is this guideline that health professionals use called the ATP III guidelines. Basically, it sums up what your LDL goal should be. The next time you go to your doctor, I'm sure he'll know about this, so don't forget to ask him about your LDL goal. If you want a head start on this, here is the executive summary. Page 18/40 is where the goals are. If you read up a little bit, it will tell you what risk factors warrants which LDL goal.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/cholesterol/atp3xsum.pdf

 

Like everyone's saying, your focus needs to start shifting. I don't think you need to consider anything so extreme as trying to just eat vegetables and fish - you're still in college, for christs sake. HOWEVER:
-dodge the fried foods, fast foods
-cut the red meat way down (eat more chicken)

You don't have to become a health food nut, but you KNOW you're eating too much crap food and you LIKE eating too much crap food. But you need to start a slow faze down, because you'll be stunned at just how fast you start plumping up after college and how ridiculously hard it is to get the fat off once it's on.

If you're worried about maintaining weight now, I'd say two things:
-what's the big deal if you do lose weight
-keep hitting the weights and eat lean protein (shakes, chicken)
You don't need high fat content to maintain muscle.

Evan

 

[clutchfans response]You're a ****ing ****** and deserve to have high cholesterol. I do not want to give advice because I am better than you and now must go fornicate with my model girlfriend and her two perfect female roommates.[/clutchfans response]

 

I've busted 300 on a couple of my tests in the past. I was "fasting' but I had a shot of cream in 1 cup of coffee before my blood tests.

But my doctor told me he thought they ought to put statins in the drinking water like flouride, so I've been on them for 10 years.

Monday I tested at 123. 45 HDL, 60 LDL 44 Triglyerides 9 VLD

 

my count was a little over average/healthy this time last year.

just went in this morning for a blood test as the doctor wanted me to check it again in 12 months. So we will see how it goes this year.

hopefully down a bit.

i have been eating salads with avocado, 2 fish oil tablets a day (plus a increased intake of actual fish) slightly increased my cardio and weight-bearing exercise and stayed very focussed on being chilled the hell out.

last year was very stressful, this year very relaxed. I shall let you guys know the outcome in a few days. See if my strategy helped anything.

 

Some very nice posts, The Pharmacist. You should shoot Clutch a check and become a contributing member. You can edit, search, the whole nine yards.

I have a genetically inherited condition that popped up rather late in my life, thanks to my late father, which caused my lipids to go literally crazy. My cholesterol was 635 and my triglyerides were 1200. No, that's not a misprint. With meds and watching my diet, the cholesterol is around 170 and the triglyerides about 135. My HDL and LDL are excellent and I have a very good risk factor. (a ratio of the different lipid measurements, if I have that right) We're very lucky to live in an era where there are medications that really work, something my Dad didn't have access to. Diet and exercise should always be the first option, but don't work for everyone.