Bad/good cholesterol

[Night Elf]

How do I lower the bad cholesterol and triglycerides and increase the good cholesterol? (Is that how to word it?)

 

What foods have cholesterol besides egg yolks, which I quit eating a couple of years ago? I no longer eat as many unhealthy foods as I used to eat. I do still have canned items like veggies. Our spaghetti is jar Ragu, although we used to make it with tomato sauce and spices. Oh, I can't list everything I eat although I think it's mostly limited. Are there particular types of foods to avoid and/or eat to lower bad numbers?

 

I've been on Simvastatin for a couple of years. I'm losing weight and I would like to get off of it. I asked my doctor and she said that once you're on it, you're pretty much always on it. I can't see that being the case if I get to a healthy weight, and continue eating right. I'm still trying to get into an active mode though.

 

What do you think?

[Lawana]

Eliminating/greatly reducing sugar/refined carbohydrates will help with the triglycerides. Exercise helps both triglycerides and HDL (good cholesterol). Some people have seen a drop in LDL with exercise and low carb. Some with vegetarian/vegan. Some don't see much of a drop at all, due to inherited high LDL. (That would be me.)

 

You might consider asking your doctor to order further studies to see if your LDL is primarily of the "light fluffy" kind or the "small dense" kind. It seems that the light fluffy kind doesn't do the damage that the small dense kind does.

 

Also, there is *not* a consensus that high cholesterol is uniformly bad.

[BatmansWife]

Eliminating/greatly reducing sugar/refined carbohydrates will help with the triglycerides. Exercise helps both triglycerides and HDL (good cholesterol). Some people have seen a drop in LDL with exercise and low carb. Some with vegetarian/vegan. Some don't see much of a drop at all, due to inherited high LDL. (That would be me.)

 

You might consider asking your doctor to order further studies to see if your LDL is primarily of the "light fluffy" kind or the "small dense" kind. It seems that the light fluffy kind doesn't do the damage that the small dense kind does.

 

Also, there is *not* a consensus that high cholesterol is uniformly bad.

 

Lawana, what do you do about your inherited high cholesterol? I have that too. I have tried to eat low fat/low cholesterol for *years* and it really doesn't do a thing. Dh can eat all the bacon and eggs he wants and his levels will always be lower than mine. :glare: Are you on any medication? That's kind of the next step my doctor wants to take....but I am only 44 and I'm not too thrilled about this idea.

[Lawana]

Lawana, what do you do about your inherited high cholesterol? I have that too. I have tried to eat low fat/low cholesterol for *years* and it really doesn't do a thing. Dh can eat all the bacon and eggs he wants and his levels will always be lower than mine. :glare: Are you on any medication? That's kind of the next step my doctor wants to take....but I am only 44 and I'm not too thrilled about this idea.

I do exactly nothing. I've made extreme diet changes in the past (Eat to Live, vegan) and saw improvement in triglycerides and HDL, but *not* LDL. Both dh and my mother have had severe side effects from statin drugs, so I will not do that. Most of the relatives on my mother's side have high cholesterol, but without heart disease. (Maternal grandmother died at 99 without CVD, but with high cholesterol.) Unfortunately, my mother does have heart disease, despite being religiously on the low fat bandwagon for years, but from what I've seen her go through, I will trade the risk of a CV incident for avoiding a greatly reduced quality of life.

 

From the reading I have done, I'm just not convinced that high LDL is always a problem.

[BatmansWife]

I do exactly nothing. I've made extreme diet changes in the past (Eat to Live, vegan) and saw improvement in triglycerides and HDL, but *not* LDL. Both dh and my mother have had severe side effects from statin drugs, so I will not do that. Most of the relatives on my mother's side have high cholesterol, but without heart disease. (Maternal grandmother died at 99 without CVD, but with high cholesterol.) Unfortunately, my mother does have heart disease, despite being religiously on the low fat bandwagon for years, but from what I've seen her go through, I will trade the risk of a CV incident for avoiding a greatly reduced quality of life.

 

From the reading I have done, I'm just not convinced that high LDL is always a problem.

Thanks for the additional information.

[Cinder]

My dh has significantly reduced his triglycerides through a low carb diet and increased exercise. By low carb I really mean eliminating simple carbs and starches; he still eats lots of regular veggies. His trigs went from over 1000 to under 150. He had been taking a statin (can't remember which one) but hadn't seen significant changes like he did with diet changes. After many years he stopped taking it. When he stopped eating simple carbs he started eating a lot more eggs and his cholesterol numbers didn't changed much. But recently (after working diet and exercise for a few years and recently increasing his exercise) he's also seen some small improvement in his cholesterol numbers.

[ktgrok]

It really doesn't matter how much cholesterol you eat, as your body will adjust how much it makes based on other factors. You need some cholesterol. I would eliminate trans fats, weird modern oils like canola/corn oil, and use real food ingredients like butter, olive oil, etc. Eat grass fed meat if you can, it has good omegas that are heart healthy. Limit sugar and carbs, other than fruit. That is what I did and I dropped mine to 145.

[LG Gone Wild]

Red wine?

 

I have had high cholesterol (bad one) forever. My doc said she wasn't worried because I also had a lot of the good cholesterol.

 

I think the only time it changed is when, for Lent one year, I quit meat and lived on Cheese Whiz on Wheat Thins. Well, I am not doing that again.

 

Finally, I just gave up. I am permanently at 232.

[Michelle in AL]

Just got done studying this chapter for nurse practitioner school.

 

Diet has very little effect on cholesterol level. :001_huh: Most of the increased level of cholesterol comes from endogenous cholesterol that is produced from inside your body regardless of diet. That is why it is hard to come off your meds. The meds aren't curing your high cholesterol, they're just lowering it. Once you come off, your levels will return to pre drug levels in 3-4 weeks.

 

Foods to avoid: Saturated fats are your worst culprit. Choose low fat cheese and dairy products. Dairy products with full fat are a big culprit. Avoid even low fat cream cheese and sour cream.

 

Choose fish, turkey, chicken and lean meats.

 

One egg yolk a day is fine.

 

All veges and fruits are OK, even canned.

 

Home made baked goods are OK if cooked with unsaturated oils sparingly! Whole grains are good. Avoid butter and coconut oil and other tropical oils.

 

Exercise and weight loss are great too.

 

IF you can take Simvastin without untolerable side effects it is a good drug. It has proven to decrease MI, strokes, decrease cardiovascular disease and death. It's also being investigated for preventing a host of things such as alzheimers, MS, kidney disease, osteoporosis and even cancer.

[Night Elf]

Thank you for the information ladies. It sounds like I may not be eating as poorly as I thought I was, except for sugar. I'm not a huge sweets person but I am a carb lover. Apparently, sugar is hidden in so many things. I was trying to read up on it but I am amazed at how much I would have to stop eating. It's very stressful to think about. Ugh.

[Negin]

Beth, I have lots and lots of info on cholesterol and triglycerides and will be more than happy to share them (very long and detailed tips) if you're interested.

Yesterday, I finished reading a very, very interesting book - Why We Get Fat. Here's my thread on it. He goes into depth on cholesterol. Basically, sugar and most carbs are the main culprits. His book is changing my way of thinking. I used to eat the way he says, not completely, but quite a bit, and interestingly, my cholesterol and all the detailed parts of it, plus my weight, were at the best they'd ever been. I'm now eager to hopefully try this approach for at least 6-12 weeks and see how it goes. I personally don't have a cholesterol problem, but I would love to lose some weight and just feel healthier overall.

Eggs are not that bad. I eat them all the time and my cholesterol is fine.

Sugar and refined carbs are the main problem.