[bluebetty]

So my Dh just got a physical...he has high cholesterol in his 20's still! Dr. recommended adding grain .....any LC recommendations...or supplements he could take?

[crazywoman]

He is probably like me, and has family related (inherited) cholesterol. No diet change ever helped me. Not even Low Carb. Tho a low carb lifestyle has difinitely helped many (several members here).

Polycosonol is supposed to help lower it. As is Red Yeast Rice. I'm not sure if you can/should use these together. My sister takes Red Yeast Rice. I think it has helped to keep hers down.

I wish I knew if I could take either of those along with my Vytorin (when my cholesterol hit 339 I finally gave in to take the Vytorin).

I personally don't believe the addition of grain will help. This is just MHO. Matter of fact, I think some studies have found that the carbohydrates are what actually raises it. Please don't quote me on this.
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Billie
4'8" Started LC WOL Aug 2003

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My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely.

[wiredfoxterror]

Red Yeast Rice can have EXTREMELY BAD side effects. It can even cripple some people.

This WOE cut my cholesterol.
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Foxye
Started Somersizing 01/03 - 230/165/165
A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.


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SAVE THE EARTH IT'S THE ONLY PLANET WITH CHOCOLATE!

[wiccanmalenurse]

Casey-Lynn, like the others have said, it may be hereditary. I personally like Billie think that carbs contribute to the elevation rather than to decrease it. Have you tried the steel cut oats for him as these are beneficial in reducing it? Try teimming the fat, use more vegggies and also note that Shrimp, eggs, kidney, butter and eggs are high in cholesterol if he is consuming them to much. I also saw a reduction of over 10 points in my cholesterol by eating this WOL. A test most important for him to get is a CRP or C Reactive protein which shows the amount of markers of inflammation in the blood. (Basically tells a good bit on whether he is at risk for heart attacks and strokes) A 6 month study shows that those with lower to moderate CRP saw their levels go up on the low carb plan. And the low carb group also showed an increase in chylomicrons, particles that transport dietary fat from the gut to cells and tissue elsewhere in the body. Carbohydrates inn a larger quantity can be bad as increase blood sugar levels causing the pancreas to secrete large amounts insulin. If you have eaten large amounts of fat with the high carbohydrate food, the insulin is now available to help turn that fat into cholesterol. Low carbers should use low fat products where appropriate, but use control of insulin levels to minimize the body's production of cholesterol. So really a catch twenty two disposition! An increase in the consumption of Flax seed meal may also help him as fiber has been shown to reduce cholesterol and this is a negative carb source of fiber! Now many that understand the insulin production and how it converts fat to cholesterol may better understand why I was able to drop so much (cholesterol wise) when I stopped taking the insulin and increased my fiber consumption. Hope this helps and again if all else fails and it can not be controlled by diet and exercise, he may have to go on medication. Good luck to him and again, I really strongly encourage you to advise him to get a C Reactive Protein test to show how much the cholesterol has effected his heart and if it has put him at risk for heart disease. Not trying to scare you but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,
David
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[lowcarbcrystal]

And.... The ratios of HDL to LDL are more important than the total number. How high is it? I haven't heard anything bad with red rice yeast. On the other hand, drugs do. Grains/low-fat diet WILL increase his cholesterol.

Omega 3 fatty acids(nordic naturals is a good one). I take it by the spoonful. Kyolic brand garlic lowers cholesterol too. Probably better than a drug. Even Dr. Oz from Oprah mentioned that. Fat isn't a problem but we need a good balance of omega 3,6,9 too. Personally, organic animal products is the way to go and grass-fed is better. If it is really high, then a drug is necessary until you've brought it down, or can bring it down.

As David said, exercise will increase HDL(good thing).

[crazywoman]

[bluebetty]

I don't think it's that high...like in the 200 range but the Dr said that's high for a 27 yr old man. The Dr. also told him a lil exercise would help...and since he loves Boxing on the Wii...he plans to work it out in the morn. I really don't cook with much butter (I use olive oil more) but perhaps it's the baked goods...Stewart says it's all the eggs and cream cheese..LOL....but he starts grumbling if I have no baked goods in the house....LC or not. He is doing what he calls maintenance level...isn't really dieting seriously so the steel cut oats may be a good option for him. He says he hates flax but that is probably my best option for him and I will be sneaking it in some of his foods. I think this was his first physical except when he was going into the military so it very well may be hereditary. I'm sure a couple rounds with the Wii will have him back in the normal range. Thanks guys.

