Any DUers have high Triglyceride Levels? I just came back from the Doctor

And mine are very high 585...

My doc wants me to start taking Antara (fenofibrate) to lower my level but I want to find ways to lower my levels without medication.

I am NOT asking for medical advice but I would be very interested to know if anybody else has had similar high Triglyceride Levels and what you have done to sucessfully lower them...especially, if your approach was drug-free.

Thanks in advance.

I am gathering information here to use when I next consult with my doctor.

By the way, I am 25 lbs over weight, excersize very little, and eat things that I know are not good for me like cookies, cheese, peanutbutter...

So, right there are some changes that I can make that may help.

Tread Mill time :)

to reduce fatty foods - go back for follow-up tests 3 months from now tom echeck

You can purchase both in pill form at any health foods place like GNC.

Also add safflower oil to your diet (salad dressings, etc.) and look in your local bakery for breads using safflower oil and/or safflower in the grains.

Replace all uses of vegetable oil with Olive Oil.

It lowered a few friends triglycerides rather nicely.

as expensive statin drugs. Not much but a little bit.Nuts are supposedly good, too.

Any dietary changes will be significantly enhanced by a regular exercise regimen.

Dietary modifications including oils containing high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids will also be beneficial (flax seed oil, olive oil, evening primrose oil, etc). These can be used either in cooking or taken as supplements. Some fish are high in Omega-3s, but many people are hesitant to boost fish intake because of the high levels of mercury present in virtually all fish (Thanks, Big Coal Industry).

Booze is also a significant elevator of triglycerides, if that's also a part of your current intake.

:-)

be. This poster is right--exercise is important and its benefits extend to every part of one's body.

I would ride a bike some, and I took a short walk a few days a week, but that wasn't quite enough.

I started taking longer walks. To relieve the boredom, I would use headphones--I would check out books-on-tape or books-on-CD (and now we have books on mp3) from the library, then play them while walking. I found it more absorbing than listening to music, although that's good too, of course.

Moderate drinking - no more than 1-2 drinks per day - has been shown to be one of the best things, statistically speaking, you can do to prevent heart disease.

http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/heal/l/blnaa45.htm

the only time I heard high triglyceride levels discussed by a medical professional (nurse/dietician), this was one thing I learned about them:

They are (or can be) related to cholesterol levels--in particular, high cholesterol. Learn how your cholesterol level is calculated, if you haven't already. You are given a single number (your "score'), but there is a calculation of about 2-3 (?) readings that go into making up that score. One of these readings is your triglyceride level.

I think maybe by using diet to keep your cholesterol level down, you might be able to also lower the triglyceride reading. (Ask the doctor!)

My opinion: First, get a second doctor's opinion. It's worth it, and it will NOT hurt the feelings of your first doctor. (That's not the way doctors think, at least in my experience.) Your doctor SHOULD understand your concern about maybe not wanting to end up dependent on an expensive prescription drug when you could get the same results in some better way.

If the second doc also says you shd take this medication, my opinion is that you should take it, BUT at the same time you are taking it, PLEASE ask for an appointment with a nurse/dietician. This person can give you some excellent non-prescription ways to lower cholesterol--and, I presume, also can give ideas on lowering tricglyceride reading.

Then follow the dietician's regimen. (It's usually not difficult.) I thought you also ought to take the prescription if 2 docs recommend it, b/c there may be a reason why your level should be decreased more quickly than diet and exercise can do it.

I had a high-borderline cholesterol reading a year ago. I got an appointment with a dietician in my doctor's office. I was smug and sure that she couldn't teach me anything I didn't already know about what foods to eat, but I was WRONG! For one thing, she pointed me to an item in the grocery store that you can eat to lower your cholesterol. (It's a spread called "Take Control".) I know your problem was triglycerides, not cholesterol per se, but I can only talk about what my own (somewhat related) experience was.

triglycerides are the building blocks of cholesterol. High triglyceride levels are a precursor to high cholesterol levels. Docs tend to fret more about the triglyceride levels than they do cholesterol.

