Cholesterol

[MRJmama]

OK I just got some blood work back from my doctor and my cholesterol is high! Now I don't have a complete traditional foods diet, but it is getting close. He gave me the same old talk about cut the red meat, eat more veggies, blah, blah, blah. I eat really good! Now I could use a bit more excerise but I'm working on that.

Anyway my question is, is there something in the way of more foods I should be eating to cut this problem, or should I back off on my dairy?

[AJP]

What do you mean by "high"? Personally, I think the numbers used for cholesterol evaluation are ridiculous, and virtually meaningless in the absence of other tests like homocysteine, c-reactive protein, triglycerides, etc., when it comes to judging heart-disease risk. I also think reduction of refined carbohydrates (grains and sugars) and industrially-manipulated fats (hydrogenated or highly refined) is more key to circulatory health than any amount of red meat or saturated fat.

They've recently lowered the numbers yet again, so total cholesterol of over 180 is considered high, and I think I read they're going to lower it again to 160. Guess who's behind this constant lowering of the threshold? I'll give you one guess. It starts with the word "drug" and ends with "companies".

If you're really worried about your cholesterol numbers, I'd suggest finding a doctor who understands the whole spectrum and something about real, traditional foods, not just the standard "cholesterol is bad" thing.

[MRJmama]

Originally Posted by AJP

What do you mean by "high"? Personally, I think the numbers used for cholesterol evaluation are ridiculous, and virtually meaningless in the absence of other tests like homocysteine, c-reactive protein, triglycerides, etc., when it comes to judging heart-disease risk. I also think reduction of refined carbohydrates (grains and sugars) and industrially-manipulated fats (hydrogenated or highly refined) is more key to circulatory health than any amount of red meat or saturated fat.

They've recently lowered the numbers yet again, so total cholesterol of over 180 is considered high, and I think I read they're going to lower it again to 160. Guess who's behind this constant lowering of the threshold? I'll give you one guess. It starts with the word "drug" and ends with "companies".

If you're really worried about your cholesterol numbers, I'd suggest finding a doctor who understands the whole spectrum and something about real, traditional foods, not just the standard "cholesterol is bad" thing.

I agree. Let's see my total was 223 with my LDL 116 and my Triglyceriddes were 86. I don't know if they tested anything else, as the nurse just gave them to me over the phone and wanted me to make an appointment (which I didn't). She also said my blood sugars was great but did not give me numbers.

To tell you the truth, I almost never eat "red" meat which I am assuming they mean beef. Most of the time I eat bison or lamb and chicken. These are the meats that I can get from my local farmer and I feel are ok to eat at this point.

I have wondered a great deal about what a normal number is and I'm not sure eating the way my family does puts us in the same bracket so to speak in the tests they run these days. Although this is just a gut feeling and I have no "proof" one way or another on my theory!

[AJP]

IMO, 223 is a totally acceptable and biologically normal cholesterol total. I wouldn't worry about it, if that was mine. Is LDL of 116 in their "high" range? (I forget what they say about that, because I kind of think that whole good cholesterol/bad cholesterol thing is way over-simplified so I tend to ignore it).

Bison and lamb are considered red meat.

If you're worried and/or they're pressuring you about it, maybe you should read up on some of the non-mainstream, non-drug co.-sponsored literature regarding the lipid hypothesis of heart disease. www.thincs.org is a good place to start.

[MRJmama]

WOW that's for all the good info!

[ChristieB]

Those numbers look good to me! She didn't tell you your HDL level. Probably because it's fine. I would ask them to mail you a copy of the lab results. It is your right to have them. And it would help you to really assess things to have all the numbers. I'm sure they do have your HDL number. They run full lipid profiles, so if they have your LDL, they also have your HDL.

Here's something you might find helpful. It's by Dr. Tom Cowan, and he looks at a person's cholesterol numbers from a different angle, but using the mainstream numbers (ranges). I found it very interesting.

As for your numbers, 223 is perfect! My dr. (actually a dentist who uses WAP's research and has gone beyond it with his own) says that he has found people to have optimal health with a fairly narrow window of blood chemistries. He likes his patients to have their cholesterol between 200-220. He likes triglycerides to be under 100 (he says these correlate to grain consumption, not fats at all). Higher HDL is good (of course, we don't know yours, do we? No, you're just supposed to trust the "experts"). He doesn't worry about LDL, so I can't tell you anything about that.

Another risk of low cholesterol levels that D. Cowan doesn't mention is that it raises your risk of depression.