I have a bit of “bad blood” in my family. I mean, bad blood, as in heart attacks, strokes, blood clots, you know, that kind of bad blood. The other kind of bad blood is beyond the scope of this blog! hehe.
Anyway, as I approached the age that my family members have succumbed to these negative chronic blood related illnesses, I decided to be a little proactive and go in for a medical checkup. What came back was not to my liking. Cholesterol trouble. Cholesterol by any other name is… still bad blood. I knew the results of uncontrolled cholesterol can lead to significant long-term chronic illnesses such as heart disease. Even more alarming, my cholesterol reading wasn’t just my concern. It turns out my cholesterol reading was way more than what the doctor wanted to see for a patient that presents with a family history of bad blood.
I’m freaked out by it. My reading is nearly 250. A little side note: In Miami the blood bank gives back a little handshake about your cholesterol every time you give blood. I regularly give blood, and my cholesterol reading is always right at the top of the “livable” range, around 180-200. But this reading is 30% more than that “livable” range I’d been living. As I said, I’m freaked out. I’m not happy.
Considering my family history, this “high cholesterol” notice set off many sleepless nights. I needed to understand this thing, and I needed to get myself healthy — without medication if at all possible. This diagnosis set off a few years of learning about cholesterol, wellness, community health, and, well, to be honest, concern for my health. I didn’t take this “high cholesterol” statement lightly, and I was 100% all in on trying to do something about it.
This is my story of some of the things I learned along the way, and how I dropped my cholesterol 30%.
Before we go any further, a little legalese.
I am not a medical doctor. I do not play a doctor on TV. I do not play a doctor on radio. The story you are about to read is true (for you Dragnet fans). The story reflects my life, my own health, and my understanding of leading a healthy lifestyle. Use the information here to the best of your ability, consult with your medical professionals, whatever it takes, but this is just my story.
The story you are about to hear is true; not even the names have been changed to protect the innocent [yes, that quote is for you Dragnet fans!]. I’m going to start talking about the “first alert” with my doctor. In the second section I’ll discuss a bit about the science related to cholesterol and eating. In the third section, I’ll discuss what I did to effect positive changes in my cholesterol readings. And finally, I’ll close with some long-term ideas that have helped me. Without further adieu, literally off to the races! (More on that “race” thing in a bit when I talk about running!)
1. Cholesterol by any other name … the doctor’s call
It was bad enough that the doctor calls me, he was concerned enough that he wanted to take immediate action with drugs. After some of what feels like negotiations about just how bad this is (but this really isn’t negotiations with the doctor, it is my going through denial), he says listen, I’ll give you three months to figure it out on your own. If at the end of three months you haven’t figured it out, you are going on medication to keep your cholesterol in control.
Now I’m doubly freaked out. He is concerned enough to make this call instead of just waiting for the next appointment. But I’m also like a dog with a bone, and given the opportunity, I’m going to work hard to figure out what this Cholesterol thing is, what it does, where it comes from, and what I can do about it. And in this case my doctor has given me that opportunity. I thank him for that.
Medication
Just a little more about me and my take on medication. I do not like the idea of being dependent on medication. Please don’t misunderstand me. I know sometimes medication is necessary, and if you need it, please take it. This article is not saying that you should not take your medication! I am absolutely not saying that. But I’m saying, for my case, I wanted to at least try to control my condition more naturally, I’d recommend talking with your doctor about trying to do this on your own before just doing it. There may be extenuating circumstances that you need medications now. Medication helps when natural remedies do not fix the problem, or for temporary control of situations. For example, I am all for using antibiotics for cuts and wounds. Keep those antibiotics covering your wounds until your body can take care of the injury.
But cholesterol medication? I didn’t want to do it. I wonder also, does cholesterol lowering medication change long-term patient outcomes? Or does it wind up just changing the number on the Cholesterol machine? I don’t know the answer to this yet, but I do know that I was willing to go “all in” to change my lifestyle in order to not be a permanent consumer of a statin. Even further, there are many warnings and side effects associated with long-term statin use, including liver damage, intestinal problems, muscle inflammation, type 2 diabetes, and high bloodsugar. While the FDA has identified that the benefits of statins far outweigh the risks, I still wanted to do my best to fix this problem naturally.
2. The sciences
In this section we are going to explore and explain a bit about cholesterol and other artifacts of digestion.