[lowcarbcrystal]

I wouldn't worry about it. They like to see it under 200 but the ratios of HDL to LDL are more important. Keep eating good food and exercise.
Speaking of the Wii, I didn't know it was interavtive. My 10 year old wants one for christmas. I'm all for it now.

[KMElizabeth]

Sorry to hear that your husband is having little problem with cholesterol I just wanted to share with you that when I bake instead of using all the yolk, i substitute 2 egg whites per whole egg so this way do not get all the cholesterol, just an idea.
My cousin lost alot of weight on high protein and he ate so many eggs and lots and lots of cheese I don't know if i would be so lucky, so i decided to cut my cholesterol back where possible.

My total cholesterol was 199 at last blood test and ldl and hdl were not where needed to be and i contribute that to eating alot of sugar and carbs, so will see what next blood test shows

Wish you and your hubby all the best,
Liz
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The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. {Eleanor Roosevelt 1884-1962}

[bluejay111]

Here's a few items concerning cholesterol:
What's wrong with cholesterol tests? Here is what was in the book, The Cholesterol Conspiracy, by Russell Smith, PhD:

Paraphrased-- "The Accuracy of Cholesterol Tests

In 1958, serum from the same blood sample was sent to 5 different reputable labs. This was done with 3 separate samples. Lab results from the first sample ranged from 311 to 598. Second sample varied from 183 to 296; third sample ranged from 172 to 312. So the question is raised...has testing become better since 1958. The answer is no. In 1985, the College of American Pathologists sent to 5004 hospitals and labs a cholesterol sample with a known value of 262.6. Results from all of these reputable labs varied from 101 to 524, which is greatly worse than what was found in the tests in '58. Another recent study compared two common cholesterol testing instruments with the equipment of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. 377 samples were tested, which resulted in 13.5% and 20% differences from the 2 instruments with the NHLBI instrument. And yet another study was done with the Center for Disease Control showed that 52% of 130 labs varied unacceptably from the average. Few labs can accurately measure the HDL. Compare these sophisticated, expensive instruments with the finger stick instruments increasingly being found in doctor's offices, and the results are even worse. The two methods of checking cholesterol are chemical and enzymatic. The chemical method is much more expensive and complicated. The enzymatic method is cheaper and more simple. Most labs use the enzymatic method, and it is also the most grossly inaccurate. The 1988 CAP survey showed that nearly half of the nation's 15,000 private labs regularly give out inaccurate cholesterol results. And just about everyone, except doctors and the public, know that cholesterol testing is very poor. Yet despite knowing how inaccurate cholesterol tests are, the Alliance (NHLBI, AHA, and another medical group I forgot which one....) still insists that everyone be screened for cholesterol, and to be put on cholesterol lowering drugs.

Several factors can affect cholesterol results. Stress...being afraid of getting blood drawn, will affect results. How long the tourniquet is on the arm will affect results. How long the serum sits on the blood cells affects results, or if the serum sits overnight in the fridge, will affect results. If the blood tube wasn't filled all the way affects results. The technique and precision of the person testing the serum sample affects results. And last, but not least, the equipment itself affects results. (end)

Here is a paraphrase from Mary Enig, in Know Your Fats to give perspective about dietary fat and cholesterol: blood volume in a person is 5-7 liters (50-70 dL). There is on average about 200 mg/dl of circulating cholesterol, which is the eqivalent to 10,000 to 14,000 mg of circulating cholesterol. If one eats 400 mg of cholesterol a day, and it is absorbed 50% (which is all that is absorbed from dietary cholesterol), that adds only the equivalent of 200 mg of cholesterol into that 10,000 to 14,000 mg already circulating in the blood. It can then be calculated that the 200 mg of absorbed dietary cholesterol will only increase total cholesterol from 200 to 203-204. This amount is so small it can't even be accurately measured. (end)

Marketing Hype:
They take 10,000 people and put them on a placebo as a control group and then take another 10,000 people and put them on a drug and after a specific time period they do a comparison. If 3 people in the control group die and only 2 in the drug group die, the drug company, researchers and the media hype it up as a 33% reduction in mortality.
Which in turn makes medical personnel write more prescriptions and huge profits for the drug maker. Actually it is an insignificant .01% reduction. But the average person never hears this statistic.

