Supplements to help lower cholesterol?

[lisaadele]

I could never do that diet because I don't eat soy and all that phytoestrogen would be a real problem for me. Even if I could I'd never comply. Give me drugs!

http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/features/portfolio-diet-lower-cholesterol?page=2

I wasn't comfortable including the soy of this diet either but did incorporate the oatmeal which is supposed to be pretty helpful. I have to get my cholesterol checked again to see if it has done enough. I tend to be a fraidy cat with drugs myself

 

[Who Me?]

I'm beyond oatmeal and soy. I'd rather not take drugs if I can get a supplement. My Slo-niacin is on the way so I should be cured shortly.

 

[Who Me?]

. I tend to be a fraidy cat with drugs myself

I was too. I got over it. Lol. I've gotten just as sick from supplements.

 

[Upgrayedd]

I was too. I got over it. Lol. I've gotten just as sick from supplements.

I think I could say the same. I've tried SO many supplements... Sometimes they make me feel worse. It's rare I've found something that I'm confident I can say made me consistently feel better.

I wish I didn't need drugs, but sometimes they are the only things that work - and by work, I mean make me feel human, make me sleep soundly, make me alert and alive...

 

[Who Me?]

Found this hiding on Facebook

Why Doctors Finally Called A Truce On Cholesterol in Food

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Cholesterol is in every cell in your body. It’s an integral part of your cell membranes, helping good molecules pass into cells while keeping others out. It’s not well known, but most of your cells — and your liver in particular — make a lot of the cholesterol you use to function (about 1,000-1,500 mg per day). The rest you get from food.
After waging a 30-year war against cholesterol, the government and the American Heart Association are reversing their stance on this vital compound. A recent report from the US Department of Health’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee reversed its previous ruling on cholesterol, announcing that “cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.”[1] Health.gov’s new 2015 Dietary Guidelines have moved slightly closer to the recommendations in the Bulletproof Diet Roadmap.
Contrary to what we have read in the media for years, dietary cholesterol itself is not the bad guy. This post explains what cholesterol is, what the different types of cholesterol do, and how they help your body and brain.
Cholesterol keeps your brain running smoothly

Cholesterol is particularly important for cognitive function. Your brain makes up only 2% of body weight but contains 25% of the body’s cholesterol![2]
Why so much in such a small space? Cholesterol helps your neurons communicate with one another.
Many neurons are encased in fatty covers called myelin sheathes. Neurons are like electrical wires, and myelin sheathes are like the insulation around the wire – they keep electricity contained in your nerve pathways, allowing messages and signals to move much more quickly. Myelin is one-fifth cholesterol by weight, so eating plenty of cholesterol is crucial to maintaining your myelin and keeping your brain’s signaling both fast and efficient.
Cholesterol deficiency is linked to a decline in cognitive function and memory, especially for anyone following a Western Diet (i.e., eating lots of carbohydrates and dutifully limiting fat and cholesterol). According to a 2011 study in the European Journal of Internal Medicine: “an excess of dietary carbohydrates, particularly fructose, alongside a relative deficiency in dietary fats and cholesterol, may lead to the development of Alzheimer’s disease”.[3]
Yikes!
Cholesterol is the building block for sex hormones

Cholesterol is the building block for every single known sex hormone. That includes estrogen, testosterone, progesterone — the whole lot. Vitamin D is also essential for sex hormone production, and people who don’t eat enough fat or cholesterol are often vitamin D deficient.
Cholesterol is also a key player in bile acid production. Bile acid helps your body regulate fat, cholesterol, and glucose metabolism.[4] It’s also required for you to absorb fat soluble vitamins.
What exactly IS cholesterol? Why is it so controversial?

