This post is more towards health than bodybuilding and I was wondering if anyone can give insite into the problems that my mom is having with her triglyceride levels. 1 month ago her level was 440–which is considered high. She went on the drug Colestid and 3 weeks later her number was 883—extremely high. I think it may have been a false reading but they are high regardless. She dosent eat like a slob and really doesnt even eat that much. She works from about 8 A.M to 10 P.M as a physical therapist so she is always on the go , however she always has a ton of energy. She isnt really overweight–she looks like a normal mom–I mean she has gained some weight but nothing that drastic. Anyway I was wondering if anyone has any insight on how she can fix this problem because I do not think my doctor is qualified on nutrition. So any help or any refrences on where to locate info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
It is important that she stop eating all high glycemic
index carbs to lower her triglycerides. She should stop
eating all grains and processed carbs, and eat a diet
balanced in carbs, quality protein and healthy fats. A
Zone diet would be good. She should get carbs from low
GI fruits, and vegetables, pretein from fish, poultry and
protein powders, and fats from olive oil, flax oil, fish
oil, sunflower seeds etc. This diet should bring her
triglyceride levels down.
In the meantime, she should also try adding lecithin to her diet, a tablespoon or so with meals in juice or water. Lecithin acts a an emulsifier in the blood fluids, allowing cholesterol to pass out of the blood and into the tissues. You can buy it in bulk at the health food store for a couple of buck a pound. Lecithin is rich in essential fatty acids, cholin and inositol. The liver naturally produces lecithin when intestinal flora are normal and the diet supplies adequate cholin, but these things are easily thrown out of balance by changes in body chemistry either through stress, drug therapy, aging, etc. Also, she should look at her trace mineral intake, esp. magnesium as research shows that a lack of magnesium will make the serum cholesterol shoot through the roof as well as affect insulin sensitivity.
I forgot to mention… if your mom increases her intake of unsaturated fats that provide omega-3’s or phospholipids such as lecithin, she will need to increase her vitamin E intake as well. Vitamin E only has one metabolic function: it prevents unsaturated fats from combining with free oxygen thereby becoming rancid and unusable. An increase in any fats in the diet can use up available vitamin E and cause alot of other problems. Phospholipids make up a large portion of every cell membrane, so you can see how uncontrolled oxidation would need to be prevented in an oxygen-rich environment like the human body. She should probaly start out with 400 units a day, more for every tablespoon of oil or lecithin she adds to her diet depending on her overall fat intake. I’ve read case studies where test subjects have taken over 1,000 IU a day for a month or longer with no side effects or toxicity.
Adelle Davis talks about this approach in her book, “Let’s Get Well.” You might try to find a copy on amazon.
Thanks Free Ex. and Greg for the info–My mom is going to the health food store tomorrow and will cut out all processed foods from her diet and incorporate the low GI foods into it. Thanks for all the help.