Training & Nutrition - Cholesterol thread revisited

There were a couple of threads on this subject and I searched for them but couldn't find them. Anyway, I'm a high cholesterol guy and have family history of it as well. My father at one point was walking around with a number of 420 before he had a stroke. I had 300 at one point and did the medication thing and it got down to 220. I started experiencing bad side effects and ended up switching to other drugs only to experience more side effects.

I had enough and took myself off the meds. I'm now at 190 with my LDL (bad cholesterol) at 127. How did I do it? I exercise 3 or 4 times a week with an hour of good cardio (kickboxing) and I do weights for about 15 to 20 minutes. On top of that, a bike ride to the gym one way that goes about 20 minutes.

I take 2 of these pills called Cholest-Off by Nature's Way twice a day 15 minutes before breakfast and dinner, I eat a cereal called Simply Fiber every morning, and I drink a tall glass of Metamucil every morning and every night. I generally eat sandwiches with low fat or fat free mayo or no mayo, lots of salad with chicken chunks sometimes, baked salmon, veggies, or anything else that's generally low in fat, and try to watch the percentages on the back of the packages to make sure I'm eating stuff below 10% cholesterol.

I still eat fried chicken occasionally, I had some linguini with bolognese sauce 2 weeks ago, and I recently had prime rib and on another occasion a good ribeye though I must say that I can't stomach red meat anymore ( I enjoy the taste but it's been painful to digest lately due to my new diet).

I think it's mainly the exercise that's been helping the most. Either way, I'm proud of myself. I just wanted to put in my $0.02 on the subject though late in the game.

BTW, I couldn't get the Felt F90 due to some ordering thing (already discussed in another thread) and the Jamis Satellite deal was snatched before I could do it. I went with choice 3.

I am now the proud owner of a Trek 1000. I'm very happy and comfortable on it and I'm riding (when it's not raining). I guess that's all that matters.

I think those threads were in the 50+ forum.

I think those threads were in the 50+ forum.


My doctor has me on Zocor and I'm 34 and ride 7000 miles a year. Cholesterol is one of those things that is better to fix as soon as you can.

My doctor has me on Zocor and I'm 34 and ride 7000 miles a year. Cholesterol is one of those things that is better to fix as soon as you can.

I agree with you, Paul.

I'm 35.

My doc said he wished he had my cholesterol, and blood pressure. And I come from a background with bad history.I use to be a mess. Exercise and diet works. No meds here...Good job.

I'm on Lipitor now. Despite diet and exercise, my cholesterol was in the 270 range. In fact, exercise only lowered my good cholesterol. Doc still hasn't figured out why that would be. My wife, who eats the same stuff as me, was told by her doc to eat more bacon and real butter, because her cholesterol was too low. She used to be a couch potato, but she's getting better about exercising.

There were a couple of threads on this subject and I searched for them but couldn't find them. Anyway, I'm a high cholesterol guy and have family history of it as well. My father at one point was walking around with a number of 420 before he had a stroke. I had 300 at one point and did the medication thing and it got down to 220. I started experiencing bad side effects and ended up switching to other drugs only to experience more side effects.

I had enough and took myself off the meds. I'm now at 190 with my LDL (bad cholesterol) at 127. How did I do it? I exercise 3 or 4 times a week with an hour of good cardio (kickboxing) and I do weights for about 15 to 20 minutes. On top of that, a bike ride to the gym one way that goes about 20 minutes.

I take 2 of these pills called Cholest-Off by Nature's Way twice a day 15 minutes before breakfast and dinner, I eat a cereal called Simply Fiber every morning, and I drink a tall glass of Metamucil every morning and every night. I generally eat sandwiches with low fat or fat free mayo or no mayo, lots of salad with chicken chunks sometimes, baked salmon, veggies, or anything else that's generally low in fat, and try to watch the percentages on the back of the packages to make sure I'm eating stuff below 10% cholesterol.

