NFR High Cholesterol

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous member 148
  • Start date Start date
Non-fishing related
A

Anonymous member 148

Guest
Has anyone successfully lowered their cholesterol through diet/exercise lifestyle changes etc.. Does it really work? What worked for you? Or am I stuck with taking drugs. Just got a physical and since my last one 4 years ago my triglycerides more then doubled to 360s and my cholesterol is at 220 up from 170.
 
Yes
Like you said
Diet and exercise
Triglycerides means no fried shit, trans fats. Cut out the fast food and processed food. Lay off the booze too. Avoid simple carbs and sugar.
Cholesterol waa mostly cutting back on the bad fats for me, fatty foods and booze together raises cholesterol.
Eat fish, and omega 3 stuff.
Exercise is logging off the internet and working up a sweat for a couple hours a day... every day

Heard of vegetables ? Eat them..a lot.
Chips, crackers and shit in a box or bag from the store ? Don't eat them....ever.

I went hard-core, and cut my triglycerides by 200 points in 3 months.
Good luck,
 
200 in 3 months??? Wow. Ok looks like my youth is over.. Goodbye tasty food :cry:
 
FontinalisFin said:
200 in 3 months??? Wow. Ok looks like my youth is over.. Goodbye tasty food :cry:
Click to expand...
There are lots of spices and different kinds of chili's out there. Get a bunch of cookbooks from your library and experiment with spices.

The longer you go without fried/fatty foods, the less you will miss them. After a while, on your "cheat" day, you might even find them unpalatable.
 
@Mossback: Thanks for the virtual kick in the butt. I just went on blood pressure meds and a statin 1-2 weeks ago. I know lifestyle changes are the answer, but man is it hard to get motivated. The sad thing is I used to love riding my road bike hard. In my case, I know that helped me delay this.

I'm in the same boat as @FontinalisFin now.
 
@Mossback I'm sure I can find all sorts of diet plans online, but what was your day to day go to breakfast lunch dinner etc. I already quit drinking a few years ago, dont eat much fast food or fried foods, I think my downfall is butter and bacon, and ice cream.
 
FontinalisFin said:
@Mossback I'm sure I can find all sorts of diet plans online, but what was your day to day go to breakfast lunch dinner etc. I already quit drinking a few years ago, dont eat much fast food or fried foods, I think my downfall is butter and bacon, and ice cream.
Click to expand...
as A diabetic i found sugar free peanut butter, sugar free ice cream, did wonders for my overall health including cholesterol , But I'm a big fish eater & use a air fryer a lot to avoid frying in fat.
 
My doctor recommended that I add Omega 3 fish oil to my diet. That has had a positive effect on my cholesterol and triglycerides. At one point I was taking 2000mg/ day, but now I’m taking just 1000mg.

I buy the wild Alaska salmon oil omega-3 pills at Costco when they are on sale which have cost a bit under $20 for a bottle of 210 1000mg pills.
 
FontinalisFin said:
@Mossback I'm sure I can find all sorts of diet plans online, but what was your day to day go to breakfast lunch dinner etc. I already quit drinking a few years ago, dont eat much fast food or fried foods, I think my downfall is butter and bacon, and ice cream.
Click to expand...
Oatmeal or Greek Yogurt, with a few nuts on top
No sugar added.

Tuna sandwich on whole wheat bread
Apple and Wasa Crackers

Dinners vary. But focus on poultry, fish, and beans, lentils and vegetables. Lots of bean, lentil dishes/soups, at least 3x weekly.
Salads, we garden so in season salads every day. Lots of salads with beans or chicken/turkey.

Do not eat out, ever. Do not eat anything out of a box, bag, or other container that comes from a store...only buy raw ingredients when you shop.

It worked for me...
 
After cooking from scratch for a while you'll never miss fatty, salty processed restaurant food again.
Learn to use herbs and spices, and not salt.
While fat is flavor as they say, (and who doesn't like it of course), there's plenty of spice options out there that are good enough flavor wise that you find you don't need as much fat in your diet.
I never feel as if we don't eat good tasting food, but it is more work to prepare.
 