Informational Cascade:
This is the problem with the hypothesis of Ancel Keys. He took the data from several areas and hand picked the ones that fit his hypothesis and disregarded the rest calling them irrelevant. Anyone who tried to disagree with him was the recipient of extreme verbal abuse from Keys. The point is that large groups of people can reach a “consensus” without most of them really understanding the issue: Once a critical mass of people starts a trend, the rest make the rational decision to go along because they figure the trend-setters can’t all be wrong. The danger is that you end up with the blind leading the blind,…
The complete article on informational cascade can be read here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/science/09tier.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin


How the number 200 came about for cholesterol level:…there was a political decision being made on the floor of the NIH (Building 10) Mazur Auditorium that day in December 1984. The decision would allow the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to have yet another even more extensive long-term "trial" to work on. The NHLBI could not get more money from Congress for more large trials such as the MRFIT or LRC and they were developing the National Cholesterol Education Program. With the cutoff number at the lower end of the normal range (200 mg/dl), they could include all of the healthy normal citizens in the range that would need treatment with diet, and since the diet would never work to permanently lower those normal levels (eg, 200 mg/dl to 240 or 260 mg/dl) to below 200 mg/dl, they could recommend that all these people should go onto cholesterol-lowering medications.

The three men who were heading the NHLBI (Cleeman, Lenfant, and Rifkin) were standing together in the Mazur Auditorium just before the Cholesterol Consensus Conference began. They were discussing the cutoff level of serum cholesterol to put into the consensus report. One said to the other two, "but we can't have the cutoff at 240 [mg/dl]; it has to be at 200 [mg/dl] or we won't have enough people to test." Several of us
from the University of Maryland Department of Chemistry Lipids Research Group were standing directly behind them and within clear earshot. We looked at each other and of course were not surprised when the final numbers came out.

Here is an editorial by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick which is an example of the above thinking:
http://www.thincs.org/unpublic.Malcolm.htm

This is a quote from the above article:
The question most people should ask-but do not- is this:
How much longer will I live if I take a statin for, say 30 years?
The answer, if you are a woman, is: ‘not one day’
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[lowcarbcrystal]

Bluejay-Good info. The cut off of total cholesterol has gotten lower and lower over the years. Why, because big pharma needs to make more $$. If ones total cholesterol is in the 200's, there is no evidence that cholesterol drugs will increase life expectancy.

[jkmfrog]

crystal and bluejay are on the right track. the tests are inaccruate, the numbers keep gettign pushed lower and we are contantly linking high cholesteral to bad health outcomes when there is little evidence out there that this is the case. Higher cholesteral levels may actually protect against alzheimer's and improve brain function. More grains are likely to make it worse, not better. I'd check out the Dr. Mike Eades blog on proteinpower.com for more info on this issue.

[missymagoo12]

i hope your husbands cholesteral will go down. i have to go have mine checked in a few weeks and see where it is. sue

[OrangeFish]

Thanks for all the great information posted re cholesterol.

I have been on a low carb regimen of 20 - 30 net carbs per day for about 6 weeks. I cheated a little yesterday by having a cup of cooked pasta with butter and cheese, so probably went up to 45 or 50 net carbs. First cheat in six weeks. I am scheduled for blood testing this week and am kicking myself for eating the pasta. Hope it doesn't mess up my blood work and get my doctor nervous.

It does help to know that the numbers are probably not accurate anyway. I do usually have high HDL and low triglicerides, it is only the LDL and total that are high. I have been resisting taking anything, so far my doctor has only recommended fish oil and red rice yeast.

Maybe I will put off my blood work for 3 weeks and hope to have a better result. I am about to go to Mexico for a 2 week vacation and this may help me resist the margueritas and chips!
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