May 13, 2024 • 30 mins
Could the secret to maintaining a healthy heart lie in the balance between the fats and carbs on your plate? Justin and I unpack the complex dance between diet and cholesterol, challenging the conventional wisdom on saturated fats and their impact on cardiovascular health. With a focus on marrying nutritional science with practical advice, we dissect the timing of carbohydrate consumption and the controversial role of statins in cholesterol management. Our conversation aims to demystify the intricate links between what we eat, how we move, and the health of our hearts, all while spotlighting the emerging research on statins and brain health, including the potential connection to Alzheimer's disease.
Navigating cholesterol levels can feel like a maze, but we're here to provide the blueprint to find your way out. We discuss advanced lipid profiling tests that delve deeper than your standard blood panel, offering a window into the world of lipoproteins and their subtypes. The triglyceride-to-HDL ratio emerges as a key player in the game of heart health, and we share why this simple number could be a powerful ally in your wellness arsenal. With a nod to the sun's role in vitamin D3 synthesis, we highlight lifestyle modifications that extend beyond diet and exercise, advocating for a holistic approach to managing cholesterol for robust health.
Embarking on the journey to optimal cholesterol health doesn't have to mean a one-way ticket to medication. In this episode, we reveal how lifestyle choices can profoundly influence your cholesterol levels, potentially minimizing the need for statins. We detail the critical importance of monitoring the triglyceride-to-HDL ratio and provide actionable steps to take the reins of your heart health. By offering insights into dietary adjustments, the power of sunlight, and the role of key supplements like CoQ10, we equip you with the tools to make informed decisions for a healthier life. Join Justin and me as we guide you through the practices that not only support heart health but embrace a holistic approach to wellness.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Balance Blueprints podcast,
where we discuss optimaltechniques for health and
finances and then break it downto create an individualized and
balanced plan.
I'm your host, john Propper,here with my co-host, justin
Gaines.
In this episode, justin and Ibreak down all things.
Cholesterol, part two we talkabout which tests to get done if
you want to see if there'sactually a problem with your
(00:20):
cholesterol, some lifestyleinterventions you can take to
help lower your cholesterol, andsupplements if maybe you're on
a statin or they want toprescribe you one.
Thank you for listening and wehope you enjoy.
So the last episode oncholesterol and when we talk
about cholesterol I guess we'retalking about heart disease in
general was pretty introductory,yeah, introductory All over the
(00:45):
the place.
So, since last time felt like wewere taking a journey without a
map, I think we're going to bepretty quick and precise this
one on maybe some things to lookfor and some tests to run and
some supplements or lifestylesto do.
If you're worried or concernedabout high cholesterol, perfect,
(01:07):
yeah, and I guess what I reallymeant to say was we were
talking about saturated fat andbasically the reason we talk
about saturated fat is becauseof the concern of cholesterol.
Right, so we won't go into toomuch if you didn't listen to
that one.
That is part one just a goodthing of misconceptions about
foods, cholesterol, what it isand what it is and what it isn't
(01:29):
.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I think it's probably more of what it isn't than what
it is yeah, because we're toldwhat is it I know we're just
told what it does, but yeah, sojust to get into it.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
if you have some concerns, I know doctors health
advice.
They'll say don't eat highsaturated fat, it's going to
clog your arteries.
Don't eat too much cholesterol,it's going to give you heart
disease.
So I think we mentioned thislast time.
But saturated fat is reallyonly bad when you're eating high
saturated fat and high sugar.
This is because the body can'tburn the saturated fat as fuel,
(02:04):
since you're running off ofcarbs.
So what happens is, if you'repredominantly well, pretty much
everyone in the United States isa carboholic, so they're
running off of sugar, runningoff of carbs processed junk food
and that's the problem issaturated fat.
When it then sits in the bodyand can't be used as fuel, then
(02:24):
it gets converted into theproblem and extra carbs also get
converted into more saturatedfat in the body, because when
you have excess carbs, you gainweight.
So that's where I know that maycome up of.
Some people may say well, thisstudy shows saturated fat has
done this.
It's like well, yes, but let'sdive deeper into that study.
And what kind of diet is it?
(02:45):
Is it saturated fat?
Because we know processed likebaked goods are loaded with
saturated fat and sugar.
It's like, well, yes, then nowwe have a problem.
Or is it saturated fat fromproperly raised animals,
seasonal, seasonal vegetables?
So context here matters, Ialmost feel like it, just almost
(03:09):
.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
If you're going to have a meal that's going to be
high in saturated fats, itsounds like you should adjust
your portion of associated carbswith that meal.
The big, huge steak andpotatoes could be part of the
issue there with you know thedemonization of your red meats
and stuff, because you havesomething that potentially is
cooked with a lot of saturatedfats, has saturated fats in it,
(03:31):
has the cholesterol concern, butit's not the actual cholesterol
in the meat that's driving yourcholesterol numbers, it's the
mound of mashed potatoes next toit that's spiking your insulin
levels and your glycemic indexthen not allowing you to digest
those cholesterol and thesaturated fats yeah, and a lot
of people in the fitness worldwill like plan meals around that
(03:52):
like they'll specifically havelower fat meats with higher
carbs, mainly because you knowit's easier to to digest, it
doesn't slow you down as much,but like they've been doing this
for a while of kind of, andthen if you're having a lower
carb day you'll have just a lotof high fat and a lot of high
protein.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So they they've kind of been doing that for a while
and obviously, physique wise, ifyou do carb timing, it usually
works pretty well.
So so, yeah, I mean that's kindof a cheat code that you see
people do.
But that's just again our briefintro, because if you missed a
lot of stuff, go back to thefirst, uh, first episode.
But if you're here, you'reprobably wondering maybe some
(04:34):
benefits we can do, because yourdoctor either wants to
prescribe a statin or isconcerned about your cholesterol
.
So let's get into some of that.
So the first thing we went overa test you can look at on a
normal blood panel.
Last one, but just some otherthings about statins is we want
to remember cholesterol isn't abad molecule.
(04:57):
So if you lower cholesterol,you're lowering how well your
hormones work, because ittransports hormones.
You're lowering how well yourhormones work because it
transports hormones.
We looked up last time how muchof the brain is made of
cholesterol and if you go on astatin, it's not as if the
statin is able to pinpointcholesterol in your arteries.
That happened because of plaque.
(05:18):
It lowers cholesterol in yourtotal body, so that means it's
lowering cholesterol in yourbrain.
I'm not sure if we mentionedthis last time, but that is why
statins have a link toAlzheimer's, because cholesterol
is very important for amolecule or important to make
sure your brain's functioningproperly.
So statins, loweringcholesterol.
(05:42):
That's really the main problemwith statins, except that one
problem is a huge problembecause of how important
cholesterol is in the body andit's been attacked and demonized
.
