Could the secret to maintaining a healthy heart lie in the balance between the fats and carbs on your plate? Justin and I unpack the complex dance between diet and cholesterol, challenging the conventional wisdom on saturated fats and their impact on cardiovascular health. With a focus on marrying nutritional science with practical advice, we dissect the timing of carbohydrate consumption and the controversial role of statins in cholesterol management. Our conversation aims to demystify the intricate links between what we eat, how we move, and the health of our hearts, all while spotlighting the emerging research on statins and brain health, including the potential connection to Alzheimer's disease.
Navigating cholesterol levels can feel like a maze, but we're here to provide the blueprint to find your way out. We discuss advanced lipid profiling tests that delve deeper than your standard blood panel, offering a window into the world of lipoproteins and their subtypes. The triglyceride-to-HDL ratio emerges as a key player in the game of heart health, and we share why this simple number could be a powerful ally in your wellness arsenal. With a nod to the sun's role in vitamin D3 synthesis, we highlight lifestyle modifications that extend beyond diet and exercise, advocating for a holistic approach to managing cholesterol for robust health.
Embarking on the journey to optimal cholesterol health doesn't have to mean a one-way ticket to medication. In this episode, we reveal how lifestyle choices can profoundly influence your cholesterol levels, potentially minimizing the need for statins. We detail the critical importance of monitoring the triglyceride-to-HDL ratio and provide actionable steps to take the reins of your heart health. By offering insights into dietary adjustments, the power of sunlight, and the role of key supplements like CoQ10, we equip you with the tools to make informed decisions for a healthier life. Join Justin and me as we guide you through the practices that not only support heart health but embrace a holistic approach to wellness.
Could the secret to maintaining a healthy heart lie in the balance between the fats and carbs on your plate? Justin and I unpack the complex dance between diet and cholesterol, challenging the conventional wisdom on saturated fats and their impact on cardiovascular health. With a focus on marrying nutritional science with practical advice, we dissect the timing of carbohydrate consumption and the controversial role of statins in cholesterol management. Our conversation aims to demystify the intricate links between what we eat, how we move, and the health of our hearts, all while spotlighting the emerging research on statins and brain health, including the potential connection to Alzheimer's disease.
Navigating cholesterol levels can feel like a maze, but we're here to provide the blueprint to find your way out. We discuss advanced lipid profiling tests that delve deeper than your standard blood panel, offering a window into the world of lipoproteins and their subtypes. The triglyceride-to-HDL ratio emerges as a key player in the game of heart health, and we share why this simple number could be a powerful ally in your wellness arsenal. With a nod to the sun's role in vitamin D3 synthesis, we highlight lifestyle modifications that extend beyond diet and exercise, advocating for a holistic approach to managing cholesterol for robust health.
Embarking on the journey to optimal cholesterol health doesn't have to mean a one-way ticket to medication. In this episode, we reveal how lifestyle choices can profoundly influence your cholesterol levels, potentially minimizing the need for statins. We detail the critical importance of monitoring the triglyceride-to-HDL ratio and provide actionable steps to take the reins of your heart health. By offering insights into dietary adjustments, the power of sunlight, and the role of key supplements like CoQ10, we equip you with the tools to make informed decisions for a healthier life. Join Justin and me as we guide you through the practices that not only support heart health but embrace a holistic approach to wellness.
Welcome to the Balance Blueprints podcast, where we discuss optimal techniques for health and finances and then break it down to create an individualized and balanced plan. I'm your host, john Propper, here with my co-host, justin Gaines. In this episode, justin and I break down all things. Cholesterol, part two we talk about which tests to get done if you want to see if there's actually a problem with your cholesterol, some lifestyle interventions you can take to help lower your cholesterol, and supplements if maybe you're on a statin or they want to prescribe you one. Thank you for listening and we hope you enjoy. So the last episode on cholesterol and when we talk about cholesterol I guess we're talking about heart disease in general was pretty introductory, yeah, introductory All over the the place.
