Posted on 03/16/2022 10:01:40 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Stroke can have many causes. An atherothrombotic stroke is caused by a clot that forms from plaques that build up within blood vessels in the brain. A new study suggests that people who have this type of stroke who also have higher levels of triglycerides, a type of fat, in their blood may have a higher risk of having another stroke or other cardiovascular problems one year later, compared to people who had a stroke but have lower triglyceride levels. The study found an association even when people were taking statin drugs meant to lower triglycerides and protect against heart attack and stroke.
Elevated triglyceride levels are thought to contribute to hardening of the arteries and increased risk of heart attack, heart disease and stroke.
Said study author Takao Hoshino, MD., "The good news is that statin medications are just one therapy for high triglycerides—diet and exercise can also be effective ways to reduce the levels in your blood at little or no cost."
After adjusting for factors like cholesterol level and statin use, researchers found that people who had high triglyceride levels had a 21% greater risk of death, stroke or heart condition one year, compared to 10% greater risk for those with lower levels.
When researchers looked specifically at people who had another stroke after an atherothrombotic stroke, they found that 14 out of 114 people with normal triglyceride levels, or 12%, had one during the study, compared to 33 out of 217 people, or 16%, of those with elevated levels.
For acute coronary syndrome, one out of 114 people, or 0.9%, with normal triglyceride levels developed the heart condition one year after an atherothrombotic stroke, compared to five out of 60, or 8%, of those with elevated levels.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
No one wants two strokes.
And yet no mention of covax’s causing blood clots and atrokes. Abundantly.
My late father experienced a life ending stroke not long after getting bloodwork back indicating elevated triglycerides. For him it was the only stroke.
Take 3gm daily of OTC EPA only omega 3, problem solved. As an RX it’s called Vescepa. I take Carlson EPA Elite Gems, or Omega via 500 EPA only. I never had real high trigs, but yearly blood work had me at 150 milligrams per deciliter in 2019. The last two work ups since on EPA under 90. As a possible added benefit (only RX Vescepa has gone through the
FDA testing which had proven this) is that with extended use EXISTING arterial plaque is removed.
.
“High blood sugar makes high triglycerides a problem. The most common way to combat this by reducing excess carbohydrates, but eating too much protein can also elevate blood sugar.”
Correct, and my conclusion is that triglycerides (basically microscopic fat particles in one’s blood) are the thing to watch, and they’re controlled by carbohydrate intake. The lower, the better, real simple.
We still don’t understand, or more likely, are unwilling to try to understand cholesterol to the point where its numbers end up with us doing the right thing, so I ignore those numbers.
And, as most here know, Statins serve no useful purpose in otherwise healthy people and often the side effects put people in worse condition than just staying off them.
The Mediterranean diet is the key. I’m 6’0 and weighed 205, 6 weeks ago. Today I’m 188 and looking forward to my next blood work.
I’ve been on statins for over 35 years. A Scandinavian study convinced my [university hospital teaching-cardio] doctor that I would be a prime benefactor.
Aside from leg muscle cramps (relief follows a forced straightening of the affected leg), I’ve had no other side effects.
I received one quick stent after a relatively minor heart attack. (Symptoms passed after 20 minutes).
Echocardiogram shows an enlarged aorta—my next concern at age 79.
“Aside from leg muscle cramps (relief follows a forced straightening of the affected leg), I’ve had no other side effects.”
That is the most common side effect, but funny, I’m not on statins and sometimes get the same cramps. I’ve always been able to jump out of bed and stand on my toes to stop it - limits my choices somewhat if I want to buy an RV. Never tried not doing not standing on my toes (too scared something will snap).
“I received one quick stent after a relatively minor heart attack. (Symptoms passed after 20 minutes).”
Glad that didn’t get worse!
“Echocardiogram shows an enlarged aorta—my next concern at age 79.”
Dad had something similar before he died, dissected aorta. Often it can be operated on, but they said not worth the risk, just keep blood pressure low, and so he did, and that did work (cancer got him).
