cholesterol suggestions

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MattCo
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cholesterol suggestions

Post by MattCo »

It's been a while since I've been here. I worked on diet, exercise and staying calm. My lipid panel was good last year but I slipped, it came back worse this year and now my doctor would like me to start taking a statin. I'm trying to figure out what to do. Trying to be polite, I went to the wiki first. Well, I went to the lipids, cholesterol, treatment page and read parts of it.

I first learned that hypophillic statins are bad for 4's. I also read the "know your other genetic risks" and, assuming I read my Ancestry .txt file correctly, I lost that roll of the dice. I likely have "higher homoscysteine", "worse health markers on high saturated fat diet," "higher triglycerides and higher risk of heart attack at an earlier age," and "an increased association for heart attacks, both in general and more specifically in so-called early onset myocardial infarctions."

I also watched the what to do about high cholesterol and a few things rang true to me. My BMI is normal (21-ish), I exercise and prefer aerobic. The high fat diet just didn't work. At my best I was eating carbs but they mostly came with the rest of the plant. I also pushed SF as low as I could but really enjoyed olive oil. One thing I'd love if it were true, is that cheese is an okay form of SF? I think I could live off of cheese and nuts as my only form of SF and be very happy. Sometimes I wonder if there's a good diet for me that is not far from what I like to eat when I'm not stressed. When I fall off the wagon it's mostly due to stress.

I guess my question is whether I should just push for a better statin and call it a day or try to figure out a diet that works. One aspect of this is that getting stressed out over diet is counter productive. Trying to decide what to do in a completely chaotic field of information is anything but bliss.

Hopefully that isn't too rambling. Thanks to those that made it this far.
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SusanJ
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Re: cholesterol suggestions

Post by SusanJ »

MattCo wrote:My lipid panel was good last year but I slipped
What were you eating last year that led to a good lipid panel? Can you go back to that way of eating?
MattCo
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Re: cholesterol suggestions

Post by MattCo »

SusanJ wrote:
MattCo wrote:My lipid panel was good last year but I slipped
What were you eating last year that led to a good lipid panel? Can you go back to that way of eating?
That's where I'm going to start.

But I'm wondering if there's a diet that's right for me that I don't know about that might be easier to stay on. I learned about what carbs do to me only because the same doctor that told me to take a bad statin once said my triglycerides were too high and maybe I should look into a low car diet. In the meantime maybe a low carb diet isn't what I need so much as a lower glycemic load diet. Right now, I suspect that's what it is. The one video on that page, "what to do about high cholesterol," said if you're not overweight then a low carb diet isn't going to fix cholesterol problems.
circular
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Re: cholesterol suggestions

Post by circular »

MattCo wrote:Trying to decide what to do in a completely chaotic field of information is anything but bliss.
Well said! I've been on this forum for about eight years since its inception and I still am not convinced by any one diet for myself. I've even considered eating a meal a day each of vegan, plant-rich + animal keto, and carnivore. Or perhaps keto half the week and not keto the other half. Or I could assign days of the week to particular diets.

I listened to an excellent podcast with Zach Bush this morning who seems to argue, I think reasonably, for less of a focus on one diet being better than another (even for an individual) and more focus on addressing the utter disaster that is modern farming (including much that's 'organic') and soil death. I think he's on to something with his big picture focus along with caution that it's easy in response to the problems we face to just adopt a new kind of reductionist thinking. All that's just paraphasing and generally speaking rather than speaking for him, but I think maybe regenerative agriculture is the root solution and the rest is just olive oil on the broccoli. Resist reductionism in all forms, fascilitate holistic coherence … that's my mantra for today. Of course each individual finding their most optimal diet is also beneficial, and I haven't helped you much on that score, I guess because I haven't figured it out either, other than no processed food.
ApoE 3/4 > Thanks in advance for any responses made to my posts.
diehdl1
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Re: cholesterol suggestions

Post by diehdl1 »