2.a. Cholesterol science – the good, the bad, and the ugly
Since we are talking about cholesterol, it is probably time that I explain what cholesterol is. Cholesterol is a waxy organic substance produced by the liver during the digestive process. Wait, produced by the liver? Like, as in my liver? Yes, you heard this right. All that cholesterol stuff in your body? It isn’t “dietary cholesterol” that you are eating that winds up causing all these health issues, it is the cholesterol produced right in your own body. Double oh my gosh, huh? But with all the negative talk about cholesterol, why is it produced in my body? Is it necessary?
As it turns out, cholesterol is necessary for your body to function. Cholesterol is a necessary component for all animal cells, and enables the cells to maintain structural integrity. Really, your body needs to create cholesterol in order for you to live.
But there is concern over cholesterol. As it turns out, not all cholesterol is the same. As I started researching the topic, I found out that the nasty Cholesterol number is actually a collection of very different numbers, and very different cholesterols. The most important numbers that you will need to recognize are The Good (HDL), The Bad (LDL), and The Ugly (Triglycerides) cholesterols. When you receive a “Total Cholesterol” reading, you are actually receiving a summation of HDL, LDL, and a percentage of Triglycerides.
The good – High density lipoproteins (HDL)
HDL is known as “The Good Cholesterol”. On a biological level, HDL is believed to facilitate a “reverse cholesterol transport”, that is, taking bad cholesterol back to the liver for further processing and redistribution. In a more practical statement, high levels of HDL generally correlate to better health outcomes.
The bad – Low density lipoproteins (LDL)
LDL is known as “The Bad Cholesterol”. LDL winds up sticking to your arteries while it is flowing through your bloodstream. The buildup of cholesterol plaque is called atherosclerosis, and when it is in the arteries of your heart it is called coronary artery disease. The plaque buildup causes the arteries to become hardened and narrowed.
The arteries are carrying oxygen rich blood to your heart. When the arteries are compromised, your heart winds up getting less oxygen. A little less oxygen can cause angina (or chest pains), and a lot less oxygen will cause a heart attack.
The ugly – Triglycerides
Triglycerides are “The Ugly”. Triglycerides are the most common type of fat in your body. Triglycerides come from foods, especially fats such as oils and generally from “extra calories” that you eat but you aren’t using. Your body converts the “extra calories” into triglycerides which are then stored as fat cells. High levels of triglycerides lead to arterial issues, and can contribute to health concerns including heart attack and stroke.
2.b. More science – Glycemic index and glycemic load
As I started trying to understand All About Cholesterol, it became apparent that cholesterol itself isn’t the only thing to understand. Since the “yuck” of cholesterol isn’t the part eaten but instead the part created within one’s body, understanding the digestive process is also important.
Along with many other organs, the pancreas plays a very big part in the digestive process. In simple terms, the pancreas produces insulin to effectively process sugars. Without the pancreas, the sugars would just do crazy things to your body — it would be no good, trust me.
With regard to your body’s response to sugars, the pancreas, and insulin response, there are two key components we need to understand. These two components are Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL). Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load are important concepts to understand with regard to healthy lifestyles.
Glycemic index by definition
Glycemic Index (GI) is a relative measure of how fast the carbohydrates in food are turned to sugars and absorbed into one’s body. It is a measure of how fast the carbs spike your blood glucose levels. Low GI foods produce lower fluctuations in blood glucose and insulin levels, while high GI foods are rapidly absorbed and produce rapid fluctuations in blood glucose levels.
- In general, the more processed or cooked a food product, the higher the GI because the sugars are absorbed earlier in the digestive process. The more fiber and fat in a food product, the lower the GI because the sugars are intertwined with the fibers and fats and are not abso0rbed until later in the digestive process (in the later parts of the intestines).
- For the musicians, think of GI as the “attack”, how fast the sound rises to 100%, how fast sugars rise in the bloodstream, thereby how fast the pancreas has to react to the increase sugars
- For the businessperson, think of GI as the “ramp-up” in a just in time production cycle, how fast the manufacturing system can change to accommodate increased demand, how fast the pancreas can change to accommodate increased blood sugars.
- For the mathematician and scientist, think of GI as how fast the curve reaches peak, how fast the pancreas is reacting to sugars being absorbed in the bloodstream.
Glycemic load by definition
Glycemic Load (GL) is a relative measure of the quantity of carbohydrates in food that will be absorbed into one’s body. It is a measure of how much the carbs will spike your blood sugar levels.
- In general, the more carbs the greater the GL. Meat, poultry, and fish do not have a glycemic response because they do not contain carbohydrates. This is of course dependent on how they are processed and prepared. Add breading and deep fry? You are no longer purely eating meat, poultry, and fish.