Moreover, prescription meds like Lipitor are effective at reducing cholesterol, but not effective w/ regard to triglycerides. If one is able to exercise and make dietary changes, that's about the best (and, according to my GP, only) way to bring down the triglycerides.

I'm not a doctor, of course, and I don't play one on the radio.

:toast:

the way they get that "cholesterol level" number is:

Add HDL score, plus LDL score, plus 1/5 triglyceride score, and the result is the well-known "your cholesterol level". I took this formula straight from what the dietician told me.

I was lucky enough to not be one of the patients who had a high triglyceride level, but I did catch a little of what the pros said to a patient who DID have high a triglyceride level. It seems that that can be related to risk for diabetes.

Exercise is the main answer, with diet being a close second.

Only reason I can think of to take prescriptions for this is if the doctor (or doctors, if you get a second opinion) insists on it. As I said, there may be a reason why they need to lower her triglyceride level faster than it could be done with a change in diet/exercise.

on the liver as any other drug - and in addition has a wicked heat rash side effect in most people at the 1000 to 1500 dossage level needed.

Is the LDL reasonable? (reasonable might mean under a 100 to under 50 if you have a Doc that pushes a little hard)

Watch the liver function closely - no point dying of liver problems in lieu of a heart attack.

That's tricky stuff.

A friend of mine took it, and a few days later ended up dead in the ER - brought back, but with a blood clot near his heart. The doctors believed that his taking Niacin dislodged all kinds of crap.

He's fine today, but the doctors referred to niacin as "The Widowmaker."

I think it's mostly about diet and exercise, once you get past that pesky "genetic" thing.

into a world where fast food is cheaper than a healthy diet and a tread mill rental at the rehab facility is $10 per session (or $70 a month).

But you are correct - I lose the 50 pounds I put on in the two years before the heart operation and I would be a hell of a lot better off, and could plan on dying of the cancer that the family background says is waiting for me!!

:-)

You're too good and too valuable to be so stupid about the thing that's the most important - your health.

Quit with the excuses, and get off your ass RIGHT NOW and go for a walk. You've gotten all you're going to get from this place right now, and you have so much more to give - if you live.

So, get up and start moving. Forget the cheap food. A roast chicken goes a long way towards a lot of meals - and don't forget to strip off the skin.

Life is for having fun, and you might just as well feel good while you're doing it. You have NO idea how good you're going to feel.

Now, scoot. Get out of here. Come back later, when you've worked up a sweat and eaten an apple as a snack, and drunk lots of water.

Scoot.

;)

:-)

I know it's sponsored by the Peanut Institute, but I'd already thought that peanut butter was good for you for some reason, and the site verifies what I'd heard.

I have a mother that doesn't cook, and a 73yr old father who LIVES on peanut butter sandwiches. He has a pacemaker, and valve replacement, and can run circles around a 30 year old. :)

"Health professionals around the world have warned against dietary fat for over two decades. But recently new research is causing nutrition scientists to take another look at both the type of fat and the amount of fat in the diet. A higher monounsaturated or "good" fat diet helps your heart because it:

*Lowers triglycerides, or the amount of fat circulating in the blood"

http://www.peanut-institute.org/Saturated_UnsaturatedFFT.html

that is, natural peanut butter. Simple, stay away from hydrogenated oils, eat lots of olive oil and stuff like that...and get far, far away from cookies and crackers and anything sold to you in a box by a corporation.

And don't take a drug to fix what can be fixed naturally.

yeah it has protein and calcium, but so do LOTS of other things, without the fat, cholesterol, antibiotics, hormones, pus, etc. in cheese. Is there a single thing in cheese you can't get from another, better source?

Nothing wrong with natural fat. The problem is with hydrogenated and processed fats. I eat a bunch of cheese and peanut butter every day and have excellent trigliceride levels. I also excersise, take flax seed, eat lots of olive oil...all that good stuff.

My point was that our bodies need fat...and I find it ironic that most people who think it is healthy to avoid fat end up with problems like these. Processed carbs and processed oils are the problem.