Speaker 1:
So, since last time felt like we were taking a journey without a map, I think we're going to be pretty quick and precise this one on maybe some things to look for and some tests to run and some supplements or lifestyles to do. If you're worried or concerned about high cholesterol, perfect, yeah, and I guess what I really meant to say was we were talking about saturated fat and basically the reason we talk about saturated fat is because of the concern of cholesterol. Right, so we won't go into too much if you didn't listen to that one. That is part one just a good thing of misconceptions about foods, cholesterol, what it is and what it is and what it isn't.
Speaker 2:
I think it's probably more of what it isn't than what it is yeah, because we're told what is it I know we're just told what it does, but yeah, so just to get into it.
Speaker 1:
if you have some concerns, I know doctors health advice. They'll say don't eat high saturated fat, it's going to clog your arteries. Don't eat too much cholesterol, it's going to give you heart disease. So I think we mentioned this last time. But saturated fat is really only bad when you're eating high saturated fat and high sugar. This is because the body can't burn the saturated fat as fuel, since you're running off of carbs. So what happens is, if you're predominantly well, pretty much everyone in the United States is a carboholic, so they're running off of sugar, running off of carbs processed junk food and that's the problem is saturated fat. When it then sits in the body and can't be used as fuel, then it gets converted into the problem and extra carbs also get converted into more saturated fat in the body, because when you have excess carbs, you gain weight. So that's where I know that may come up of.
Speaker 1:
Some people may say well, this study shows saturated fat has done this. It's like well, yes, but let's dive deeper into that study. And what kind of diet is it? Is it saturated fat? Because we know processed like baked goods are loaded with saturated fat and sugar. It's like, well, yes, then now we have a problem. Or is it saturated fat from properly raised animals, seasonal, seasonal vegetables? So context here matters, I almost feel like it, just almost.
Speaker 2:
If you're going to have a meal that's going to be high in saturated fats, it sounds like you should adjust your portion of associated carbs with that meal. The big, huge steak and potatoes could be part of the issue there with you know the demonization of your red meats and stuff, because you have something that potentially is cooked with a lot of saturated fats, has saturated fats in it, has the cholesterol concern, but it's not the actual cholesterol in the meat that's driving your cholesterol numbers, it's the mound of mashed potatoes next to it that's spiking your insulin levels and your glycemic index then not allowing you to digest those cholesterol and the saturated fats yeah, and a lot of people in the fitness world will like plan meals around that like they'll specifically have lower fat meats with higher carbs, mainly because you know it's easier to to digest, it doesn't slow you down as much, but like they've been doing this for a while of kind of, and then if you're having a lower carb day you'll have just a lot of high fat and a lot of high protein.
Speaker 1:
So they they've kind of been doing that for a while and obviously, physique wise, if you do carb timing, it usually works pretty well. So so, yeah, I mean that's kind of a cheat code that you see people do. But that's just again our brief intro, because if you missed a lot of stuff, go back to the first, uh, first episode. But if you're here, you're probably wondering maybe some benefits we can do, because your doctor either wants to prescribe a statin or is concerned about your cholesterol. So let's get into some of that. So the first thing we went over a test you can look at on a normal blood panel. Last one, but just some other things about statins is we want to remember cholesterol isn't a bad molecule. So if you lower cholesterol, you're lowering how well your hormones work, because it transports hormones. You're lowering how well your hormones work because it transports hormones.
Speaker 1:
We looked up last time how much of the brain is made of cholesterol and if you go on a statin, it's not as if the statin is able to pinpoint cholesterol in your arteries. That happened because of plaque. It lowers cholesterol in your total body, so that means it's lowering cholesterol in your brain. I'm not sure if we mentioned this last time, but that is why statins have a link to Alzheimer's, because cholesterol is very important for a molecule or important to make sure your brain's functioning properly. So statins, lowering cholesterol.
