Cholesterol Test Results

[joelbct]

Got my total cholesterol results back, 131. Anyone else had their's tested since becoming vegan?

 

Given some members of my family have over 200, I think the vegan diet helps me.

 

And I guess next time I have to ask for the HDL/LDL specific tests. Also, I did not fast completely. Had about 1/3 of a vegan organic food bar about 1.5 hours before the test. Only 70 calories. Anyone know if or how this would effect the results?

[DV]

That's a great result, especially if not fasting. I'm not sure how much of an effect the food bar might have had.

 

A full lipid panel gives much more information but I'd bet you have a good HDL/LDL profile with a cholesterol reading in that range.

 

I've had high cholesterol (220's) since my first test over 20 years ago. All of the women in my family have high cholesterol. The good news is that my HDLs are very high which bumps up the total cholesterol number (you want your HDLs high and your LDLs low).

 

Since eating a plant-based diet exclusively, I've managed to drop my total cholesterol to 180 while maintaining a great HDL/LDL ratio. HOWEVER, my plant-eating husband is not doing so well. He also dropped from 230's to 180's but recently went back to the 230's. He also gained 10 pounds in the past year. So, just eating a plant-based diet and exercising regularly is not enough (at least if you're a male in your 50's). You must also keep your overall caloric intake and fat intake in the ideal range for your body.

 

Once this holiday season is over, it's going to be boot camp around here for my hubby.

[Jason]

That's a great test result joel

 

2 years ago my total cholesterol was over 250.

 

Last summer I had it tested and it was 160.

I had 3 bananas 10 minutes before they drew blood this time.

I was donating blood and they didn't want me to be fasting.

 

My blood pressure is also higher than it should be.

 

I've still got quite a bit of excess fat to lose.

Fat loss is my primary goal right now.

I'm confident my numbers will end up where they should be.

[beforewisdom]

You are in good shape.

 

Dr. John McDougal believes that if you can keep your total cholesterol below 165 you can reverse any arterial plaque you have built up.

[beforewisdom]

Cholesterol is only one of 4 nutrients that are involved with cardiovascular disease. The others are:

 

1. Essential Fatty Acids, especially Omega 3 EFAs

 

2. Folic Acid

 

3. Vitamin B-12

 

Everyone thinks of plaque buildup in their arteries as clogging their circulation the way a big wad of bathroom tissue might clog their commode. It doesn't work that way.

 

Cholesterol first has to stick to your arteries, before plaque can accumulate to the point where it will block blood flow. Bad cholesterol is "sticky" cholesterol but there is more to it than that.

 

Human arteries become sticky when they become injured and then become inflamed. They become injured when they are exposed to too much homocysteine in the blood. Homocysteine is a byproduct of protein metabolism. Folic acid and vitamin b-12 neurtalize it, preventing arterial damage and arterial inflammation. Thus your arteries never get sticky in the first place so cholesterol will just slide through.

 

Many people, including vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores do not get nearly enough folic acid, vitamin b-12, and omega 3's.

 

B-12 is hard for the human system to separate from food. People lose that ability bit by bit once they are past 50, if they have smoked, or if they have drank a lot.

 

Folic acid is found in abundance in the green leafy vegetables ( not lettuce ) like mustard greens that normal people work hard to avoid.

 

Omega 3 EFAs provide the raw materials for a human body to manufacture its own anti-inflammatories to keep arteries non-sticky. This is why aspirin is prescribed for people with heart conditions, it is a natural anti-inflammatory. As is ginger. You can get adequate Omega 3 EFAs by eating 1 - 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds per day or eating 1 oz of English walnuts ( not black walnuts ) a day.

 

People with low cholesterol can and do get heart attacks. FWIW, you need to make sure you get these other nutrients and keep your Omega 6 EFAs low ( minimize packaged and fried foods ).

[Odidnetne]

I had it tested when I first went vegan. I forget the actual score, but it was "Really good" said the doctor. I don't know if "really good" means all the running and healthy eating I was doing at the time, or if "really good" is for people who eat lean cuts of meat and take cholesterol pills.

