Plaque is the stuff of coronary heart disease. It is CONTROLLABLE, it is STOPPABLE, it is REVERSIBLE.
But you must be equipped with the right information on diet, nutritional supplements, and hopefully the avoidance of medication.
This is the blog that accompanies the 
Let’s take a hypothetical person, say, a 50-year old male. 5 ft 10 inches, 160 lbs, BMI 23.0. He’s slender and in good health.
Our hypothetical man eats a simple diet of vegetables, some fruit, nuts, and meats but avoids processed industrial foods. By macronutrient composition, his diet is approximately 30% protein, 40-50% fat, 20-30% carbohydrate. His starting lipid panel:
Total cholesterol 149 mg/dl
LDL cholesterol 80 mg/dl
HDL 60 mg/dl
Triglycerides 45 mg/dl
His starting lipids are quite favorable (though I don’t often see this kind of starting panel nowadays except in athletes). We begin here because this hypothetical man is going to serve as our test subject.
We ask our hypothetical man to load his diet up on “healthy whole grains.” He complies by eating whole grain cereals for breakfast, whole wheat toast; sandwiches made with whole grain bread; dinners of whole wheat pasta; snacks of granola bars, whole wheat pretzels and crackers.
Three months later, his lipids show:
Total cholesterol 175 mg/dl
LDL cholesterol 130 mg/dl
HDL 45 mg/dl
Triglycerides 150 mg/dl
You can see that LDL cholesterol has increased, HDL has dropped, and triglycerides have increased. This wave of change is the hallmark of carbohydrate excess, but more specifically of overreliance on wheat products. Beyond his lipid panel, the man has gained 10 lbs, all concentrated in a soft roll around his abdomen, his blood sugar is now in the “borderline range” of between 110 and 126 mg/dl, i.e., pre-diabetic.
If we were to examine this man’s advanced lipoproteins (e.g., NMR from Liposcience, or VAP from Atherotech), we would see that there has been an explosive increase in small LDL particles, along with a shift of large HDL to small, and the appearance of multiple abnormal classes of particles called VLDL and IDL (signalling abnormally slowed clearance of dietary by-products from the blood).
Familiar scenario? The “after-carbohydrate” situation is the rule among the people who I first meet who claim to be eating a “healthy” diet, though their patterns are usually much worse, with higher LDL, lower HDL, and much higher triglycerides, an exaggeration of our hypothetical man’s abnormalities.
What if our hypothetical man now goes to his conventionally thinking (read “taught medicine by the pharmaceutical industry”) physician? What will likely be the advice he receives? Reduce his saturated fat intake, eat plenty of healthy whole grains, take a statin drug.
Although my illustrative man is hypothetical, I’ve seen this scenario play out many thousands of times. It happens in real life all the time. It is predictable, it is highly manipulable. Sadly, it is rarely recognized for what it is: the result of excess carbohydrates, or what I call “Carbohydrate Intolerance Syndrome.”
The misinterpretation of this condition has created 1) an epidemic of diabetes and pre-diabetes, 2) a nation of frustrated obese Americans, 3) a $27 billion per year statin industry, 4) another growth opportunity for the drug industry in diabetes drugs.
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As we get older we tend to experience certain health conditions that some may consider as part of the aging process, like having high cholesterol due to amount of the carbohydrates that we usually take in. Getting the right food, exercise and knowing the ways to lower your cholesterol naturally brings a lot of advantages to prevent or at least control them.
Very informative article! I told my friends to visit your blogsite too! I am learning a lot from the things I read online, I never thought that we should take high level of cholesterol seriously because it will impact our health.
Diet for Lowering Cholesterol
Hi there,
I'm a doctor called Amr Ebied.
I believe in the power of prevention of diseases, and taking that into account, writing about cholesterol has always inspired me.
I have a new post about the first step of nine to act if you think you have high cholesterol.
I'll be glad if you all visited it and give me your feedback.
The url is:
http://aeonlineclinic.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/nine-things-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-high-cholesterol/
Or you can visit my other blogpost:
http://online-health-shop.blogspot.com/2010/05/when-it-comes-to-cholesterol-there-is.html
Thanks.
Amr Ebied.
Thanks for the heads up. I am also working out for my cholesterol level to normalize. I am on a strict diet for months now.
Diet for Lowering Cholesterol
We ask our hypothetical man to load his diet up on "healthy whole grains." He complies by eating whole grain cereals for breakfast, whole wheat toast; sandwiches made with whole grain bread; dinners of whole wheat pasta; snacks of granola bars, whole wheat pretzels and crackers.
Try having a vegetarian meal made with beans or tofu and vegetables instead of a meat based meal from time to time.Eating simple carbohydrates can increase your chance of becoming insulin resistant. Insulin resistance is diagnosed when you meet certain criteria.
Eating simple carbohydrates can increase your chance of becoming insulin resistant. Insulin resistance is diagnosed when you meet certain criteria.
The trick to achieving a normal cholesterol range is simply to change one's lifestyle. You should eat healthy and exercise more.
Through better nutrition, LDL cholesterol levels can be greatly lowered in no time. Failure to do this will result in a huge risk for coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis, and stroke.
Reference:
ldl cholesterol how to reduce them
hdl cholesterol levels
I am new here and find this fascinating and informative blog. A couple of things: I'm at a loss as to where to start with a diet low in carbohydrates and to eat for meals, especially breakfast. And how to get my two year old to eat?! Does anyone have any idea about this? We're starting to do research and trying to understand the lifestyle heart healthy.
I'm a 55 year old woman & had just been prescribed a statin, as my chloresteral was 255 in Jan 2011. My son help me with a low carb eating plan as follows:
tripled my fish oil intake, oatmeal only 2x/week (I added nuts, raisins, lots of cinnamon & no sweetener), started drinking whole milk, ate some protein @ almost every meal, had spiniach salads w/lots of veggies & hard boiled egg & a simple homemade vinegar & olive oil dressing, stopped all processed carbs except oats, bread about 1 time/week (found a bread w/just 6 carbs) or occasional lo-carb whole wheat tortilla, lots of nuts (walnuts, pecans & almonds), lots of green veggies, some beans, unlimited amounts of tomatoes & limited amounts of fruit… One month later my chloresterol was 188.
A study conducted by Columbia University in 1998 showed that consuming excess levels of simple carbohydrates may lower your HDL cholesterol. Having lower HDL levels may increase your risk of heart disease.
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/333087-effects-of-simple-carbohydrates-on-cholesterol/#ixzz1HVtprUZm