- For the musicians, think of GL as the entirety of the attack/decay/sustain/release cycle, the amount of sound produced from the time the key is pressed until the sound is no longer audible. It isn’t just the duration of sound, it is the “amount” of sound under the ADSR curve. It is the totality of sugars that are ingested into the bloodstream, the entirety of the pancreatic reactive process
- For the businessperson, think of GL as the entirety of widgets produced. It is not the duration of production, it is the total quantity of widgets produced. In the same way, the pancreas has to produce a certain amount of insulin to combat the sugars that have been absorbed in the bloodstream.
- For the mathematician and scientist, think of GL as the area under the curve, the totality of the pancreatic response to sugars in the bloodstream.
3. How I fixed my life! Or at least fixed my cholesterol readings
Being armed with all this information can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be! Let’s concentrate on one piece at a time, and try to tie it back to what we have learned about cholesterol.
While there are quite a few ideas that helped me, and may help you, they really are just focused on three ideas
- Lose some weight
- Eat more healthy
- Get some exercise
It sounds so simple! Almost too simple! Well, it is simple, but it is also very difficult. Most of my friends were telling me just take my statin like everyone else and be done with it. Like I said though, I didn’t want to do that, for a myriad of reasons.
So after doing this for a few years, here are a number of handy do’s and don’ts that helped me, and may help you.
Liquids
Drink more water
Actually, I need to amend the title of this section. Don’t drink “more” water. Drink ONLY water. No more cola, no more fruit juices, no more Gatorade, no more smoothies (yes, no more smoothies!!!), no more coffee, no more tea, no more sparkling water, no more beer, no more vodka, no more rum, no more anything but… water.
Wait, this sounds crazy, you might be saying. It is not crazy. When you go to a restaurant… ask for a cup of water. When you are asked about “supersizing it”, ask for a supersized cup for your water instead. When the folks at work are getting ready for Cuban coffee… well, I have to tell you, being The Guy from Miami, this was tough. I actually even quit the Cuban coffee addiction. I encourage you to leave it too, but I understand, let’s not get too crazy.
If your tap water is potable, I recommend the water from your tap for all your drinking needs. Buy or otherwise obtain a cup that is at least 24 ounces. Fill it up at least once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once at night. That is 72 ounces, and is a good start. If you can’t quite drink this much, you will work up to it. Promise.
Running for my life
As I read all the many articles on cholesterol and health … bad things, good things, obtuse things … I reflected on my last 45 years of living. Through no fault of my own, I, like most Americans, had fallen into the same old dull routine of not exercising sufficiently.
And if you believe this to be true about your own life, then you really need to reconsider your life. That “through no fault of my own” meme-age? Get that nasty thought out of your head! It is absolutely every bit my fault that I stopped exercising, and it is every bit your fault if you don’t exercise. If you are really interested in getting more healthy, you have to own your situation.
So…. repeat after me. “Through every fault of my own, I have fallen into the same old dull routine of not exercising sufficiently.”
And now that you own it, do something about it!
For me, I started running, something I had not done since high school. For that three-month period between diagnosis and retest, I ran every single day, rain or shine, bar nothing. I ran 3.5 miles every single day. Well, I didn’t run the whole distance, I ran and I walked and I ran again, then walked again. I sweated the excess energy out of my body. Every. Single. Day. Someone in my family met me at the end of one of my runs and said, “Gosh, you act like you are running for your life!” And I said, I am.
Move your body. Walk. Exercise. Weight train. Get your heart rate up. The belief is that exercise will increase your good HDL cholesterol. I believe it did this for me. Even if it doesn’t help your cholesterol, it will help your health.
Lose some weight
Let me give you a little history. I’m 6’2-ish, and weighed around 185 before moving to Miami. After moving to Miami, I stopped exercising as much, and I changed my eating habits. Well, over the course of two years, I ballooned nearly thirty pounds! I was up to just above 210 on an average day. Oh my gosh, my clothes dryer was terrible on my clothes and shrunk everything! Yeah…. no, do not say that. Remember, OWN IT! I had become bloated, fat, flabby. Not good things.
Trust me on this. Losing some weight is going to be easier than you think. Drinking more water and no more anything other than water…. is going to help. Exercise…. is going to help.
Just try this. Remember, don’t complain about it, just try it out. Before every meal, drink at least one 500ml container of water. Why? It is all based on displacement theory! Drinking water is the equivalent of a stomach shrinking Bariatric surgery! You have less room in your stomach for food, and you will be forced to eat less. Drink at least another cup of water while you are eating. And no, I’m not talking about a small cup of water. I’m talking about a large cup (or several large cups) of water.