And we talked about differenttypes last time of how we want
big, fluffy ones instead of hard, little plaques, which everyone
should be familiar with.
That because they'll always sayyour arteries are going to fill
with plaque.
So first test to do again.
(06:06):
Last time we went over onesthat may be free or provided by
your doctor.
These ones may not be, so youcan look out for that, but
there's a lot of onlinecompanies that will do it.
I know, justin even did anonline company yeah, I use quest
.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, I use class and I do it at least once a year
because it's, in the grandscheme of things, in.
In my opinion it's inexpensive.
If you go to the doctor and youhave lab work done, it's
usually $600, $700, $800.
And a lot of times yourinsurance won't cover it unless
it's tied to some sort ofdiagnosis.
But if it's not tied to adiagnosis and it's simply
(06:41):
exploratory, it's usually $600,$700, $800.
And it's simply exploratory,it's usually six, seven, eight
hundred dollars.
But through quest you can get afull panel.
For I want to say it was likejust under 100 or just under 200
for it.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah yeah, so that's I mean that's a great deal and
that's going to be more of yournormal tests.
But still, point of that isthere's now companies and quest
may even have them.
You might just have to go.
Did you have to go in to getblood drawn?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
yes, yes, yeah, go in .
But you literally you scheduleit.
They send you, you know, youschedule your time and then you
wait in the parking lot.
They send you a text.
When you're you know, withinthe next 15 minutes up, you go
in, you go into a little thing.
They draw your blood, you do ap test.
It doesn't get easier than that.
In like a week or two you haveyour numbers and then it's in a
(07:27):
spot where you can very easilydigest it.
It shows you the ranges and thereason I do it every year is
just to see what's moving,what's changing and get ahead of
those things.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, definitely.
So, yeah, the point of that isthere's now a lot of places that
do it online that are cheaperthan your doctor or the same
that do it online that arecheaper than your doctor or the
same.
But the first test to find outis you want this test is called
LP-PLA2.
Complicated test, but it'sLP-PLA2.
(07:57):
Not 100% sure what it standsfor Lipoprotein some but this is
going to test if plaque isactually a problem in your
arteries.
And we want to do thesespecific tests because, again,
they test cholesterol.
It's so vague when you go toyour normal blood panel, to your
(08:20):
normal checkup, that it's notspecific enough.
So if your cholesterol is high,it's not a good enough
indicator of if you should be ona statin or if you have a
problem.
A great thing to back this upis you can look them up.
We won't cite them.
Many studies have shownactually a worse outcome for
health, for lifespan, forlongevity, so people have even
(08:44):
died sooner when they have lowercholesterol versus higher
cholesterol.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
When you're referencing cholesterol, there's
LDL, HDL.
One's considered bad, one'sconsidered good.
Do you want to break that downjust a little bit?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, one is considered bad, one is
considered good.
It's a little dated.
So HDL, your good cholesterol,versus LDL, your bad cholesterol
.
So it's tough because I thinkit more matters about the ratio
of them.
And last time we talked aboutyour triglycerides and the size
of the particle, as we mentioned.
(09:22):
So this isn't to say if you havevery low LDL or no, very, very
high LDL and very low HDL.
So a lot of the bad stuff and alittle of the good stuff.
You know that that is going tobe alarming, that's a problem.
But if both of them are in thehigher range, you're healthy,
you're working out, your diet'sgood.
We see this a lot with peoplethat eat just higher fat diets
(09:45):
and their ratio is good, theirtriglycerides are normal, they
have a high HDL and a moderateto high LDL.
And the doctor isn't sayinglike, oh, you know, they're not
looking at that using criticalthinking.
They're just seeing a highnumber of someone who's very
healthy, very active, andthey're going to try and
prescribe a statin.
So so, yes, normally we havethat good and bad cholesterol.
(10:08):
Not to say if you have a reallyhigh LDL or high triglycerides,
like that should be checked on,say if you have a really high
LDL or high triglycerides.
That should be checked on.
But it's more about, I guess,what these tests can tell you
and the ratio of those.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Right, right, well, and part of the reason they take
such a hard line on it too, isyour pathology report literally
will tell you if something's lowin range or high, and so
they're just able to look atthat blood report real quick and
be like, oh, these are thethings that are flagged because
they're out of range.
And then, okay, these thingsare range, these are.
This is clearly the problem.
And then you start talkingabout it from that perspective
(10:42):
which is another reason why I doit yearly is because range is
based on the population subset.
Versus me, doing it each yeargets me a track record that
shows what my blood work haslooked like since I was mid-20s.
And then when I start havingissues because it's inevitable
as you age, you're going to haveissues.
When I get into my mid to late50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, we'll have
(11:08):
40 years of blood work to showis this normal or is this out of
out of trend?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
definitely.
Yeah, I think that's a muchbetter way to go about it,
because there's just so muchindividuality.
I mean to compare your numbersagainst you know, the population
is absurd, the crazy part too,is like a lot of those you know
those averages aren't based on.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It's not an average based on gender or, you know,
race, ethnicity.
It's literally a populationsubset of the entire population
of humans.
This is what the numbers are.
It doesn't take into accountany of the biological or genetic
factors that have to have somesort of impact on those numbers.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, I know, so that's good advice.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
You're the one who got me on doing it every year.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, that's good advice.
I would recommend that, andyeah, so, to go off of that, I
know we mentioned the prettycrazy specific test.
Another more common one youmight find online is the N
that's Nancy M Mary, so NMRparticle test, and that's
because there's a lot ofdifferent LDLs and HDLs.
(12:19):
So we always look at them aslike, oh, it's this one molecule
, but there's different kinds,there's VLDL, there's, I think,
ldla different types of them, ifthey're bad or what matters.
So it's not just LDL, it's thedifferent subset.
Are you looking them up?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, you're looking at the range.
I'm not looking at them becauseI don't have something in front
of me to look them up, but Ijust remember when I had my
heart issue, that blood testbroke it down.
There was like four or fivedifferent types in there that
were broken down.
That's good.
Yeah, I don't believe the Questone broke it down by each
different subtype.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yeah, and then just to reiterate, I know we said two
tests that may be a littlecrazier, that you'd have to pay
for online the LP-PLA2 or theNMR particle test.
This is the one that is a greatindicator.
We said this last time.
But just to reiterate, look atyour triglycerides.
Divide it by your HDL, the goodcholesterol.
(13:23):
This is a better indicator thanjust your total cholesterol or
your LDL.
So what you want this number tobe is you want it to be around
two or less.
So that means if yourtriglycerides are 100, your HDL
is 50, it's around 2, anythingless than that you're doing good
.
If it starts to get higher, youwant to then maybe look into
some interventions which we cannow get into of how to lower
(13:43):
that, and really it's almosteasier to just try and lower
your triglycerides.
But that's a problem withcarbohydrates and sugar and
being a carboholic.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Right.
