Guest guest Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 How to lower high cholesterol naturally without prescription drugs JoAnn Guest Mar 29, 2005 10:03 PST http://www.newstarget.com/002692.html Many readers have contacted me and asked about my own cholesterol numbers. They ask, " How did you achieve LDL cholesterol of 67 without using prescription drugs? " I'm glad to see these questions. Readers should be skeptical of anyone who talks about health, and they should demand that people who teach health be healthy! It doesn’t make sense to get your health information from a person who isn't healthy. The credibility that really counts is the ability to demonstrate an outstanding level of health in your own life. If you know anything about cholesterol, you know that what really matters is the ratio of LDL-cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol. LDL stands for Low Density Lipoprotein, and HDL stands for High Density Lipoprotein. LDL is the so-called 'bad cholesterol' and HDL is the so-called 'good cholesterol.' If you have 10 times as much LDL as HDL, then you’re at very high risk of a heart attack as well as other cardiovascular disorders. A person with a moderate risk of heart attack might have a ratio of around 7.1. The range for what is considered average risk is 4.4-7.1. People with low risk measure between 3.3 and 4.4. With that in mind, you might wonder if I'm in the high risk, medium risk or low risk category. My ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol, as verified by Sonora Quest Laboratories in Tucson, AZ, is 1.08. That is almost a one-to-one ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol. It's the kind of number that causes doctors to drop their jaws in utter shock, simply because they've almost never seen these kinds of numbers before. The medical textbooks might describe a human in perfect health as having such a ratio, but to actually see it in practice is very unusual. The number is so rare, that many people might suspect that it couldn't possibly be right. That's why I have the test results on record, scanned and verified by my naturopathic physician. They're also on file at his office. These are genuine numbers, and they can be attained by anyone who follows the same strategy that I have followed, which is described in more detail below. You might also be wondering what my LDL cholesterol number is. As you may know, the target for LDL cholesterol used to be anything under 130. Recently the American Heart Association, along with a panel of board members with ties to prescription drug companies, lowered that number to 100. They now say the optimum number to shoot for is 70, although anything under 100 is still considered very good. My own LDL cholesterol is 67. To see a person with an LDL level of 67 is also quite unusual, as any doctor will tell you. But enough about my numbers. Let's talk about YOUR numbers, and how you can change your numbers for the better. The first thing you should know is that these numbers were achieved with absolutely no prescription drugs whatsoever. I frequently write about the dangers of prescription drugs, and I’m a strong advocate of natural health, an outspoken critic of the pharmaceutical industry, the FDA and prescription drugs in general. I wouldn't take a statin drug if you paid me millions of dollars. I wouldn't touch a pharmaceutical unless it was used in an extreme emergency, for a short term only. For example, if I were in an accident and needed a drug to deal with trauma or pain I would avail myself of that prescription drug. But I would never take a prescription drug long term. And it is long term use that the pharmaceutical industry is promoting to the general public. They want everyone in the world to take prescription drugs every day for the rest of their lives. Statin drugs certainly fall into that category. One of the primary marketing messages about statin drugs is that you need them to reduce your cholesterol level and bring it into a healthy range. But you don't need statin drugs in order to achieve a healthy level of cholesterol, as has been demonstrated right here. What else did I do to achieve these numbers? Let me tell you that these numbers are impossible to achieve without regular physical exercise. I exercise around 10 hours per week, sometimes more, sometimes less. But I do something physical every day in terms of getting my heart rate up and engaging in cardiovascular exercise. I might go cycling, swimming, jogging or even walking. Sometimes I climb stairs, other times I do gymnastics. I might engage in strength training, or even play frisbee at the local park. Every day I'm outside (or in the gym) doing something physical. The key is that you have to be doing something physical each and every day, and you have to stick with it for the rest of your life. The only way to have healthy cholesterol levels is to engage in regular physical exercise. There is no way around it! No prescription drug will give you the same benefit, and there’s no nutritional supplement that takes the place of physical exercise. The human body was meant to be moved, and if you want yours to be healthy, you've got to move it. Besides exercise, I’ve also completely eliminated all processed foods and junk foods from my diet. I eat no manufactured foods whatsoever, that is, no breads, no packaged cereals, no frozen foods, no fried foods, no junk foods, and certainly no candy bars, breads, crackers, cookies, pastas or anything of that sort. I also avoid cow’s milk, and I wouldn't touch red meat if you paid me. Red meat is one of those foods that tends to give people very bad cholesterol numbers. It raises their LDL cholesterol and gives them a heavy dose of saturated animal fat. I also avoid all chemical ingredients that are known to promote disease... these ingredients include MSG, sodium nitrite, chemical sweeteners such as aspartame, and of course