Lowering Cholesterol

So I got rid of a number of health problems with weight loss and my cholesterol did get lower, but it was still higher than it should be. Both HDL and LDL being high though the ratio was in the ok range. Years ago I took statin drugs which worked but had to quit from that muscle pain side effect which I think contributed to inactivity and weight gain.

Anyway, Dr. C was sort of having a cow over my somewhat elevated cholesterol 6 months ago so I decided to try an experiment and use red yeast rice and to stop eating eggs, use only olive oil, and limit red meat and a few things like that.

So I did this for 6 months and got the test results today. Total number is down by 37 pts, LDL down 33 pts and triglycerides down too though they were not high.

My internist will explain all this next week, but the important thing to me is that I was able to put myself on a healthy eating program for this issue and stick to it without being miserable. Before getting sleeved I don't think I could have observed these self imposed restrictions. Just couldn't control myself. Ghrelin seemed to demand butter and eggs and all that high cholesterol stuff as well as carbs and other crap.

So its yet another good thing about the vsg. Gave me the tool to work on this aspect of my dietary health.   Now I am gonna go eat some cholesterol free peanut butter.

Diane

Good job.  Lucky for you that diet worked.  Hubby's is genetic and he must take the drugs.  Keep up the good work.

Way to be proactive Diane!  My cholesterol has never been elevated but at 1 year out, it was up to 167, from 140 something.  Doctor thought it was due to me eating so much meat.  If it goes up again when I have labs next month, I'll follow your plan and see what happens.

I found that taking a fish oil capsule made my cholesterol go down quite a bit.

The other thing to keep in mind is that it's not the overall number that counts. When I started taking the fish oil and eating a lot of nuts, my overall number went up. But my HDL cholesterol, which had been low to start, got back in range and my trigylcerides and LDL cholesterol went down, way down.

yep, i started taking fish oil too some time ago and it brought the HDL up quite a bit, raising the total number but making the ratio better. I still take it though a little less and the HDL went down but only by a tiny bit. And I do eat nuts and use olive oil almost exclusively in cooking. And this time my triglicerides are actually very low. Don't know if its possible to have them too low but will ask my doc next week when i see him.

Saw Dr, C yesterday and showed him those results and he was pleased. Again, I feel like haveing the sleeve enables me to have better self control about what I choose to eat and makes it much easier to make healthy choices. There just isn't that little carb monster screaming for sugar and white four any more. Hallelujah!!!!!    Diane