So for practicality purposes,obviously keeping track of these
numbers, getting ahead of thestorm is probably more important
than trying to fix it onceyou're in it.
But what approach do yourecommend people taking that are
on that health consciousjourney to track this and look
at it?
Do they need the specializedtests upfront, or should they
(14:18):
just be getting blood panelsperiodically and just keeping an
eye on these things and then,if something looks odd or off or
you have a doctor trying to getyou this on a statin, is that
when you go to the specializedtests, Like what does what?
Does that health journey looklike?
You know, for the averageindividual who's trying to get
deeper into these things,Similar to what you said with
(14:39):
the tests, is like trying tostart early.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So you really want to try and start early because you
want to do this stuff beforegetting on a statin.
You don't want to get onto astatin and if you are on one
it's not the end of the world.
You can try and get off, butstart early.
And the first thing you justhave to look at is your
lifestyle.
I mean, are you going to thedoctor?
So we'll say everyone's gettingroutine cholesterol tests,
(15:03):
because that's what they testfor when you get a checkup or
you get blood drawn.
So everyone's getting thosewhen you go and get your normal
checkups.
So are you going to the doctor?
Are you overweight?
Are you maybe pre-diabetic,diabetic, or are you physically
healthy?
Do you live a good lifestyle?
Are you trying to eat healthy,you know?
So this is the first thing tokind of make sure this doesn't
(15:26):
happen to you Heart disease.
You need a good lifestyle.
Now, from there, say you go tothe doctor and they say your
cholesterol is a little high andwe're concerned.
I mentioned the first partbecause you need to take
everything into account.
Are you overweight, are youpre-diabetic, are you sedentary?
Then you might want to put alittle more weight into what
(15:50):
that doctor says of you havehigh cholesterol.
The other side of it is alsovery difficult because you
almost have to just take whatthe doctor says as information
and do a little bit of your ownresearch.
You don't want to just takewhat they say and run with it.
If you're a healthy individual,you know you eat right, you
know you do certain things andthey say high cholesterol.
(16:11):
Let's think about a statin.
You almost have to go againstthem, which is very hard to do
because you need to take yourhealth into your own hands.
So from there, that's the firststep.
Say now you have that recommend.
Or people are saying you knowyour doctor says your
cholesterol is a little high.
Let's think of some things todo.
(16:32):
If you have a good doctor, youcan listen to them, but I would
suggest these things instead.
So number one is we talked Ithink you brought this up last
time very briefly, but sunshineis very important.
So sunshine actually convertsinactive cholesterol to vitamin
D.
So that's a great sponge tosoak up cholesterol in the body
(16:52):
because it's a precursor tovitamin D, which obviously we
know.
Vitamin D has a ton of benefits, but the UV rays are actually
going to convert that.
So getting outside, gettingsunscreen, safe sun exposure
without sunscreen, becausesunscreen will block the UV rays
.
So that's very important,important, which a lot of people
are indoors these days, rightbecause cholesterol is a key
(17:13):
component of the actual creationof d3 in the body extremely
important.
Yes, yes, can't be made withoutit.
Um, so you're not getting thesunlight exposure.
You're not converting it, andthat's part of your build-up
issue definitely, definitely,and that's a probably great
(17:35):
reason of why we see highercholesterol and higher heart
disease because a lot of peopleare indoors these days
especially with the regular youknow regular work week.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
You know the hours where the especially, you know,
I should say regular work week.
If you're, you know, above, youknow, 40 degrees latitude,
you're outside of the angle ofimpact that allows for the sun
to convert, for your, your body,to convert those sun rays into
d3, because you're in the office.
So going out, you know going outon a walk during lunch or you
(18:03):
know.
Things like that are reallyyour only way to get any amount
of sunlight exposure during theappropriate time frames or the
weekends right right, which isalso a reason why people think
the sun's bad is because they goweeks without getting any sun
exposure.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
then they go on a weekend or they go on a week
vacation and sit in it.
Only it's like, well, yeah, ofcourse you were going to burn,
you.
You didn't build up anytolerance, you haven't done it
at all.
So, yeah, that's a huge factor.
Next is going to be our diet,and this is where you're
probably going to have to ignoremainstream media health advice
(18:37):
and what your doctor says.
We don't want to do low fat, wedon't want to do vegetable oils
, seed oils, canola oils.
We don't want to avoidsaturated fat, we want to just
eat a local.
We don't want to avoidsaturated fat, we want to just
eat a local, healthy, balanced,in-season diet.
So a lot of things and this kindof ties back to your question
earlier of is LDL good, is LDLbad?
(18:58):
Like what to look for.
It's tough to use those twonumbers because a lot of foods
and a lot of compounds willaffect both, will affect one.
So like I think it's probablybutter for the longest time has
been demonized because it raisesLDL, your bad cholesterol.
But the thing that they alwaysleave out is it also raises HDL,
(19:20):
your good cholesterol.
So these are different tinyimportant details being left out
in terms of it's not justraising LDL and also which LDL
is it raising, like we got intothere's many different types but
it's raising the overallcholesterol, the ratio, which
may not be a bad thing, becausebutter also has butyric acid,
(19:40):
which is a short chain fattyacid.
This is produced in the colonwhen bacteria ferment certain
fibers, but you can kind of getaround this by just eating
butter, and butyrate butyricacid helps suppress cholesterol
synthesis in the body, so itliterally has some health
beneficial effects for loweringcholesterol, you know.
(20:03):
So it's just there's a lot tothe story, right anything in the
health world.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
It's very hard to pinpoint and say this is going
to have this effect, yes, andnot impact other things at the
same time.
Like it's, you're talking abouta very complex system, very
complex machine that is thehuman body, and if you try to
just isolate things and simplifyit to this one variable can
change and have this one outcome, it's just not realistic.
You have to just isolate thingsand simplify it to this one
variable can change and havethis one outcome.
(20:31):
It's just not realistic.
You have to turn a blind eye toso many other components that
are also changing at the sametime.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Right, and a lot of the books, a lot of the
information I got this from.
They go through every food,every nutrient, if you want.
We're just going to use butteras an example, exactly because
of what Justin said.
You can't pinpoint one.
So, point of this being is youwant to eat a healthy, balanced
diet?
They're going to say maybe aMediterranean diet, but we also
(20:57):
need to define what that is,because the media has skewed
that.
So that's going to be a goodamount of seafood, because we
know DHA is great for hearthealth, great for brain health.
So good amount of seafood,vegetables, fruits.
If you want to include propergrains, healthy grains, you can.
Meats and I know it's crazy,but the Blue Zones diet did get
(21:21):
it wrong.
Those countries do eat a lot ofmeat.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
France eats a lot of meat and butter, but again,
they're raised properly, they'renot processed meats, they're
normal, you know right, becausegeographically, depending on
where you're living, themediterranean diet may not be
feasible if you're trying to gowith sustainable and local as
well.
