Treating a cholesterol level of 283?

QUESTION: I am trying to lower my cholesterol - I think there are a few factors as to why it is too high - Wellbutrin - which I used to quit smoking and my thyroid. At 283 my doctor gave me the long face and said I ABSOLUTELY have to be on them. I tried them once before and the leg cramps were unbelievable. So I made a deal with him to check back in 3 months. (I also have a thyroid issue) So diet change, exercise and off the Wellbutrin..Is there anything else I can do?

RESPONSE: Without getting too detailed, I need you to understand that I completely disagree with the IDEA that we all need to lower our cholesterol levels (283 is not TOO HIGH in my book). In fact, low cholesterol is by far more dangerous than higher levels. EVERY hormone in the body begins life as cholesterol. Using any method to reduce cholesterol - especially drugs - depletes the raw ingredient that is used to make all of the other hormones. Thyroid problems are to be expected when the cholesterol is removed - as are a host of other diseases, including cancer.

Wellbutrin might have been helpful, but you should have stopped using it by now. If not, please ask your doctor to help you quit using it.

The primary diet changes are simple but not easy. Disease is often grounded in internal inflammation. There are many inflammatory substances, but two you can do something about are sugars and wheat. Simple, huh? Yes, but it is difficult to remove those drugs from your diet. Yes, they're natural - or at least USED to be natural. There have been so many changes over the years that they are more toxic today than ever before.

When I say eliminate sugars I also mean all artificial sweeteners. Honey, however, is nutritious - but not if you devour it at the rate most of us consume sugar (over 70 pounds per year on the low side).

Drink plenty of water (especially before going to bed) - not bottled. City water is okay if its filtered (reverse osmosis to remove fluoride).

You understand that exercise is important. It strengthens muscles and reduces inflammation. 30 to 40 minutes three days a week. BRISK walking is very good, as is light weights.

I have written extensively on these issues on our website (http://www.thecompounder.com/) so I haven't gone into details about WHY in this email. Just the basic conclusions. Doctors disagree with this approach and honestly BELIEVE cholesterol is dangerous. It isn't, but efforts to lower levels with drugs are very dangerous. 

We are many parts

We are many parts, but all one body (from the 1986 song by Marty Haugen).

The focus of that song is on how all of us, though seeming to be distinct individuals, are actually all part of a single body. In those few words is housed a deep metaphor for the truths that support our very being. It is also a true metaphor for our individual bodies. Over the centuries we have poked and prodded, cut and changed what we came to believe were individual "parts" of the body. The liver is over there and the thyroid is a "butterfly shaped mass" right there in the neck. That just isn't true.

 

ALL TOGETHER NOW.  As we are individually part of the whole body of humankind, our body "parts" are interconnected in such deep ways as to be inseparable. Every time we lose one of our parts, the whole body is changed. Removing a breast to mastectomy isn't always a guaranteed form of curing breast cancer, but the whole is altered by the removal of what seems to be a part. Tumors can be excised but the circumstances that caused them aren't changed. The invaders return and we slice and dice some more.

Modern medicine has evolved on many fronts and is generally capable of some near miraculous acts. Yet, cures themselves continue to evade our science. When they occur, they are often accompanied by amazement, not because we DID something but because we DIDN'T - and it happened all the same.

We need to return our attention to the basic fact that all of our parts are interconnected and we need to treat ourselves as a whole and complete being who is part of a greater form of life, the metaphorical body of humanity.

Damaging even a single member of the human race is harmful to all of us. In an identical way, damage to our individual parts is damaging to our whole body that, when considered globally, is also damaging to the whole of humanity.

I recently read an article in a sports magazine about an experiment involving flashes of light and how sound or touch will alter how we perceive the flash. The study demonstrated that a single flash is detected as two flashes if we hear two rapid tones while the light is flashed. The same thing happens if we're touched on our skin twice during a single flash - we "see" two.

Our senses are connected and interdependent. Smell and taste are other examples of a similar connection. Other connections are certainly more subtle, but important nonetheless.

Why am I rambling on about this? Because I want to make the point that our current medical approaches are wrong and causing harm and death. We need to change our paradigm. It is impossible to consume a drug and expect it to work on just the specific thing we intend.

A pain pill taken for a headache also effects all other parts of the body. It doesn't just fix the head pain - it may cause constipation or drowsiness.

Antidepressants are potent drugs that cause changes throughout our entire body, yet the belief is that they somehow help us by doing something to levels of serotonin.

I mentioned mastectomy above. It isn't JUST the breast, but the entire body that is changed.Consider the emotional upheaval. Then, there are the hysterectomies. I've heard women say their doctor recommended one because they were having menopausal symptoms. Basically, get rid of the thing that causes the problems, neglecting the massive hormone shifts that take place when the hormone "factories" are removed or damaged.

No, not this kind of Magic Bullet.

I don't always oppose surgery, drugs, or radiation - when they are absolutely necessary, when there are few to no other options. I had cataracts when I was younger. Without surgery I'd surely have become sightless. With it, there was a tiny risk that I'd lose my sight, but there was a very great chance I'd be seeing well for many more years if I had the cloudy lens removed. I've worn hard contacts for over three decades, but the results are excellent - with vision better than 20/20. The main inconveniences are inserting lenses every day and the need for reading spectacles. Inconvenient but worth it.

All of our body parts work together and interact for the good of the whole. Any and all interference with even the smallest part can do harm. Ponder this and think hard before accepting the next recommendation from a medical provider. Drugs, surgery, and radiation are massively popular - and potent - but they aren't always the best answer.

SEARCHING FOR THE MAGIC BULLET? There really isn't a "pill for every ill", regardless of how much we want there to be one. We all need to follow the old saying, "Say No To Drugs" - and to surgery and radiation as well.