A common misconception is that cholesterol is a fat. Cholesterol is not a fat, although it travels through the bloodstream along with fats and it’s found in the fatty parts of foods.
Actually, cholesterol is a type of alcohol called a “sterol.” Sterols have two distinct parts: one that dissolves in water and one that dissolves in fat. The split allows sterols to travel in water-based compounds (like blood) while carrying fat-based products.
Cholesterol travels through the blood with packages called “lipoproteins”, which are like little containers full of fats, proteins, and other nutrients (like fat-soluble vitamins such as Vitamin D). These nutrients won’t dissolve fully in water, so they rely on lipoproteins to carry them through your system.
Cholesterol is controversial because it’s one of the first things we could separate out of blood, so we’ve been studying it for a long time. It’s been associated with all kinds of disorders, but the causal factors are still not determined. In other words, cholesterol can be a symptom, not a cause.
There is even an argument that cholesterol makes you stronger (you’ll survive poisoning better and put on muscle more easily when you have more cholesterol!). High cholesterol in conjunction with inflammation is bad news for sure – inflammation is a problem, but it’s harder to measure than cholesterol, and harder to control.
When we figured out cholesterol wasn’t a problem, the debate shifted to whether one type of cholesterol or another was the main problem, leading to the HDL vs. LDL debate.
What’s really going on in the HDL versus LDL debate?

Lipoproteins initially form in the intestines, where they gather and bind fat, cholesterol, and other nutrients. After they load up they move into the bloodstream to deliver those nutrients to various tissues.
During their journey, lipoproteins change form. There are a few different types, but the two most famous ones are:

• “high-density lipoprotein”, or HDL
• “low-density lipoprotein”, or LDL

The media and the mainstream medical community like to talk about LDL as the “bad type of cholesterol”, and HDL as the “good type.” The common argument: LDL delivers cholesterol to tissues (supposedly a bad thing) while HDL takes cholesterol from tissues (supposedly a good thing).
Labeling lipoproteins as “good” and “bad” is both imprecise and misleading. This carelessness with language wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t have the consequence of causing people to avoid consuming cholesterol altogether— driving them away from healthful, fat-rich animal products and toward an inflammatory, carbohydrate-rich diet based mostly on flour, sugar, and toxic industrial (but cholesterol-free!) vegetable oils.
So if cholesterol isn’t the cause of the cardiovascular problems far too common in the Western world, then what is?
Cholesterol itself does not cause heart disease: oxidized PUFAs do!

It’s not true that a lot of cholesterol in the blood causes heart disease. It’s actually the result of LDL particles depositing cholesterol inside artery walls, and that happens because of inflammation.
It matters if the LDL particles are carrying a lot damaged, oxidized fats, and that is more likely to happen if you eat a lot of polyunsaturated fats, or PUFAs, that are poorly processed and found in vegetable oils like soybean, corn, canola, cottonseed, and the like.
PUFAs are very fragile. They’re susceptible to oxidation by free radicals, and having too many of them (in cell membranes, LDL particles, and elsewhere) can trigger out-of-control inflammation and disease.
So now the question becomes not, “How much LDL cholesterol do you have?” but, “How oxidized is the LDL cholesterol you have?”
If you’re eating a Bulletproof Diet and staying away from kryptonite foods, you shouldn’t have much of a problem with excess PUFA intake. If you’re eating a typical American diet with processed foods high in vegetable oils, consider changing your routine and eating higher-quality fare.
The myth about cholesterol and plaque buildup

Also important is how long the damaged particles stay stuck where they don’t belong. Once inside the artery wall, these oxidized LDL particles attract macrophages and other well-intentioned white blood cells hoping to clear the obstruction; unfortunately, though, the white blood cell response leads to runaway inflammation and the production of a hard “plaque” that blocks blood flow.[5] Because cholesterol is stuck in these plaques, it’s often implicated as the “cause” of heart disease. But if you assay them, you find PUFAs.
Damage to the artery, which comes from inflammation and oxidized LDL, is the root cause of arterial plaque LDL buildup. HDL particles, which contain a good deal of the antioxidant vitamin E, can reduce the oxidation of particles in their place, thus lessening the inflammation and protecting the artery from plaque formation—which is why higher HDL levels predict a lower risk of heart disease.
HDL’s good deed is not so much that it removes cholesterol from these plaques. More accurate is that HDL protects and repairs LDL and fats from oxidative damage.
Boost Your Cholesterol Radar

