Cholesterol Experiment 1 Results

Posted by
December 9, 2009
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Well, I got my cholesterol results back and I’m both pleased and disappointed. Let’s sumarize the whole deal:

Starting October 30th, I began an experiment taking a few supplements and (80%) sticking to a fairly rigid diet in an attempt to lower my cholesterol. It’s been creeping up for years despite a healthy lifestyle of generally good eating and exercise, to the point where my doctor wanted me to start taking Lipitor.

Well, I didn’t want to do that. I put it off for months, but finally dug in, did some research, made some diet changes to what was already a fairly healthy diet, and started taking specific supplements for improving my cholesterol numbers. I was already working out plenty, so no changes there.

Recap:

Cholesterol Numbers May 2009

These were the numbers that made the doc want to put me on Lipitor.

Cholesterol Numbers October 2009

The only thing I changed between May and OCtober was that I adopted a fairly strict diet of eating what I call CBO. I ate this pretty consistently for about a month before the October test. From the results, I would say it made a significant difference. Actually, I didn’t even know these numbers when I started my experiment. If I had, I probably would have left well enough alone, but I was already a week or so into my experiment, and there was still room for improvement, so I pressed ahead.

I kept my diet the same and added these supplements:

I had my cholesterol checked again on December 4th and got the results today, after a little over 30 days of taking the sups and (mostly) sticking to my diet. Drumroll please:

So what’s the verdict? Mixed, I guess, even though my total cholesterol went up, my ratio is down slightly becuase of the 14% increase in my HDL. From what I’ve read, your HDL to Total ration is the primary cardiac risk marker: the lower your ratio, the lower your risk. Under 5 is the desirable, so I’m good to go.

Even though a few things went up (probably due to my severe diet backsliding during Thanksgiving) I’m slightly improved over where I was at the start. Not to be ignored is my Triglyceride level, which went down 28 points, which amounts to a whopping 24%. That’s a lot.

So I’m countng the expierment a success, even though the results weren’t as dramatic as I’d hoped.

I plan on sticking with the diet (for the most part) and doing some research to see what other supplements ahve a positive effect on cholesterol. I’ve read Vitamin D can make a difference, so I’ll probably run that along with my current supps and see what happens.

Stay tuned – I’ll probably start that in a month or so.

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Cholesterol, Cholesterol Experiment

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