I recently took a blood test and was surprised I had high LDL cholesterol. 

But I’m a 45-year-old male, and it is pretty standard for men to get a shock diagnosis this out of the blue. Sometimes it’s high blood pressure, but most of the time, it’s a cholesterol problem.

This made the results of my blood test all the more surprising. I practice the lifestyle medicine I preach. My diet is pretty clean; I manage my sleep, exercise, and manage my stress. 

Stereotypically high cholesterol is attributed to people a little older, overweight, and who generally eat poorly and don’t exercise. In the UK, high cholesterol affects 60% of people and has been attributed to about 6% of deaths yearly. 

Cholesterol is a fatty substance almost every cell uses in the body. The liver mainly makes it and recycles any excess. It’s pushed out into the blood, where the body uses it.

However, sometimes the balance between production and recycling is unbalanced. This can lead to an increase in cholesterol, and the current theory is that the rise in LDL can lead to excess being deposited in the arteries leading to narrowing blockages and heart attacks. 

A 2019 landmark study published in The Lancet medical journal involving data from nearly 400,000 people in 19 countries established for the first time that levels of non-HDL, or “bad cholesterol,” in the blood are closely linked to the risk of heart disease across the entire life course, and there’s now a growing school of thought that young people should know their cholesterol levels earlier so they can make suitable lifestyle adjustments or take statins. These drugs have been proven to reduce cholesterol.

Now there is some controversy here. Some doctors think that the ‘war against cholesterol’ might be motivated by the profits of the drug companies, that they aim to get everyone on statins, and that the evidence to say that high cholesterol is linked to heart disease is shaky. You can learn more about this topic with the book “The Great Cholesterol Myth” by Jonny Bowden and Stephen Sinatra.

Personally, I’m not a fan of any pharmaceutical intervention and don’t like the side effects of statins, so I prefer to fix things naturally where possible.

Also, I’m not talking about total cholesterol, just LDL, as HDL cholesterol has been given the all-clear when it comes to heart disease.

 In the UK, the guidelines for LDL are:

•  3mmol/L or less for healthy adults
•  2mmol/L or less for those at high risk

In the US, they use milligrams per deciliter and recommend your blood levels to be 100mg/dL or below, which is 2.6 mmol/L 

My results were 136mg/dL on Jan 5th, 2023, and reduced by 42% to 78mg/dL in March 2023.

Even though the body produces cholesterol, our diet can affect it. A diet high in saturated fat, not exercising, being overweight, smoking, and drinking alcohol can increase cholesterol. 

None of those things applied to me, but the Inside Tracker App noted that cooking with a lot of coconut oil can lead to increased LDL. I use coconut oil in my cooking, so one of the first things I did was cut that out. Then I returned to my osteopathic routes and thought about what naturally removes cholesterol from the body. It is recycled and removed by combining liver and bile stored in the gall bladder.

I started eating a small salad containing bitter greens to stimulate the liver bile before my main food. I also put olive oil on the salad. The bitter green stimulates the liver to produce bile, and the fat in the olive oil stimulates the gall bladder to contract and release more bile. 

This primed my digestive system to be more efficient at removing excess cholesterol. Interestingly eating a small salad before the main course is how many European countries traditionally eat, and they know this helps their digestion which is why they do it.

Those two simple lifestyle changes were enough to reduce my LDL by 42% in 3 months, the same if not more than the decrease most people see with statins without any side effects.

If you have high cholesterol and want to change things naturally, send me an email, and we’ll discuss your unique situation and make a plan for you to lower it without having to take statins. 

Sources: 

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32519-X/fulltext

As an osteopath passionate about aiding individuals on their journey to recovery from various health issues and injuries, I have always been deeply committed to the idea that holistic wellness extends beyond just the physical aspects of our bodies. Drawing from my background in sports science and personal training, my approach to helping people attain better health has evolved into a multifaceted methodology encompassing physical and psychological dimensions; we can also call this lifestyle medicine coaching. 

Over the years, I’ve been shaping my practice using a wide range of techniques, including thorough physical assessments, comprehensive case histories, and targeted interventions to facilitate the healing process. However, I desired to delve even deeper into the realm of healthcare, which led me to explore the fascinating field of lifestyle medicine.

In pursuit of expanding my coaching capabilities to offer a more comprehensive approach to healing, I recently enrolled as a Hintsa Performance Coach. They are a high-performance coaching company based in Finland. The company started life by offering comprehensive support to Formula 1 racing drivers but has since taken this knowledge and learned how to provide it within other professional sports environments and to people in the workplace. Hintsa’s holistic philosophy resonated with me, as it centers around a metaphorical wheel with the core or purpose of one’s life at its epicenter. This essence represents the discovery of one’s life purpose—a process that involves introspection and self-inquiry, guided by thought-provoking questions such as:

1. Who are you at your core?
2. What do you want?
3. Are you in command of your life?

The journey to understanding one’s purpose paves the way for cultivating habits and practices that foster health across many areas of a person’s life. This wheel extends outward, representing key areas of focus that makeup lifestyle medicine:

1. **Nutrition**: Nourishing the body with balanced, wholesome foods.
2. **Biomechanics**: Ensuring optimal physical alignment and movement mechanics.
3. **Mental Energy**: Optimizing cognitive abilities and emotional well-being.
4. **Sleep and Recovery**: Prioritizing restorative sleep patterns for regeneration.
5. **Physical Activity**: Engaging in suitable exercises for overall fitness.
6. **General Health**: Taking proactive measures to safeguard well-being.

For example, using this approach, I lowered my LDL cholesterol by 58 points, from 136mg/dL (potentially unhealthy)  to 78mg/dL, optimized for my age and sex, and this took just three months.

There are many other small changes that I’ve made in my life after I applied the principles of high-performance coaching using the lifestyle medicine model to myself, and I summarize many of them in this video:

My journey as an osteopath has evolved into a holistic pursuit of well-being, encompassing the physical aspects and the intricate interplay between the mind, body, and purpose. The integration of lifestyle medicine principles, as exemplified by Hintsa’s philosophy, has changed my life. Still, through coaching my clients, I have enabled many of them to start these transformative journeys of self-discovery and healing themselves. Whether they come to me because of a recent health scare, high cholesterol is the most common reason, or they just want to get rid of chronic pain, I use this integrated approach of science-backed insights to help them reach their goals and ultimately add health span to their lifespan.

Find out if lifestyle medicine coaching is for you. Email me at ed@edpaget.com, and we can jump on a quick call to see how I can help you.