One way to combat plaque formation and cholesterol-based inflammation is to eat a diet that’s rich in undamaged saturated and monounsaturated fats. Just as important is to avoid the poor quality PUFAs found in processed and packaged foods and low-quality restaurant meals!
Following a diet rich in high-quality, oxidation-resistant fat will raise HDL and reduce oxidized LDL (shameless plug: get the Bulletproof Diet Roadmap). It will also lessen oxidative damage and system-wide inflammation. Consume lots of coconut oil, grass-fed butter and animal fats from healthy animals (where you’ll also find cholesterol), fish, and avocado, and stay away from corn, soybean, vegetable, canola, and cottonseed oil and the like.
It is time to repair cholesterol’s good name once and for all. Consider too that the federal government—an entity harshly critical of cholesterol-containing foods for most of the last century—recently changed its mind. The government of Sweden went even further (perhaps because Sweden’s government is on the hook for the cost of healthcare) and is recommending a diet high in saturated fat.
Now you can enjoy those yummy, pastured eggs even more!

Click to read the complete list of references.

https://www.bulletproofexec.com/why-doctors-finally-called-a-truce-on-cholesterol-in-food/

 

[Who Me?]

Another one

Four Japanese researchers published an analysis on cholesterol guidelines and statin drugs in the April 2015 edition of the Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism.
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, the Scottish doctor who wrote The Great Cholesterol Con recently stated on his blog that he has read the entire 116 page review:

For many years I have told anyone who will listen that, if you have a high cholesterol level, you will live longer. Equally, if you have a low cholesterol level, you will die younger. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a fact. The older you become the more beneficial it is to have a high cholesterol level.
This fact has become more difficult to demonstrate recently as so many people have been put on statins that the association between cholesterol levels and mortality has been twisted, bent and pumelled into the weirdest shapes imaginable. However, Japan, provides some very interesting data.​