Yeah, our bodies need fat, and hydrogenated and processed are bad... but if you eat "a lot" of peanut butter and cheese every day that's probably too much fat, which maybe is OK for your body for whatever reason, but would not be OK for most people. And natural cheese still has cholesterol, pus, hormones, etc.

I have this condition (hereditary, not diet related). Worst thing is I was non responsive to the EXPENSIVE meds (Zocor in my case) and taking that casued my liver functions to rise. My internist is kinda bewildered with my stubbornly high cholesterol and triglycerides but just live with it. Could be something alot worse. So I am a walking time bomb. Bushler is probably gonna get us incinerated anyway, huh?

Jesus Christ, I meant ot write "WARNING" on the prievious subject line. That is what happens when you hurry, sorry....

They told me to stop drinking; as alcohol apparently makes the number rise (liver and fats). I don't drink much anyway so no biggie.

I'm about 15-20 LBS. overweight and my Dr. wants me to lose the weight befgore we discuss drug treatment. So try that first...

lots of it search google or MEDLINE

http://www.garlic-central.com/cholesterol.html

http://www.loweringcholesterol.net/show/lower-triglycerides

situation to yours. At 32 years old, my doc recommended eating less pizza and fast food, exercise, and quit smoking. I have not yet had the levels checked again. Still smoke and eat pizza. Color me crazy.

Olaf

had one about 6 months or so before and somehow survived it, though he though it was "indigestion" at the time.

He had the family history of very high cholesterol (LDL and triglycerides), ate lots of fast food and smoked heavily.

He hated doctors and didn't believe that anything could happen to him.

Unfortunately, by the time it did, it killed him. It happened in his sleep and his 11 year old daughter and her friend found him the next morning when they couldn't wake him up.

It's a horror I hope to never go through again. Please, do what you need to do, follow your doctor's advice NOW! My husband found his problem when he was about 60 and has been following the medical advice (which includes exercise, diet and medication) and is doing very well after 10 years. Both of his sons have the family problem, one follows medication and diet instructions and the other is now gone.

Maybe you can't do anything about the genetic component, but medication sure can help. In genetic component situations it seems that diet and exercise is often not enough.

genetic. Like I said, a little overwieght, poor dietary habits, and smoking. My cholesterol oddly enough was pretty normal, a little low on the "good" kind.

I did not mean to be overly glib about it, and I appreciate your concern. I have had success from time to time with the modification of some of my poor habits, but have yet to stick with it permanently. I am well aware of my own mortality more and more with each passing year and since I would like to be around longer to BE aware of it, I will keep trying to get where I need to be. Thanks.

Olaf

It's good on everything. I've been using it, and I'm doing much better with my cholesterol.

Here's a dietary supplement that is pleasant. Dark chocolate (not milk chocolate)is very good for high blood pressure. Of course, you would have to cut down on other sweets to compensate for calories (you should consume about 400 a day of dark chocolate) but you, as I do, probably eat that many in sweets anyway. I do take pravachol for cholesterol, or rather my doctor has changed me to mevacor because it's cheaper for me on my Medicare Drug Prescription plan.

Results from blood tests -- Dec. 5, 2001

Cholesterol 333
HDL 48
LDL 207
Triglicerides 392


Asked the doctor if I could try diet first before drugs.
Low carb Dr. Atkins diet for 6 months.
He said fine.
__________________________________________

Results from blood tests -- Sept. 17, 2002

Cholesterol 211
HDL 69
LDL 129
Triglicerides 66


My doctor was very pleased.

http://www.atkins.com/
Or get a book on his diet from your library.

Cutting out sugar as much as possible helps too.

...And unfortunately it's in far too many kinds of processed foods. Possibly including your peanut butter, unless you stick to the all natural kind. The Jif/Skippy kinds have all kinds of unneccessary crap in them.

lower carbs and sugar. Reducing your carbs can be as helpful as reducing fat in lowering try's.

I would read up on whether it's a new drug, or an old standby, because newer drugs are more expensive, nor are they "proven" and it just might cause you more harm than using something that's been on the market much longer (if you end up using drugs).

