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High-protein diets work well for many people struggling with cholesterol problems because these individuals’ bodies generally manufacture much more insulin than others in response to sugar, refined carbohydrates, and excess carbs in general. This overproduction of insulin causes the liver to produce too much total cholesterol and triglycerides, and not enough HDL cholesterol.
Insulin is one of the hormones that regulates blood sugar. Some people (especially if they have type 2 diabetes or even have a genetic family tendency toward type 2 diabetes) have high insulin levels that go up much more rapidly in response to sugar and carbohydrate intake. In this case, the insulin is not used properly by the cell membranes, so the insulin can’t take the sugar from the blood into the cells as it’s supposed to. Then, their bodies keep making more and more insulin to try to force the sugar from the blood into the cells. The excess insulin causes other problems, including high blood pressure and cholesterol abnormalities.
Just recently, more and more evidence has been coming out in favor of the high-protein, low-carb approach to lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels. In fact, according to a study published in the May 22, 2003 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine,
people following a high-protein diet for six months had higher levels of HDL (good) cholesterol and bigger decreases in triglyceride levels than those people following a low-fat diet. There was no difference between the groups’ LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, which shows that restricting protein and fat intake doesn’t do as much to help cholesterol levels as the “experts” once thought. It’s possible that many people with weight problems have them due to this excess insulin response to sugar and carbohydrates. If your cholesterol levels are high, ask your doctor to administer a glucose-insulin tolerance test, which can tell you how much insulin your body makes in response to a standard amount of sugar.
Then you can make an informed choice about your diet. The hidden high cholesterol culprit you might not be looking for Saturated fat gets a lot of blame when it comes to high cholesterol. Carbohydrates come in a close second. While they’re both important factors, they aren’t
the only ones to consider. Diets high in saturated fat are responsible for approximately one in five cases of high serum cholesterol, and high carbohydrate intake is responsible for approximately one in three. That still leaves a little less than half of all high serum cholesterol cases unaccounted for. The fact is, if you have high cholesterol, you may need to look further than your diet to find the real culprit.
Researchers from the Japanese National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences think they may have found a missing piece of the cholesterol puzzle. They discovered that small quantities of lead caused elevated serum cholesterol in experimental animals. In their experiments they found that lead induces the genes responsible for creating the liver enzymes that produce cholesterol.
To compound the problem, lead also suppresses a gene responsible for the production of a liver enzyme that breaks down and destroys cholesterol. With cholesterol production “turned on” and cholesterol breakdown “turned off” by lead, the animals’serum cholesterol increased significantly. Although the lead/cholesterol connection hasn’t been proven by research on humans yet, it still helps to explain some observations that holistic doctors have made over the years. Holistic doctors who do chelation therapy (a process that removes lead and other
toxic metals from the body) have noted that cholesterol levels often drop after chelation. If you’ve tried following a strict diet and your
serum cholesterol is still high, have a physician skilled and knowledgeable in nutritional and natural medicine
check your lead levels. The most accurate way to test for lead is to get an intravenous drip of a chelating
agent (EDTA is typically used for lead chelation) followed by a six- to eight-hour urine collection, which is then tested for lead and other toxic metals.
If a chelation test shows you have too much lead (or other toxic heavy metal) in your system, work with your physician to get the lead out. Not only will it help your serum cholesterol levels, but it will also help lots of other natural biochemical processes in your body operate better.
Secret #2
How to drop your blood pressure by
20, 30, or even 40 points––naturally
The mainstream medical industry certainly seems determined to get us all on patent hypertension (blood pressure) medications. With the new guidelines issued by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, people whose blood pressure levels were once considered well below normal (a 120 over 80 reading) suddenly became “pre-hypertensive”–– essentially overnight.
And, of course, one of the first recommendations out of all the so-called “experts’“ mouths was more widespread use of patent hypertension medications.
But you can beat high blood pressure––most of the time without drugs. And even if you can’t completely avoid patent medicines, taking the right natural measures may be able to help you use substantially less.
What works for someone else may not work for you. In many cases, the old saying “you are what you eat” holds true. It might do some good in some cases to cut out a few of the cream sauces and slices of pizza. In some cases, a diet containing more fruits, vegetables, and whole, natural starches rather than a lot of protein could be your best bet. However, the key words here are “in some cases” and “could.”
Decades ago, public health researchers observed
that women and men who had been strictly vegetarian
all their lives had lower blood pressure readings in their
60s and 70s than did men and women who ate considerable animal protein. A vegetarian diet provides a better potassium-to-sodium ratio. Having more potassium and less sodium helps regulate blood pressure. But a vegetarian diet isn’t the best choice for everyone and, in fact,could cause more harm than good for some.
People with high blood pressure who have personal or family histories of type 2 (adult onset) diabetes usually have insulin esistance/hyperinsulinemia.
The term insulin resistance refers to the impaired use of insulin by cell membranes. Hyperinsulinemia occurs when the pancreas overproduces insulin in an attempt to overcome insulin resistance. (Insulin resistance/hyperinsulinemia is easily diagnosed via a glucose-insulin tolerance test.)
Hyperinsulinemia is a known cause of high blood pressure. To bring insulin overproduction under control, the most necessary dietary changes are total elimination of sugar and refined carbohydrates and a sharp reduction in overall carbohydrate intake. It’s especially important to eliminate such starches as potatoes, beans, pasta, and grains. Obviously, this diet pattern is
not vegetarian, but, as it helps bring hyperinsulinism under control, blood pressure is also better regulated.
You can also take natural supplements to help regulate your insulin. There are so many nutrients shown to be helpful in type 2 diabetes that taking them all individually would be a real chore. You’ll find several “multiple” formulas designed specifically to aid in blood sugar control in natural food stores. The one helped formulate is called Glucobalance. (If you can’t
find it in your local natural food store, it’s available from the Tahoma Clinic Dispensary.) One of Glucobalance’s most important blood sugar controlling ingredients is chromium. Chromium helps to restore the
cell membrane response to insulin. There are also two more ingredients you should take in addition to Glucobalance or any other blood
sugar controlling multiple supplement. The first is niacin. With chromium, niacin forms part of a molecule called the glucose-tolerance factor, which helps insulin do its job. Both chromium and niacin will get your cells to pay attention to the insulin again, so your
insulin and blood sugar levels should go down. It’s important to do initial and follow-up testing with your
doctor to monitor your progress. Finally, you should also consider taking flaxseed or flaxseed oil capsules.
Flaxseed also helps your cells use insulin. However, there has been a shadow cast over it recently because it contains the essential fatty acid
alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which several studies have linked to a higher risk of prostate cancer and cataracts. While not all the research agreed, there’s definitely enough to be cause for concern.
However, these studies definitely aren’t the “last word” on ALA. It’s important to remember that ALAis an essential-to-life fatty acid, and it’s highly unlikely that Nature would require us to have it in order to survive if there was no way around these potential
negative effects. It’s very possible that another nutrient or several nutrients are involved in the ALA-prostate
cancer and ALA-cataract connection, and that using more (or less) of these would “erase” any possible
harm from higher levels of ALA.