Of HDL & LDL

 Some people can eat whatever they desire, and their cholesterol levels are fine, I am not in that group.

My father died when he was 59; I was 26, married for 7 years, had three young children, and I found out had very high levels of bad cholesterol. (400+ to be exact)

Dad's diet was far from healthy.  Being one of 9 children from a poor, West Virginian, Appalachian family, he was used to eating what was available, cheap, and of course rolled in flour and fried in bacon grease, lard, or any fat available.  Dad had heart bypass surgery in his early 50's, had arterial sclerosis, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.  Not an ideal life.

After dad passed my wife insisted I have my cholesterol checked; I did not think that was needed as I just separated from the Air Force, was young and only weighed 210 pounds; I was wrong.  My numbers came back abysmal with the HDL number over 400, I was put on a statin drug immediately and that was able to reduce my HDL number to around 200.

I felt this was acceptable as everyone seemed to take medications to correct their cholesterol numbers.  Stayed on that drug for years, my weight ballooned to 385 pounds my blood pressure shot up and I needed medications to control that, but the cholesterol numbers remained good.  I thought everything was golden.  I was wrong.

My weight, diet and lifestyle were going to be the demise of me.  I was nearly 200 pounds overweight, ate foods that were bad for me, and had a high stress corporate job.  I left the corporate world and became self-employed, that helped some.  But the weight and poor diet had to go.

I began a log of what I was eating daily so I had a base line to start editing my eating pattern from. (let me tell you that is a shocking eye opener).  I cut the fat out of my diet, cut the carbohydrates from my diet and removed all red meats from my diet.  I had lost 165 pounds, so I decided to go off the statin drugs.  MY numbers had to be good now, after all I was eating healthy and lost a LOT of weight.  Again, I was wrong.

I am a member of that great group whose body makes a lot of cholesterol and that is not good.  Had my cholesterol numbers checked and my HDL was creeping back up after I stopped the statins, it was now 220.  Back on the statins I went.

So what is the point of this writing?  The point is diet is not the only aspect of a healthy lifestyle.  A body needs exercise, and you need to work on the food taken in to see how you process these items.  From reviewing my food log, I know hydrogenated fats (like margarine) and red meats are not handled well by my body.  I also know that I need vitamin and mineral supplements, as well as other supplements (such as garlic, fish oil, CoQ10) to balance my diet and body requirement.  

Listen to your body, it will tell you when it is out of balance.  Once you have started a healthy eating regiment, you will crave certain foods when your body needs the nutrients in them.  I encourage you to keep track of your daily food intake, your daily "exercise", your daily supplement intake.  A healthy lifestyle is a moving target, you need to constantly tweak the process to keep working toward your goals.  

Once you begin a better diet and a better exercise routine, you will feel so much better.  Just start with a log of what you eat and do, the results will amaze you.