Forget You Have Health Insurance. REALLY.

I recently had lab work done for testosterone because I basically felt all the signs and symptoms of having it be low. The results are as follows; Total testosterone is 103 and Free Testosterone is 18.5. These are extremely low for my age (36). My doctor wants to wait 3 months and do lab work again because levels can fluctuate. He originally told me I was probably just depressed when I wanted the lab work done. I have fired him. I refuse to sit and wait any longer. My body has drifted from healthy and firm to marshmallow status. I have just about any symptom that you can have for low testosterone. I just want to be fixed. It seems that the anti-aging clinics are only about money. They do not take insurance and want me to pay out of pocket to have labs done again through they're contracted lab. The cost just for the labs is $300. I am fully insured and refuse to pay out of pocket for a legitimate medical issue.
 I would like your suggestion on what steps to take and any recommendations on who to talk to. I would also Like a recommendation on a new doctor.

I'll start by saying that I don't have much faith in lab tests, especially blood tests for hormones. They are of little value if you don't start with a baseline value. Basically, what were your values when you felt great, and how do the values today compare with them? The idea that somehow there are actual standard levels for hormones is foolish. Everyone is different and blood values changes dramatically throughout the day - even hour by hour. To make matters even foggier, there are no standard values between laboratories. Yes, they may be similar, but high at one lab might mean normal at another. The only way to even have a chance to make some sense from the numbers you offered would mean I'd need to know the normals and ranges for the lab that did the work.

Symptoms of Low Testosterone are also the symptoms for other imbalances, and lifestyle choices. "Low T" is just getting the press these days - and it isn't accurate or relevent. 

The only rational approach is to step back and make adjustments in lifestyle before downing more pills or slapping on hormone creams - especially for someone as young as 36. Let's consider the following;

1. Everyone is estrogen dominant (from environment and food sources). 
2. unless handled properly, testosterone can become estrogen in the body. 
3. estrogen makes a person jittery, puts on weight - plus a whole host of other problems.

Exactly WHAT to do depends on age, level of activity, diet, complaints, drugs being used, and so on. It is perhaps a better decision to look at the other elements before starting any hormone replacement, especially with testosterone. I understand that the media is aggressively promoting "Low T" as one of the new diagnoses especially for men, but that isn't always the cause. Heck, it is actually rare. It's good advertising and makes big bucks for the drug companies (and the labs who do the tests), but doesn't get to the root of the problems - and often causes more. It is very unlikely that someone age 36 would actually have low testosterone. Your doctors knows this and is probably why the reluctance to do something you think will fix your symptoms. A person should know why testosterone is low before blindly prescribing it - especially for a young man. 

Improved health starts with healthy living. That means a lot of work and attention - two things that most of us avoid. We'd rather take the pill, get the shot, or cut it out than do what we need to do. Everyone wants to be fixed, but few of us are wwilling to do what it takes in the messed up world we have today. Some thing just can't be fixed. Nobody cares about your health the way you do., Nobody. No, the doctor could care less. The doctor is a service provider that has to serve hundred or thousands of people - and it is impossible to actually care for that many. Sure, we'd like to believe our soctor give a hoot, but he/she just can't. It is 100% up to use to do what is necessary for our own health and well being. I wouldn't worry about finding the one doctor who will fix you. Therefore, I find it difficult to recommend anyone. 

I wouldn't demean the anti-aging clinics because they are interested in money. That's what every business wants. The fact that they don't accept insurance suggests that their business decisions are sound and prices are probably more legitimate than places that take insurance. I would prefer to pay cash for health assistance rather than look for benefits from an insurance plan. 

Here's somethng you probably won't like, but health insurance is a huge rip off and depending on it merely makes a person expect someone else to pay the bills. That's counterproductive to good health. We used to take insurance in our pharmacy and it almost put us out of business - twice. We will never accept any form of third party payment (Medicare, Medicaid, Insurance). Never again. I'm offering my ideas at no charge and with no expectations. That's how we operate our business. Doctors and labs - and most pharmacises - have become little more than just another small business - instead of the health professions they once were. The basic difference between a service station and a doctor (or pharmacist or lab owner) is that the service station operator is probably better at running her business - especially if she takes cash for service. What about all the premiums paid to the insurance company? Count them as a down payment for help when you really need coverage - when you're hit by a truck or shot by an arrow. Until then, forget you have health insurance. 

If you really want to be healthy and energetic you have to take responsibility for it yourself. I can't fix any health problems but I will offers suggestions that I know work. Here are some first steps: 

• no soda pop, 
• no sugar, 
• no artificial sweeteners, 
• no fast food,
• no canned food,
• no packaged food,
• no cereal,
• more good fat,
• more salt,
• a lot more water,
• no estrogen-laced milk, 
• no soy products,
• reduced flour (other glutens as well), 
• reduced meat intake, 
• take a daily probiotic,
• eat fermented foods (sauerkraut, Kefir, Kim Che, etc.)
• eat organic, 
• minimize caffeine,
• drink filtered water (remove fluoride),
• remove chlorine from bathing water,
• exercise three days a week, 
• no drugs, 
• minimal alcohol (especially beer and some wines that have estrogen-like action)
• daily meditation

After a few weeks/months, consider adding progesterone supplements in small amounts for men (more for women). Use herbal supplements (prostate specific supplements are excellent), multi-vitamins (especially B vitamins and vitamin D3), minerals.

Yes, this is an outline for a complete lifestyle of healthy living. A lot of us would prefer a magic bullet - a pill - that would take care of our problems and make us trim and fit. That isn't available and I am certain it will never be available. The drug makers continue to search and make promises, but they will always fail. I could write volumes on why it's a lost cause, but it is easier to trust my words than to hope for magic.