Avoid added sugars
Gosh, like everyone, I love desserts. Filled with carbohydrates and added sugars, what is not to love? See that yum dessert next to this paragraph? Don’t eat it. There is absolutely nothing good in that thing. Okay, other than the taste.
By report of professional journal articles, sugar is addictive. The more you have, the more you want. What is even worse is that we in the United States at least have been encouraged to eat sugary treats since we were young. Does anyone remember Tang and KoolAide commercials? I do. I also remember going to the dentist, and there being a big bowl of lollipops and other horrible kids treats. It took me years, but I remember eventually wondering why in the world a dentist would be serving lollipops in his waiting room. Looking back with a suspicious eye, I expect he was trying to make sure he would always have business. Really terrible… but effective marketing.
Eat more fruits and vegetables
Did your mom tell you to eat your fruits and vegetables? Well, if she didn’t, I am. Don’t worry so much about eating less meat as worry about eating more fruits and vegetables. It will just happen that you wind up eating less meat in the process. Portion control happens by displacement theory.
Fruits and vegetables have fiber, and fiber is going to help your insides. Now many people are going to tell you that fruits have fructose, and fructose is just no good for you! I’m not going to say some magical thing like “oh but this is natural fruit sugars instead of processed sugar.” I agree that sugars can be damaging to your body, and sugar is sugar regardless of whether it is table sugar or fruit sugar. What I am going to say is this, and you can quote me, “You will get sick of eating apples before you get sick on eating apples.”
Eat oatmeal
Oatmeal is loaded with carbohydrates. It is high Glycemic Load, and high Glycemic Index. So why in the world would I say to eat oatmeal? Because oatmeal is also loaded with soluble fiber! Soluble fiber is known to decrease LDL.
But…. and there is always a but…. eat plain oatmeal. Not from one of those little packages, but from a big box of oatmeal. I know, this is going to take some getting used to. It took me a few years. You can mix it up a bit if you’d like by adding an apple, or adding nuts.
Eat yogurt
Yogurt is a great source of protein, and gut healthy bacteria. Be careful though. Flavored yogurt is loaded with added sugars!
I started with flavored regular yogurt. Turns out flavored regular yogurt has as much added sugar as cola! Don’t eat this one.
Then I graduated to Greek flavored yogurt with half as much added sugar. This took me a while to get used to.
Then came Aldi’s vanilla Greek yogurt with only 8 grams added sugar (12 grams total sugar). It is the least added sugar I’ve found other than plain Greek yogurt with no added sugar.
I’m now eating plain Greek yogurt, and it is delicious! Add as much fruits as you wish, and even if you need to add a little sugar until you get used to it.
Eat fish
You may have heard this before, but you should be eating at least two servings of fish per week. Even more is better. Fish is loaded with proteins with hardly any saturated fats. The oily fish also have brain healthy Omega-3 fatty acids that have a positive effect of lowering triglycerides.
When selecting your fish, concentrate on fatty fish like tuna, salmon, lake trout, mackerel, sardines, and herring. My favorites are lightly seared Tuna encrusted with flax and sesame seeds, and crusty Salmon.
While I’m not a huge fan of canned tuna, it is very convenient. If that is what you have available, then do your best at eating a few cans a week.
Do not juice! No more smoothies!
You know that Omega 1000 you have on your counter? And the Nutribullet? Get rid of them. Here’s why.
Believe it or not, digestion is supposed to start in your mouth. Your teeth break up the food into small pieces, your saliva then coats the food and continues the digestion process. Your body was made to masticate and chop up food! If you send your food through a processor, your body is no longer doing what it wants to do by beginning the digestive process in your mouth. Now please realize I’m simplifying the process here to make it easy to understand. Your body and the digestive process is quite complex, We’ll be concentrating on making this simple.
Do you remember where we discussed Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load? Well, here is the meat of it: Juicing destroys all the good stuff in food!
Picture this: If you have an apple and you chew on it, and swallow it, chunky apple bits hit your stomach. This apple has a set amount of sugars, and a set amount of fiber, and a set amount of a bunch of other things. Your stomach then continues the digestive process, churns the apple, makes it even softer. Your pancreas has to zap the sugars that are being absorbed into your bloodstream at your stomach with insulin to keep your sugar counts in check (this is the Glycemic Index, how fast your body has to react to the absorption of the carb). It winds up that some of the sugars are being transported into the intestines collected as part of the fiber chains, and your pancreas has to continue to work with the sugar absorption for awhile. What we wind up with is a long curve pancreatic response to the sugars.