Definitely, definitely.
You know.
You know we always promote theseasonal and local over any one
(21:47):
type of diet.
That is, quote unquote betterfor you.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Definitely.
Yeah, I think that's a greatstarting place and then ideally,
hopefully, people go to thatseasonal, local diet, right.
And then just to wrap somethings up here is so that's what
I would aim for.
And then there's a couplesupplements we can get into.
So if you are on a statin, themost important supplement, no
(22:15):
argument.
If you're on a statin, youshould be taking ubiquinol
Ubiquinol, also known as CoQ10.
It's just a different form ofCoQ10.
Statins deplete ubiquinol, orcoq10, and coq10 is one of the
most important nutrients for theheart.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Kind of interesting that I was gonna say, I've heard
about coq10 but I don't everknow, like, what its actual
function is coq10 super.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I mean it's used in tons of molecules, but or tons
of, I feel like I've usuallyheard it, in animals, believe it
or not, with joints jointhealth.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I'd have to see, I mean let's talk about the heart
thing, because joints havenothing to do with our topic
today but, I'm curious.
I just it's just interestingthat it got brought up on this
topic, because it's notsomething I typically associate
with that.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah Well, interesting that it got brought
up on this topic, because it'snot something I typically
associate with that.
Yeah well, it's super importantfor energy production, so I
know that it's it's used likethat helps the heart keep
beating and heart, like cowheart or other animal heart is
actually highest in coq10, whichmakes sense because the heart
uses it.
So that's why you'll hear somepeople say, like, eat the organ
for the organ, for your organ.
But point being is, I wouldrecommend heart, but you could
(23:36):
take a good supplement, vicrinol, as well, and I just think it's
pretty interesting that a druglike a statin, made to protect
your heart, is actuallydepleting one of the most
important nutrients for yourheart.
So that's why it's veryimportant to know.
If you're on a statin, no doubtyou should be taking that.
Yeah, so that's, I would say,supplement number one.
(23:57):
Now, if you're not on a statin,we can just go into maybe some
other supplements to take thatwill help.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Do start with you, john, I'm used to.
I'm used to the no supplement,john, not the I know this, but
this is after you're in a spotthat you're you know already on
a downhill trajectory you needto recover from quickly yeah,
this is like me trying to usethem as intervention medicines.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
So then then.
But I agree, if there'sdefinitely some food like I
still recommend eating heart.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
But right, you're right, no, it's just.
It's just interesting to methat we're on a topic now where
you know this is the medicine,so to speak.
Yeah, because you're getting ina much higher dose than you
would in a diet.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Definitely.
Okay, here's just a.
We'll add this part in too.
So CoQ10 is for cellular energyin the mitochondria and the
best sources, like we said, arecarnitine from heart and lamb,
and then statins.
Yeah, they block the avalanatepathway, which produces CoQ10
(25:03):
and cholesterol.
So it's the same pathway thatproduces cholesterol and CoQ10,
and that's why the statin blocksit, and then CoQ10 and blood
pressure decrease.
So there's a correlation thereas well.
So that might be a good signthat if you're on a statin and
your blood pressure isdecreasing, coq10 could help
that.
With this study it helped a lotof patients.
(25:29):
So, yeah, that was number one.
Another one that you could takeis D-ribose.
So D-ribose is aids in buildingATP Again, energy for the
mitochondria.
It's a five-carbon sugar.
It's a pretty common you canlook it up, I think I've even
had it before pretty commonsupplement.
But D-ribose, if you don't haveit, it doesn't produce ATP,
(25:52):
which means you have no energyand then you have.
You're not making energy, youhave oxygen deprivation, so
you're not able to efficientlymake D-ribose.
So there's usually, if you havehigh cholesterol or you have,
it's not really as much as highcholesterol if you have heart
(26:13):
problems, metabolic disease,pre-diabetes, diabetes which are
causing these other problems.
You're not an efficient energymaker with some of the direct
(26:34):
synthesized molecules from foodthat give you direct energy,
because you're not reallyutilizing your food well or
making them well, so this kindof just goes around.
A lot of that bypasses that.
That's another one, and thenjust a couple more to throw in
because, again, I reallyrecommend looking into it
yourself.
A great book that a lot of thiscame from is the Great
Cholesterol Myth, so you canlook that up.
(26:56):
I believe that's the nameEither way.
Magnesium super important forheart health, muscle health
enough said there.
And then probably one of thelast most important ones is
omega-3.
And a couple of reasons Iwanted to get into this, so I
think it will tie it in nicely.
Again, I recommend eating fish,salmon, sardines, things that
(27:17):
are local, that are high in it.
Lamb is actually high in it,which is crazy.
But one thing to note is a lotof people will say you don't
need to eat fish is in the vegancommunity, maybe that you can
get your omega-3s from.
Excuse me that you can get youromega-3s from algae or other
(27:37):
sources, but the thing is fromfish, from fish oil pills a good
one.
Dha and and EPA are like theanimal sources those are going
to help you.
Ala comes from plants and a lotof people.
Like I said before, you canjust use ALA.
(27:57):
Your body will convert it toEPA and DHA.
Your body will convert it tothe type it needs.
That's not true because intoday's world a lot of high
omega-6 oils like corn oils,vegetable oil that actually
prevents the conversion of ALAto DHA.
So we want to make sure we'reactually eating fish or getting
a very, very quality fish oilsupplement, because the
(28:21):
vegetarian, the vegan sourcesare not going to do as well for
this Kind of off topic.
But on topic as well of why weneed to stick with some
animal-based products for thatright, right.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Well, it ties it into the other podcast, too, where
we've talked about cooking oilsand why it's important to use
certain cooking oils when you'recooking as opposed to others,
because it actually impacts theability for your body to digest
and absorb those nutrientsdefinitely, definitely.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
So.
That's a lot of them.
Just to give names to the otherones, if people are interested
vitamin e, it's a greatantioxidant, that's protective.
Vitamin b5, niacin, so a lot ofthe b vitamins which are found
in red meat, which is veryprotective, very good.
Uh, resveratrol, that's more oflike people have heard of that.
(29:13):
I'm anti-aging drug but it doeshave some benefits.
Those are the ones where Imight say just get them from
food, like those first ones Ilisted, especially like
magnesium.
Those are the ones that you mayneed higher doses of so you can
supplement with them.
The rest, just look into goodfood sources and that's where
your diet really comes into play.
So yeah, those are some tests,those are some supplements.
(29:37):
Those are just some, hopefully,ways that you can take it into
your own hands, because statins,sadly, are very over prescribed
, very quickly prescribed, andI'd say just the key takeaways
the most important things are ifyou're in a spot where you
might have to go on a statin orare on a statin, first look at
your triglycerides over hdlratio.