I was glad to read that you're aware that you're eating things that aren't ideal for your body type, and are going to change this. Your levels are so extremely high that I'd like to encourage you to read up on the benefits of going veggie, and making meat-free meals.

I'd also recommend going to a naturopathic physician.

Best wishes.

Alcohol, refined sugar, saturated fat, and low fiber in your diet will keep them high, even if you exercise regularly.

This site is a good reference: World's Healthiest Foods
http://www.whfoods.com/whoweare.php

Green leafy vegs like swiss chard, spinach, kale help a lot.
We got my husbands' total cholesterol and triglycerides down with diet only (better than with the drugs) in 3 months. His triglycerides were 1200+ once.

Do anything you can to avoid the commercial drugs - they can be harmful to some people. We had liver problems with the drugs and other nasty side effects in just 2 years of taking them.

you do. Look carefully at the amount of sugar in each product you eat and you might be surprised how much is in there. Also the high fructose modifed corn syrup, etc.

My Brother had a quadruple bypass five years ago and he isn't overweight and had no history in family of heart disease ....so we all did alot of research and his cardiologist felt his tryglycerides were still way too high even though his Colesterol numbers were good. Looking at the research high tryglycerides may be a bigger component in heart disease than is normally thought. The Statin drugs don't lower it like they do cholesterol numbers.

He started measuring all the sugar he ate and used in coffee. He doesn't eat alot of sweet foods but we noticed that breakfast cereals have huge amounts of sugar (something one doesn't think of) and when he started measuring how much sugar he was putting in his coffee it ended up being almost two tablespoons per cup! Just switching to a low sugar cereal and using only a teaspoon of sugar in his coffee got his numbers down from 290 to under 100.

Google Tryglycerides and Sugar and you might come up with some of the studies we found. His cardiologist also has high Cholesterol and is on statins and monitors his sugar intake. You can cut way back without having to use artificial sweetners if you read every label and count the "hidden sugar" content.

Hope this helps.

I read all the labels, and it's horrifying where you find sugars, and especially high fructose corn syrup (which I regard as radioactive).

It's entertaining that I pay more for pickle relish WITHOUT sugar than I do for the stuff to which HFCS has been added. Not unlike the old days, when oil companies began producing "lead-free" gas, and charging more for it - even though the lead was ADDED during the production of the fuel.

It's all about being a completely informed consumer, but I'm lucky in that I have the luxury of that kind of time. What do normal people do? I have no idea, but it's going to continue to devastate us all.

Ate tons of veggies - mostly the green ones. Don't want to get into a war about diet here so if you're interested, pm me.

I did not want to go on Lipitor so I did 3 months exercise and they went up. I have been on Liptior and they dropped like a rock along with my cholesterol. My medicacl plan tried to switch me to Zocor but I reacted badly and went back on Liptor.

and healthy eating. Nothing easy. :-)

And while my blood suger did not qualify me as diabetic at the time, my doctor told me that if I didn't lower them and my blood sugar, that I would be diabetic within a year (my blood sugar was at 125 and my Tri's were 4 times normal. At 53 (I'm 55 now) I was 6'1" and 243lbs. Drug free solution to this problem was to go on a diet that was low in refined carbs, low in fat, and start excercising by going for a daily walk of about two miles. That's all I did. By the following year, I had lost 50 lbs. my blood sugar was right were it should be at 100, and my Triglycerides were back to normal.

Did I starve myself? nah. I did a lot of substitution. for example

for sandwich's - whole wheat wraps instead of rolls or bread.
Cheeses such as provelone and swiss instead of american
Beck's Light Premium (64 calories 4g carbs) instead of Coor's light.
whole grain or whole wheat pasta.
lean meats.
Lot's of salads

2 years later, everything still good, weight maintained, all numbers spot on.

And, when my wife an I do go out to dinner - I eat what I want (including the Fettucini Alfredo) ya just can't do it too often.

Yes, it took a while to get used to, it wasn't easy, but now it's ingrained and I don't think about it. Oh, and I feel better now than I did 10 years ago.

I tested high but it turned out that I had forgotten to fast from midnight the day before the test. When I re-tested and did the correct fast the level was OK.