i know we are all a bit different, but i'll share with you, my experience of how i lowered my triglycerides and blood sugar and raised my HDLs.
diabetes and heart disease run on both sides of my family. many of my relatives have died relatively young from these. my grandmother who had a major stroke in her early 50s, quadruple bypass surgery in her late 50s, and died in her 60s from these complications is often on my mind as i approach 50.
so a few years ago, my triglycerides were up between 400-500 (almost very high range), my HDLs were 39, and my LDLs were borderline high.
i was put on simvastatin (zocor).
the good news is that it wiped out the triglycerides and LDLs in less than a month on an average of 10 mg a day, that's it. both numbers were very low normal after that month.
but the bad news is that it gave me absolutely horrible edema, even a small amount of drug. was giving me rather nasty gastrointestinal upset as well. so i had to be taken off of it.
at that point i felt like i had two options:
1. try another statin
2. do it purely through exercise and diet
i just didn't want to feel that terrible (as when i was on the statin) right then, so i decided to try the diet and exercise first. was just too afraid that all the statins would give me the horrible edema and gastro problems, for some reason my body is really prone to these.
not to say you shouldn't be on the statin, think its great that you are.
but for me it didn't seem to be a choice.
so i found this book and started to read up:
cholesterol cures the title is really corny i think. and i definitely ignored the diet and menu section of the book. but what i really liked was its balanced approach. each chapter focussed on a different thing that could help or be bad for cholesterol. and then all the various studies done on the topic with their (often conflicting) results. so i took note of the things that always came up bad and the things that always came up good and modified my diet and exercise based on these.
its been a while since i read the book and made the changes but here are the highlights from what i remember:
1. i started walking every day that i could. i bike sometimes. its nice having those two options: when the feet or SI are particularly bad, i bike. otherwise i mostly walk.
2. it was clear that my cholesterol problems were from insulin resistance / metabolic syndrome so my diet changes included consuming even less sugar than i had been previously and cutting way back on the carbs: no white carbs: no potatoes, no bread, no rice, no pasta, no crackers, no cake, no cookies. this would go right along with the NSD.
3. read that while they thought for awhile that egg cholesterol was bad, now they are not so sure. think because the lipid chains are (longer i think) that they may be OK.
4. nuts. for me it was hazelnuts, peanut butter, and almonds. i've read here that almonds are ok for a lot of people on the NSD, maybe you already eat almonds?
5. increased my beans as they are very good for blood sugar and thus indirectly for my cholesterol. but of course they are not good for a NSD.
6. increased my fish consumption. would take fish oil pills but never seem to be as good about supplements long term as i am about dietary changes. i still like to get my nutrients from food. maybe its all those pills we have to take, one more pill just feels like too much work sometimes. but fish oil would be good like the fish.
7. increased my vegetable consumption (you could do this and still remain NSD).
of all these things: nuts and walking and cutting even further back on the carbs seemed to be the big things i kept reading about and thus these are the things i focussed on primarily. secondary for me was increase in beans, greens, and fish. and the LSD is actually a diet to "fix" diabetes / heart disease.
this has kept my triglycerides down to low normal and has raised my HDLs to 55 (hope to get them even higher). my LDLs have risen back to borderline high, but my endocrinologist thinks because my triglycerides are low and my HDLs are climbing that i'm on the right path.
my problems were mostly stemming from insulin resistance. if your problems are from some other underlying cause, then maybe what i did wouldn't work as well for you?
also, though i haven't been able to do so, losing weight, especially around the middle, i hear can also be very helpful at turning some of these numbers around. then again that may just be if the underlying cause is insulin resistance leading to the cholesterol and heart problems.
hope the drugs seriously work! and think you could still be NSD if you ate the "good fats" as others posted on here. nuts and fish are some of those good fats along with some of the other suggestions you have.
all i know is that i feel lucky that i was able to make such a dramatic improvement through exercise and diet. if you had asked me up front prior to the change if i thought my actions would do much good, i would have said no. i was pleasantly surprised that diet and exercise could have such an impact on this.
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joke only)
