High Cholesetrol

Hi A.,
When my husband was diagnosed with high cholesterol his Dr. advised him to eat red grapes and take very brisk walks. That was about 8 years ago and he is only now taking a cholesterol drug and he is 67. We have a 14 year old daughter. Physical activity and diet makes all the difference! Hope this helps!

Patti b

Fish oil pills are proven to reduce heart attacks. Exercise is good for HDL. Eat lots of salmon (my favorite recipe: put salmon in a frying pan, pour in some orange juice-enough to almost cover the salmon, then bring to a low boil, simmer until the fish is cooked through). Replace butter with olive oil. Avoid red meat. I use free range eggs with enhanced omega-3 fatty acids. Try adding ground flaxseed to your food. My dad struggled with high cholesterol for years, suffered lots of side effects on one medication after another, then started eating flaxseed. Now he has reasonable cholesterol without taking drugs.

Consider your family history as well. Are there people with early heart attacks (before 50)? That would make it more of a worry than high cholesterol alone.

Hi A.,

I would like to reinforce the info about Omega III fatty acids being very good for cholesterol. Also, a nutritional product that I take for that is called Genesis. Genesis has resveratrol in it that helps to protect and bring balance to the cholesterol issue. resveratrol is the molecule that you get from the red grape skins & seeds. One ounce of Genesis provides a standardized (measured) amount of resveratrol that is equivalent to a whole bottle of red wine! It has much more in it and is good for many other health needs too! Check it out at my website www.symmetrydirect.com/dhendon.
You could even give to your baby to enhance her immune system so all of you can fight off the colds and flus this season.

I can give you more info....

D. Hendon, RDH,SMM
###-###-####
www.symmetrydirect.com/dhendon

Hi A., My cholesterol used to be high and now it's very low. I take high quality supplements and I think that was a large part of the decrease initially, but it really went down when I started eating healthier.....lots of veges and fruits. I don't eat meat and I have also cut out dairy products (with the exception of goat cheese). I love the way I eat now, but I know these things are hard for most people so I do have an additional suggestion for you. Check out this study on eating pecans to help lower your cholesterol: http://www.llu.edu/news/pr/090601pcan.html
There have been additional studies done with almonds and walnuts and eating nuts seems to be a big help. I would advise you, however, to find raw, organic nuts because toxins are stored in fats. Nuts should be rinsed before eating and many of them should be soaked in water to remove the enzyme inhibitors and to make their full nutritional potential available. Just a few guidelines that I pulled from my Cafe Gratitude cookbook: Almonds-soak 12hrs; cashews-8hrs; pecans-2 hrs; walnuts-2 hrs. I have been learning about vegan cooking and most recently I am stumbling through raw food preparation because of some health challenges that I have been having. I would be happy to share some recipes if you think it would be helpful. ____@____.com

Try some Red Yeast Rice, from the local drugstore or health food store. Exercise. Take a baby aspirin every day.

All of those things protect you from heart attack and stroke, which is the whole idea behind controlling your cholesterol.

As a physician I couldn't resist this one....your good cholesterol (called your HDL) can be increased with fish oil supplements, and other things that contain omega-3 fatty acids (like fish, walnuts, etc), as well as red wine. Your bad cholesterol (called your LDL) can be lowered mostly with better diet (low in saturated fats, etc) and mostly with increased exercise. There might be some recipes on the ADA website (for diabetics, but the recipes might be useful). There are medicines that can help, but at your age, I wouldn't put you on one! Hope that helps.

Hi A.;
MonaVie has a new product, it is a whole food acai juice blend with an FDA approved claim that it may help with cholesterol and heart disease, and it has no bad side effects like medicine has. The juice has esters of fatty acids (the great omega's). MonaVie is the only whole fruit drink that has this approved claim. I also can show you the scienctfic studies behind this and talk to you about the results my husband has had with both the good & bad cholesterol! Knowledge is power so I welcome you to check out my website regarding the product but not sure is I can post it here. So please call ###-###-####, leave a message and I will call you back.
If you would like a sample please contact me for that, or if you would like more of the studies let me know. I'll share this information because I beleive in the product and like more natural options. Life is about balance, so eat right & exercise.
S.

Three things have helped me keep my cholesterol lower: exercise daily and go vegetarian or, better still, vegan. It is good for the planet and good for you - dropped my cholesterol 100 points. And I don't even miss the meat. Third, take Red Rice Yeast (health food store) - it is over-the-counter and has been proven by research to lower cholesterol. Good luck.

Dear A.,

Eat oatmeal (steel cut is best) daily. Ground flax seeds on top or flax oil are also good. This alone can help significantly. A good fish oil supplement is also a good idea.

J.
Mom and acupuncturist

I know that oatmeal is great for high cholesterol. To make it more exciting I add it to a multi-grain pancake mix from TJ's and top with bananas and blueberries. I think there is something called Red Rice herb pills but I may be totally off on the name. If I remember I'll let you know!

Check out South Beach diet, I like their regular diet, but found it hard to cook from because it was very involved, then I found their South Beach Diet, quick and Easy: 200 meals in 30 minutes. Great cook book! All kinds of meals for each time of day and they have few ingredients for each recipe as well as taking less than 30 minutes to make. South Beach is very good at dropping your cholesterol (and your weight) if you stick to it. You can find the cook book at Barnes & Noble. Or on Amazon you can find them used and cheap! The regular book has a green cover, the fast one has a gold cover.

A.,
Have you ever heard of MonaVie? It is a nutritional drink,I already know what you are thinking, YUK, but it really tastes great, it has 19 fruits and Resveratrol, Omega Fatty 3's and plant sterols. All of these things combine to help lower your cholesterol. here is a site for more infomation:
www.mymonavie.com/ktm

good luck!

My husband has been drinking MonaVie, which is an organic juice. The main ingredient is the acai berry, but there are 18 other fruits in it as well. He's 39, and since he started drinking it, his bad cholesterol went down, and his good cholesterol went up. His doctor was quite impressed. He can tell you more about it if you want. He can be reached by email at ____@____.com.

I always use allrecipes.com, you can find pretty much everything there, including recipes for different health issues such as lowering cholesterol. Good luck! I'm sure you'll handle it just fine. C.

I just answered a question like this with my pasta bake recipe (which I swear by) so I won't repeat that because you can look it up if you're interested but a great breakfast food is steel cut oats. I make a huge batch on Sunday for my mother and it will last for the whole week.
6 cups water
1.5 cups steel cut oats
boil the water, add oats and stir bringing to a boil for 5 minutes then reduce heat keeping it at a healthy simmer for 30 minutes.
To serve you can mix in milk, soy milk, frozen fruit or fresh, a little brown sugar and cinnamon, just about anything you would normally eat with oatmeal. My mother also likes to add oat bran but I don't know if that affects the taste or not. If you want to try something new you can blend into the water that you boil some fruit for a consistent flavor throughout your oat meal.

Hi A. -- do a little research -- LDL is the BAD cholesterol and HDL is the GOOD -- better, is the ratio between the two -- the best way to lower your numbers is two fold -- significantly limit or omit animal product from your diet -- that is all meats, red is particular, and cheeses....and exercise, exercise, exercise....And even better is to have a GREAT relationship with your doctor -- someone who is on your team for your good health....someone you can talk with and who understands your life and challenges...some of the cholesterol numbers may be genetic, so it is important to know what you can and cannot control...best o fluck!