High cholesterol - how to lower it?

ABC

Sun, Jan 25 2015, 1:28 am

My 7 year old daughter has very high cholesterol. We've seen a dietitian and have made all the changes she recommended but to no avail. She is too young for meds.

Does anyone have any recommendations of ways to lower cholesterol? Foods to avoid (in case the dietitian I saw left something out)? Any other ideas?

Thanks!

mandksima

Sun, Jan 25 2015, 3:52 am

All I have to say is that at any age Statin drugs are not a healthy answer. They cause many side effects down the line. Doctors often do start drugs by that age so beware.

From a lot of current reading, I am hearing that high cholesterol is not an unhealthy state by itself as that is not what causes heart disease. People should be concerned with lowering inflammation within the body and you can do a lot of things to make the body healthier. Taking Omega 3 is excellent and can lower LDL/Tryglicerides and raise HDL. I have found that eating Paleo (plenty of natural cholesterol and no procesed foods) has raised by HDL a lot from a low 17 to 65 in a few short months. The ratio of good to bad cholesterol is more important than total number.

Beware of low-fat alternatives that contain sugars and refined grains. Whole foods are the key to good health. Dieticians in general are very old school and we see how that has gotten Americans. They are worse off than before they ever heard of cholesterol as the dietary changes they have made have made them ill.

There are lots of sites out there with information that you won't read in the typical American Heart Association sites. See this for a good start: Dr. Mercola- cholesterol info

amother

Sun, Jan 25 2015, 7:58 am

What man design said
from experience
I limit saturated fat, eat mostly whole grains, and take omega 3 and my cholesterol went down by a lot
now trying that on my DD, haven't taken a blood test yet, so we'll see what will happen
by the way, was on the diet for about a year before I had my blood taken

ABC

Sun, Jan 25 2015, 12:42 pm

chani8 wrote:

High cholesterol is a concern mostly because it is a sign of inflammation. Perhaps she is sensitive to wheat.

I don't really understand what this means, could you explain a bit more? Internal inflammation? Would there be other signs of this?
TIA

MagentaYenta

Sun, Jan 25 2015, 3:14 pm

I'm with the Imas who mention whole foods, lower saturated fats, and I would add, less meat to that equation as well. I dropped my cholesterol through diet and exercise. My Dr. gave me a study on the effects of red rice yeast and lower cholesterol levels. It made sense to me so I added red rice yeast supplements to my diet as well as red rice. Discuss it with your DD's Dr.If they agree you may want to try it.