Cholesterol is very complex. Perhaps now a little less so. A recent publication in JAMA Cardiology 11-13-21 by N A Marston et al "suggested that apoB may be the primary driver of atherosclerosis and that lowering the concentration of all apoB containing lipoproteins should be the focus of therapeutic strategies". When I read this article, a light bulb lit up for me. Each lipoprotein particle, be it HDL, LDL, IDL, VLDL, or Lp(a), is a transport vehicle which contains a variable quantity of cholesterol and of TG. BUT, each of these lipoprotein particles has only a single apoB component to it. Smaller lipoprotein particles are thought to cause atherosclerosis since they are more easily able to cross the blood vessel inner wall and get into the intima to set off inflammation. Smaller lipoprotein particles for any given "cholesterol" or "TG" level, mean there are more apoB's present. ApoB is a measure of the number of lipoprotein particles, and so indicates if you have an overload of small particles. ApoB is cheap to measure. So tailor your dietary changes to reduce your apoB number.
NF52
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Re: cholesterol suggestions

Post by NF52 »

diehdl1 wrote:Cholesterol is very complex. Perhaps now a little less so. A recent publication in JAMA Cardiology 11-13-21 by N A Marston et al "suggested that apoB may be the primary driver of atherosclerosis and that lowering the concentration of all apoB containing lipoproteins should be the focus of therapeutic strategies". When I read this article, a light bulb lit up for me. Each lipoprotein particle, be it HDL, LDL, IDL, VLDL, or Lp(a), is a transport vehicle which contains a variable quantity of cholesterol and of TG. BUT, each of these lipoprotein particles has only a single apoB component to it. Smaller lipoprotein particles are thought to cause atherosclerosis since they are more easily able to cross the blood vessel inner wall and get into the intima to set off inflammation. Smaller lipoprotein particles for any given "cholesterol" or "TG" level, mean there are more apoB's present. ApoB is a measure of the number of lipoprotein particles, and so indicates if you have an overload of small particles. ApoB is cheap to measure. So tailor your dietary changes to reduce your apoB number.
Thanks for the article! I'm inserting a hyperlink to it so folks can check it out: Association of Apolipoprotein B–Containing Lipoproteins and Risk of Myocardial Infarction in Individuals With and Without Atherosclerosis: Distinguishing Between Particle Concentration, Type, and Content
4/4 and still an optimist!
SBee
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Re: cholesterol suggestions

Post by SBee »

diehdl1 wrote:Cholesterol is very complex. Perhaps now a little less so. A recent publication in JAMA Cardiology 11-13-21 by N A Marston et al "suggested that apoB may be the primary driver of atherosclerosis and that lowering the concentration of all apoB containing lipoproteins should be the focus of therapeutic strategies". When I read this article, a light bulb lit up for me. Each lipoprotein particle, be it HDL, LDL, IDL, VLDL, or Lp(a), is a transport vehicle which contains a variable quantity of cholesterol and of TG. BUT, each of these lipoprotein particles has only a single apoB component to it. Smaller lipoprotein particles are thought to cause atherosclerosis since they are more easily able to cross the blood vessel inner wall and get into the intima to set off inflammation. Smaller lipoprotein particles for any given "cholesterol" or "TG" level, mean there are more apoB's present. ApoB is a measure of the number of lipoprotein particles, and so indicates if you have an overload of small particles. ApoB is cheap to measure. So tailor your dietary changes to reduce your apoB number.
Hello diehdl1 and welcome!
Thank you for joining the conversation and sharing your "aha" moment regarding cholesterol and the apoB component. Your discovery has inspired me to read this article as I would like to understand this idea in greater depth myself!

We noticed you joined the site about a year ago, so you may have already had an opportunity to search some of the areas on the site. However, please allow me to share the following tools/resources to support you in your continued exploration of the site.

The Primer is a detailed and informative resource written by a practicing M.D. with ApoE4/4. It includes information about the biochemistry of the ApoE4 gene and offers a variety of research-based prevention strategies.

The How-To Guide offers tips on how to navigate forums and respond to posts including how to quote members so they get an email notification of your post. It also demonstrates how to use the Search function for topics, and how to subscribe to topics of interest in the forums.

Finally, Our Stories includes stories and experiences of other community members. You are welcome to share your own story if you feel comfortable doing so.

I hope you find these tools useful as you navigate the site. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need additional support. The community is super supportive and offers a lot of great expertise!

Take care and thanks again for your post.

Warmly,
Sue
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