Doreen:

I suffer from hight cholesterol myself and diet has helped get mine into a normal range. Your information was very helpful as it is true that it is a balance of HDL and LDH.
Low fat was the key for me. I'm sure that you have made easier for anyone to now go into the doctor's office and make informed decisions about their own health. Thankfully someone has the knowledge to help the rest of us.

Sugar

hi Sugar,

I have heard so many testimonials from people who have corrected their blood chemistry, lowered blood pressure and improved liver and digestive function through dietary change alone, or sometimes also with nutritional supplements. Doctors are too quick to whip out the prescription pad first thing, rather than trying less drastic, and less costly measures.

Cholesterol-lowering drugs are NOT the great panacea their manufacturers would have us think. They can have serious and permanent untoward effects on the liver, gall bladder and digestive function. Obviously, if a person has other high risk factors for heart disease, and the LDL ("bad" cholesterol) level is high, then measures need to be taken to get it down. But the drug alone has not been shown to improve ultimate outcome (this is doctorspeak for "if yer gonna have a heart attack, yer gonna have a heart attack")

Studies have shown that a 10% reduction in weight will also bring about improvement in LDL levels. Consumption of monounsaturated fats, such as olive and flax oil also has beneficial effects on HDL ("good" cholesterol).

Our bodies are all different, and lots of people are successful with weight loss by following a lowfat, high-carb diet. The improvement in blood chemistry and cholesterol levels may be more a result of the weight loss itself, and not so much because of the "low-fatness".

Congrats to you on your weight loss success! Now comes the hard part of Maintenance ...

take care,
Doreen