High Cholesterol

[idontmeasureup]

I'm new here and just about to start the Flat2Fab program on 23 July. I went and had my yearly check-up and my pap test come back fine, but my doctor wanted to check my cholesterol. I was thinking, no big deal, I'm young and workout so it should be fine. Well, I found out that I'm borderline high with my LDL at 146 and my HDL at 66. Because I exercise regularly and my HDL was good, my doctor said no treatment was needed at this time and that I just needed to watch my saturated fat & cholesterol intake and keep exercising. I've heard that exercise & BE don't mix, but for me, the exercise is what's keeping me off some really powerful medications with nasty side effects. I don't want to take this stuff until I absolutey have to.

High cholesterol runs in my family and my mom & grandma both had bad side effects with Zocor...now my grandma developed Alzheimer's as did her brother who recently passed away within months of using Zocor. She also has muscle aches & pains so bad she couldn't even get out of bed--which stopped when she stopped the meds.

Even with my daily running & weights, I'm still a small C cup. I have boobs and I wear a 34C cup bra, one cup is tight, the other is a little loose. As much as I'd like to put the working out on hold for boob growing, I really can't now because of my cholesterol. That & a better diet, which I needed to improve anyway is what's keeping me off medication. I'm almots 30 and don't want to take the stuff.

I'm willing to try BE as long as i need to, taking breaks that I know are important. I can even accept a little weight gain, since I hope my change in diet will have an impact on that too. I've heard anotther member talk about yohimburn, a topical fat burner. I'd be willing to try it just to keep everything from getting too big, while I'm trying to grow.

I would love to dowse for all this, but I don't have the time to check stuff 3 times a day and sure can't do dowsing at work.

[Wahaika]

What is your diet like? So you get enough lean protein?

What is your normal intake of:
potatoes
rice
pasta
corn
breads, donuts, bagels, etc.
sweets
?

How much dark leafy green (like spinach) salad to you eat?

Do you take any vitamins? If so, what?

Have you ever done or considered a liver flush? (the one that is not for the faint of heart)

How much exercise do you do? You mentioned running and weights. What do your workouts consist of? How many days per week to you lift weights and for how long each time? Is it for toning or do you lift hard? Same type of questions for running. How far, how fast, how long, how often?

Do you drive a Lexus? (humor me)

Your cholesterol is not all that high depending on some other things. What is your blood pH and what is your C-Reactive Protein?

You can still do a lot to lower your cholesterol back down. The steroid hormones descend from cholesterol, so the right routine will help that. Fenugreek and Goat's Rue are good for lowering cholesterol.

What does Lucy have you doing?

Thanks,

Wahaika

[idontmeasureup]

Hi there, actually I do drive a Lexus, a shiny black '03 SC430 convertible. I'm aka Lexuswoman from NBE Quest, just didn't want to use that name again. I considered my diet to be OK, except for the fact that I pretty much ate whatever I wanted. I was eating greasy tamales most every Saturday night along with a lot of chips + salsa. I do eat a lot of lean protein, like chicken and usually have a small potato & some spinach with lunch. I eat Grape Nuts at breakfast with Skim Milk, no coffee, do-nuts, cigarettes, and have cut out a lot of carbs like bread & pasta. I just take a plain old daily multi-vitamin from WHole Foods Market. I don't know if I would do a liver flush, don't really know how to do one, little skittish on that.

My running workouts are 6 miles, 6 days per week. I usually do 7 minute miles. The weight lifting is 10 pound dumbbells, nothing heavier and I do a 20 minute upper & lower body routine, as well as abs almost everyday for about 10 minutes or so. I'm 5 ft. 6 in. and weight 133. I don't diet and don't starve myself, I exercise for fitness, not for weight loss. I really don't want to give up the workouts and will just accept that that might keep me from growing really rapidly or growing at all. Even with what I paid for all my stuff, its still much less than a bottle of commercial breast pills or a Brava system.

Lucy's routine is: 1 Red clover, 1 fenugreek, 2 saw palmetto 3X per day. Morning massage with hops and evening massage with fenugreek. 360 inward massage rotations using the above extracts. I'm also gonna add Evening primrose oil, but will that worsen the cholesterol since its oil? Don't have a clue about blood-ph and c reactive protein. Thanks!

[gigi]

idontmeasureup,
Just to let you know, my cholesterol count is similar to yours and my doctor told me the same thing a year and a half ago. The previous test was taken while I was on the Zone Diet. I exercise daily, am no longer on the diet but watch what I eat-limit pasta, bread, potatoes etc. Just had a blood workup and am waiting for the results. Now I'm curious whether the numbers have changed.

[fawnmarie]

Another thing to check for is thyroid function. Women get elevated serum cholesterol levels with poor thyroid function - so even if your numbers are "fair" - you may want to increase your intake of sea vegetables and seafood (or add a kelp supplement).

Exercise is really good for you - and if you need to do that, it's more important than your breast size. It sure sounds like you're doing a hell of a lot of it, though! Do you have time for anything else?

Seriously - insulin spikes are famous for increasing serum cholesterol, and reducing carbs - or cycling carbs may help improve your blood lipid profile. As goofy as she seems, Suzanne Somer's diet program is actually quite excellent - and integrates both food-combining and low-carbing principals.

Fawn

[idontmeasureup]

Hey Fawn, its Lexus here, y'know I never thought about the thyroid thing, but I don't have any other signs on my thyroid being out of whack...no weight gain/loss, etc. I know a lot of my cholesterol has to do with heredity, my mom & grandma's are both high and my mom had her thyroid checked a long time ago and it came back fine.