The entire study can be read free online here.
Here is the Introduction:
High cholesterol levels are recognized as a major cause of atherosclerosis. However, for more than half a century some have challenged this notion. But which side is correct, and why can’t we come to a definitive conclusion after all this time and with more and more scientific data available? We believe the answer is very simple: for the side defending this so-called cholesterol theory, the amount of money at stake is too much to lose the fight.
The issue of cholesterol is one of the biggest issues in medicine where the law of economy governs. Moreover, advocates of the theory take the notion to be a simple, irrefutable ‘fact’ and self-explanatory. They may well think that those who argue against the cholesterol theory—actually, the cholesterol ‘hypothesis’— are mere eccentrics.
We, as those on the side opposing the hypothesis, understand their argument very well. Indeed, the first author of this supplementary issue (TH) had been a very strong believer and advocate of the cholesterol hypothesis up until a couple of years after the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study (4S) reported the benefits of statin therapy in The Lancet in 1994. To be honest with the readers, he used to persuade people with high cholesterol levels to take statins. He even gave a talk or two to general physicians promoting the benefits of statins. Terrible, unforgivable mistakes given what we came to know and clearly know now.
In this supplementary issue, we explore the background to the cholesterol hypothesis utilizing data obtained mainly from Japan—the country where anti-cholesterol theory campaigns can be conducted more easily than in any other countries. But why is this? Is it because the Japanese researchers defending the hypothesis receive less support from pharmaceutical companies than researchers overseas do? Not at all. Because Japanese researchers are indolent and weak? No, of course not. Because the Japanese public is skeptical about the benefits of medical therapy? No, they generally accept everything physicians say; unfortunately, this is also complicated by the fact that physicians don’t have enough time to study the cholesterol issue by themselves, leaving them simply to accept the information provided by the pharmaceutical industry.
Reading through this supplementary issue, it will become clear why Japan can be the starting point for the anti-cholesterol theory campaign. The relationship between all-cause mortality and serum cholesterol levels in Japan is a very interesting one: mortality actually goes down with higher total or low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, as reported by most Japanese epidemiological studies of the general population. This relationship cannot be observed as easily in other countries, except in elderly populations where the same relationship exists worldwide.
The mortality from coronary heart disease in Japan has accounted for around just 7% of all cause mortality for decades; a much lower rate than seen in Western countries. The theory that the lower the cholesterol levels are, the better is completely wrong in the case of Japan—in fact, the exact opposite is true. Because Japan is unique in terms of cholesterol-related phenomena, it is easy to find flaws in the cholesterol hypothesis.
Based on data from Japan, we propose a new direction in the use of cholesterol medications for global health promotion; namely, recognizing that cholesterol is a negative risk factor for all-cause mortality and re-examining our use of cholesterol medications accordingly. This, we believe, marks the starting point of a paradigm shift in not only how we understand the role cholesterol plays in health, but also how we provide cholesterol treatment.
The guidelines for cholesterol are thus another area of great importance. Indeed, the major portion of this supplementary issue (from Chapter 4 onward) is given over to our detailed examination and critique of guidelines published by the Japan Atherosclerosis Society. We dedicate a large portion of this work to these guidelines because they are generally held in high regard in Japan, and the country’s public health administration mechanism complies with them without question. Physicians, too, tend to simply obey the guidelines; their workloads often don’t allow them to explore the issue rigorously enough to learn the background truth and they are afraid of litigation if they don’t follow the guidelines in daily practice.
These chapters clearly describe some of the flaws in the guidelines—flaws which are so serious that it becomes clear that times must change and the guidelines must be updated. Our purpose in writing this supplementary issue is to help everyone understand the issue of cholesterol better than before, and we hope that we lay out the case for why a paradigm shift in cholesterol treatment is needed, and sooner rather than later. We would like to stress in closing that we have received no funding in support of writing or publishing this supplementary issue and our conflicts of interest statements are given in full at the end.
The Statin Scam: Don’t Let it Ruin Your Health!

The statin scam has been exposed, but there are powerful sources at work in the medical system to keep it going.
One of the best documentaries exposing the statin scam and interviewing doctors in the industry who have exposed it, was published in 2013 on ABC in Australia. The medical authorities were not successful in preventing it from being aired on TV, but they forced ABC to remove them from their website.
We currently are using copies available on YouTube. Take some time to watch these important documentaries produced by medical doctors on the statin drug scam, and be informed!
HEART OF THE MATTER Part 1: The Cholesterol Myth: Dietary Villains

HEART OF THE MATTER Part 2: The Cholesterol Drug War

References
1. Towards a Paradigm Shift in Cholesterol Treatment. A Re-examination of the Cholesterol Issue in Japan: Abstracts. – Ann Nutr Metab. 2015;66 Suppl 4:1-116.
2. Full Text from Karger.com
3. Hats off to the Japanese – Dr. Malcom Kendrick Blog, 5/18/2015

- See more at: http://healthimpactnews.com/2015/ja...cholesterol-live-longer/#sthash.jINzxN49.dpuf

 

[Upgrayedd]

So, earlier this month, my PCP doc draws blood and gives me these #'s:
LDL 479
HDL 77
Trig 113
Total Chol 579!!!
Doc says, there must be a mistake, and has me redo it about 9 days later. This time we get:
LDL 254
HDL 41
Trig 109
Total Chol 317
What the hell, right? So Chol is still high, but it's not insanely high. 317 is pretty much my norm. Trigs are fine, but what bothers me is that my HDL is so much lower than the first reading..

Doc, of course, says you must go on statins. I said, without a VAP test to see particle size and type, or some kind of physical confirmation of plaque and blockage, I'm not having a discussion about statins. I'm starting niacin, and also taking berberine, lactobacillus Reuteri, fiber, and eating more monounsaturated fats/less saturated fats. I see a cardiologist in about 6 weeks for a consult. If I don't have a stroke first.

