Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

1

What are the best ways too lower LDL?

flag	asked Sep 8 2011 at 22:07 susan kosich 75●1●3

Post what food you typically eat in a day and what your lipid panel results were. – Travis Culp♦ Sep 8 2011 at 22:25

1

I'm out of town with no blood test in front of me. My LDL was in the high 120's (strongly A) HDL is 60ish, total is high 220ish. My diet is LC, but adding the "safe starches", which makes me uptight. I guess the key is to keep the sat fats and carbs separate. (I fear weight gain, worsening of lipid numbers.) I'm a 69 year old female. Too many martinis, too many desserts and treats this summer. Thinning bones. I probably shouldn't have written this question with no specific lipid info. Sorry. You people are scary smart. – susan kosich Sep 9 2011 at 15:43

The Framingham calculator puts your 10 year risk at 3% - but this would change if my assumptions of nonsmoker and 120 systolic BP are incorrect. I'm male, 10 years younger, same TC as yours with 85 HDL, and my risk factor is 6%. This is still low, but double your risk. Go figure. – thhq Sep 9 2011 at 16:57

Impressive HDL. Is the problem pattern B LDL? Or gender? Weird. – susan kosich Sep 9 2011 at 17:31

Framingham doesn't take LDL size into account, though mine is Type A large particle. I'll bet that gender is the big factor on the risk. – thhq Sep 9 2011 at 18:12

Jan · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-09 10:14:21Z UTC

1

As long TC is under 250 and trigs low and hdl high, i wouldnt worry about it.

answered Sep 9 2011 at 10:14

Jan
6,035●1●3●10

Jerome Stans · Answer 2 · 2011-09-09 01:31:01Z UTC

2

No offense, but where in the world do some of you guys get the idea that high LDL is irrelevant if it's mostly pattern A? I'm not trying to upset anyone or be a jerk, but that's simply not supported by the greater weight of the credible evidence.

http://chriskresser.com/episode-16-chris-masterjohn-on-cholesterol-heart-disease-part-2

edited Sep 9 2011 at 1:31

answered Sep 9 2011 at 1:03

Jerome Stans
131●3

	The people you mention also decided that they didn't have to answer the OP's question. – tonysolo Sep 9 2011 at 2:33
	I am well up to date on the current cholesterol research in the paleo blogosphere, thank you. You seem to not be aware, that high total cholesterol is strongly and positively correlated with low mortality from infectious diseases, in other words, very protective. Similarly, they are strongly correlated with survival if one arrives at the emergency department of a hospital. Check out the perfect health diet blog for the relevant articles. Or the books by Ravnskov and Kendrick. Obviously, to have the appropriate total cholesterol, one needs enough LDL above and beyond a high HDL. Preferably A – wildwabbit Sep 9 2011 at 3:42

wildwabbit · Answer 3 · 2011-09-08 23:32:42Z UTC

1

Don't lower it. Focus on making it pattern A. High total cholesterol is healthy if you have high HDL and sufficient pattern A ldl.

answered Sep 8 2011 at 23:32

wildwabbit
2,570●4●15

Depends how high your TC is. Is it something like normal 250ish, it is propably ok. But some of us have 320-460. I dont believe this is good. 200-250 is low and more in line with what i understand should a healty hunter gather diet have. – Jan Sep 9 2011 at 4:30

Noah · Answer 4 · 2011-09-09 00:25:05Z UTC

1

I think you need to worry more about the particle size and oxidization than count. Also when you're worrying about count make sure it's measured and not calculated.

answered Sep 9 2011 at 0:25

Noah
1,143●5●15

terrence · Answer 5 · 2011-09-09 00:43:56Z UTC

Taking niacin will usually decrease LDL.

Start with 500 mg a day for a few days and slowly increase by 500 mg until you are taking up to 5,000 mg per day. Stay at 5,000 mg per day for a week or two/three. Have your LDL checked again, and it should lower.

If 500 mg per day gives you a flush, back off a bit; then slowly increase again.

I have done this a few times and it ALWAYS lowers my LDL.

cliff · Answer 6 · 2011-09-09 02:40:01Z UTC

1

turmeric might help

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=Qir&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=LDL%20turmeric&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=16131l24663l0l25391l9l9l0l6l6l0l251l664l0.1.2l3l0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=ws

answered Sep 9 2011 at 2:40

cliff
13.4k●2●9●28

Jeff · Answer 7 · 2011-09-09 04:55:10Z UTC

1

Proper thyroid function is also very important to having a good LDL. Did you get any tests done on TSH, T3, T4, etc?

answered Sep 9 2011 at 4:55

Jeff
16.6k●1●9●35

BuzzingAsh · Answer 8 · 2011-09-09 02:06:14Z UTC

0

Worry about particle size not just LDL in general. If you have the bad kind(B) then do something, eating more saturated fat may help. I recommend this video: http://chriskresser.com/i-have-high-cholesterol-and-i-dont-care

answered Sep 9 2011 at 2:06

BuzzingAsh
269●2●8

thhq · Answer 9 · 2011-09-09 02:27:54Z UTC

Statins will hammer LDL down but it's hard to say whether the benefit outweighs the risk. In my experience lowering butter consumption helps lower LDL. Eating more fiber did nothing for me at all - LDL went up instead of down.

I just used the Framingham model (google it) to predict my cardiovascular risk in response to cholesterol. If I were to lower my TC from 220 to 200 at constant HDL, I don't have any reduction in CV risk. So reducing my LDL by 20 points is not going to reduce my risk. On the other hand a similar change in HDL has a large effect on risk.

how to lower my LDL

9 Answers