[Guest]

I have yet to get mine tested but it was always low. The last time I got mine tested I was 17...over 300lbs and I was under 120(113 I believe). I'd like to test it to see where I'm at now but I'm a bit lazy. I can imagine its either a bit lower or the same...for some reason all the crap I ate never registered in the cholesterol numbers. I wasn't really a junk food vegan and cholesterol was a small percentage of my diet but when you eat as much I ate it should add up.

[offense74]

@beforewisdom

Very interesting! I knew about homocysteine was acting as an inflammatory agent on the arteries but I never heard the actual connection to heart disease via LDL. Do have any links or books explaining it further?

 

I think it's important to understand that high cholesterol is not a disease in itself. It's a symptom (one of many) of something one might call affluence. I believe (it's my opinion not necessarily based on hard scientific facts) that a lot of mistakes are made due to the believe that high LDL is the disease. McDougall, Esselstyn and their skepticism towards nuts and seeds is a good example. Since they contain fat they have certain short term effects on the cardio vascular system that seems bad. In the long run however, nuts and seeds seem to have only positive effects.

You could actually make an equal connection between blood pressure and working out. Since blood pressure is raised while working out it shod be avoided since high blood pressure is bad. In the long run however the cardio vascular system seems to benefit from working out.

[beforewisdom]

There is a great video about it that I am in the process of working with the guy who made it to get working on his site again.

 

I've met Essyletin, McDougal, and Barnard.......the big vegan anti-fat nazis. They are misunderstood. Barnard happens to believe that if everyone ate enough leafy green that they would get all of their EFAs. That is true, but that rarely happens in reality. None of these men are against nuts, seeds, or even soy. They have all told me that the diets they are famous for are for SICK people......people with cardivascular disease, diabetes etc. They don't see anything wrong with healthy people occasionally using these foods, they just thing it is wrong to make them into dietary staples and eat almost nothing else the way many people do.

 

I've asked Dr. Michael Greger why public health education focuses on only cholesterol when folic acid, b-12, and EFAs are just as important. In a word, his opinion was "money". The drug companies pay for most education either with their commercials or sending promotional materials to doctors. There is big money to be made in anti-cholesterol drugs, but very little money to be made in marketing B vitamins, flax seeds, or English walnuts.

[DV]

Some very good points about heart disease brought up here.

 

I would like to make one suggestion concerning English walnuts (this is the most common walnut found in the US and Europe). Eating flax is a much better way of balancing your omega 6:3 ratio than eating walnuts. The omega profile of walnuts is about 4:1 for omega 6 to omega 3. Now, that's a much better profile than most nuts so if you eat nuts it's a good choice. However, many studies have shown that an adequate intake of omega 3s (even with EPA and DHA) is not as healthy as an adequate intake of omega 3s ALONG with a decrease of omega 6s to a ratio close to 2:1 (although 4:1 appears to be the upper "healthy" limit). There's a certain yin-yang to the effects of omega fatty acids. You can get enough 3s but their effect is overpowered by 6s if they're not consumed in balance.

 

As was mentioned before, eating lots of greens and avoiding processed foods is a good start. Incorporating flax seeds/oil will increase your omega 3s. Avoid all other oils (except olive oil and canola oil) as they're too high in omega 6s. Keep in mind that soy does not have a good omega 6:3 ratio (somewhere in the 8:1 range depending on the product) so if you eat full-fatted soy products you'll have to compensate for the omega 6s.

 

If you really want to track your nutritional intake then some sites, such as nutritiondata.com, can help.

[beforewisdom]

Or you can just download this free nutrition tracking software

http://tinyurl.com/37satg

 

I agree with you about flax versus english walnuts. Flax is lower in calories too.

I usually don't recommend english walnuts over flax unless I sense I am talking to someone who might not bother buying and grinding flax seeds.

[bpmojo]

I had blood work done last week, results should be in soon and I'll post em up. I think this is way interesting overall though.