Speaker 1:
That's really the main problem with statins, except that one problem is a huge problem because of how important cholesterol is in the body and it's been attacked and demonized. And we talked about different types last time of how we want big, fluffy ones instead of hard, little plaques, which everyone should be familiar with. That because they'll always say your arteries are going to fill with plaque. So first test to do again. Last time we went over ones that may be free or provided by your doctor. These ones may not be, so you can look out for that, but there's a lot of online companies that will do it. I know, justin even did an online company yeah, I use quest.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I use class and I do it at least once a year because it's, in the grand scheme of things, in. In my opinion it's inexpensive. If you go to the doctor and you have lab work done, it's usually $600, $700, $800. And a lot of times your insurance won't cover it unless it's tied to some sort of diagnosis. But if it's not tied to a diagnosis and it's simply exploratory, it's usually $600, $700, $800. And it's simply exploratory, it's usually six, seven, eight hundred dollars. But through quest you can get a full panel. For I want to say it was like just under 100 or just under 200 for it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah yeah, so that's I mean that's a great deal and that's going to be more of your normal tests. But still, point of that is there's now companies and quest may even have them. You might just have to go. Did you have to go in to get blood drawn?
Speaker 2:
yes, yes, yeah, go in. But you literally you schedule it. They send you, you know, you schedule your time and then you wait in the parking lot. They send you a text. When you're you know, within the next 15 minutes up, you go in, you go into a little thing. They draw your blood, you do a p test. It doesn't get easier than that. In like a week or two you have your numbers and then it's in a spot where you can very easily digest it. It shows you the ranges and the reason I do it every year is just to see what's moving, what's changing and get ahead of those things.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, definitely. So, yeah, the point of that is there's now a lot of places that do it online that are cheaper than your doctor or the same that do it online that are cheaper than your doctor or the same. But the first test to find out is you want this test is called LP-PLA2. Complicated test, but it's LP-PLA2. Not 100% sure what it stands for Lipoprotein some but this is going to test if plaque is actually a problem in your arteries. And we want to do these specific tests because, again, they test cholesterol. It's so vague when you go to your normal blood panel, to your normal checkup, that it's not specific enough. So if your cholesterol is high, it's not a good enough indicator of if you should be on a statin or if you have a problem. A great thing to back this up is you can look them up. We won't cite them. Many studies have shown actually a worse outcome for health, for lifespan, for longevity, so people have even died sooner when they have lower cholesterol versus higher cholesterol.
Speaker 2:
When you're referencing cholesterol, there's LDL, HDL. One's considered bad, one's considered good. Do you want to break that down just a little bit?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, one is considered bad, one is considered good. It's a little dated. So HDL, your good cholesterol, versus LDL, your bad cholesterol. So it's tough because I think it more matters about the ratio of them. And last time we talked about your triglycerides and the size of the particle, as we mentioned.
Speaker 1:
So this isn't to say if you have very low LDL or no, very, very high LDL and very low HDL. So a lot of the bad stuff and a little of the good stuff. You know that that is going to be alarming, that's a problem. But if both of them are in the higher range, you're healthy, you're working out, your diet's good.
Speaker 1:
We see this a lot with people that eat just higher fat diets and their ratio is good, their triglycerides are normal, they have a high HDL and a moderate to high LDL. And the doctor isn't saying like, oh, you know, they're not looking at that using critical thinking. They're just seeing a high number of someone who's very healthy, very active, and they're going to try and prescribe a statin. So so, yes, normally we have that good and bad cholesterol. Not to say if you have a really high LDL or high triglycerides, like that should be checked on, say if you have a really high LDL or high triglycerides. That should be checked on. But it's more about, I guess, what these tests can tell you and the ratio of those.