artificial colors. I drink no soft drinks whatsoever, no milk and no fruit juices. The only things I drink are water, soy milk and unsweetened tea. In addition to avoiding certain foods, I also supplement my diet with a wide array of superfoods, medicinal herbs, vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements. My favorites are chlorella, spirulina, broccoli sprouts, quinoa, sea vegetables, soy products, and any of the green food powders or fresh vegetables. This is where I get my outstanding nutrition (see related ebook on nutrition) that I firmly believe plays a huge role in my ability to produce outstanding cholesterol numbers. In addition to all this, I make sure I get plenty of fiber in my diet, and I eat a lot of macadamia nuts, pecans, peanuts, cashews and other nuts. I frequently supplement with flaxseed oil, extra virgin coconut oil and olive oil. And by the way, a lot of people would say that coconut oil is extremely bad for your cardiovascular health. Some doctors argue that because it has saturated fat, it must be bad for you. Yet I eat coconut oil on a daily basis, and yet my cholesterol numbers speak for themselves. They show that a diet with extra virgin coconut oil is quite consistent with outstanding cardiovascular health. If coconut oil were bad for you, my numbers would be out of whack. There's no way I could have a ratio of 1.08 if I were consuming fats on a daily basis that were bad for my health. Some of the other things I do, from a nutritional standpoint, are eating aloe vera gel, and eating no corn oil or other low-grade oils. I avoid all hydrogenated oils, and I eat at least one extremely large salad every day. Some days I eat two large salads. I also supplement with rice protein, soy protein, psyllium husk fiber, and superfood products like Jenny Lee Supergreens and The Ultimate Meal. There's no question in my mind that a person who does all of these things will achieve similar numbers to the ones I'm demonstrating here. You don't have to hit a ratio of 1.08 to be extremely healthy. In fact, if you can get your ratio down to 3, your doctor will be quite pleased at your progress. You don't have to change everything in your life all at once in order to do this, you just have to take small incremental steps and make them part of your daily habits. For example, you could start walking every day, beginning tomorrow. You could walk 30 minutes a day and then increase it gradually until you're walking one hour a day. You could start avoiding certain foods in your diet, such as red meat, soft drinks, cow’s milk or anything containing hydrogenated oils. Be sure to check the ingredient to find out which foods contain " hydrogenated " oils. You could also start supplementing superfoods right now. It just costs you a few dollars a day (about the cost of one cup of coffee from Starbucks), but it has a remarkable impact on your health. I suggest starting with spirulina and chlorella, because they're the easiest to take in capsule form. Check out quinoa and look into supplementing your daily diet with green foods powders, like those I've mentioned above. You can also look into taking high-quality mineral supplements and making sure you're getting enough calcium and trace minerals in your diet. Investigate sea vegetables and find out what they can do for you. Plants from the ocean offer amazing healing properties and I’m a firm believer in their ability to treat cancer, among other chronic diseases. The bottom line is that you can start making changes now to lower your cholesterol and improve your overall health that don't involve taking prescription drugs, and this is the thing that's going to keep you healthier in the long term. Sure, you can mask symptoms by taking prescription drugs, and as more symptoms appear you can take more and more drugs to mask those as well. By the time you're 60, you'll be on 12 medications a day, you'll spend $1500 a month, and you'll be a " chemical wreck " . Alternatively, you can find ways to boost your body's health naturally, the right way, by following the fundamental laws of nutrition, physical exercise, and avoiding foods that promote disease. If you do everything mentioned in this article, your cholesterol will drop very quickly, ultimately reaching 100 or less. Of course, always work with your naturopathic physician when engaging a new health strategy. Or, if you have a more conventional doctor, make sure he agrees with this strategy before beginning. If he doesn't agree that nutrition and exercise should be the first " strategy " for lowering cholesterol, fire him and find a new doctor. Better yet, ask your doctor for his own LDL cholesterol numbers. If it isn't under 100, find yourself a new doctor. ===================================================================== How to lower your cholesterol absolutely free (no prescription required) http://www.newstarget.com/001546.html ===================================================================== Recent cholesterol guidelines are recommending that most people aim for an LDL cholesterol level of 70 or lower. That's down from the previous suggestion of 100. And of course, the number one recommended way to lower your cholesterol, according to the popular press and pharmaceutical companies, is to take statin drugs. The more you take the better, they seem to be saying, and if your cholesterol isn't low enough yet, it simply means you need to take more statin drugs. And by the way, you're supposed to be taking these statin drugs for the rest of your life, as many physicians have now ridiculously sworn to do. But let's get back to reality for a second here -- high cholesterol is not caused by a lack of statin drugs. High cholesterol is caused by lifestyle choices, such as consuming certain foods and avoiding physical exercise, and the only natural way to lower cholesterol also happens to be a completely cost-free way to do so: by