Mission: Lower LDL Cholesterol. Day 1

(I posted an update to this 5 months after following the plan I laid out for myself. Here it is.)

Over the last 1 year, my LDL cholesterol has gradually crept up. All other markers (HDL, triglycerides, blood sugar, blood pressure) have been normal. As I’ve tested every six months, I’ve committed to changes in lifestyle that can help bring the cholesterol down. For reference, my LDL cholesterol is currently at 184, and a normal range for LDL is below 130, and optimally below 100.

Eventually, the doctor recommended that I go on statins. Until now, I believed that I lead a healthy enough lifestyle that this will “go away” if I work on a few things like exercising more regularly and cutting back on food that I should anyway. Since it has changed, I am now on a mission to reduce cholesterol.

I write here primarily to document what I’ve done and the steps I am taking, and plan to do a follow up in 3–4 months.

The first step was for me to ascertain the risk of having high LDL and how urgently do I need to bring it down. In particular, did I have risk of heart disease? Going by the lack of heart disease in families on both my parents’ sides, I hoped my risk of heart disease was low. My first step was to get the coronary artery calcium score with a CT scan. The score was 0, implying that there was little build up of plaque in the arteries. This is heartening, because this means I can try to take steps to reduce cholesterol without having to take statins immediately.

My next question was if it is feasible to reduce cholesterol by simply making lifestyle changes. As per my doctor, unless there were obvious 180 degree changes I could make, this isn’t feasible. I am not obese, don’t eat a lot of junk food, exercise regularly. In other words, changes in my lifestyle, if any, would be small.

That said, I do believe I can make healthier choices for food I eat. For the past several years I’ve avoided sugar. As I’ve researched, I’ve come to a conclusion that the primary nutrients in the foods that I must watch out for additionally and avoid are saturated and trans fats. Somewhat surprisingly, I found that it is easy to consume saturated fats.

One of the meals I’ve zeroed in to eliminate saturated fats is the morning breakfast. It turns out oats are a good source of goodness. Granola is now my breakfast of choice. Even here, it is easy to make choices that have saturated fats and sugars. For the time being I am sticking with Kind Raspberry clusters with Chia seeds, and am trying out a couple more of the Kind granola. I mix this with non fat Greek yogurt, and so far this has been a great change.

I haven’t changed the rest of my meals much except. We cook mostly at home, especially in these times of the Covid pandemic. I am avoiding white rice, white flour, and whole milk. I keep carbs low at dinner time. I am continuing to exercise for about 60–90 minutes a day, ensuring there’s both cardio and strength building included.

Now, as the doctor said, changing just my lifestyle may not help. I don’t want to take statins. So, is there anything else I could do?

Hailing from India, I got a lot of advice to look at Ayurvedic treatments. It turns out that cholesterol is not a “thing” in Ayurveda. There are treatments and pills to improve the gastric/digestive systems, but not something specific for cholesterol. Having said that, Triphala and Trikatu are what jumped out as potential natural supplements that can help do better with digestion in general. Given that it’s essentially natural fruits, I am inclined to try these out. I am increasing the intake of fruits daily to help increase soluble fiber in my diet.

The other supplements that I’ve found are based plant stanols and sterols. I asked my doctor about these. I’ve researched online. There seems to be enough credibility to this that I’ve decided to try a supplement. What I understand is that a minimum daily dose of 2g of plant stanols or strerols is necessary to have an impact. This often means 4–5 capsules a day.

So that’s what my plan is. In a nutshell:

• Reduce or eliminate saturated and trans fats from diet.
• Exercise regularly
• Take a daily dose of 2g of plant stanols or sterol supplement
• Improve gastric/digestive system by increasing soluble fiber in diet, and natural supplements like Triphala.

My plan is to measure again in 3–6 months to see where I am at.