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Originally Posted by LN13
Hi-I just got back from the doctor-I lowered my cholesterol 23 points from 210 to 187 --LDL 116 HDL 58 Triglycerides 67. My doctor said great but exercise more. But look at you- you exercise way more than I do-I'm around 3 days a week-2 days of hard kickboxing. I eat eggs way too much maybe 8 eggs a week. I am convinced it is the Rice Oil I cook with, the flaxseed oil-also great for menapausal symtoms and getting rid of all trans fats-I always ask when I go to a restaurant what kind of oil do you use and is it partially hydrogenated. Maybe you need to just add the good things and not worry so much. I try to watch what I eat but I'm no saint.
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some comments:
(1) those cholesterol numbers are not bad. And I'm finding that raw cholesterol numbers (I.e., HDL/LDL without going into the kinds of LDL involved) can be practically meaningless.
(2) every doctor is going to tell you to exercise more. It's good advice, but it doesn't mean that you are not getting "enough" exercise, just that more will usually be better.
(3) I don't know a thing wrong with eating 8 eggs per week. I eat more than 14. The idea that eggs are bad for you has even been abandoned by many of the low-fat people. Eating cholesterol may have little or no relationship to blood cholesterol, which by itself has little relationship to much of anything. It depends on so many factors....
(3) I was advised for years to cut back on the fat to get my cholesterol numbers -- similar to yours -- down. It is entirely possible that my efforts to do so harmed my health. I do know that now I've completely abandoned the idea that saturated fats are BAD, I eat all the butter, cream, and meat that I want, I've lost weight, and I feel *much* better. I'm even a bit motivated to exercise... but I wouldn't want to get
extreme about this! Of course, I have eliminated 90% of the carbs in my diet.
"Okay, smart-pants, but what about your cholesterol?" Well, my LDL cholesterol went through the roof, well over 300 total cholesterol, with modest (not bad) HDL. Triglycerides were good. My doctor wrote a scolding note on the lab results "Terrible. Must see you!" So I went in. He had thought I was doing South Beach, did not know that I had shifted to Atkins. It was a very interesting conversation. He acknowledged what I had read on this forum: some people have naturally high cholesterol, it is familial, and it can happen in families with low rates of coronary disease. He complained that the state of nutritional research is atrocious.
I started thinking about my family. I didn't know about cholesterol levels for anyone in it but myself. So I asked my mother about her cholesterol.
"Oh, I have a problem with it." We had never discussed this before. My mother is 94 years old, lives alone, takes care of herself, has never had any heart problems. But she *has* had a transient ischemic attack, i.e., a mini-stroke. And am I right that cholesterol can protect against strokes? I need to follow this up with her; I don't know if she has ever had treatment for her supposedly high cholesterol. If so, it may have contributed to her *real* problem. There are plenty of doctors that reflexively order drugs to lower cholesterol for even moderate elevations of the levels.
It is conventional wisdom now that cholesterol = bad. Be careful! It is also dangerous to ignore conventional wisdom, it is not always wrong! But the evidence is moving away from cholesterol, per se, being the problem. Besides, the Atkins diet *usually* improves cholesterol numbers after a time. Eat those eggs. Maybe even add some cheese to them. Skip the toast! And, yes, continue to avoid hydrogenated fats.
For my own safety, I got a cardiac CAT scan, and a cardiac stress test. There is no indication of anything more than normal cardiac artery disease for my age (60). In fact, I have less restriction of the arteries than 75% of men my age with no cardiac symptoms, and the only symptom I have that is worrisome at all is the cholesterol. Basically, the doctor agreed that as long as I continued to monitor the situation, my risk was very low.
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