changing the foods you purchase and consume and by engaging in regular physical exercise. Doing so will cause your cholesterol levels to plummet on their own, without needing dangerous prescription drugs. The information I'll share with you here is exactly what I followed to achieve an LDL cholesterol of 67 and HDL cholesterol of 62. Of course, I wouldn't touch prescription drugs. These results were achieved through nothing but nutrition, superfoods and physical exercise. There is little doubt that the recent guidelines about lowering cholesterol were timed to coincide with the recent marketing push for highly-profitable statin drugs; in fact, six of the nine board members who issued the " cholesterol-lowering " guidelines have 'financial ties' to the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture these drugs, and yet they failed to disclose these financial ties in their report, violating " ethical " practices in medicine. Good doctors will tell people with high cholesterol to alter their lifestyle first. They will ask them about what they're eating and how much exercise they're getting, and recommend that they change foods to consume fewer cholesterol-raising foods and greater quantities of cholesterol-lowering foods. They will also recommend that their patients engage in frequent cardiovascular exercise, which of course has a positive impact on cholesterol. Statin drugs should be the last resort, or a temporary treatment if used at all. They can help give the patient temporary assistance while they make lifestyle changes that will bring cholesterol back into balance on their own. But a lifetime on statin drugs is not a " healthy " strategy. Clearly the human body was not " designed " to survive on a daily intake of prescription drugs. So how do you actually lower your cholesterol for free? What's the nitty-gritty of the advice here? Let's get down to it. First thing to do is remove foods from your diet that are causing high cholesterol in the first place. There are two ingredients to watch out for here. Number one is hydrogenated oils, also known as partially hydrogenated oils. These oils are found in most margarine products and virtually all baked goods such as cookies, crackers, pastries, and so on. They're even found in many salad dressings and soups, believe it or not. You actually have to read the ingredients labels and make sure you aren't ingesting hydrogenated oils. It is the hydrogenation of these oils that makes them toxic to the human body. They belong to a class of ingredients known as " metabolic disruptors " . This is a class of ingredients that interferes with normal human metabolism and includes ingredients like sodium nitrite, MSG, aspartame, and white flour. The second ingredient to avoid if you want to keep your cholesterol down is saturated animal fat -- the animal fat found in beef and other red meats. Certainly you don't want to be eating lard or anything cooked with lard, and you want to consider limiting or completely avoid consuming red meat. Other foods that will raise your bad cholesterol level include foods made with unhealthy or cheap oils such as soybean oil. There's nothing really wrong with soybean oil, it's just that it's not especially healthy, and it's one of the cheapest oils out there, so most people get far too much of it and not enough of the healthy oils. But we'll talk about the good fats in a minute. Finally, avoid processed foods. That includes any food that is manufactured and comes in a pretty package. Virtually all processed foods are unhealthy foods, and the more a food has been processed and perverted from its original, natural form, the less healthy it's going to be, and the more likely it will raise your LDL cholesterol. Now let's talk about foods you can eat that will lower your LDL cholesterol and raise your HDL cholesterol. These include the healthy oils, sometimes called the " good fats " -- items such as omega-3 oils, found in flaxseeds. You can also get healthy oils by consuming extra-virgin olive oil, or by eating nuts like macadamias, pecans, cashews, and almonds. Even peanut oil is quite healthy for you, as long as you're not buying peanut butter made with hydrogenated oils, as most peanut butter products are. Look for the Adams brand peanut butter. It's the one where the oil has separated from the rest of the peanut butter, and that's how you know it has no " hydrogenated " oils. Moderators Note: Here is one point where I disagree vehemently with this author! Peanut oil is not one of your more healthy choices of oils. In addition to peanut butter being " hydrogenated it is also " genetically modified " , which makes the oil also a very unhealthy choice!! The only peanut butter that I'm aware of that doesn't contain unhealthy oils, (canola and other " refined " caustic oils) is maranatha peanut butter. And this includes the organic varieties as well!! www.maranathanutbutters.com Best Regards, JoAnn Beyond the healthy fats, there are also a variety of groceries that can help you lower your cholesterol levels, such as garlic, ginger, onions, and basically any fruits and vegetables that are not " processed " or overcooked. Whole grains, such as kamut, pearled barley, " whole grain " oats, bulgur or wheat berries can also help reduce cholesterol by giving you extra " fiber " that " interferes " with the " absorption " of cholesterol-promoting fats. Moving on to the supplementation side, there are a great number of nutritional supplements that can help you lower cholesterol naturally without using drugs. One such nutritional supplement is red yeast rice, an item that has been oppressed by the FDA. In fact, the FDA has attempted to outlaw and regulate this substance, claiming it is a drug because it lowers cholesterol so effectively. In fact, red yeast rice was found to be more effective than statin drugs in lowering cholesterol, and of course the FDA can't stand for anything in