I dont want to go on cholesterol meds. If I stop eating for a week will my triglycerides go down?

Question

I went to the doctor and he told me if my lipid panel did not improve he was going to consider putting me on cholesterol lowering drugs. I know from past experience these meds are hard on the liver. I would rather go the natural route which he suggested fish oil tablets every day. If I stop eating this weekend, will my triglycerides go down before my next blood draw? I been cheating on my diet really bad and need to get my cholesterol down.

I just want to get it down so when they draw my lipid panel, he doesnt slap me on cholesterol lowering drugs because it is high. I have been a slacker and not really following a low fat diet.

Yeah, I could lose about 50 lbs now. I just dropped 20 and cheated over the easter weekend and have not been back on my diet plan for about a week. I am 5'10 tall and am very volumptuous. I have big nockers and I am very curvy. A diet would do me great things.

He has been my cardiologist for 25 yrs. He keeps telling me to eat like a rabbit, but I saw him eating in the cafeteria and he was eating a cheeseburger.
He knows me inside out. My heart is mis wired and now I have a couple of electrical shorts put in (ablation)

Answer 1

happydawg,

Well, probably. You don't say how much you weigh, so we can't tell if your triglycerides are because of your weight or not.

Will your triglycerides go down by the weekend? Maybe, but don't bet on it. You have to lose sufficient weight to make them go down appreciably.

However, since you say that you cheat on your diet, I am going to asume that you are overweight. If you are not I apologise in advance.

But in that case, yes, eventually.

Trigylcerides are the way we store fat. The more we weigh (fat) and the more simple carbs we eat, the higher our circulating triglyceride levels. Sugar is a sure and certain way to high triglycerides. Meat and cheese is a very good way to high cholesterol levels.

So you see what the problem is for you: weight and diet.

What do you do? Find a way to stop eating so much. I'm sorry that it has to be this simple, blunt, and hard, but there it is.

How to do that?

1. Want to.The answer to any temptation is to want to do something else more. Do you want to be healthier and not to go on a statin drug? Only if you really want to will you do it. Don't cheat. At all. Ever. It will be frustrating, but you can do it.

2. Then get a good book or plan. Dean Ornish's book "Everyday Cooking with Dr. Dean Ornish" is a very good one. Get and follow it, or get a copy of the Mediterranean Diet or the Portfolio Diet, all of which have been shown to lower cholesterol (especially the first and third ones) by helping us lose weight and by replacing teh bad fats in our diet with good ones. Ornish cuts them out completely, which is a bit harder to follow but certainly does work. The Portfolio Diet replaces saturated fats with monounsaturated ones and adds plant sterols, which works well, too. In fact, it works as well as a first-generation statin like lovastatin.

3. Exercise. This is so important for improving your lipid profile. It makes you LDLs lower and your HDLs higher, all without any doctor doing anything. Walk--run if you can eventually--for an hour a day. That will do you almost as much good as your diet change. Combine the two and you will make a big difference in your life.

But the first thing you have to do is to get onto the right diet (for the rest of our life) and quit cheating on your diet. It might not all happen by the weekend, but it will happen.

In the meantime, remember that a statin is not as hard on the liver as your present condition is on your heart. The statin may irritate your liver. Your present condition will damage your heart. Which is more important at the moment? Don't be afraid of one at least for a time. If you go on it (and perhaps you should) you don't have to stay on it. Lose weight and you just might be able to go off it.

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From what you say in your additional comments it looks like your goals and aims are all short-term: right now, the weekend, next lipid panel. Look ahead, far ahead. What do you want to weigh in six months, and how many pounds per month do you have to lose to achieve that? What about next year? Five years from now? Look ahead.

And sure, cardiologists don't always do as they tell their patients to do, but that doesn't mean that we do not have to do it. Don't worry about what he doesn't do, think about what you need to do, and do that. Always.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Natural Cholesterol Guide?

Answer 3

Where did you get your info???

Cholesterol lowering drugs MAY be hard on the liver, but your dr will prescribe a simple blood test to be sure there are no problems.

Heredity is a big factor here, so, while dieting is a good idea, that, in itself, won't do the job.

Tell him what problems you had in the past. There are several different ones available, and they DO work.,

Answer 4

Cut all the white fat off your meat, or stick to low fat protiens like fish and chicken. The omega 3 fish tablets are good. Watch your butter intake. Eat more fibre(veges/grains) and a little bit of exercise will help. Cut out pies, chips, takeaways and the bickies and cakes. If you need something sweet, try dark chocolate(in moderation). Alcohol is also a big contibutor to cholesterol.

Answer 5

Stay away from lunch meat, or anything hydrogenated. Cut out all refined sugar. Look up the ingredients in a search engine, of the food you eat. You will be amazed. If you are cheating on your diet, you are the one that has to live with it.

Answer 6

No that will not make you levels go down. It takes months to notice a difference in your levels no matter what you do.