More on Boosting HDL Cholesterol
Welcome to our health & self help blog.
Focus on Your Health:
In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.
Today's post: Thursday, 9-28-2006
More on Boosting HDL Cholesterol
(Our previous post has some excellent information on this. And, I didn’t post it all here.
You can see it by going to that earlier Post: Friday, 8-11-2006 Boost your HDL to protect your heart)
A man I like & have gotten to know had an HDL of 37 or 40. This is really low considering he does exercise & is making an effort to eat right. And, a higher level would be much more heart protective.
He added niacin to see what that would do, 300 mg with meals two or three times a day. Then, he switched to the time release Niacin.
My understanding is that more people have had problems with time release Niacin than with Niacin. Part of the reason for this is that it’s about twice as effective as regular Niacin, so it’s easier to overdose. But, I suspect it may also be because it doesn’t give your liver any time off from processing it.
And, he found that even though his HDL did go up when he retested it, it only went up 3 or 4 points.
He had made enough of an effort, he thought that the second test may have been off in part because the technician who tested him that time seemed to not let the automated testing equipment warm up properly.
He now has two choices. He can spend money on a doctor visit to be referred to a more expensive testing facility & pay more there to have a test done that might be more accurate.
Or, he can do more to protect his heart, regardless of his HDL level & add more things to boost his HDL; spend his money on that; & then get retested.
I think that choice will do much more to protect his heart. And, if the next test after that shows his HDL at 60 or above, the testing was likely accurate. On the other hand, at that point, if it still shows his HDL at just above 40, an immediate retest elsewhere might be justified.
My first suggestion to him would be this. Not all supplements have equal amounts as yet of the active ingredients stated on the label. And, my information is that time release niacin is less safe than regular niacin.
Lastly, when I took 300 mg at breakfast of regular niacin from Whole Foods Markets, although I was also doing other things to be sure, my HDL already well above 60.
But of more importance, when I then added 300 mg of Whole Foods Markets “No Flush” niacin, inositol hexaniacinate, at lunch each day & another 300 mg after dinner, my HDL went up over 10 points. And, it was high already. So I would also urge him to switch to that plan & to the Whole Foods supplements as, I believe they are effective based on my own experience. And, as these are the Whole Foods house brand, they are remarkably cheap besides. (I’ve always LIKED getting quality at a discount.)
The inositol hexaniacinate may also be a MORE effective agent to raise HDL cholesterol than regular niacin !!
In reviewing my post of Friday, 8-11-2006, I saw something I missed myself when I posted it.
And, I’ll put it in bold this time to make it stand out more.
I took this from, www.loweringcholesterol.net,
A common side effect of niacin is flushing which is the result of blood vessels opening wide.
However, another form of Niacin called Inositol Hexanicotinate (IH) or "No-Flush Niacin" is proven as an effective and safer alternative to niacin.[6]
In one study, Welsh and Eade reported that inositol hexanicotinate was more effective than niacin in regulating cholesterol levels."
So, it may well also have been that when I added the inositol hexaniacinate, to avoid the flush of regular niacin, I also used a more effective supplement without even realizing it.
So, if your efforts to boost your HDL have not gotten the results you want, try adding 300 mg at lunch & 300 mg at dinner of Whole Foods “No Flush” niacin, inositol hexaniacinate.
The other three things I did that he hasn’t yet tried that I know of are to take more kinds of HDL boosting supplements; take added antioxidant & health-enhancing supplements that protect his heart while he’s boosting his HDL, & add foods & supplements that both boost his HDL & protect his heart & health in other ways.
Curcumin fits this last category. I was taking it for its reported ability to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease & found this, that I posted last time in that I found on:
www.loweringcholesterol.net
(I’ll also highlight the key parts in bold this time.)
"Ten human volunteers were given 500 mg of curcumin for seven days during a controlled trial at Amala Cancer Research Centre in India.
After seven days, they noted a 29% increase in good cholesterol (HDL) and a reduction of 11.6% total cholesterol. Lipid peroxidation was also reduced by 33%"
Given that my friend’s HDL is too low, something that will raise his HDL quickly, & seven days is VERY quick, is desirable. But, notice that even with his HDL of about 40, a 29 % increase would add about 11 or 12 points – quite a bit more than his last improvement. And, since preventing his LDL from oxidation will also protect his heart, having his body’s ability to do that boosted by 33 % is also very desirable.
