Sure, there are medications for high triglycerides...
But you can also lower your triglycerides - without a single pill!* Picture this... It's your birthday. And your spouse decides to treat you to a steak dinner. There you are, juicy steak in front of you. You're enjoying it, but you feel like you shouldn't be eating fat or red meat. So you don't finish the steak and decide to top up with the bread and potato instead. Bad move! Your blood triglycerides will gradually start climbing on the drive home. Past midnight and almost till morning. No, it wasn't the steak. It was the bread and potatoes. Betcha didn't expect that!Months pass. You're at your annual physical and your doctor is not happy with your high triglyceride number. Your doctor won't know WHY your triglycerides are high. That's not their business. Doctors are fixers. You give them a problem. And they'll fix it. He or she knows that it is high and, by golly, they will get it down. Enter Lovaza.
Lovaza is the prescription fish oil for triglycerides. It works. If you take the recommended dosage of 4 pills a day, your triglyceride will drop about 30%. If you add statin drugs to the mix, you will see your triglycerides drop by almost 50%. Not bad!
Symptom = High Triglycerides
Solution = Lovaza
Check.
Next patient.
This is what most doctors do - treat symptoms. Our entire medical system is based on treating symptoms. The underlying cause or pathology is never explored.
Doctors don't have the time and prevention is not profitable.
So don't expect your primary care physician to hold your metaphorical high triglycerides up to the light, scratch his head and go,
'Hmm. Why does this patient have this problem? What could be causing it? And what can we do to prevent this from happening?'Doctors rarely delve into the 'why.' Just remember that our medical system treats symptoms. Not prevention or cause. Prevention and cause are your responsibilities.
Nutrition Advice...from Your Doctor?
To be fair, most doctors will briefly lecture you on eating less junk food, fat and meat. More whole grains and more exercise. This is the current state of nutritional awareness. I agree with the less junk food and more exercise parts. But the part about avoiding all meats and fats is not based on facts. This is the realm of nutritionists and dietitians and more often than not, even they will give you the 'Low-fat-more-whole-grains' diet. To which I say, 'How's that workin' out for ya?' I've never seen anyone's high triglycerides lowered with a low-fat-high-whole-grain diet.Why Low-Fat Diets Don't Reduce Triglycerides*
It has to do with what happens after you eat low-fat foods. If you take the fat out of foods (think SnackWell cookies), they are typically replaced with sugars. Let's take 'healthy whole grains' for example, a staple of the long-in-the-tooth low-fat diet fad. After you eat a bagel, an enzyme called amylase breaks down the carbohydrate in the bagel into glucose molecules. (I'm simplifying this to make a point.) The glucose then gets moved to your liver, where the it gets converted to triglycerides (fat). It's your body's way of saving for a rainy day because your body never knows if it will ever be fed again. Triglycerides are stored as fat so they can be tapped for future use. This is why that slice of bread and the mashed potato from your birthday dinner increased your triglyceride levels. 'What about the steak?' you ask. Yes, it has triglycerides ALREADY IN IT. A different enzyme (pancreatic lipase) is involved. And it too will increase your blood triglycerides. But only a little compared to bread! There is a difference between eating meats and fatty foods which already have triglycerides in them versus eating foods that get converted to triglycerides. A huge difference! Sweet and starchy foods that get converted to glucose and then into triglycerides in your liver really spike triglyceride levels. * Clinical research suggests the omega-3 dosage needed to help maintain healthy triglycerides is 2000-4000 mg per day when used as part of healthy diet and exercise regimen. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.To give you hint of what's coming up in Part 2, see this video by Dr. David Diamond, a neuroscientist from the University of South Florida. It may be shocking, but it is worth your time, I promise you. Part 2 - find out how the author reduced his triglyceride levels by 400 points.
