What do I need to ask for to check if my LDL is the "fluffy good Stuff"? I'm in the same boat and don't want to take medication. It always gives my painful leg cramps.

Living in Maine some vitamin D would probably help also. Cholesterol naturally raises in the winter due to lower vitamin D levels.

This article may be comforting to those who are older with rising LDL levels.

judyr, you would need to ask your doctor to test your LDL fractions to see what percentage of the light fluffy (good) kind and what percentage are the small dense (bad) kind. Not all labs in all parts of the country have the equipment necessary to do this test but if you live near a larger city and/or a research university it shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks Lisa N!

How about having a CRP, c-reactive protein, test? I plan to have that done on my next checkup. Many of the LC authors are saying high cholesterol contributes to only about half of heart attacks. Inflammation may be a bigger factor. An article I read in AARP magazine said they would be more concerned about low cholesterol/high CRP as compared to high cholesterol/low CRP.

http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourhe...evelations.html

Aside from a low carb diet, additional excercise should help all the numbers!

DGO1223, whenever plague was examined in furred arteries it was discovered that 70% was from polyunsaturated fats (and guess what, fish oil is polyunsaturated) 23% from saturated fats, and 7% from other sources. Contrary to the cherished views of many, cholesterol is not a problem but rather an unjustified public scare! Cholesterol is essential for good health as it is the substance from which the body makes hormones. Low-cholesterol has some unpleasant side-effects some of which are depression and aggression.

Sprouting seeds, nuts, grains, etc destroys the protein inhibitors and releases in those foods vast amounts of nutrients in preparation for the growth of the plant. This applies only to the early stages of sprouting. Nuts are best sprouted in their shells and the method of doing so can be found from most search engines.

Surely the question is not one of how nutritious an item of food might be but rather what's its downside?

Those numbers look great.

Fish oil raises LDL cholesterol for a minority of people. It raised my quite a bit, and I stopped taking it. Eating fish doesn't have the same effect, and I eat flax meal daily. Also, red yeast rice, which my doctor said was related to the statins but less harmful, has had a tremendousl effect(lowering total by 60, ldl by 30...

Red Yeast Rice is a statins, only a natural, not a manufactured statin.

Please be sure to take CoQ10 with RYR and watch for any side effects, including (but not limited to) memory problems, muscle and joint aches, nerve problems, mood problems.