Obviously I won’t advise you to stop the statins after 35 years, and note that I did say ‘otherwise healthy’ in my post, a category that I wouldn’t classify anyone with a prior heart attack as fitting. The reason for that is that my research, at least, isn’t clear on the value of statins either way for people who already have issues...so I defer that to doctors in cases like yours.
Bobl,
I have high triglycerides and don’t really watch my diet. Looking to change that asap. Love bread and rice so will be hard. I’m relatively healthy, not overweight, but struggling with diet. Any advice on reducing carbs and or good substitutes for carbs?
“Any advice on reducing carbs and or good substitutes for carbs?”
There’s a ton of stuff on the web regarding carb control. I’ll try to summarize it as well as I can, using my system.
1. Solid Carbs: Wheat based items (noodles, bread, etc.), sugar, rice, and potatoes. Do your best to zero them out. Also includes wine, but not whiskey or vodka. Also most, but not all, types of snacks, since they’re primarily made up of the basic ingredients here (wheat and potatoes).
2. Semi Carbs: Non-green fruits and vegetables. Some types of nuts. I forget exactly, but I think cashews and pistachios may fall into this category (high carbs for nuts, but still far lower than solid carbs). So greatly minimize.
3. Low Carbs: Green vegetables. Some other types of nuts (starting with peanuts and almonds). Also Keto snacks and Keto ice cream generally fall here (stick with Rebel brand for ice cream, far lower carbs than any other I’ve seen, also great tasting), if you can control the amount you eat (I can’t, sadly).
4. Zero Carbs: Eggs, meat, most cheeses (maybe a tiny bit of carbs), most fish. Whisky and other distilled alcohols (like Rum and Vodka) - these are either zero or low, the alcohol they have is a carb, but it’s a sugar alcohol, so that doesn’t count (see below).
I know I’m missing stuff. For nuts you want to look at Net Carbs, which is Carbs minus Fiber. Similar for Keto snacks and ice cream, except it’s Carbs minus fiber minus sugar alcohol (and some of them are sweeteners). Basically, both sugar alcohol and fiber contribute to the carb count of food, but are not processed by the body in a way that gives the bad effects of carbs.
A bit tricky, but not too hard to follow. Also look up other foods on the web.
Good luck!
Great list but hard to remember all that-
I just stick to meat and vegetables. If oil is needed, olive oil or REAL butter.
Correct on the oils - obviously stay clear of industrial lubricants (now called ‘vegetable oil’, I believe).
Meat and vegetables are generally fine, with the greener vegetables better.
I had high triglycerides and here is a few things I did. I was living on the Dad diet and eating too much kid stuff.
I cut my carbs almost completely for 3 months up til next blood work and they plunged back to where they should be.
For a lover of bread and rice which I loved too here is a few simple things if you can’t give up to at least get a bit more heart healthy.
Brown rice
Whole wheat bread and pasta (or vegetable pastas which are not bad)
Sweet potatoes
If you’re really looking to cut triG’s just try for a month
Cut out booze
Cut out potatoes completely
Switch to multi grain wrap instead of bread (this saved me as I’m a sandwich guy
Replace snacking with vegetables, peanuts and pistachios
First month wasn’t fun necessarily, but even after a month I slimmed down considerably (10 lbs). I went from 208 to 180 pounds (6’1) in 3.5 months. Never starved myself, found decent alternatives.
This included a minimum of 30 mins of day of exercise with sweat for that period of time.
My cardiologist gave me a list of other stuff I’d be happy to share its a perfect world scenario but the more you can do on it the better.
Very helpful! I’ve been considering Mediterranean after losing 45 pounds on WW and hitting a long plateau.
Thanks! Very timely for me. After losing 45 pounds (75 altogether by low carb, starch solution and most by WW), my lab results this week are now perfect. The only one is a very slightly above normal triglycerides number.
Congrats.
Happy to see your hard work and effort is paying off!
What made my high triglycerides drop like a rock was ending our daily cocktail hour. Like a rock.
I should add that by ending cocktail hour, I also lost weight. So that certainly helped lower triglycerides.
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