UserID/KID:

Password:

Forgot UserID/KID or Password?

Enter your 13 digit KID #:

Forgot KID#?

Wellness Articles

Health Fairs

Worksite Wellness

Corporate Wellness Program

Employees Wellness

Employees Health

Corporate Wellness

Employee Health Insurance

Employee Wellness

Employee Health Benefits

Company Wellness

Workplace Wellness

Employee Health Care

Corporate Healthcare

Employee Fitness

Health Wellness Program

Wellness Companies

Corporate Health Care

Employee Wellness Programs

Wellness In The Workplace

Workplace Fitness

Employee Health Program

Health And Wellness Program

Workplace Health & Wellness

Employee Wellness Program

Workplace Health & Wellness

Fitness Equipment

Wellness

Wellness Health

Health and Wellness

Health Program

Wellness Company

emWave

Health

Employee Incentive

Health Advocate

Health Video

Health Promotion

Swine Flu

Wellness Programs

Employee Health

Corporate Fitness

Corporate Health

Biometric Testing

Wellness Brochures

Health Stations

Get informed about your health with free health promotion emails.

corporate wellness health promotion emails

High Blood Lipids Are Still a Problem For Most Heart Patients

April 05, 2011: 9 comment(s)

Share |

It is essential to keep blood lipid or fat levels at specific target values to prevent coronary artery disease, reverse plaque formation(atherosclerosis), and avoid a second heart attack.

Blood lipid levels are the amounts of HDL ("good cholesterol"), LDL ("bad cholesterol"), and triglycerides in the blood. The recommended HDL level is over 40 mg/dl for men and over 50 for women, triglycerides should be under 150 mg/dl and total cholesterol should be under 200 mg/dl. LDL should be under 130 mg/dl unless you have heart disease, in which case, it needs to be less than 80 mg/dl.

Dr. Caldwell Essylstein studied a group of heart disease patients who had experienced previous heart attacks and had been treated with angioplasties, bypass surgery and medications. They had exhausted the current treatment options available to treat their disease. Dr. Caldwell placed them on a plant-based diet with these restrictions:

Don’t eat anything with a mother or a face
No nuts or avocados
No dairy or eggs
No oils of any kind

The key to his treatment plan was to keep total cholesterol under 150 mg/dl and the LDL or bad cholesterol under 80 mg/dl. Eighteen of the twenty four patients Dr. Essylstein treated and followed for over ten years had no other cardiovascular events: no chest pain, no heart attacks, no deaths, no bypass operations or angioplasties. Many were able to stop their medications altogether and experienced reversal of plaque in their arteries.
Six patients failed to maintain the diet plan and their blood lipid levels were higher than the target values of 150 mg/dl for cholesterol and 80 mg/dl for their LDL. All of these experienced a cardiovascular event: heart attack, chest pain, bypass procedure or death.

Unfortunately, research show that most people with heart disease do not get their blood lipids under control and reach the values advocated by Dr. Essylstein. As Dr. Essylstein’s study shows, diet is the key to controlling lipid levels.

“This is not good news, as these factors are important components of cardiovascular disease,” says Nathan D. Wong, Heart Disease Prevention Program Director at UC Irvine.

Wong analyzed blood lipid data collected on 3000 people in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2003-2004. He found that those without heart and vascular diseases generally had healthier blood. 67% were okay on all lipid levels and 85% had an acceptable LDL level. By contrast, only 17% of those with CV diseases were acceptable on all levels and only 37% had a healthy LDL level.

Wong stated, “While national treatment recommendations have focused on aggressive management of LDL-C levels, mainly through statin therapy, we have found little change in HDL-C levels and an actual increase in trigylceride levels.”

He recommends that everyone knows their blood lipid levels and reduce their risk for heart disease through lifestyle changes such as losing excess weight, reducing stress, exercise and eating healthy foods. Also, talk to your doctor about the possible need for medication to reduce blood fats.

Share |

Comments (Scroll to the end to leave a comment)

jdbeck

04/13/11 12:23

This is a good overview, now I just need to learn how to eat to control the HDL and LDL levels.

davd T thompson

06/01/11 07:07

I like this article. I wish you could get more people to read it.

marsha2000

06/01/11 09:43

I recently had blood work done and my triglycerides were so low they could not calculate my cholesterol ratio. I'll need to ask my doctor about this during my next visit.

LittleBruno

06/03/11 12:34

The amount of cholesterol you consume has nothing to do with your risk of heart disease.

"A recent large government study found that raising levels of HDL "good" cholesterol using a drug did not reduce the risk of heart disease...

Niacin will raise your HDL, and so will another drug, torcetrapib. Last week, government scientists announced that niacin not only did not provide any protection against heart attacks when taken with a statin drug in patients with heart disease but also slightly increased their risk of stroke. Five years ago, researchers found that torcetrapib actually increased the risk of a heart attack, so they had to stop the study and take the drug off the market."

(Quote taken from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-dean-ornish/cholesterol-the-good-the-_b_870655.html)

We need animal fats to be healthy, think about it this way, the brain is made of fat, every cell contains cholesterol, your body needs and craves these things.

Don't believe all you hear. I

LittleBruno

06/03/11 12:35

If you want to learn more check out the documentary "Fat Head" it's quite informative.

Sugar is the "bad guy" here, if you want to save your heart avoid processed sugars, engineered foods and oils (like hydrogenated corn oils and high fructose syrup) Shop the outer aisles of the supermarket only, your arteries will thank you.

MARY JO BODLEY

08/16/11 07:26

I learned a lot from this article last quarter.

I HAVE to know this guy!

09/29/11 02:17

The control of HDL and LDL is one of the things I find hardest to pay attention to when it comes to health, because I normally am looking at fats, trans fats, and sugar

Luis Rangel

09/30/11 06:45

THANK YOU FOR THE VALUABLE INFO ON HDL & LDL'S I'M 46 AND HAVE NOT REALLY TAKEN IT SERIOUSLY. I KNOW I SHOULD WHEN I GET CHANCES TO READ AN ARTICLE AS SUCH.