follow-up re: thank you! re: Would appreciate help with cardiac health issue + scd

[Guest guest]

Dear Amelia, , Licia, Debbie and others I may not yet have read,

Many thanks for your support and your advice.

I could have included more info perhaps, but have been wanting to ask this group

for input quickly, as I have so much respect for the information and the

kindness of this group. SO, first: A very big Thank You each and all. Thank

you, Marilyn and other Moderators.

My family was from Europe, and I luckily did not grow up eating Standard

American Diet. Very little refined sweets, lots of fruits and veggies--some

canned, of course, but overall, esp for here, ate well-- including, back then,

Wheat Germ[!]and refined stuff was mostly home baked. Tho I have been low on

the exercise end of healthy living.

I finally went to this doc because while he is a Cardiologist, he has a Masters

in Nutrition too and I'd say pays more than lip service to trying to work w

people on food rather than pharma. Still, he is an allopathic doc. I will say

for him, that he said that given how I already eat, if I 'dodged the bullet', ie

the cardiac scan came back ok, there was not need to change my food life. My

cholesterol had not been a concern: it is in the family. Tho I saw the doc's

face get concerned when, taking my history he heard that my grandfather died of

heat disease around age 47. And I later found that my sister has higher total

cholesterol-- and got a clear scan, that is a score of 0 on this same scan. My

ratio of ldl/hdl is pretty good. Anyway, once we got the info he did not

suggest cutting out all fats, but reducing sat fat. So, am still happily eating

avocado and nuts. He also sent me to a very flexible, reasonable nutritionist,

lovely woman w sense of humor. [i know allopathically trained docs ++ may mean

well, but I do try to use pharm littler as possible, and so , try not to be in

the situation where such meds are prescribed.]

Thank you Amelia, for suggesting Niacin. Thank you, , , Debbie,

that is good advice to drip the low fat yogurt. I would miss the richness of

the regular. And, as a matter of fact, I have switched from pecans to mostly

walnuts, since the nutritionist did make that suggestion. I appreciate the

input.

Thank you, Licia, I Do not know about Vitamin K and will have to learn.

PJ,-- and everyone-- I am so impressed with your detailed knowledge. I got the

lousy--ldl- cholesterol down to I think 119. Triglycerides are on the high side.

And, it might have been ok had I no calcification. I already lost pretty much

all the weight I needed to go, years and years ago, and have been at a pretty

good weight range for quite a while. Whew. Losing weight is not easy. And for

me, gaining on scd is easy: nuts!

Am eating enough healthy fats: nuts, avocado, wild caught salmon, etc. I hadn't

thought of low carb as a way to go. I have been eating apples a lot. A lot!

I am so glad to hear from each of you.

Would appreciate help with cardiac

health issue + scd

Date: Apr 23, 2010 6:31 AM

Heidi,

I am no doctor and I have very little experience with heart disease, but there

are a couple of things I would like to point out. First is that you have been

on SCD for only 1 and half years, but you have had a lifetime of eating the

wrong kinds of fats. Do you have a scan score from before SCD? If so, I would

compare those numbers and see if your score, although not good, is better now

than it was. The other thing is high cholesterol is not necessarily a bad

thing. Recent studies are showing that there are actually several types of LDL,

not just one, and that some of those types of LDL are actually very beneficial.

I am sure you already know too, so this is just a reminder, that it is the ratio

of LDL to HDL that is most important and not the absolute numbers.

Now, having said that, calcification in the blood vessels is not a good thing,

and is very serious. I am not sure what is the best way to remove it, but I

believe that good fats play an important part. In the book Nourishing

Traditions (also contains recipes) there is a section on fats and their

importance. There are other books, too, but I can't recall their titles --

hopefully someone else on the board can jump in and give a few. At any rate,

the point is is that good saturated fats are incredibly important in maintaining

cell structure. The fats are actually incorporated into the cell wall and

unsaturated fats actually make the cell wall less robust. In short, even with

calcification present, you need the good saturated fats to make sure the cell

walls are robust and flexible to withstand any negative influence from the

presence of the calcification. I would definitely monitor the situation, but I

am not sure I would decrease my good saturated fats. What I would do is make

sure I am getting plenty of natural, unprocessed, good saturated fats. Foods

like grass-fed cow butter (Anchor is a good brand), virgin, cold pressed,

coconut oil, and fresh ripe Haas avocados are a good start. Research the health

benefits of the oils you are using and then make sure that they are cold pressed

so that they retain their goodness (heat processing/extraction ruins/makes

rancid most commercially available oils). Make sure you eat plenty of good,

fresh caught/wild (not farmed) oily fish like salmon. Make sure that the oils

(including those with/from nuts and seeds) are a good omega 3 to omega 6 ratio.

Most people have plenty of omega 6 oils, but not enough nearly omega 3.

My last suggestion will be this: If you still have high cholesterol (give the

info above) and wish to reduce the levels, Niacin (not niacinamide) is a good,

natural way to do it. I would research this alternative and see if you think it

would help you.

Hoping for a very heart healthy you!

Amelia