The other supplement that fits the category of boosting HDL & protecting his heart & health in other ways I found on www.loweringcholesterol.net
(I’ll also highlight in bold this time as well.)
(I’d been taking it for quite some time already as Dr Julian Whitaker recommended Chromium in his books & had very good results with it in his patients.)
"Chromium (as Polynicotinate)
In a 2000 randomized controlled trial at King Abdulaziz University, 44 adults were given 200mg of chromium or a placebo was given in a double blind cross over study during 8 weeks resulted in decreasing triglycerides while increasing the mean high-density lipoprotein (HDL) significantly.[1] Another study conducted at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Israel, published in Metabolism in July 1992 reported that 76 patients who had heart disease were treated with 250 mcg of chromium increased their HDL level greatly.[2] In a 1991 study, 63 men at University of North Carolina suffering from hypertension and taking beta-blockers were studied. (Beta blockers are known to lower HDL and raise LDL cholesterol levels.) Chromium supplements increased HDL cholesterol levels by an average of nearly 6 points, a 16 percent increase. No side effects were observed. According to Harvey Simon, MD of Harvard Medical School, a 6-point increase in HDL, which was achieved in the chromium trial, should reduce the risk of heart attack by about 20 percent.[3]"
And, there is other good news about Chromium Polynicotinate. It has not had the reported problems that Chromium Picolinate has had. The polynicotinate part likely adds to the HDL boost.
And, chromium has been proven to help your body process sugars & other carbohydrates. That means that people who take it are more likely to avoid too high levels of glucose in their blood & to avoid getting type II diabetes. And, there is increasing evidence that too high levels of blood glucose & II diabetes are as BAD for your heart as high HDL levels are good.
So, since Chromium Polynicotinate does both, I recommend it highly. The other nice thing is that you don’t need to take much. Just one 200 mg capsule a day seems effective.
I find that I’m out of time today but will continue this topic in my next post.
Focus on Your Health:
In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.
Today's post: Thursday, 9-28-2006
More on Boosting HDL Cholesterol
(Our previous post has some excellent information on this. And, I didn’t post it all here.
You can see it by going to that earlier Post: Friday, 8-11-2006 Boost your HDL to protect your heart)
A man I like & have gotten to know had an HDL of 37 or 40. This is really low considering he does exercise & is making an effort to eat right. And, a higher level would be much more heart protective.
He added niacin to see what that would do, 300 mg with meals two or three times a day. Then, he switched to the time release Niacin.
My understanding is that more people have had problems with time release Niacin than with Niacin. Part of the reason for this is that it’s about twice as effective as regular Niacin, so it’s easier to overdose. But, I suspect it may also be because it doesn’t give your liver any time off from processing it.
And, he found that even though his HDL did go up when he retested it, it only went up 3 or 4 points.
He had made enough of an effort, he thought that the second test may have been off in part because the technician who tested him that time seemed to not let the automated testing equipment warm up properly.
He now has two choices. He can spend money on a doctor visit to be referred to a more expensive testing facility & pay more there to have a test done that might be more accurate.
Or, he can do more to protect his heart, regardless of his HDL level & add more things to boost his HDL; spend his money on that; & then get retested.
I think that choice will do much more to protect his heart. And, if the next test after that shows his HDL at 60 or above, the testing was likely accurate. On the other hand, at that point, if it still shows his HDL at just above 40, an immediate retest elsewhere might be justified.
My first suggestion to him would be this. Not all supplements have equal amounts as yet of the active ingredients stated on the label. And, my information is that time release niacin is less safe than regular niacin.
Lastly, when I took 300 mg at breakfast of regular niacin from Whole Foods Markets, although I was also doing other things to be sure, my HDL already well above 60.
But of more importance, when I then added 300 mg of Whole Foods Markets “No Flush” niacin, inositol hexaniacinate, at lunch each day & another 300 mg after dinner, my HDL went up over 10 points. And, it was high already. So I would also urge him to switch to that plan & to the Whole Foods supplements as, I believe they are effective based on my own experience. And, as these are the Whole Foods house brand, they are remarkably cheap besides. (I’ve always LIKED getting quality at a discount.)
