My husband has high cholesterol, and nothing he does seems to help lower it. A few years ago he lost about 20 lbs and his cholesterol went up 25 points. His parents are both on meds for high cholesterol, and his doctor says its just genetic and he'll have to take medication. He's only 36, and it seems he's very young for a lifetime of medication.

I'm wondering if anyone knows if I add more veggies to our diet if that will help. I'm vegan and he's vegetarian, but he only occasionally eats dairy or eggs. Unfortunately I'm a lazy vegan, and rely on processed foods too much, but I'm definitely willing to start cooking more.

Any information on books, websites, etc. I should check out would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Nice ot see another vegan!!!

I've never seen cholesterol drop faster than on a raw vegan diet.

Dr. Barnard's and Dr. Mc Dougal's programs work too though.

I'd say no refined sugars, more whole foods and MOSTLY vegetables and beans/legumes works pretty well too!

I absolutely agree with Soulbliss.

YAY veggie love! Fiber. It's all about the fiber. Have you heard of Fiber35? They have an awesome line of products. The whole idea is to get 35 grams of fiber a day. The fiber binds with the bad cholesterol to flush it out of the system. It's hard to find fiber in most processed foods so you can supplement it with a product that they sell like Sprinkle Fiber or the FitSmart bars. Oh, and GOOD fats too like flax oil. Or, my new favorite - chia seeds.

A detox is great too!

Ah, the same thing happened to me, though I was older! Even when my cholesterol was high, I had the lowest of anyone in my family! Don't know what to tell you, but I've been on meds for several years now and haven't had any problems.

And eating whole foods will easily give you 35g of fiber a day, no need for supplements.

Thank you all for all the info! And so quickly!

I've done McDougall a couple of times, and I'd always fall away from it, because of the time involved. I have a bit more time now, so cooking is more of an option. I'll look into Dr. Barnard too. I think his diet is similar to McDougall. I don't know anything about raw veganism, but I'll look into it.

I can't wait until the farmers markets start up again!! I just started going last summer and we ate lots of veggies all summer.

I average 60 grams a day of fiber when I eat my "normal" diet with broccoli, kale, flax and black beans!

Exercise is an important factor as well isn't it?

I am 33 and I've been athletic and relatively fit my whole life. I just recently started on 5 mg (not much) of Zocor because, despite my borderline cholesterol number (197), my family history does not bode well for future low numbers.

Although I'm a carnivore, I rarely eat red meat and I average about 3 eggs a month. I do like my dairy (hooray, Greek yogurt!), but surprisingly, my triglycerides are good (go figure?!), it's just that my LDL is awful...

I talked to a friend who wanted to get off her cholesterol meds and she told me she loaded up on oats, walnuts, almonds, and hummus and was able to drop her overall number by 60 points!

So, inspired by that, for the last few months, I have been eating a 1/2 cup of oatmeal with 1 T of oat bran, and an full cup of frozen wild blueberries. I also add 1 T of ground flaxseed with Omega-3 oils in for good measure. This breakfast clocks in at something ridiculous like 420 calories, but honestly, it has been awesome for my weightloss-- keeps me sated for hours! I'm not sure yet how much it will help with the cholesterol, but I hope to find out at my physical this week...

As for the meds, I don't mind being on them...it sure is better than having a stroke!

I would also recommend Eat to Live.

My DH went for his yearly physical 3 weeks after we started following ETL (although he wasn't really following it, just eating what I gave him and he ate things I didn't eat like pita chips and peanut butter).

He had a dramatic improvement in cholesterol in just that short period of time even though his cholesterol was good to start with.

Oh! One thing I forgot to mention is the fact that if you're going to take a statin it is VERYimportant to be taking a CoQ10 supplement along with it. Statins block CoQ10 production in the body leading to major health issues.

Here's an article from newstarget.com about CoQ10:
http://www.newstarget.com/020512.html

I love that website!

I also drink a lot of green tea. Very good for the endothelium (blood vessel lining). While this isn't directly related to your cholesterol, it will help keep your arteries healthy and clot-free!

Gotta go check out that CoQ10 link now...

Hmmm, that article said nothing about statins, but rather it was a study of 29 people who had chronic heart disease appearing to benefit from supplemental CoQ10.

It did explaing what it is though: CoQ10 is a vitamin-like antioxidant compound that is essential to the body's ability to produce energy in cells. CoQ10 is mostly available in supplement form, but it can also be partly obtained through the diet. Foods rich in CoQ10 include oily fish that contain high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, and in organ meats and whole grains

Pat, yeah the reason I posted that link was to give more information about what CoQ10 was. There was an article on the same site that talked about the damaging effects of statins. I'll take a look and post it.

Here's the link to great info on statins:

http://www.newstarget.com/021397.html

Thanks.