Speaker 2:
Right, right, well, and part of the reason they take such a hard line on it too, is your pathology report literally will tell you if something's low in range or high, and so they're just able to look at that blood report real quick and be like, oh, these are the things that are flagged because they're out of range. And then, okay, these things are range, these are. This is clearly the problem. And then you start talking about it from that perspective which is another reason why I do it yearly is because range is based on the population subset. Versus me, doing it each year gets me a track record that shows what my blood work has looked like since I was mid-20s. And then when I start having issues because it's inevitable as you age, you're going to have issues. When I get into my mid to late 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, we'll have 40 years of blood work to show is this normal or is this out of out of trend?
Speaker 1:
definitely. Yeah, I think that's a much better way to go about it, because there's just so much individuality. I mean to compare your numbers against you know, the population is absurd, the crazy part too, is like a lot of those you know those averages aren't based on.
Speaker 2:
It's not an average based on gender or, you know, race, ethnicity. It's literally a population subset of the entire population of humans. This is what the numbers are. It doesn't take into account any of the biological or genetic factors that have to have some sort of impact on those numbers.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I know, so that's good advice.
Speaker 2:
You're the one who got me on doing it every year.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's good advice. I would recommend that, and yeah, so, to go off of that, I know we mentioned the pretty crazy specific test. Another more common one you might find online is the N that's Nancy M Mary, so NMR particle test, and that's because there's a lot of different LDLs and HDLs. So we always look at them as like, oh, it's this one molecule, but there's different kinds, there's VLDL, there's, I think, ldla different types of them, if they're bad or what matters. So it's not just LDL, it's the different subset. Are you looking them up?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you're looking at the range. I'm not looking at them because I don't have something in front of me to look them up, but I just remember when I had my heart issue, that blood test broke it down. There was like four or five different types in there that were broken down. That's good. Yeah, I don't believe the Quest one broke it down by each different subtype.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and then just to reiterate, I know we said two tests that may be a little crazier, that you'd have to pay for online the LP-PLA2 or the NMR particle test. This is the one that is a great indicator. We said this last time. But just to reiterate, look at your triglycerides. Divide it by your HDL, the good cholesterol. This is a better indicator than just your total cholesterol or your LDL. So what you want this number to be is you want it to be around two or less. So that means if your triglycerides are 100, your HDL is 50, it's around 2, anything less than that you're doing good. If it starts to get higher, you want to then maybe look into some interventions which we can now get into of how to lower that, and really it's almost easier to just try and lower your triglycerides. But that's a problem with carbohydrates and sugar and being a carboholic.
Speaker 2:
Right. So for practicality purposes, obviously keeping track of these numbers, getting ahead of the storm is probably more important than trying to fix it once you're in it. But what approach do you recommend people taking that are on that health conscious journey to track this and look at it? Do they need the specialized tests upfront, or should they just be getting blood panels periodically and just keeping an eye on these things and then, if something looks odd or off or you have a doctor trying to get you this on a statin, is that when you go to the specialized tests, Like what does what? Does that health journey look like? You know, for the average individual who's trying to get deeper into these things, Similar to what you said with the tests, is like trying to start early.
Speaker 1:
So you really want to try and start early because you want to do this stuff before getting on a statin. You don't want to get onto a statin and if you are on one it's not the end of the world. You can try and get off, but start early. And the first thing you just have to look at is your lifestyle. I mean, are you going to the doctor? So we'll say everyone's getting routine cholesterol tests, because that's what they test for when you get a checkup or you get blood drawn. So everyone's getting those when you go and get your normal checkups. So are you going to the doctor? Are you overweight? Are you maybe pre-diabetic, diabetic, or are you physically healthy? Do you live a good lifestyle? Are you trying to eat healthy, you know? So this is the first thing to kind of make sure this doesn't happen to you Heart disease. You need a good lifestyle.