The inositol hexaniacinate may also be a MORE effective agent to raise HDL cholesterol than regular niacin !!
In reviewing my post of Friday, 8-11-2006, I saw something I missed myself when I posted it.
And, I’ll put it in bold this time to make it stand out more.
I took this from, www.loweringcholesterol.net,
A common side effect of niacin is flushing which is the result of blood vessels opening wide.
However, another form of Niacin called Inositol Hexanicotinate (IH) or "No-Flush Niacin" is proven as an effective and safer alternative to niacin.[6]
In one study, Welsh and Eade reported that inositol hexanicotinate was more effective than niacin in regulating cholesterol levels."
So, it may well also have been that when I added the inositol hexaniacinate, to avoid the flush of regular niacin, I also used a more effective supplement without even realizing it.
So, if your efforts to boost your HDL have not gotten the results you want, try adding 300 mg at lunch & 300 mg at dinner of Whole Foods “No Flush” niacin, inositol hexaniacinate.
The other three things I did that he hasn’t yet tried that I know of are to take more kinds of HDL boosting supplements; take added antioxidant & health-enhancing supplements that protect his heart while he’s boosting his HDL, & add foods & supplements that both boost his HDL & protect his heart & health in other ways.
Curcumin fits this last category. I was taking it for its reported ability to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease & found this, that I posted last time in that I found on:
www.loweringcholesterol.net
(I’ll also highlight the key parts in bold this time.)
"Ten human volunteers were given 500 mg of curcumin for seven days during a controlled trial at Amala Cancer Research Centre in India.
After seven days, they noted a 29% increase in good cholesterol (HDL) and a reduction of 11.6% total cholesterol. Lipid peroxidation was also reduced by 33%"
Given that my friend’s HDL is too low, something that will raise his HDL quickly, & seven days is VERY quick, is desirable. But, notice that even with his HDL of about 40, a 29 % increase would add about 11 or 12 points – quite a bit more than his last improvement. And, since preventing his LDL from oxidation will also protect his heart, having his body’s ability to do that boosted by 33 % is also very desirable.
The other supplement that fits the category of boosting HDL & protecting his heart & health in other ways I found on www.loweringcholesterol.net
(I’ll also highlight in bold this time as well.)
(I’d been taking it for quite some time already as Dr Julian Whitaker recommended Chromium in his books & had very good results with it in his patients.)
"Chromium (as Polynicotinate)
In a 2000 randomized controlled trial at King Abdulaziz University, 44 adults were given 200mg of chromium or a placebo was given in a double blind cross over study during 8 weeks resulted in decreasing triglycerides while increasing the mean high-density lipoprotein (HDL) significantly.[1] Another study conducted at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Israel, published in Metabolism in July 1992 reported that 76 patients who had heart disease were treated with 250 mcg of chromium increased their HDL level greatly.[2] In a 1991 study, 63 men at University of North Carolina suffering from hypertension and taking beta-blockers were studied. (Beta blockers are known to lower HDL and raise LDL cholesterol levels.) Chromium supplements increased HDL cholesterol levels by an average of nearly 6 points, a 16 percent increase. No side effects were observed. According to Harvey Simon, MD of Harvard Medical School, a 6-point increase in HDL, which was achieved in the chromium trial, should reduce the risk of heart attack by about 20 percent.[3]"
And, there is other good news about Chromium Polynicotinate. It has not had the reported problems that Chromium Picolinate has had. The polynicotinate part likely adds to the HDL boost.
And, chromium has been proven to help your body process sugars & other carbohydrates. That means that people who take it are more likely to avoid too high levels of glucose in their blood & to avoid getting type II diabetes. And, there is increasing evidence that too high levels of blood glucose & II diabetes are as BAD for your heart as high HDL levels are good.
So, since Chromium Polynicotinate does both, I recommend it highly. The other nice thing is that you don’t need to take much. Just one 200 mg capsule a day seems effective.
I find that I’m out of time today but will continue this topic in my next post.
posted by David at 1:25 PM
1 Comments:
Excellent post - no words. Thank you.
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