(29:59):
That's not on your your test.
So both of those tests are onyour conventional cholesterol
panel, but they don't do thatcalculation for you, so you just
have to look at yourtriglycerides divided by HDL.
You want that number two orless, and then, yeah, it just
plays into lifestyle everythingwe've said in every other
podcast of ways of lowering it,getting healthy.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Great, perfect, a good breakdown on if you're in a
cholesterol tight spot, what todo, how to look at it, how to
determine if you're actually ina tight spot and then,
potentially, ways to startmaking progress towards
reversing that without usingstatins.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah, it's like cholesterol for dummies.
We did it as quick and easy aspossible.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Right, right, without losing the core concepts there.
Thanks for listening to ourpodcast we hope this helps you
on your balance freedom journeyplease share your thoughts in
the comments section below untilnext time, stay balanced.
Welcome to the Balance Blueprints podcast,
where we discuss optimaltechniques for health and
finances and then break it downto create an individualized and
balanced plan.
I'm your host, john Propper,here with my co-host, justin
Gaines.
In this episode, justin and Ibreak down all things.
Cholesterol, part two we talkabout which tests to get done if
you want to see if there'sactually a problem with your
(00:20):
cholesterol, some lifestyleinterventions you can take to
help lower your cholesterol, andsupplements if maybe you're on
a statin or they want toprescribe you one.
Thank you for listening and wehope you enjoy.
So the last episode oncholesterol and when we talk
about cholesterol I guess we'retalking about heart disease in
general was pretty introductory,yeah, introductory All over the
(00:45):
the place.
So, since last time felt like wewere taking a journey without a
map, I think we're going to bepretty quick and precise this
one on maybe some things to lookfor and some tests to run and
some supplements or lifestylesto do.
If you're worried or concernedabout high cholesterol, perfect,
(01:07):
yeah, and I guess what I reallymeant to say was we were
talking about saturated fat andbasically the reason we talk
about saturated fat is becauseof the concern of cholesterol.
Right, so we won't go into toomuch if you didn't listen to
that one.
That is part one just a goodthing of misconceptions about
foods, cholesterol, what it isand what it is and what it isn't
(01:29):
.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I think it's probably more of what it isn't than what
it is yeah, because we're toldwhat is it I know we're just
told what it does, but yeah, sojust to get into it.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
if you have some concerns, I know doctors health
advice.
They'll say don't eat highsaturated fat, it's going to
clog your arteries.
Don't eat too much cholesterol,it's going to give you heart
disease.
So I think we mentioned thislast time.
But saturated fat is reallyonly bad when you're eating high
saturated fat and high sugar.
This is because the body can'tburn the saturated fat as fuel,
(02:04):
since you're running off ofcarbs.
So what happens is, if you'repredominantly well, pretty much
everyone in the United States isa carboholic, so they're
running off of sugar, runningoff of carbs processed junk food
and that's the problem issaturated fat.
When it then sits in the bodyand can't be used as fuel, then
(02:24):
it gets converted into theproblem and extra carbs also get
converted into more saturatedfat in the body, because when
you have excess carbs, you gainweight.
So that's where I know that maycome up of.
Some people may say well, thisstudy shows saturated fat has
done this.
It's like well, yes, but let'sdive deeper into that study.
And what kind of diet is it?
(02:45):
Is it saturated fat?
Because we know processed likebaked goods are loaded with
saturated fat and sugar.
It's like, well, yes, then nowwe have a problem.
Or is it saturated fat fromproperly raised animals,
seasonal, seasonal vegetables?
So context here matters, Ialmost feel like it, just almost
(03:09):
.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
If you're going to have a meal that's going to be
high in saturated fats, itsounds like you should adjust
your portion of associated carbswith that meal.
The big, huge steak andpotatoes could be part of the
issue there with you know thedemonization of your red meats
and stuff, because you havesomething that potentially is
cooked with a lot of saturatedfats, has saturated fats in it,
(03:31):
has the cholesterol concern, butit's not the actual cholesterol
in the meat that's driving yourcholesterol numbers, it's the
mound of mashed potatoes next toit that's spiking your insulin
levels and your glycemic indexthen not allowing you to digest
those cholesterol and thesaturated fats yeah, and a lot
of people in the fitness worldwill like plan meals around that
(03:52):
like they'll specifically havelower fat meats with higher
carbs, mainly because you knowit's easier to to digest, it
doesn't slow you down as much,but like they've been doing this
for a while of kind of, andthen if you're having a lower
carb day you'll have just a lotof high fat and a lot of high
protein.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So they they've kind of been doing that for a while
and obviously, physique wise, ifyou do carb timing, it usually
works pretty well.
So so, yeah, I mean that's kindof a cheat code that you see
people do.
But that's just again our briefintro, because if you missed a
lot of stuff, go back to thefirst, uh, first episode.
But if you're here, you'reprobably wondering maybe some
(04:34):
benefits we can do, because yourdoctor either wants to
prescribe a statin or isconcerned about your cholesterol
.
So let's get into some of that.
So the first thing we went overa test you can look at on a
normal blood panel.
Last one, but just some otherthings about statins is we want
to remember cholesterol isn't abad molecule.
(04:57):
So if you lower cholesterol,you're lowering how well your
hormones work, because ittransports hormones.
You're lowering how well yourhormones work because it
transports hormones.
We looked up last time how muchof the brain is made of
cholesterol and if you go on astatin, it's not as if the
statin is able to pinpointcholesterol in your arteries.
That happened because of plaque.
(05:18):
It lowers cholesterol in yourtotal body, so that means it's
lowering cholesterol in yourbrain.
I'm not sure if we mentionedthis last time, but that is why
statins have a link toAlzheimer's, because cholesterol
is very important for amolecule or important to make
sure your brain's functioningproperly.
So statins, loweringcholesterol.
(05:42):
That's really the main problemwith statins, except that one
problem is a huge problembecause of how important
cholesterol is in the body andit's been attacked and demonized
.
And we talked about differenttypes last time of how we want
big, fluffy ones instead of hard, little plaques, which everyone
should be familiar with.
That because they'll always sayyour arteries are going to fill
with plaque.
So first test to do again.
(06:06):
Last time we went over onesthat may be free or provided by
your doctor.
These ones may not be, so youcan look out for that, but
there's a lot of onlinecompanies that will do it.
I know, justin even did anonline company yeah, I use quest
.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, I use class and I do it at least once a year
because it's, in the grandscheme of things, in.
In my opinion it's inexpensive.
If you go to the doctor and youhave lab work done, it's
usually $600, $700, $800.
And a lot of times yourinsurance won't cover it unless
it's tied to some sort ofdiagnosis.
But if it's not tied to adiagnosis and it's simply
(06:41):
exploratory, it's usually $600,$700, $800.