 

[Who Me?]

So, earlier this month, my PCP doc draws blood and gives me these #'s:
LDL 479
HDL 77
Trig 113
Total Chol 579!!!
Doc says, there must be a mistake, and has me redo it about 9 days later. This time we get:
LDL 254
HDL 41
Trig 109
Total Chol 317
What the hell, right? So Chol is still high, but it's not insanely high. 317 is pretty much my norm. Trigs are fine, but what bothers me is that my HDL is so much lower than the first reading..

Doc, of course, says you must go on statins. I said, without a VAP test to see particle size and type, or some kind of physical confirmation of plaque and blockage, I'm not having a discussion about statins. I'm starting niacin, and also taking berberine, lactobacillus Reuteri, fiber, and eating more monounsaturated fats/less saturated fats. I see a cardiologist in about 6 weeks for a consult. If I don't have a stroke first.

Good for you for standing up for yourself. I'm going to copy down exactly what you said when they give me crap about my cholesterol which was pretty high last time. I was taking nothing because I wanted to see what it was without anything.

Were you taking anything for the 2nd go round? I started my slo niacin today. 250 mgs and a slight burning on my face but nothing horrible. I need something.

Total 340
Triglerides 189
LDL 238
HDL 276
ratio 5.3

 

[Wayne]

From a dietary perspective, my understanding is that healthy fats promote the HDL ("good") cholesterol, and the main culprit for LDL (“bad”) cholesterol is sugar intake. In short, eat plenty of good fats (including saturated fats), and minimize sugar intake, especially refined sugars.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Were you taking anything for the 2nd go round? I started my slo niacin today. 250 mgs and a slight burning on my face but nothing horrible. I need something.

I was taking about 6 different things I found in a nutrition store when she gave me the first bad news, but I cant imagine it made that much difference in 1 week. I think the lab just screwed up (doesn't give me much confidence). I'm going to take a less panicked approach for the next 6 weeks and see if I can really make a diff or not.

I do think that a case could be made for statins, ifffff... you've had a cardiac event or if there is clear evidence of inflammation and blockage. I don't like statins, and I did take them for years. But they do seem to help in some limited cases where it's proven that the cholesterol is resulting in cardiovascular blockages. On the other hand, the vast majority of people are prescribed statins basically prophylactically and that's where the problem lies.

 

[Upgrayedd]

From a dietary perspective, my understanding is that healthy fats promote the HDL ("good") cholesterol, and the main culprit for LDL (“bad”) cholesterol is sugar intake. In short, eat good fats (including saturated fats), and minimize sugar.

Wayne - that, unfortunately, was how I was already eating. I eat an extremely low carb, basically no carb diet. I eat a basically ketogenic diet. But I'm one of the hyper responders who see cholesterol go up, and actually blood sugar and insulin go up as well, despite eating this way. I don't know if it's bad or not, but it doesn't mesh well with the standard medical advice.

 

[Wayne]

I eat an extremely low carb, basically no carb diet. I eat a basically ketogenic diet.

Speaking just from my own experience, when I was first diagnosed with hypothyroidism, my cholesterol levels were quite high. After normalizing my thyroid function, my cholesterol levels came down fairly dramatically. I'm guessing even subclinical hypothyroidism could affect cholesterol levels to one degree or another.​

 

[Upgrayedd]

Speaking just from my own experience, when I was first diagnosed with hypothyroidism, my cholesterol levels were quite high. After normalizing my thyroid function, my cholesterol levels came down fairly dramatically. I'm guessing even subclinical hypothyroidism could affect cholesterol levels to one degree or another.​

That is a great point, and one I am aware of - thyroid issues can definitely effect cholesterol levels.

Unfortunately, I've already been treated for hypothyroidism. I took cytomel and synthroid for years and it never helped my cholesterol.