Speaker 1:
Now, from there, say you go to the doctor and they say your cholesterol is a little high and we're concerned. I mentioned the first part because you need to take everything into account. Are you overweight, are you pre-diabetic, are you sedentary? Then you might want to put a little more weight into what that doctor says of you have high cholesterol. The other side of it is also very difficult because you almost have to just take what the doctor says as information and do a little bit of your own research. You don't want to just take what they say and run with it. If you're a healthy individual, you know you eat right, you know you do certain things and they say high cholesterol. Let's think about a statin. You almost have to go against them, which is very hard to do because you need to take your health into your own hands.
Speaker 1:
So from there, that's the first step. Say now you have that recommend. Or people are saying you know your doctor says your cholesterol is a little high. Let's think of some things to do. If you have a good doctor, you can listen to them, but I would suggest these things instead. So number one is we talked I think you brought this up last time very briefly, but sunshine is very important. So sunshine actually converts inactive cholesterol to vitamin D. So that's a great sponge to soak up cholesterol in the body because it's a precursor to vitamin D, which obviously we know. Vitamin D has a ton of benefits, but the UV rays are actually going to convert that. So getting outside, getting sunscreen, safe sun exposure without sunscreen, because sunscreen will block the UV rays. So that's very important, important, which a lot of people are indoors these days, right because cholesterol is a key component of the actual creation of d3 in the body extremely important.
Speaker 1:
Yes, yes, can't be made without it. Um, so you're not getting the sunlight exposure. You're not converting it, and that's part of your build-up issue definitely, definitely, and that's a probably great reason of why we see higher cholesterol and higher heart disease because a lot of people are indoors these days especially with the regular you know regular work week.
Speaker 2:
You know the hours where the especially, you know, I should say regular work week. If you're, you know, above, you know, 40 degrees latitude, you're outside of the angle of impact that allows for the sun to convert, for your, your body, to convert those sun rays into d3, because you're in the office.
Speaker 2:
So going out, you know going out on a walk during lunch or you know. Things like that are really your only way to get any amount of sunlight exposure during the appropriate time frames or the weekends right right, which is also a reason why people think the sun's bad is because they go weeks without getting any sun exposure.
Speaker 1:
then they go on a weekend or they go on a week vacation and sit in it. Only it's like, well, yeah, of course you were going to burn, you. You didn't build up any tolerance, you haven't done it at all. So, yeah, that's a huge factor. Next is going to be our diet, and this is where you're probably going to have to ignore mainstream media health advice and what your doctor says. We don't want to do low fat, we don't want to do vegetable oils, seed oils, canola oils. We don't want to avoid saturated fat, we want to just eat a local. We don't want to avoid saturated fat, we want to just eat a local, healthy, balanced, in-season diet.
Speaker 1:
So a lot of things and this kind of ties back to your question earlier of is LDL good, is LDL bad? Like what to look for. It's tough to use those two numbers because a lot of foods and a lot of compounds will affect both, will affect one. So like I think it's probably butter for the longest time has been demonized because it raises LDL, your bad cholesterol. But the thing that they always leave out is it also raises HDL, your good cholesterol.
Speaker 1:
So these are different tiny important details being left out in terms of it's not just raising LDL and also which LDL is it raising, like we got into there's many different types but it's raising the overall cholesterol, the ratio, which may not be a bad thing, because butter also has butyric acid, which is a short chain fatty acid. This is produced in the colon when bacteria ferment certain fibers, but you can kind of get around this by just eating butter, and butyrate butyric acid helps suppress cholesterol synthesis in the body, so it literally has some health beneficial effects for lowering cholesterol, you know. So it's just there's a lot to the story, right anything in the health world.
Speaker 2:
It's very hard to pinpoint and say this is going to have this effect, yes, and not impact other things at the same time. Like it's, you're talking about a very complex system, very complex machine that is the human body, and if you try to just isolate things and simplify it to this one variable can change and have this one outcome, it's just not realistic. You have to just isolate things and simplify it to this one variable can change and have this one outcome. It's just not realistic. You have to turn a blind eye to so many other components that are also changing at the same time.