I still eat fried chicken occasionally, I had some linguini with bolognese sauce 2 weeks ago, and I recently had prime rib and on another occasion a good ribeye though I must say that I can't stomach red meat anymore ( I enjoy the taste but it's been painful to digest lately due to my new diet).

I think it's mainly the exercise that's been helping the most. Either way, I'm proud of myself. I just wanted to put in my $0.02 on the subject though late in the game.

BTW, I couldn't get the Felt F90 due to some ordering thing (already discussed in another thread) and the Jamis Satellite deal was snatched before I could do it. I went with choice 3.

I am now the proud owner of a Trek 1000. I'm very happy and comfortable on it and I'm riding (when it's not raining). I guess that's all that matters.

Not so fast...

The desired LDL has recently changed from under 100 to ideally under 80. Mine is 66 (10 mg Zocor). High LDL is not good, and if you have LDL pattern B, you can die of sudden cardiac arrest. A local triathalete had cardiac arrest while swimming - autopsy showed him to be clean and green, but he had the incredibly dangerous LDL pattern B, and his LDL was too high. You have done great work with what you have done, but you should seriously look into a small dose of statins.

My doctor says I'm looking good and to keep it up. I told me that he saw no reason for me to be on drugs at this moment. My triglycerides look good according to him and my HDL looks good.

I'll try to get it lower but I seriously think that the ideal change to 80 from 100 may have something to do with the pharm companies trying to sell my drugs. I could be wrong.

My doctor says I'm looking good and to keep it up. I told me that he saw no reason for me to be on drugs at this moment. My triglycerides look good according to him and my HDL looks good.

I'll try to get it lower but I seriously think that the ideal change to 80 from 100 may have something to do with the pharm companies trying to sell my drugs. I could be wrong.

He obviously knows best, and candidly the lab that I use publishes LDL proper reading as less than 130. There just has been lots of buzz about the benefits of the lower LDL lately. Yup, the pharmacutecal companies love selling us their wares!!

the lab that I use publishes LDL proper reading as less than 130

The "ranges" printed on lab paperwork are only vaguely meaningful. For some tests, it tells you how their equipment is calibrated, and you can only compare numbers for that test with other numbers from that lab. But for a lot of tests, it's a standard of questionable relevance. I've seen printouts using standards that have been considered dangerously innaccurate for over a decade. Now, the proper LDL range has been debated very recently, so it's not one of those, but don't consider the "standard" range from a lab to be meaningful in any way.

Bruce

I think those threads were in the 50+ forum.

I've had elevated cholesterol since I was 11 years old! For some people it's a family thing. I'm not overweight, I commute 24 miles round trip 4 days a week. I have to be very careful what I eat because I do not want to go on meds unless it's necessary. Winter tends to be harder since I don't ride as much and there are no veggies growing in my garden. But spring is around the corner, and I'm planting spinach in my garden this weekend.

Thanks for reviving/restarting the thread.

while this discussion is important, it should be noted that a reduced and proper ratio (3:1 good to bad cholesterol) minimizes your risk of stroke or coronary episode>> does not eliminates the chances.
If you are doing everything else right in your health lifestyle, then this discussion has substance.

(ex: if your cholesterol is 160 and you don't wear your seatbelt....cholesterol levels might not be your biggest problem)

I like Crestor. It is the newest Statin and does a great job for most people.

HDL and LDL are independant risk factors and should be addressed separately. Often people do well on a combination of Niaspan for HDL and a statin such as Crestor for LDL.

bakhurts

Does Crestor offer any benefit not found in Lipitor?

I dunno what to say. Exercise has really helped my cholesterol. I was at 290 in 2001 (I was 15 years old) and I'm down to around 135 (ratio fo 4 I believe) now. The weird thing is bad cholesterol runs in my family to the point where exercise didn't help. It's weird like that.

