CHOLESTEROL, EDISON, YOU, AND YOUR PATIENTS
Like most chiropractors, we did not want our 11-year-old to play football. He wanted to do something in 6th grade during football season, so he ran cross-country. A fact of life states, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” Thus, we researched best practices for running cross-country. Although like any normal person, he hated running in the 98-degree, 110% humidity Orlando heat for 2 miles; with only a few months of participation, he got his mile down to a 5:40 and took 7th in the district.
In our research, we came across a fun family movie on Amazon called, “Remember the Goal.” The goal was to win the state championship. After facing hardships, losses, and conflict with those around them; the team went on to achieve their goal. The story is fiction, but the concept is very real; train and prepare for the ultimate goal and don’t forget it!
When I met Dr. Tom Owen about 2 years ago, his goal was that the doctors he worked with would be the best doctors in the world. As his mentor, Thomas Edison put it, “The doctors of the future…” Dr. Owen knew to get there, we needed to put nutrition into the system just as his old boss Dr. Clarence Gonstead had and Edison stated was required to be the doctor of the future.
That is how we came up with the Edison Pack. It is specially formulated to go into every single patient care plan to get them the nutrients they need to function, the raw materials innate needs to build organs, and to allow the patient to survive and thrive in a toxic, stressful, inflammatory world filled with free radicals.
When I think of “Remember the goal” I think of remembering Dr. Owen’s goal. Don’t settle. Be the best. Be the future. This is where wellness is and is going.
Facts About Cholesterol:
In anticipation of the cardiometabolic testing and in working with patients that have lipoprotein and carbohydrate absorption gene variants, cholesterol is an important concept to comprehend.
Cholesterol is an essential component of cell membranes within the body. It is made up of low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad” cholesterol) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good” cholesterol). HDL transports cholesterol to the liver rather than to artery walls and as a scavenger of excess cholesterol, can actually help prevent heart disease. Therefore, a low HDL cholesterol level can raise the risk for heart disease and other health issues, especially if your triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, and/or inflammatory biomarker levels are high. Several factors contribute to overall cholesterol levels including lifestyle and genetics.
Other factors:
Many things impact cholesterol levels, including diet, fitness levels, and genetics. Although several genes are associated with our HDL cholesterol level, genetics has a moderate overall impact on this when you consider all the other lifestyle factors.
A positive health goal is to raise HDL. The following are steps proven effective in raising good, HDL cholesterol.
- Reducing carbs to a more anti-inflammatory, ketogenic or a Mediterranean diet modified to reduce grains.1
- Weight loss will generally create an increase in HDL levels.
- A focus of the Mediterranean diet is Extra virgin olive oil; also found to raise HDLs. An evaluation of multiple studies involving over 800,000 subjects discovered that olive oil was the best-monounsaturated fat to reduce heart disease. 2 Olive oil contains antioxidants known as polyphenols believed to provide heart benefits and create an increase in HDL.3
- Use coconut oil. A randomized, double-blind, clinical trial involved 40 women aged 20-40 years found that it lowered HDL while other studies also revealed that it improves the LDL to HDL ratio important in preventing heart disease.4
- Research has always shown how important exercise is for cardiovascular health. Additionally, studies point to the fact that resistance training, HIIT (High-intensity interval training) and aerobic exercise all raise HDL.
- Stop smoking! One way that smoking increases heart disease risk is through lowering HDL.
- Up your omega3 fatty acids. Eating healthy types of fish or taking fish oil can help to elevate HDL levels, decrease inflammation, and improve cardiovascular function.
- Eliminate trans fats. Rancid fats from the vegetable, nut, and seed oils along with added trans fats or hydrogenated oil negatively affect cholesterol ratios, cause inflammation, and promote heart disease.
- Eat foods rich in anthocyanins such as blueberries, eggplant, red cabbage, and blackberries.
LDL:
Cholesterol is an essential component of cell membranes within the body. It is made up of low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad” cholesterol) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good” cholesterol). Diet is a source of cholesterol, but the body also makes it. A high LDL cholesterol levels can cause a risk for heart disease and other health issues, especially if your HDL cholesterol level is low. Several factors contribute to overall cholesterol levels including both lifestyle and genetics. Early, limited research related to cardiovascular disease appears to have pushed doctors to focus on total LDL levels as the critical biomarker when assessing disease risks.5 Yet, recent and mounting evidence shows that while it has a role in atherosclerosis, it has limited value as a biomarker of health or prevention of disease. Other key markers required to truly assess risk status include, but are not limited to: measuring inflammatory markers, Triglyceride: HDL ratio, total cholesterol: HDL ratio, homocysteine, Fatty Acid status, LDL size, and LDL particle count. I’m shocked by the number of doctors that tell me they’ve had struggles with patients who have an MD that told them that since they have high LDL, they need to ignore what the chiropractor says and just take their Lipitor. Remember the goal – you are the authority in health care, the head and not the tail, and the doctor of the future.
Together, we lead people towards wellness,
Dr. Ben Lerner - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17447017
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25274026
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26011257
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19437058
- https://www.biospace.com/article/ldl-cholesterol-does-not-predict-heart-risk-among-heart-patients/