And it's simply exploratory,it's usually six, seven, eight
hundred dollars.
But through quest you can get afull panel.
For I want to say it was likejust under 100 or just under 200
for it.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah yeah, so that's I mean that's a great deal and
that's going to be more of yournormal tests.
But still, point of that isthere's now companies and quest
may even have them.
You might just have to go.
Did you have to go in to getblood drawn?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
yes, yes, yeah, go in .
But you literally you scheduleit.
They send you, you know, youschedule your time and then you
wait in the parking lot.
They send you a text.
When you're you know, withinthe next 15 minutes up, you go
in, you go into a little thing.
They draw your blood, you do ap test.
It doesn't get easier than that.
In like a week or two you haveyour numbers and then it's in a
(07:27):
spot where you can very easilydigest it.
It shows you the ranges and thereason I do it every year is
just to see what's moving,what's changing and get ahead of
those things.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, definitely.
So, yeah, the point of that isthere's now a lot of places that
do it online that are cheaperthan your doctor or the same
that do it online that arecheaper than your doctor or the
same.
But the first test to find outis you want this test is called
LP-PLA2.
Complicated test, but it'sLP-PLA2.
(07:57):
Not 100% sure what it standsfor Lipoprotein some but this is
going to test if plaque isactually a problem in your
arteries.
And we want to do thesespecific tests because, again,
they test cholesterol.
It's so vague when you go toyour normal blood panel, to your
(08:20):
normal checkup, that it's notspecific enough.
So if your cholesterol is high,it's not a good enough
indicator of if you should be ona statin or if you have a
problem.
A great thing to back this upis you can look them up.
We won't cite them.
Many studies have shownactually a worse outcome for
health, for lifespan, forlongevity, so people have even
(08:44):
died sooner when they have lowercholesterol versus higher
cholesterol.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
When you're referencing cholesterol, there's
LDL, HDL.
One's considered bad, one'sconsidered good.
Do you want to break that downjust a little bit?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, one is considered bad, one is
considered good.
It's a little dated.
So HDL, your good cholesterol,versus LDL, your bad cholesterol
.
So it's tough because I thinkit more matters about the ratio
of them.
And last time we talked aboutyour triglycerides and the size
of the particle, as we mentioned.
(09:22):
So this isn't to say if you havevery low LDL or no, very, very
high LDL and very low HDL.
So a lot of the bad stuff and alittle of the good stuff.
You know that that is going tobe alarming, that's a problem.
But if both of them are in thehigher range, you're healthy,
you're working out, your diet'sgood.
We see this a lot with peoplethat eat just higher fat diets
(09:45):
and their ratio is good, theirtriglycerides are normal, they
have a high HDL and a moderateto high LDL.
And the doctor isn't sayinglike, oh, you know, they're not
looking at that using criticalthinking.
They're just seeing a highnumber of someone who's very
healthy, very active, andthey're going to try and
prescribe a statin.
So so, yes, normally we havethat good and bad cholesterol.
(10:08):
Not to say if you have a reallyhigh LDL or high triglycerides,
like that should be checked on,say if you have a really high
LDL or high triglycerides.
That should be checked on.
But it's more about, I guess,what these tests can tell you
and the ratio of those.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Right, right, well, and part of the reason they take
such a hard line on it too, isyour pathology report literally
will tell you if something's lowin range or high, and so
they're just able to look atthat blood report real quick and
be like, oh, these are thethings that are flagged because
they're out of range.
And then, okay, these thingsare range, these are.
This is clearly the problem.
And then you start talkingabout it from that perspective
(10:42):
which is another reason why I doit yearly is because range is
based on the population subset.
Versus me, doing it each yeargets me a track record that
shows what my blood work haslooked like since I was mid-20s.
And then when I start havingissues because it's inevitable
as you age, you're going to haveissues.
When I get into my mid to late50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, we'll have
(11:08):
40 years of blood work to showis this normal or is this out of
out of trend?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
definitely.
Yeah, I think that's a muchbetter way to go about it,
because there's just so muchindividuality.
I mean to compare your numbersagainst you know, the population
is absurd, the crazy part too,is like a lot of those you know
those averages aren't based on.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It's not an average based on gender or, you know,
race, ethnicity.
It's literally a populationsubset of the entire population
of humans.
This is what the numbers are.
It doesn't take into accountany of the biological or genetic
factors that have to have somesort of impact on those numbers.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, I know, so that's good advice.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
You're the one who got me on doing it every year.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, that's good advice.
I would recommend that, andyeah, so, to go off of that, I
know we mentioned the prettycrazy specific test.
Another more common one youmight find online is the N
that's Nancy M Mary, so NMRparticle test, and that's
because there's a lot ofdifferent LDLs and HDLs.
(12:19):
So we always look at them aslike, oh, it's this one molecule
, but there's different kinds,there's VLDL, there's, I think,
ldla different types of them, ifthey're bad or what matters.
So it's not just LDL, it's thedifferent subset.
Are you looking them up?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, you're looking at the range.
I'm not looking at them becauseI don't have something in front
of me to look them up, but Ijust remember when I had my
heart issue, that blood testbroke it down.
There was like four or fivedifferent types in there that
were broken down.
That's good.
Yeah, I don't believe the Questone broke it down by each
different subtype.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yeah, and then just to reiterate, I know we said two
tests that may be a littlecrazier, that you'd have to pay
for online the LP-PLA2 or theNMR particle test.
This is the one that is a greatindicator.
We said this last time.
But just to reiterate, look atyour triglycerides.
Divide it by your HDL, the goodcholesterol.
(13:23):
This is a better indicator thanjust your total cholesterol or
your LDL.
So what you want this number tobe is you want it to be around
two or less.
So that means if yourtriglycerides are 100, your HDL
is 50, it's around 2, anythingless than that you're doing good
.
If it starts to get higher, youwant to then maybe look into
some interventions which we cannow get into of how to lower
(13:43):
that, and really it's almosteasier to just try and lower
your triglycerides.
But that's a problem withcarbohydrates and sugar and
being a carboholic.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Right.
So for practicality purposes,obviously keeping track of these
numbers, getting ahead of thestorm is probably more important
than trying to fix it onceyou're in it.
But what approach do yourecommend people taking that are
on that health consciousjourney to track this and look
at it?
Do they need the specializedtests upfront, or should they
(14:18):
just be getting blood panelsperiodically and just keeping an
eye on these things and then,if something looks odd or off or
you have a doctor trying to getyou this on a statin, is that
when you go to the specializedtests, Like what does what?
Does that health journey looklike?
You know, for the averageindividual who's trying to get
deeper into these things,Similar to what you said with
(14:39):
the tests, is like trying tostart early.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So you really want to try and start early because you
want to do this stuff beforegetting on a statin.
You don't want to get onto astatin and if you are on one
it's not the end of the world.
You can try and get off, butstart early.
