Many readers have contacted me and asked about my own cholesterol numbers. They ask, "How did you achieve LDL cholesterol of 67 without using prescription drugs?" I'm glad to see these questions. Readers should be skeptical of anyone who talks about health, and they should demand that people who teach health be healthy! It doesn’t make sense to get your health information from a person who isn't healthy. The credibility that really counts is the ability to demonstrate an outstanding level of health in your own life.
If you know anything about cholesterol, you know that what really matters is the ratio of LDL-cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol. LDL stands for Low Density Lipoprotein, and HDL stands for High Density Lipoprotein. LDL is the so-called 'bad cholesterol' and HDL is the so-called 'good cholesterol.' If you have 10 times as much LDL as HDL, then you’re at very high risk of a heart attack as well as other cardiovascular disorders.
A person with a moderate risk of heart attack might have a ratio of around 7.1. The range for what is considered average risk is 4.4-7.1. People with low risk measure between 3.3 and 4.4. With that in mind, you might wonder if I'm in the high risk, medium risk or low risk category.
My ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol, as verified by Sonora Quest Laboratories in Tucson, AZ, is 1.08. That is almost a one-to-one ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol. It's the kind of number that causes doctors to drop their jaws in utter shock, simply because they've almost never seen these kinds of numbers before. The medical textbooks might describe a human in perfect health as having such a ratio, but to actually see it in practice is very unusual.
The number is so rare, that many people might suspect that it couldn't possibly be right. That's why I have the test results on record, scanned and verified by my naturopathic physician. They're also on file at his office. These are genuine numbers, and they can be attained by anyone who follows the same strategy that I have followed, which is described in more detail below.
You might also be wondering what my LDL cholesterol number is. As you may know, the target for LDL cholesterol used to be anything under 130. Recently the American Heart Association, along with a panel of board members with ties to prescription drug companies, lowered that number to 100. They now say the optimum number to shoot for is 70, although anything under 100 is still considered very good. My own LDL cholesterol is 67. To see a person with an LDL level of 67 is also quite unusual, as any doctor will tell you.
But enough about my numbers. Let's talk about YOUR numbers, and how you can change your numbers for the better. The first thing you should know is that these numbers were achieved with absolutely no prescription drugs whatsoever. I frequently write about the dangers of prescription drugs, and I’m a strong advocate of natural health, an outspoken critic of the pharmaceutical industry, the FDA and prescription drugs in general. I wouldn't take a statin drug if you paid me millions of dollars. I wouldn't touch a pharmaceutical unless it was used in an extreme emergency, for a short term only.
For example, if I were in an accident and needed a drug to deal with trauma or pain I would avail myself of that prescription drug. But I would never take a prescription drug long term. And it is long term use that the pharmaceutical industry is promoting to the general public. They want everyone in the world to take prescription drugs every day for the rest of their lives. Statin drugs certainly fall into that category. One of the primary marketing messages about statin drugs is that you need them to reduce your cholesterol level and bring it into a healthy range. But you don't need statin drugs in order to achieve a healthy level of cholesterol, as has been demonstrated right here.
What else did I do to achieve these numbers? Let me tell you that these numbers are impossible to achieve without regular physical exercise. I exercise around 10 hours per week, sometimes more, sometimes less. But I do something physical every day in terms of getting my heart rate up and engaging in cardiovascular exercise. I might go cycling, swimming, jogging or even walking. Sometimes I climb stairs, other times I do gymnastics. I might engage in strength training, or even play frisbee at the local park. Every day I'm outside (or in the gym) doing something physical.
The key is that you have to be doing something physical each and every day, and you have to stick with it for the rest of your life. The only way to have healthy cholesterol levels is to engage in regular physical exercise. There is no way around it! No prescription drug will give you the same benefit, and there’s no nutritional supplement that takes the place of physical exercise. The human body was meant to be moved, and if you want yours to be healthy, you've got to move it.
Besides exercise, I’ve also completely eliminated all processed foods and junk foods from my diet. I eat no manufactured foods whatsoever, that is, no breads, no packaged cereals, no frozen foods, no fried foods, no junk foods, and certainly no candy bars, breads, crackers, cookies, pastas or anything of that sort. I also avoid cow’s milk, and I wouldn't touch red meat if you paid me.
