Normal cholesterol numbers do not mean you are protected from heart disease!
A grieving patient recently shared how his 48 year old uncle with normal cholesterol taking statin medications died suddenly of a heart attack.
The research shows more than 50% of people suffering from heart attacks in the United States have NORMAL cholesterol. This is especially frightening when you consider heart disease is the number one cause of death and disability in this country.
Cholesterol & Your Heart Disease Risk
Lipoprotein Particle Size is a better test than the standard cholesterol or lipid profile in assessing your heart disease risk.
The cholesterol particle size is much more indicative of cardiovascular disease risk than the cholesterol numbers. Plaque or atherosclerosis in the arteries is promoted by small, dense cholesterol lipoprotein particles.
Large, fluffy and buoyant particles protect you from atherosclerosis because they carry cholesterol out of the arteries. Thus if your LDL is a normal number such as 99 and your HDL is 55 but you have a preponderance of small, dense LDL and HDL particles then you are much more likely to have atherosclerosis.
Inflammation is another promoter of atherosclerosis and must be reversed and prevented to maintain healthy blood vessels.
Risk Factors for Heart Disease
- Overweight – If your waist measurement at the navel divided by the measurement of your hips at the widest location is greater than 0.8 for a woman and 0.9 for a man you have metabolic syndrome(link) and are considered obese.
- Smoker – You know if this is you.
- High blood pressure – defined as a blood pressure 130/80 or higher.
- Metabolic Syndrome (link) is elevated blood sugars or Hgb A1C over 5.5. Metabolic syndrome is the leading cause of heart disease, diabetes and many other chronic inflammatory(link) diseases. A1Cs of 6.0 or more are diabetic blood sugars.
- Elevated cardio or hs CRP indicates systemic inflammation (link) which promotes injury to the blood vessels and atherosclerosis in addition to many other chronic diseases.
- Elevated homocysteine – A healthy homocysteine is between 4 and 8. Many people require methylated B vitamins to lower homocysteine levels because they have difficulty methylating Folic acid and B12.
- Hormone imbalance – low estrogens and progesterone in women and low testosterone and elevated estradiol in men are risk factors for cardiovascular plaque formation and disease. Adrenal and thyroid hormone imbalances are also a risk factor.
- Elevated triglycerides – Are a primary indicator of metabolic syndrome (link) and are a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease(link). See the patient case below to be inspired!
Case Study: Dramatically improved health in four weeks!
A 44 year old man with hypertension, high cholesterol, triglycerides, irritability, poor sleep and low energy was already taking Lisinopril, Simvastatin, Sertraline(Zoloft) and Ambien respectively for each of these conditions and saw Dr. Fassler. Though he was taking the Simvastatin, his lipid blood test results were still off the charts!
Dr. Fassler put this patient on a therapeutic diet including 4 to 6 cups of vegetables each day and no starches with quality proteins and fats. In addition he was given a homeopathic remedy and a couple of supplements to help with moods and sleep.
Exactly four weeks after the previous appointment and testing he had lost 12 pounds and his test results were vastly improved with total cholesterol down from 237 to 148, HDL up from 33 to 40, Triglycerides down from 527 to 153!!! and his Cholesterol/HDL ratio had dropped from a dangerous 7.2 to 3.7. In addition, he was sleeping quite well, had plenty of energy, feeling happy and his blood pressure dropped from 130/90 to 128/72.
This is a very important case demonstrating you too can dramatically improve your health in only four weeks! Make the commitment to your family and yourself to be as healthy as you can be.
As of May 2013, the patient is working with his primary care physician to wean off of his medications and intends to continue to improve his health and lower all of his disease risk factors.