And the first thing you justhave to look at is your
lifestyle.
I mean, are you going to thedoctor?
So we'll say everyone's gettingroutine cholesterol tests,
(15:03):
because that's what they testfor when you get a checkup or
you get blood drawn.
So everyone's getting thosewhen you go and get your normal
checkups.
So are you going to the doctor?
Are you overweight?
Are you maybe pre-diabetic,diabetic, or are you physically
healthy?
Do you live a good lifestyle?
Are you trying to eat healthy,you know?
So this is the first thing tokind of make sure this doesn't
(15:26):
happen to you Heart disease.
You need a good lifestyle.
Now, from there, say you go tothe doctor and they say your
cholesterol is a little high andwe're concerned.
I mentioned the first partbecause you need to take
everything into account.
Are you overweight, are youpre-diabetic, are you sedentary?
Then you might want to put alittle more weight into what
(15:50):
that doctor says of you havehigh cholesterol.
The other side of it is alsovery difficult because you
almost have to just take whatthe doctor says as information
and do a little bit of your ownresearch.
You don't want to just takewhat they say and run with it.
If you're a healthy individual,you know you eat right, you
know you do certain things andthey say high cholesterol.
(16:11):
Let's think about a statin.
You almost have to go againstthem, which is very hard to do
because you need to take yourhealth into your own hands.
So from there, that's the firststep.
Say now you have that recommend.
Or people are saying you knowyour doctor says your
cholesterol is a little high.
Let's think of some things todo.
(16:32):
If you have a good doctor, youcan listen to them, but I would
suggest these things instead.
So number one is we talked Ithink you brought this up last
time very briefly, but sunshineis very important.
So sunshine actually convertsinactive cholesterol to vitamin
D.
So that's a great sponge tosoak up cholesterol in the body
(16:52):
because it's a precursor tovitamin D, which obviously we
know.
Vitamin D has a ton of benefits, but the UV rays are actually
going to convert that.
So getting outside, gettingsunscreen, safe sun exposure
without sunscreen, becausesunscreen will block the UV rays
.
So that's very important,important, which a lot of people
are indoors these days, rightbecause cholesterol is a key
(17:13):
component of the actual creationof d3 in the body extremely
important.
Yes, yes, can't be made withoutit.
Um, so you're not getting thesunlight exposure.
You're not converting it, andthat's part of your build-up
issue definitely, definitely,and that's a probably great
(17:35):
reason of why we see highercholesterol and higher heart
disease because a lot of peopleare indoors these days
especially with the regular youknow regular work week.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
You know the hours where the especially, you know,
I should say regular work week.
If you're, you know, above, youknow, 40 degrees latitude,
you're outside of the angle ofimpact that allows for the sun
to convert, for your, your body,to convert those sun rays into
d3, because you're in the office.
So going out, you know going outon a walk during lunch or you
(18:03):
know.
Things like that are reallyyour only way to get any amount
of sunlight exposure during theappropriate time frames or the
weekends right right, which isalso a reason why people think
the sun's bad is because they goweeks without getting any sun
exposure.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
then they go on a weekend or they go on a week
vacation and sit in it.
Only it's like, well, yeah, ofcourse you were going to burn,
you.
You didn't build up anytolerance, you haven't done it
at all.
So, yeah, that's a huge factor.
Next is going to be our diet,and this is where you're
probably going to have to ignoremainstream media health advice
(18:37):
and what your doctor says.
We don't want to do low fat, wedon't want to do vegetable oils
, seed oils, canola oils.
We don't want to avoidsaturated fat, we want to just
eat a local.
We don't want to avoidsaturated fat, we want to just
eat a local, healthy, balanced,in-season diet.
So a lot of things and this kindof ties back to your question
earlier of is LDL good, is LDLbad?
(18:58):
Like what to look for.
It's tough to use those twonumbers because a lot of foods
and a lot of compounds willaffect both, will affect one.
So like I think it's probablybutter for the longest time has
been demonized because it raisesLDL, your bad cholesterol.
But the thing that they alwaysleave out is it also raises HDL,
(19:20):
your good cholesterol.
So these are different tinyimportant details being left out
in terms of it's not justraising LDL and also which LDL
is it raising, like we got intothere's many different types but
it's raising the overallcholesterol, the ratio, which
may not be a bad thing, becausebutter also has butyric acid,
(19:40):
which is a short chain fattyacid.
This is produced in the colonwhen bacteria ferment certain
fibers, but you can kind of getaround this by just eating
butter, and butyrate butyricacid helps suppress cholesterol
synthesis in the body, so itliterally has some health
beneficial effects for loweringcholesterol, you know.
(20:03):
So it's just there's a lot tothe story, right anything in the
health world.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
It's very hard to pinpoint and say this is going
to have this effect, yes, andnot impact other things at the
same time.
Like it's, you're talking abouta very complex system, very
complex machine that is thehuman body, and if you try to
just isolate things and simplifyit to this one variable can
change and have this one outcome, it's just not realistic.
You have to just isolate thingsand simplify it to this one
variable can change and havethis one outcome.
(20:31):
It's just not realistic.
You have to turn a blind eye toso many other components that
are also changing at the sametime.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Right, and a lot of the books, a lot of the
information I got this from.
They go through every food,every nutrient, if you want.
We're just going to use butteras an example, exactly because
of what Justin said.
You can't pinpoint one.
So, point of this being is youwant to eat a healthy, balanced
diet?
They're going to say maybe aMediterranean diet, but we also
(20:57):
need to define what that is,because the media has skewed
that.
So that's going to be a goodamount of seafood, because we
know DHA is great for hearthealth, great for brain health.
So good amount of seafood,vegetables, fruits.
If you want to include propergrains, healthy grains, you can.
Meats and I know it's crazy,but the Blue Zones diet did get
(21:21):
it wrong.
Those countries do eat a lot ofmeat.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
France eats a lot of meat and butter, but again,
they're raised properly, they'renot processed meats, they're
normal, you know right, becausegeographically, depending on
where you're living, themediterranean diet may not be
feasible if you're trying to gowith sustainable and local as
well.
Definitely, definitely.
You know.
You know we always promote theseasonal and local over any one
(21:47):
type of diet.
That is, quote unquote betterfor you.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Definitely.
Yeah, I think that's a greatstarting place and then ideally,
hopefully, people go to thatseasonal, local diet, right.
And then just to wrap somethings up here is so that's what
I would aim for.
And then there's a couplesupplements we can get into.
So if you are on a statin, themost important supplement, no
(22:15):
argument.
If you're on a statin, youshould be taking ubiquinol
Ubiquinol, also known as CoQ10.
It's just a different form ofCoQ10.