Speaker 1:
Right, and a lot of the books, a lot of the information I got this from. They go through every food, every nutrient, if you want. We're just going to use butter as an example, exactly because of what Justin said. You can't pinpoint one. So, point of this being is you want to eat a healthy, balanced diet? They're going to say maybe a Mediterranean diet, but we also need to define what that is, because the media has skewed that. So that's going to be a good amount of seafood, because we know DHA is great for heart health, great for brain health. So good amount of seafood, vegetables, fruits. If you want to include proper grains, healthy grains, you can. Meats and I know it's crazy, but the Blue Zones diet did get it wrong. Those countries do eat a lot of meat.
Speaker 2:
France eats a lot of meat and butter, but again, they're raised properly, they're not processed meats, they're normal, you know right, because geographically, depending on where you're living, the mediterranean diet may not be feasible if you're trying to go with sustainable and local as well. Definitely, definitely. You know. You know we always promote the seasonal and local over any one type of diet. That is, quote unquote better for you.
Speaker 1:
Definitely. Yeah, I think that's a great starting place and then ideally, hopefully, people go to that seasonal, local diet, right. And then just to wrap some things up here is so that's what I would aim for. And then there's a couple supplements we can get into. So if you are on a statin, the most important supplement, no argument. If you're on a statin, you should be taking ubiquinol Ubiquinol, also known as CoQ10. It's just a different form of CoQ10. Statins deplete ubiquinol, or coq10, and coq10 is one of the most important nutrients for the heart.
Speaker 2:
Kind of interesting that I was gonna say, I've heard about coq10 but I don't ever know, like, what its actual function is coq10 super.
Speaker 1:
I mean it's used in tons of molecules, but or tons of, I feel like I've usually heard it, in animals, believe it or not, with joints joint health.
Speaker 2:
I'd have to see, I mean let's talk about the heart thing, because joints have nothing to do with our topic today but, I'm curious. I just it's just interesting that it got brought up on this topic, because it's not something I typically associate with that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah Well, interesting that it got brought up on this topic, because it's not something I typically associate with that. Yeah well, it's super important for energy production, so I know that it's it's used like that helps the heart keep beating and heart, like cow heart or other animal heart is actually highest in coq10, which makes sense because the heart uses it. So that's why you'll hear some people say, like, eat the organ for the organ, for your organ. But point being is, I would recommend heart, but you could take a good supplement, vicrinol, as well, and I just think it's pretty interesting that a drug like a statin, made to protect your heart, is actually depleting one of the most important nutrients for your heart. So that's why it's very important to know. If you're on a statin, no doubt you should be taking that. Yeah, so that's, I would say, supplement number one. Now, if you're not on a statin, we can just go into maybe some other supplements to take that will help.
Speaker 2:
Do start with you, john, I'm used to. I'm used to the no supplement, john, not the I know this, but this is after you're in a spot that you're you know already on a downhill trajectory you need to recover from quickly yeah, this is like me trying to use them as intervention medicines.
Speaker 1:
So then then. But I agree, if there's definitely some food like I still recommend eating heart.
Speaker 2:
But right, you're right, no, it's just. It's just interesting to me that we're on a topic now where you know this is the medicine, so to speak. Yeah, because you're getting in a much higher dose than you would in a diet.
Speaker 1:
Definitely. Okay, here's just a. We'll add this part in too. So CoQ10 is for cellular energy in the mitochondria and the best sources, like we said, are carnitine from heart and lamb, and then statins. Yeah, they block the avalanate pathway, which produces CoQ10 and cholesterol. So it's the same pathway that produces cholesterol and CoQ10, and that's why the statin blocks it, and then CoQ10 and blood pressure decrease. So there's a correlation there as well. So that might be a good sign that if you're on a statin and your blood pressure is decreasing, coq10 could help that. With this study it helped a lot of patients. So, yeah, that was number one.