 

[Remy]

So, earlier this month, my PCP doc draws blood and gives me these #'s:
LDL 479
HDL 77
Trig 113
Total Chol 579!!!
Doc says, there must be a mistake, and has me redo it about 9 days later. This time we get:
LDL 254
HDL 41
Trig 109
Total Chol 317
What the hell, right? So Chol is still high, but it's not insanely high. 317 is pretty much my norm. Trigs are fine, but what bothers me is that my HDL is so much lower than the first reading..

Doc, of course, says you must go on statins. I said, without a VAP test to see particle size and type, or some kind of physical confirmation of plaque and blockage, I'm not having a discussion about statins. I'm starting niacin, and also taking berberine, lactobacillus Reuteri, fiber, and eating more monounsaturated fats/less saturated fats. I see a cardiologist in about 6 weeks for a consult. If I don't have a stroke first.

Have you had an HS-CRP done recently?

 

[Upgrayedd]

Have you had an HS-CRP done recently?

Crp was done this week too - 0.13 - very low, which i pointed out to my doc too when I turned down the statins.

They were supposed to do homocysteine but the lab missed it and didn't do it.

 

[Wayne]

That is a great point, and one I am aware of - thyroid issues can definitely effect cholesterol levels. ...... Unfortunately, I've already been treated for hypothyroidism. I took cytomel and synthroid for years and it never helped my cholesterol.

Some health care practitioners believe high cholesterol levels may actually be some kind of "compensatory" mechanism the body will use under various circumstances. The point I saw made in reference to hypothyroidism, is that it is so stressful, and cholesterol is so GOOD for the body, that the body will intentionally raise cholesterol levels to compensate for the hypothyroidism. It makes a certain amount of sense to me, and if true, I can't help but think the body might raise cholesterol levels for other reasons besides hypothyroidism.

My own understanding is that the main cause of cardiovascular disease is not plaque buildup from cholesterol, but from weakness in the blood vessels, causing clots, aneurysms, etc., usually due to subclinical scurvy. The figure I've seen is these kinds of circulatory problems account for 85% of cardiovascular disease. If so, this would seem to indicate that doctors' fixation on cholesterol levels may not necessarily be well-placed.

I think it goes to show how much we really don't know about how the body works, and why it does certain things. Perhaps letting our cholesterol levels remain high while we're dealing with some unknown causes might not necessarily be a bad thing. Perhaps especially important to consider given that statin drugs have many bad side effects, including depleting the body (and heart) of critical CoQ10.

EDIT: I've also heard that some health care practitioners will actually advise their patients with high cholesterol levels to increase their levels of saturated fats, which can often (paradoxically) lower their cholesterol levels. I met a woman in a checkout stand who, when seeing the eggs I was buying, mentioned that whenever her cholesterol levels start going up, she eats LOTs of eggs, which then brings her levels back down to normal. Go figure!​

 

[Who Me?]

@Remy what is HS-CRP? What labs can I ask for (next week) besides lipid panel to get more information as to what is really going on?

I took on 250 mg slo niacin. Face got a little hot but I expect to be cured once I move up to 500 mgs.

 

[Who Me?]

I was looking at the slo niacin I just got. It came with a small box of 250 mgs and then a bottle of 500 mgsN these are tabs with a score.

The bottle says talk to your doctor if you are taking more than 250 mgs or higher.

Anyone know why that would be? Is there something specific with the slo release?

 

[Remy]

I was looking at the slo niacin I just got. It came with a small box of 250 mgs and then a bottle of 500 mgsN these are tabs with a score.

The bottle says talk to your doctor if you are taking more than 250 mgs or higher.

Anyone know why that would be? Is there something specific with the slo release?

I think the extended release version may be associated with liver issues. Double check me though since it's been ages since I read about the forms of niacin in depth.

 

[Who Me?]

Something in my brain about liver but I think it's from tryptophan I was reading about last night.

Off to search.