I'm gonna try the BE with my workouts, since I"ve already got some boobage to start with, maybe it will work since I just want to add a little more to what I've already got. What are "sea vegetables", I didn't know there were vegetables that grew in the sea or is this a Jessica Simpson "chicken or tuna" thing?

Actually, my workouts are just a regular part of my day, like going to work, running errands and housework. No doubt that I'm busy from sunup to sundown with everything I do. I get up early to go run & do weights when I get home from work, but I don't lift everyday, its only like twice a week. And, I do abs before I run.

I've really started eating better & cut out the fried stuff, but no doubt I miss those homemade tamales . Hopefully, since I've tweaked the diet for the better, I won't blow up when I start taking all the herbs, although I wouldn't mind a little more going to my butt as well. I envy J. Lo's butt.

[Wenonae]

I've a funny but quickie question.

So, if you're willing to do NBE for as long as it takes, why not do it faster and be done with it? You said you don't have time to dowse (3x's a day is quite the fallacy, once should be enough if you're checking it daily), but you have time to do trial and error? Seems like a funny twist.

Were I you, I'd at least dowse to figure out the herbs I needed, then play around with the dosages using Flat 2 Fab's techiniques so you have a better chance of working. If you don't have the right herbs for your body, NBE can be a painfully disappointing or side effect not worthy experience, yes, including weight gain which you seem very adverse to. Why risk going through all of that?

My lil' 2 cents. Wish you the best of'

Wen'

[Wahaika]

Add a good multivitamin to your regimen that contains a good B complex. It will help speed up your metabolism a bit, and the niacin is a good for raising HGH. Take this with your herbs just before bed, long after any meals.

You could also take calcium and magnesium three or four times per day. Same with Omega-3 fish oils, but the fish oils may interfere with the BE regimen. Good for cholesterol though.

C-Reactive protein is a measurement of inflammation. Do you have a copy of your bloodwork from your doctor? Check for it and your glucose level and insulin level. Insulin is definitely the enemy when it comes to cholesterol. The statin drugs block the detection of and enzyme called HMG Co-A Reductase which, is a result of insulin production, and tells the liver to crank out LDL. Insulin causes inflammation. The LDL is good for dealing with that, but as you get more and more insulin resistant, the problem just escalates.

You can try to keep the insulin levels low, but you also need to attack it from the pH direction, generally. LDL is manufactured as a response to inflammation, so you need to do things to alkalize - like eating lots of dark leafy greens and taking things like fish oils (not cod liver oil), calcium, and magnesium. GTF Chromium will help with insulin absorption. (don't you just love run on sentences?)

Your workout for BE is good. But for cholesterol lowering it is not as good as it could be. When you lift, you need something more rigorous (heavier weights) to burn off the sugars.

Are you taking fenugreek powder internally or fenugreek extract? The powder is good for lowering cholesterol. Not sure about the extract.

For the massage, you might consider adding aloe vera gel or two drops of DMSO (99%) to help with the absorption. Even olive oil would be good. Are you following with heat?

The oils - Olive, EPO, Borage are all the good type of fats. They will help lower your cholesterol. I have often wondered what the lipid profile of a BE'er is after 6 months of an herbal routine. It has many things in it to lower cholesterol!

Wahaika

[fawnmarie]

Personally I think the best way to improve blood lipids is low-carbing. My overall cholesterol dropped from 195 to 165 and my triglycerides dropped to 54 after a few months on a low-carbohydrate diet. (Sorry, don't remember the LDL:HDL ratio, but it was okay to begin with and stayed okay.)

Okay, I'm not entirely sure how this relates to NBE, except that if you improve the ratio through the diet, you may be able to slow down on all the aerobic exercise. (It's aerobic exercise that can be detrimental to a BE program - not weight lifting.)

On the other hand, if you enjoy it, then that's a different story. I understand that it's medically necessary, it just seems like a lot of running. Six miles - six days a week! Wow!

You know, if you're in good shape, a C cup is nothing to sneeze at. Perhaps just a couple of months of a topical cream will do the job and fill them out. Also, if you've had children (I think you have, right?), or are over 30, progesterone cream might be your answer to filling them out.

Good luck!

Fawn

[idontmeasureup]

Hi Fawn, I'm 28, will be 29 this year and no I don't have any kids. I've actually been watching the carbs much more lately. I've pretty much quit eating any bread, unless once in a blue moon I go to Subway or something. I used to eat a lot of bread. I've definatly tried to limit the carbs.

My measurements are: Underbust = 29 inches, left breast = almost 10 inches, right breast = 9. VS told me that I was between a 34C & D cup, but I just feel smaller than that. I really just want to add a little fullness, maybe a 1/2 cup to 1 cup. Could I really just do topical massage? What extracts would I need & how many rotations--inward or outward would I need to do? Would I need heat afterwards? Would I need saw palmetto taken internally? I haven't started anything yet since I'm waiting on my period to begin.

Y'know, about the running. I love it. I'm not training for a marathon, 6 miles is max distance for me and its just something I really enjoy. And there's nothing more gratifying than flying past all the men out in the park & seeing that p****d off "I just got passed up by a girl" look on their faces . Running the pace that I do, the miles fly by . Thanks for all the great advice, please let me know about the massage thing.

[Cassandra]

Try drinking green tea.......it's supposed to be good for a lot of things.

[idontmeasureup]

Hey there, y'know what, my husband & I both drink green tea already!