Do you happen to have blood work before and after the Cholestoff? If so, did you make other changes with the Cholestoff?
Might be interested in it, as it isn’t very expensive. The red rice yeast is good in theory, but finding a good product is tough.
In May 2020, I clocked in with a total cholesterol of 286, with HDL 76, LDL 200 and triglycerides 50.
Was prescribed a statin and underwent significant lifestyle changes, dropping 30lbs of bodyweight.
Got labs taken in Sep 2020 and had a total of 155, HDL of 83, LDL of 65 and Triglcerides of 42. I took the statin until Jan or so, and then stopped. Switched to the Cholestoff
My most recent labs had my total cholesterol at 218 mg/DL, with HDL at 87, Triglycerides at 37, HDL Direct at 81. That was in August 2021.
So in that regard, I’m pleased with a leveling out to 87 when off a statin, but I’ll also be curious to see how things will be after a full year without.
My parents started taking this. Idk where they got it but theirs is weider brand.
I find it funny that they use a Weider supplement
Unless I’m mistaken, the only population I’ve seen with good results on statins is like 40+ year old mean who’ve already had a heart event. And even then, absolute risk improvement (especially for all cause mortality) was tiny. I also remember reading some stuff that purported to show the positive effects of statins were related to anti-inflammatory properties, not cholesterol levels. Not that it’s worthless, but people need to look at the real absolute risk and look at the right blood markers to see if its working.
I think I’ve said this before to Punisher, but if your doctor wants to give you a statin exclusively for your LDL number, I’d find a new doctor. He’s probably 50 years behind on research. There are literally a dozen indicators he could look at all more powerful than LDL. HDL, triglicerides, insulin, waist to height, inflammation, etc. And if you were really concerned enough to eat less meat and considering statins at least go and get a CAC score.
This is a luxury I greatly look forward to in the future
Although I’m not eating LESS meat: just leaner.
Yes on this, he definitely seems to be a genetic outlier, and he needs to evaluate his own body and it’s response.
I just want to point out here (because it’s somewhat contradictory to your previous advice) that it’s carbs generally speaking and not saturated fats that create small LDL particles. And if his triglycerides are low, his LDL is probably mostly large.
I’ve actually be thinking about exactly this recently.
Could be that most other drugs for stuff like BP and cholesterol (beta blocker, ace inhibitors, ARBs, etc) haven’t been shown with studies to improve mortality rates yet. Or at least not to my knowledge. Kinda a long hard to pull off study. They have done them, but usually there are flaws. Statins have been shown to reduce mortality in certain populations.
As someone with way worse numbers than you, look at your all cause mortality risk. At 286 you are about the same as someone with a total of 170. At 155 you’ve increased your risk of dying from baseline substantially. At 218 you are almost perfect for longevity.
Reassuring news for sure based on that. My doctor’s most recent instructions to me were “whatever it is you’re doing, keep doing that”, so that’s a positive, haha.
Right, but it’s narrow, and looking at LDL for the effect may be misleading.
I don’t disagree with that assessment.
I don’t know enough about your dietary background but your blood work mirrors my own after several months on a carnivore diet. In fact, our LDL levels were almost identical.
In my own case, this result was anticipated and highlighted the fallacy around LDL being ‘bad cholesterol’, when my triglycerides (TG) were simultaneously low and my HDL in the optimum range. The fact is, the TG to HDL ratio is by far a more superior method to measure heart health. And in your case, the ratio is excellent now AND before!
Ultimately, it’s your call whether to take a cholesterol lowering drug but do question whether this makes sense in light of your TG and HDL numbers.
To clarify, are you referring to my most recent bloodwork, or one of the other 3 posted?
I’m also on board with not taking cholesterol lowering drugs. I stopped that in Jan of 2021 and it has been a net positive.
Both. I worked out the TG to HDL ratio of the May 2020 at 0.6 and the most recent is 0.4. Anything below 1 is good and below 0.5 very impressive.
Seriously? From The Atlantic:
I don’t even necessarily disagree with your greater point, but maybe rein it in a little.
Health and life expectancy are two different topics. Emergency medicine is a wonderful thing. Go look at rates of chronic disease to get a better idea what I mean by less healthy.
Yes, emergency medicine is a wonderful thing, and so are diagnostics, which have of course immeasurably improved over the past 100 years, giving us identified chronic disease as opposed to mysterious natural deaths. So in today’s world, high cholesterol is identified and either addressed or not.
Check your health markers by socioeconomic status; I suspect you’ll find nothing but improvement in affluent people, who are less likely to subsist on pizza rolls and McD’s. As an educated affluent white American female, I’m practically immortal*.
*Hyperbole
Edit: but again, I don’t necessarily disagree with you. We have options today that didn’t exist 100 years ago, and are the worse for those.
The rise in obesity isn’t due to it being unnoticed in the past, which is a primary clue. While we have gotten better at finding them, it’s undeniable that heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, etc. Are all drastically increasing in actual occurrence.
Cancer rates (case/population) are decreasing. Largely attributable to smoking cessation but still not “drastically increasing”
Fair point.
