cholesterol

[puffysmom]

I have a friend who just cannot get what i am doing. She just found out that even though she is careful with what she eats her colesterol is not all that great. One of the readings is high and so the doc is giving her time to see if she can get it down and if not wants to put her on medication. Her body is making it.

Anyone here have had that problem and it is cleared up with eating Raw? I really need some good documentation in order to get her to make a healthy change. She is eating better but I know she can heal herself with Raw eating. She also had cancer a year ago and i feel that it would be for her best health to do this but thinks i am nutso.

[Rawmommie]

I won't be much help. I have been raw 2 1/2 years and just had my cholesterol checked and it's high. (and not in the good way)

I have cured and reversed so much eating raw, and hope that eventually my body will repair this too, although I've been told it's hereditary. I mean, sheesh! I don't EAT any cholesterol! In any case, I have read that being overweight can contribute and my weight was the last to respond on raw. I have hope that as my weight continues to go down, my cholesterol will also. I'm having it checked again in a few months.

[puffysmom]

Well at least I tried. She is not overweight. In fact she is overmuscular. She has been working out so that she can get rid of all fat in her body. Now the doctor has told her to not do strength training but arobics instead. It might be the thing for her to do. She is in fabulous condition for a woman who is 60. Looks at least 20 years younger.

I hope u see the changes u want to see eating Raw both with colesterol and weight. I was not losing much weight until I decided to do a week of green smoothies. I was eating so many nuts. I could sit down and eat a bag of nuts every day and just knew it was a problem. The main reason i am doing the green smoothies and raw greens for a week is to see if it helps my psoriasis more and it seems to be doing just that. I do believe it is due to toxins even though I did not think that i had many toxins left in me. Psoriasis is suppose to be impossible to clear up with healthy eatings as any doc will say it has to be medicines only but I know of more than one person who cleared it up with changing their diet. I am seeing a nice change so I know this also. It is either this or high risk medication and i went that route already. Not good.

[Frecs]

I don't know that my case would be the same as hers but I can tell you that within six months of being raw my cholesterol went from 242 to 160 and now it is 139 at last testing. The only "problem" is my "good" cholesterol is lower than recommended but I'm not terribly concerned nor is my doctor. I was also morbidly obese so the cholesterol dropped as I lost weight. I will say that I wasn't eating all those high nut based recipes that you see here -- I was eating no more than 20% of my calories in fat.

Whether your friend will see the same results on raw or not I can't say if what she is dealing with is hereditary. But, tell her that a high fiber, low fat diet is her best option.

[RawVegan4Health]

Any doctor will tell you that they still do not know much about cholesterol and it's impact to health. It all started from a study showing that most of the people who died of heart attacks had high cholesterol. That didn't prove anything, but they started recommending people lowered their cholesterol. What they found was people with low cholesterol also had heart attacks. Eventually they discovered that some cholesterol may be good, and some bad, but even this is not definitive. Their main focus right now is the ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol. In additon, too high of good cholesterol and too low of bad cholesterol is also a high risk. Ironic, isn't it? A high risk of heart disease is associated with people with la bad ratio of good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Some people just do not produce enough good cholesterol, thus any bad choelsterol they get through diet is a permanent risk if they continue intaking dietary cholesterol. Some people just tend to convert fats into bad cholesterol. Their only option is to limit fats, but that can have it's own risks.

Each person and situation with cholesterol is unique. In my situation, I had high triglycerides (385) and low good cholesterol (31). In only 2 months I brought down my triglycerides from 385 to 92 by a combination of raw vegan and medication. However, my good cholesterol also dropped from 31 to 29. The medication I was on could also lower good cholesterol, so this was not a shock to anyone. At this point I am off meds and I am trying to see if within the next couple months my body naturally raises the good cholesterol the way it is supposed to. I am eating a high raw vegan diet during this time as well so I am ingesting no dietary cholesterol. My next cholesterol screening will tell me a lot about how my body is creating cholesterol, good or bad, and whether or not I will need other means besides just nature and raw foods to get my good cholesterol back to a healthy range. I am very hopeful that the diet and exercise was all my body needs, but until I have the proof I can just be positive and desire myself to be healthy as I can.

Always remember though, they still have no deifinitive proof that any cholesterol, high or low, good or bad, is a guarantee of heart disease. It just puts you into a statistical category where you are a "higher risk". Some people are walking around with cholesterol totals well over 1000 who have not had any heart problems. Explain that!

Here is a link from the American Heart Association about cholesterol.
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1516