On the other hand, picture a glass of apple juice. First, there are a LOT of apples in that glass of apple juice (meaning, the Glycemic Load is greater than a single apple). But there is a second part of this. Since the apple juice has already been chewed up, the sugars are absorbed into your bloodstream as soon as the apple juice hits the stomach. The Glycemic Index has just increased significantly. When you eat the whole fruit, your body processes some of the carbs into sugars when the food hits your intestines. When you are juicing, your body has to process most of the carbs as soon as the food hits your stomach.
No more cola!
Whether you call it coke, pop, cola, fizzy, soft drink, or soda, they are all bad for you. They are all loaded with tons of added sugar. The Glycemic Index for this fizzy soft pop drinks is 100 — the same as pure sugar.
One 16 ounce container (the same as one 16 ounce bottle of water) contains 55 grams of added sugar. It is a LOT of sugar! Just to think about this a bit: a golf ball weighs only 45 grams (LESS than the sugar in a single coke), a tennis ball weighs about the same as this amount of sugar. This 55 grams of sugar is about the same as two mice!
It is even worse when one takes into account the journals that identify sugar as addictive. As they say for all drugs, Just Say No!
Avoid processed foods
When it comes to your health, the less processed the better. As a rule of thumb, if it came off a tree or bush (peppers, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, apples, oranges, pears, lettuce, avocados, tomatoes), eat all you wish. There are exceptions such as white potatoes.
On the other extreme, the more processed, the worst for your health. Breads are worse than oats, cheese is worse than milk, fried fish is worse than raw tuna, apple juice is worse than raw apples, sliced deli chicken is worse than a chunk of chicken breast, tuna salad is worse than tuna steak.
4. Long term results and a few concluding ideas
Over the last few years, my healthy habits have come and gone and come back. Going back to bad habits are just so easy.
As your diet and healthy habits evolve, do your best to keep yourself in check. Find a place where you can keep an eye on your health, cholesterol, and other “bad signals” your body is trying to tell you. Keep in contact with your primary care physician. Find a health center where you can receive minor checkups too.
But hey, don’t be more crazy about all this than you are willing to be. If you lapse back to your old ways, hey, it happens. I’d recommend not being religious in the long-term about your new diet and your new self. Sure, go wild for as long as you can. But for me, for example, I’ve concentrated on a few long-term artifacts. I eat lots of fruits, I eat fish, I run a couple of times a week, I drink a LOT of water, and I eat oatmeal nearly every day.
Most of all though, enjoy the new heart healthy you!
References
- Statin, “Which Medicines Lower “Bad” (LDL) Cholesterol?”, https://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/guide/cholesterol-lowering-medication
- Cholesterol levels, “The Recommended Cholesterol Levels by Age”, https://www.healthline.com/health/high-cholesterol/levels-by-age
- Different kinds of cholesterol, “HDL (Good), LDL (Bad) Cholesterol and Triglycerides”, http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Cholesterol/HDLLDLTriglycerides/HDL-Good-LDL-Bad-Cholesterol-and-Triglycerides_UCM_305561_Article.jsp
- Cholesterol, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholesterol
- Glycemic Index, http://www.glycemicindex.com/
- “Glycemic Load and Glycemic Index: What’s the Difference and Why Does it Matter?”, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/riva-greenberg/gl-and-gi_b_863126.html
- “Apple Juice May Be Worse than Sugar Water”, https://nutritionfacts.org/video/apple-juice-may-be-worse-than-sugar-water/
- “We Don’t Mean to Ruin Smoothies, But…”, https://www.motherjones.com/food/2016/03/are-smoothies-devil/
- “Cholesterol, Lipoproteins and the Liver”, https://courses.washington.edu/conj/bess/cholesterol/liver.html
- “5 of the Healthiest Fish to Eat (and 5 to Avoid)”, http://www.eatingwell.com/article/69763/5-of-the-healthiest-fish-to-eat-and-5-to-avoid/
- “Omega-3 in fish: How eating fish helps your heart”, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-disease/in-depth/omega-3/art-20045614
- “Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids”, http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/HealthyEating/HealthyDietGoals/Fish-and-Omega-3-Fatty-Acids_UCM_303248_Article.jsp#.WvuHLmgvyMo
- “Triglycerides: Why do they matter?”, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/triglycerides/art-20048186
- “Experts Agree: Sugar Might Be as Addictive as Cocaine: It’s legal, socially accepted, and lurking in everything we eat”, https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/experts-is-sugar-addictive-drug
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