Speaker 1:
Another one that you could take is D-ribose. So D-ribose is aids in building ATP Again, energy for the mitochondria. It's a five-carbon sugar. It's a pretty common you can look it up, I think I've even had it before pretty common supplement. But D-ribose, if you don't have it, it doesn't produce ATP, which means you have no energy and then you have. You're not making energy, you have oxygen deprivation, so you're not able to efficiently make D-ribose. So there's usually, if you have high cholesterol or you have, it's not really as much as high cholesterol if you have heart problems, metabolic disease, pre-diabetes, diabetes which are causing these other problems. You're not an efficient energy maker with some of the direct synthesized molecules from food that give you direct energy, because you're not really utilizing your food well or making them well, so this kind of just goes around. A lot of that bypasses that.
Speaker 1:
That's another one, and then just a couple more to throw in because, again, I really recommend looking into it yourself. A great book that a lot of this came from is the Great Cholesterol Myth, so you can look that up. I believe that's the name Either way. Magnesium super important for heart health, muscle health enough said there. And then probably one of the last most important ones is omega-3. And a couple of reasons I wanted to get into this, so I think it will tie it in nicely.
Speaker 1:
Again, I recommend eating fish, salmon, sardines, things that are local, that are high in it. Lamb is actually high in it, which is crazy. But one thing to note is a lot of people will say you don't need to eat fish is in the vegan community, maybe that you can get your omega-3s from. Excuse me that you can get your omega-3s from algae or other sources, but the thing is from fish, from fish oil pills a good one.
Speaker 1:
Dha and and EPA are like the animal sources those are going to help you. Ala comes from plants and a lot of people. Like I said before, you can just use ALA. Your body will convert it to EPA and DHA. Your body will convert it to the type it needs. That's not true because in today's world a lot of high omega-6 oils like corn oils, vegetable oil that actually prevents the conversion of ALA to DHA. So we want to make sure we're actually eating fish or getting a very, very quality fish oil supplement, because the vegetarian, the vegan sources are not going to do as well for this Kind of off topic. But on topic as well of why we need to stick with some animal-based products for that right, right.
Speaker 2:
Well, it ties it into the other podcast, too, where we've talked about cooking oils and why it's important to use certain cooking oils when you're cooking as opposed to others, because it actually impacts the ability for your body to digest and absorb those nutrients definitely, definitely.
Speaker 1:
So. That's a lot of them. Just to give names to the other ones, if people are interested vitamin e, it's a great antioxidant, that's protective. Vitamin b5, niacin, so a lot of the b vitamins which are found in red meat, which is very protective, very good. Uh, resveratrol, that's more of like people have heard of that.
Speaker 1:
I'm anti-aging drug but it does have some benefits. Those are the ones where I might say just get them from food, like those first ones I listed, especially like magnesium. Those are the ones that you may need higher doses of so you can supplement with them. The rest, just look into good food sources and that's where your diet really comes into play. So yeah, those are some tests, those are some supplements.
Speaker 1:
Those are just some, hopefully, ways that you can take it into your own hands, because statins, sadly, are very over prescribed, very quickly prescribed, and I'd say just the key takeaways the most important things are if you're in a spot where you might have to go on a statin or are on a statin, first look at your triglycerides over hdl ratio. That's not on your your test. So both of those tests are on your conventional cholesterol panel, but they don't do that calculation for you, so you just have to look at your triglycerides divided by HDL. You want that number two or less, and then, yeah, it just plays into lifestyle everything we've said in every other podcast of ways of lowering it, getting healthy.
Speaker 2:
Great, perfect, a good breakdown on if you're in a cholesterol tight spot, what to do, how to look at it, how to determine if you're actually in a tight spot and then, potentially, ways to start making progress towards reversing that without using statins.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's like cholesterol for dummies. We did it as quick and easy as possible.
Speaker 2:
Right, right, without losing the core concepts there. Thanks for listening to our podcast we hope this helps you on your balance freedom journey please share your thoughts in the comments section below until next time, stay balanced.