re: Men - what do you do to lower your triglycerides & cholesterol?

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Tell us about your medical degree.

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Shitty grammar.

Tell us about yours.

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Are there any fish oil supplements I can take that won’t have me burping up fish smells? I’ve always heard that’s a problem with them.

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Vascepa

I started loosely following a Mediterranean style diet about 2 months ago. Tons of vegetables, beans, seeds, whole grain, little to no carbs, no sugar. Tons of fish, a little chicken and pork and no red meat.

The result was dropping 20 pounds and having a visit to the ER for low blood pressure of 80/40. A blood panel, ekg, echo and some other tests determined that I needed to stop taking my blood pressure med, cholesterol med and triglycerides med. Been off of them since with stable good numbers.

Fish oil did nothing for me and research will show it is not very effective anyway. Cholesterol in itself isn't bad and is your body trying to fix the inflammation in your blood vessels, caused by meat.

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Cholesterol causes build up of plaque in your arteries which can cause a stroke and leave incapacitatied for the rest of your life.

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The latest research contradicts this.

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Why even go to that extreme in this discussion?

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Because there are risks to taking statins.

Everyone has a theory, saturated fats, sugar, carbs

I'm following this thread as well. I went on Monday to do bloodwork, have an EKG, and a nuclear stress test. I go back for my follow-up next week to go over the results. High BP and bad cholesterol run in my family, and we have a history of heart attacks as well.
I've got 2 older brothers;
Middle brother about 5'6" 190lbs and had a massive heart in 2017 at age 35, had 99% blockage in the widow maker and had another mild heart attack earlier this year at 38
Oldest brother is about 5'9" 180lbs in 2019 at age 38 did not have a heart attack but had a double bypass
I turn 35 later this month and am 5'10" 250lbs, so I went get checked out because I'm pretty sure I'm doomed. I went to the cardiologist after the first brother had his heart attack and my BP was a little high, but after a few checkups over a few months I lost some weight and got my BP down. Doc said if I keep eating/exercising like I was I wouldn't have any problems, but I'm not consistent. When I first went in 2017 I was about 265lbs, now I fluctuate around 250lbs. Monday it was 130/83, so a tad high but nothing major.

Google or watch YouTube for Dave Feldman. He has cholesterol hacks to cheat tests. Like anything else in your body, lipid production is a closed loop system.

Long term:
carbs=trig's, lower your carbs (or excess energy) and lower triglycerides.
Cholesterol= ton of factors. Eating heavy saturated fats can actually elevate HDL and lower LDL... BUT not to mean lower LDL to a normal #.

You should seriously consider reading the book, "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes. It covers diet/LDL issues in great detail and is highly informative. It isn't an easy read, but based on your family history it is something you should spend significant amount of time with/on. In this book, he reviews tons of historical data and really puts the blame on refined carbohydrates and sugar.

Someone mentioned LDL-P that is a great idea re: additional information that should be tested (it is better indicator of risk that LDL-C, which is the common test). In addition, Lp(a) is another significant risk factor. Despite all of the above, your family history says that this is a big issue for you regardless of what the tests say.

At the end of the day, cholesterol is a subject that most general doctors oversimplify and the medical community has greatly fricked up the life changes to improve cholesterol levels (Thanks Keys/Mcgovern). On the other hand given your family history, you should take this seriously and probably get on a statin.

Read a bit about metabolic syndrome, it is a pre-cursor to type 2 diabetes. There is a reason (outside of smoking) obesity greatly increases the risk of cancer and heart attack. The way to reverse/improve metabolic sydrome is to control insulin levels in your body by eliminate/signifcantly reducing carbs and sugars.

Disclaimer: not a doctor

I’ll need to set up a physical with a complete workup soon. Normally my shite has always been low, but you never know.

I take a full regime of supplements and I workout regularly.