Statins deplete ubiquinol, orcoq10, and coq10 is one of the
most important nutrients for theheart.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Kind of interesting that I was gonna say, I've heard
about coq10 but I don't everknow, like, what its actual
function is coq10 super.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I mean it's used in tons of molecules, but or tons
of, I feel like I've usuallyheard it, in animals, believe it
or not, with joints jointhealth.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I'd have to see, I mean let's talk about the heart
thing, because joints havenothing to do with our topic
today but, I'm curious.
I just it's just interestingthat it got brought up on this
topic, because it's notsomething I typically associate
with that.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah Well, interesting that it got brought
up on this topic, because it'snot something I typically
associate with that.
Yeah well, it's super importantfor energy production, so I
know that it's it's used likethat helps the heart keep
beating and heart, like cowheart or other animal heart is
actually highest in coq10, whichmakes sense because the heart
uses it.
So that's why you'll hear somepeople say, like, eat the organ
for the organ, for your organ.
But point being is, I wouldrecommend heart, but you could
(23:36):
take a good supplement, vicrinol, as well, and I just think it's
pretty interesting that a druglike a statin, made to protect
your heart, is actuallydepleting one of the most
important nutrients for yourheart.
So that's why it's veryimportant to know.
If you're on a statin, no doubtyou should be taking that.
Yeah, so that's, I would say,supplement number one.
(23:57):
Now, if you're not on a statin,we can just go into maybe some
other supplements to take thatwill help.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Do start with you, john, I'm used to.
I'm used to the no supplement,john, not the I know this, but
this is after you're in a spotthat you're you know already on
a downhill trajectory you needto recover from quickly yeah,
this is like me trying to usethem as intervention medicines.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
So then then.
But I agree, if there'sdefinitely some food like I
still recommend eating heart.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
But right, you're right, no, it's just.
It's just interesting to methat we're on a topic now where
you know this is the medicine,so to speak.
Yeah, because you're getting ina much higher dose than you
would in a diet.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Definitely.
Okay, here's just a.
We'll add this part in too.
So CoQ10 is for cellular energyin the mitochondria and the
best sources, like we said, arecarnitine from heart and lamb,
and then statins.
Yeah, they block the avalanatepathway, which produces CoQ10
(25:03):
and cholesterol.
So it's the same pathway thatproduces cholesterol and CoQ10,
and that's why the statin blocksit, and then CoQ10 and blood
pressure decrease.
So there's a correlation thereas well.
So that might be a good signthat if you're on a statin and
your blood pressure isdecreasing, coq10 could help
that.
With this study it helped a lotof patients.
(25:29):
So, yeah, that was number one.
Another one that you could takeis D-ribose.
So D-ribose is aids in buildingATP Again, energy for the
mitochondria.
It's a five-carbon sugar.
It's a pretty common you canlook it up, I think I've even
had it before pretty commonsupplement.
But D-ribose, if you don't haveit, it doesn't produce ATP,
(25:52):
which means you have no energyand then you have.
You're not making energy, youhave oxygen deprivation, so
you're not able to efficientlymake D-ribose.
So there's usually, if you havehigh cholesterol or you have,
it's not really as much as highcholesterol if you have heart
(26:13):
problems, metabolic disease,pre-diabetes, diabetes which are
causing these other problems.
You're not an efficient energymaker with some of the direct
(26:34):
synthesized molecules from foodthat give you direct energy,
because you're not reallyutilizing your food well or
making them well, so this kindof just goes around.
A lot of that bypasses that.
That's another one, and thenjust a couple more to throw in
because, again, I reallyrecommend looking into it
yourself.
A great book that a lot of thiscame from is the Great
Cholesterol Myth, so you canlook that up.
(26:56):
I believe that's the nameEither way.
Magnesium super important forheart health, muscle health
enough said there.
And then probably one of thelast most important ones is
omega-3.
And a couple of reasons Iwanted to get into this, so I
think it will tie it in nicely.
Again, I recommend eating fish,salmon, sardines, things that
(27:17):
are local, that are high in it.
Lamb is actually high in it,which is crazy.
But one thing to note is a lotof people will say you don't
need to eat fish is in the vegancommunity, maybe that you can
get your omega-3s from.
Excuse me that you can get youromega-3s from algae or other
(27:37):
sources, but the thing is fromfish, from fish oil pills a good
one.
Dha and and EPA are like theanimal sources those are going
to help you.
Ala comes from plants and a lotof people.
Like I said before, you canjust use ALA.
(27:57):
Your body will convert it toEPA and DHA.
Your body will convert it tothe type it needs.
That's not true because intoday's world a lot of high
omega-6 oils like corn oils,vegetable oil that actually
prevents the conversion of ALAto DHA.
So we want to make sure we'reactually eating fish or getting
a very, very quality fish oilsupplement, because the
(28:21):
vegetarian, the vegan sourcesare not going to do as well for
this Kind of off topic.
But on topic as well of why weneed to stick with some
animal-based products for thatright, right.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Well, it ties it into the other podcast, too, where
we've talked about cooking oilsand why it's important to use
certain cooking oils when you'recooking as opposed to others,
because it actually impacts theability for your body to digest
and absorb those nutrientsdefinitely, definitely.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
So.
That's a lot of them.
Just to give names to the otherones, if people are interested
vitamin e, it's a greatantioxidant, that's protective.
Vitamin b5, niacin, so a lot ofthe b vitamins which are found
in red meat, which is veryprotective, very good.
Uh, resveratrol, that's more oflike people have heard of that.
(29:13):
I'm anti-aging drug but it doeshave some benefits.
Those are the ones where Imight say just get them from
food, like those first ones Ilisted, especially like
magnesium.
Those are the ones that you mayneed higher doses of so you can
supplement with them.
The rest, just look into goodfood sources and that's where
your diet really comes into play.
So yeah, those are some tests,those are some supplements.
(29:37):
Those are just some, hopefully,ways that you can take it into
your own hands, because statins,sadly, are very over prescribed
, very quickly prescribed, andI'd say just the key takeaways
the most important things are ifyou're in a spot where you
might have to go on a statin orare on a statin, first look at
your triglycerides over hdlratio.
(29:59):
That's not on your your test.
So both of those tests are onyour conventional cholesterol
panel, but they don't do thatcalculation for you, so you just
have to look at yourtriglycerides divided by HDL.
You want that number two orless, and then, yeah, it just
plays into lifestyle everythingwe've said in every other
podcast of ways of lowering it,getting healthy.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Great, perfect, a good breakdown on if you're in a
cholesterol tight spot, what todo, how to look at it, how to
determine if you're actually ina tight spot and then,
potentially, ways to startmaking progress towards
reversing that without usingstatins.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah, it's like cholesterol for dummies.
We did it as quick and easy aspossible.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Right, right, without losing the core concepts there.
Thanks for listening to ourpodcast we hope this helps you
on your balance freedom journeyplease share your thoughts in
the comments section below untilnext time, stay balanced.
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