Very little difference compared to Lipitor, maybe a little more HDL effect and a little more LDL reduction. One of the FDA guys mentioned he felt it had not been adequately studied before getting approval, but there certainly seems to be a lot of data on it. I wouldn't switch if Lipitor is doing the job.

bak

I am one of the borderline people. I am now 53. Unmedicated LDL is about 133. If I am not working out much my HDL sits at about 41 always had low tryglicerides and a ratio of less than 5.

I had a CAT scan about 3 years ago because I was getting migraine headaches and nothing showed abnormal except for something that looked like an old stroke (a lacune or empty space). I never had any TIA symptoms and my family doctor thought there was nothing wrong with me but referred me to a neurologist. He said at the time that if I had not already been on daily ASA (325) he would put me on it immediately just in case.

About 3 months later went to see the neuro, he did a full physical and then told me yep I had had a stroke. Freaked me out. He put me on a drug called Aggrenox (used for high risk stroke patients) and sent me for a million blood tests. All came back negative but he thought I should be treated for borderline high BP (135/90) and my borderline cholesterol. Didn't help when I read that anyone who has suffered a stroke or TIA while on asprin therapy is at a tenfold greater risk to have a serious stroke event within 5 years compared to someone who was not on asa.

Ended up on Altace and Lipitor and really upped my workouts. Was told I had no restrictions as far as working out.

Finally after about a year I had the MRI and it showed no stroke, the space was something I was born with and not the result of a stroke. Had a follow up MRI 2 years later that confirmed that diagnosis and 100% eliminated stroke from the picture.

Since then I have been toying with getting off the meds and took a 6 months off Lipitor 2 years ago to see what would happen. On Lipitor (10mg) my LDL went to 90 after 6 months and the workouts had upped my HDL to about 50. When I went off the Lipitor my LDL went back to 133 and my HDL stayed about the same as long as I kept up the workout routine.

ABout a year ago I decided to go back on a statin since I had had no side effects at all and 90 looked alot better than 133. it was a decision arrived at after a long discussion with my family doctor. It was me that innitiated the discussion, not him wanting to push pills on me.

He put me on 10 mg of Crestor and after 6 months my LDL dropped to 63 and my HDL had risen to 65. I do not know what effect the Crestor had on my HDL although it is the only statin known to boost HDL, because I started a very intense cardio workout regime about the time I started the Crestor and worked out harder and more regularly than I had ever done before.

I went to a new cardiologist in December and had a nuclear stress test and he suggested that I switch from Crestor to Lipitor due to the controversy over Crestor. He felt that since I was in a fairly low risk category there was no need to take something that might be potentially troublesome when there were other proven safe alternatives. Will get my results at the end of this month after 3 months on Lipitor.

I keep wondering whether or not to stop the statin, I am happy to stay on the BP meds though. The Universal feeling among the doctors I have seen is that controlling BP and keeping it as low as possible is really important. The statin is more or less optional at his point and I may go off again and test in 6 months to see what efffect my workouts are having especially on my HDL.. If I can maintain an HDL over 60 without a statin, then I would be ok with letting my LDL go back to 133. I do not even know yet if my HDL has stayed over 60 after I switched from Crestor to Lipitor since this will be my 1st test since switching.

It's tough when you are healthy to know what to do to try and keep healthy, without damaging yourself. My family doctor says that he has found Niacin (used to boost HDL) to cause more side effects than any statin and that he would not recommend it unless I had run out of options.

I don't know what my cholesterol is. (I'm 50) When I went to the doc on my last visit she wanted to draw blood to check it out. I told don't bother. I'm not gonna change my life style. I always excercise and eat fairly well. I can't see changing any of this. I don't like the meds. Especially reading some of these post and talking to others. It seems the medical profession hasn't quite worked out the bugs on the meds. I see the older population(my parents) age I don't want to be like them. They are old and have lived great lives(both in the 80's) but over the last few years...lots of pills, lots of doctors. Not for me. I know it's easy for me to say as i don't need any now but....we'll see.