the natural market to work so well, so they have to do their best to wipe it out, or at least make it illegal to sell to consumers. Garlic is another popular supplement with well-documented cholesterol-lowering effects. In addition to eating raw garlic as part of your diet, you can take garlic supplements that will further accelerate your cholesterol decline. Superfoods are also extremely helpful for lowering high cholesterol and enhancing your overall body health. I talk quite a bit about superfoods. These are items that I personally consume on a daily basis and that I strongly recommend to others. Of course, my own LDL cholesterol is considered extraordinarily low (67), so I do know what I'm talking about here. My favorite superfoods include chlorella, spirulina, sea vegetables, organic soy products such as soy milk, soy cheese, miso or tofu, any sprouts, such as wheat grass, broccoli sprouts, barley grass or clover sprouts, and also the supergrains such as quinoa, millet, and kamut. In addition, I recommend organic, whole-food vitamin supplements -- supplements that are made exclusively from whole-food sources and not from " isolated " chemical vitamins, as well as coral calcium, which is an outstanding source of not only calcium, but also magnesium, zinc, and trace minerals from the ocean. Just in case this hasn't been enough advice yet, let's bring in physical exercise, because regular exercise is a crucial point when considering cardiovascular health and cholesterol levels. By engaging in regular physical exercise -- that is, at least 5 hours a week -- you can dramatically reduce your bad cholesterol levels and lose weight at the same time. Of course, this probably isn't new information to you, since we all know that exercise is good for us, but few people tend to consider exercise as a cholesterol-lowering strategy. In reality, it's far more powerful than any prescription drug in existence! If you put all of this together, you have an unbeatable strategy that actually costs you nothing. In fact, the foods mentioned here will save you so much money over the brand-name foods you might have normally been purchasing that you'll have plenty of money left over to purchase superfood supplements. For example, a pound of quinoa can be purchased for as little as three or four dollars, and yet can provide a healthy whole grain for several weeks of cooking. Fresh organic fruits and vegetables are extremely inexpensive compared to the high markups on manufactured foods like breakfast cereals, dinner mixes, frozen foods, and microwavable meals. Your money will go much further when you're choosing healthy foods to begin with. And of course the exercise part of this is free of charge, or if you decide to join a gym, the monthly fees are inconsequential compared to the cost of a lifetime of addiction to prescription drugs and visits to your physician. Now, with all that said, let me repeat that a good doctor -- that is, a doctor that is genuinely concerned with your health and who is well-informed about the relationships between nutrition (see related ebook on nutrition) and disease -- would be telling you all of this in the first place. A bad doctor, -- a doctor steeped in Western medicine and brainwashed by the pharmaceutical industry into ignoring nutrition and focusing on drugs -- would recommend little more than taking statin drugs, and would be happy to write you a couple of prescriptions and get you out of his way so he can see the next patient. It's easy to tell if you have a good doctor or a bad doctor by simply visiting him or her and asking what you should do about your high cholesterol. Their answer reveals their level of health wisdom. In addition to good doctors and bad doctors, however, there are also good patients and bad patients. What I mean by this is demonstrated in the following example. Many people ask me how they can lower their cholesterol naturally, and when they do, I typically tell them the same thing that I've related here in this commentary. I tell them if you do all of these things, if you avoid these foods, if you take these supplements, if you eat these other foods, and if you engage in regular physical exercise, your LDL cholesterol will drop naturally and will maintain a level well below 70. They usually interrupt me at some point in this conversation and say something similar to the following: " No, what I meant was, how can I lower my cholesterol without actually doing anything? " For those people, statin drugs are the perfect answer. You don't have to do anything but take statin drugs every day, pay the bill, and of course, run the risk of damaging other organs in your body from a lifetime of exposure to toxic prescription drugs such as statins. (These drugs are now being shown to cause birth defects, by the way...) Your sex hormone production will be disrupted, your liver function will be impaired, and your body's ability to manufacture the natural levels of cholesterol it needs to function properly will also be dramatically lowered. But if you don't want to do anything, and still desire a lower level of cholesterol, and don't care about abusing your body, then statin drugs are certainly one way to accomplish that. The bottom line to all of this is that a good patient doesn't even need to visit a doctor to lower their own cholesterol. All they need to do is take responsibility for their health, start pursuing a lifestyle with healthy foods, outstanding nutrition, and frequent physical exercise, and then, if they were to ever visit a doctor, that doctor would simply say, " Hey, your cholesterol is perfectly normal. Good job. " JoAnn Guest mrsjo- DietaryTi- http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Botanicals.html AIM Barleygreen " Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future " http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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