As a physician (recently retired) and someone who has known heart disease (cardiac stent placement over 10 years ago), it is important to remember that the goal for anyone is to live longer and better. It is not to die with a better cholesterol number. Your cholesterol level is an intermediate marker, not a critical endpoint, like death and disability. Having a lower cholesterol number decreases your risk of heart disease, but lowering it does not always decrease your risk as much as you would think. Conversely, taking a statin drug lowers your risk of heart disease more than would be expected just by the lowering of your cholesterol. But it also carries other potential long term side effects (increasing your risk of diabetes and belly fat.) Another issue is that cholesterol levels and especially triglyceride levels fluctuate some over time. The reason for fasting cholesterol levels is because of the high triglyceride levels after a meal. And if you check your cholesterol levels during a period of weight loss, they will be lower than after you get to a lower weight and maintain them. And of course, total cholesterol level is not important, it is your HDL and LDL levels that are important.

So what everyone is saying is right, eat healthy, make sure your weight is in the healthy range and exercise regularly. There is no single magic miracle food or supplement that will work for everyone. Maintaining your weight and exercise, especially if there is a family history of type 2 diabetes, is important for everyone, irrespective of your cholesterol.
 
By the way, the American Heart Association puts out a risk calculator, where you put in your data, including your cholesterol levels and it spits out your 10 year risk of coronary artery disease. They suggest using statins if your 10 year risk is greater than 7.5% or if your LDL cholesterol is greater than 190.
 
Sweet free medical advice! Haha j/k thanks though. I actually haven't spoke to my Doc yet, to see what he says to do, just got the labs back in my online chart. This was a fasting blood draw since my apt was at 740 in the morning, all I had was black coffee. I also have heart failure already. My coronary arteries got a visual inspection as they were replacing my aorta and the surgeon said they looked great with no signs of plaque so I'm catching this early.
 
Smith said:
Reduce the booze, beer especially. Salads, fish and start walking. In 6 months dropped 150 on TG, dropped bloop pressure into the low zone.
Click to expand...
Quit booze 2 years ago. Im in my 30s and walk around/on my feet all day. I think its mostly the stressful quick meals that have to come between wrangling the kids.
 
Genetics are a crazy thing. My wife's client who is in his 80s is a retired dentist. Good shape - mentally and physically. Drinks hard alcohol and/or beer for any meal he isn't drinking coffee with. Or both. Doesn't drink water or anything else. Eats out all the time - typically rich fatty foods. But also lots of seafood and raw oysters. Maybe he could have got another 5-10 years if he started drinking water and eating his veggies and exercising... But I like his style and envy his genetics. Not sure I'll be so lucky...
 
Mossback said:
After cooking from scratch for a while you'll never miss fatty, salty processed restaurant food again.
Learn to use herbs and spices, and not salt.
While fat is flavor as they say, (and who doesn't like it of course), there's plenty of spice options out there that are good enough flavor wise that you find you don't need as much fat in your diet.
I never feel as if we don't eat good tasting food, but it is more work to prepare.
Click to expand...
I was curious about the oatmeal, if that really works, cause it seems like just carbs to me. But eveyone seems to do it. Our cooking has definatly changed the last 5 years with kids. I used to do all the cooking from scratch.
 
Chadk said:
Genetics are a crazy thing. My wife's client who is in his 80s is a retired dentist. Good shape - mentally and physically. Drinks hard alcohol and/or beer for any meal he isn't drinking coffee with. Or both. Doesn't drink water or anything else. Eats out all the time - typically rich fatty foods. But also lots of seafood and raw oysters. Maybe he could have got another 5-10 years if he started drinking water and eating his veggies and exercising... But I like his style and envy his genetics. Not sure I'll be so lucky...
Click to expand...
Yea I always hear those stories, smoked, drank, ate a lb of bacon every morning, and only drank diet coke no water, lived till he was 102. lol! Genetics is huge.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top