Red meat is one of those foods that tends to give people very bad cholesterol numbers. It raises their LDL cholesterol and gives them a heavy dose of saturated animal fat. I also avoid all chemical ingredients that are known to promote disease... these ingredients include MSG, sodium nitrite, chemical sweeteners such as aspartame, and of course artificial colors.
I drink no soft drinks whatsoever, no milk and no fruit juices. The only things I drink are water, soy milk and unsweetened tea. In addition to avoiding certain foods, I also supplement my diet with a wide array of superfoods, medicinal herbs, vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements. My favorites are chlorella, spirulina, broccoli sprouts, quinoa, sea vegetables, soy products, and any of the green food powders or fresh vegetables. This is where I get my outstanding nutrition that I firmly believe plays a huge role in my ability to produce outstanding cholesterol numbers.
In addition to all this, I make sure I get plenty of fiber in my diet, and I eat a lot of macadamia nuts, pecans, peanuts, cashews and other nuts. I frequently supplement with flaxseed oil, extra virgin coconut oil and olive oil. And by the way, a lot of people would say that coconut oil is extremely bad for your cardiovascular health. Some doctors argue that because it has saturated fat, it must be bad for you. Yet I eat coconut oil on a daily basis, and yet my cholesterol numbers speak for themselves. They show that a diet with extra virgin coconut oil is quite consistent with outstanding cardiovascular health. If coconut oil were bad for you, my numbers would be out of whack. There's no way I could have a ratio of 1.08 if I were consuming fats on a daily basis that were bad for my health.
Some of the other things I do, from a nutritional standpoint, are eating aloe vera gel, and eating no corn oil or other low-grade oils. I avoid all hydrogenated oils, and I eat at least one extremely large salad every day. Some days I eat two large salads. I also supplement with rice protein, soy protein, psyllium husk fiber, and superfood products like Berry Green and The Ultimate Meal. There's no question in my mind that a person who does all of these things will achieve similar numbers to the ones I'm demonstrating here.
You don't have to hit a ratio of 1.08 to be extremely healthy. In fact, if you can get your ratio down to 3, your doctor will be quite pleased at your progress. You don't have to change everything in your life all at once in order to do this, you just have to take small incremental steps and make them part of your daily habits.
For example, you could start walking every day, beginning tomorrow. You could walk 30 minutes a day and then increase it gradually until you're walking one hour a day. You could start avoiding certain foods in your diet, such as red meat, soft drinks, cow’s milk or anything containing hydrogenated oils. Be sure to check the ingredient to find out which foods contain hydrogenated oils.
You could also start supplementing superfoods right now. It just costs you a few dollars a day (about the cost of one cup of coffee from Starbucks), but it has a remarkable impact on your health. I suggest starting with spirulina and chlorella, because they're the easiest to take in capsule form. Check out quinoa and look into supplementing your daily diet with green foods powders, like those I've mentioned above. You can also look into taking high-quality mineral supplements and making sure you're getting enough calcium and trace minerals in your diet. Investigate sea vegetables and find out what they can do for you. Plants from the ocean offer amazing healing properties and I’m a firm believer in their ability to treat cancer, among other chronic diseases.
The bottom line is that you can start making changes now to lower your cholesterol and improve your overall health that don't involve taking prescription drugs, and this is the thing that's going to keep you healthier in the long term. Sure, you can mask symptoms by taking prescription drugs, and as more symptoms appear you can take more and more drugs to mask those as well. By the time you're 60, you'll be on 12 medications a day, you'll spend $1500 a month, and you'll be a chemical wreck.
Alternatively, you can find ways to boost your body's health naturally, the right way, by following the fundamental laws of nutrition, physical exercise, and avoiding foods that promote disease. If you do everything mentioned in this article, your cholesterol will drop very quickly, ultimately reaching 100 or less. Of course, always work with your naturopathic physician when engaging a new health strategy. Or, if you have a more conventional doctor, make sure he agrees with this strategy before beginning. If he doesn't agree that nutrition and exercise should be the first strategy for lowering cholesterol, fire him and find a new doctor.
Better yet, ask your doctor for his own LDL cholesterol numbers. If it isn't under 100, find yourself a new doctor.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, and he has created several downloadable courses on survival and preparedness, including his widely-downloaded course on personal safety and self-defense. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In mid 2010, Adams produced TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural health video sharing website offering user-generated videos on nutrition, green living, fitness and more. He's also a noted technology pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML email newsletter software currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and martial arts training.
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Sunday, December 05, 2004
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