Cholesterol Levels Escalating?

Cholesterol - one word which so many of us have had the pleasure of discussing with our doctor. The only problem with this discussion - we don't have the slightest idea what they are talking about, most of the time, that is.

So what do we do? We just kind of sit there and shake our head up and down and agree occasionally by saying "yes...yes!". But the whole time we really don't want to open our mouth because we have no idea what to say anyway.

But somewhere in that conversation, there's a pretty good bet the words cholesterol and heart disease just happened to be placed in the same sentence. And for most people, their first impulse, "Give me the drug. I don't want any heart attack".

But medical science has advanced far beyond those ideas these days.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has claims reporting although the drug of choice for lowering cholesterol ( a family known as statins) will effectively lower cholesterol in most people, but that in itself does not show any rise in mortality rates for afflicted individuals. In other words, they are telling us that statins may lower your cholesterol levels but that isn't necessarily going to give you any more years on your life. What statins can do for you though is decrease your quality of life in later years by destroying your muscles, impacting the health of your liver, kidney and even your heart function.

Why? Because the only way to effectively lower your cholesterol levels for better health does not come out of some bottle of pills - it comes from lifestyle changes, hence avoiding high intake of saturated fats (from animal products) and eliminating as much as possible your intake of chemically processed fats such as vegetable oils and fats which are high in omega 6 fatty acids.

So does all of this mean you are now off of beef, dairy and corn oil for the rest of your life? The surprising answer - No! You just have to re-learn to eat the way your ancestors did. With a few alterations and some smart choices, your cholesterol levels will soon learn to take care of themselves.

Who Am I?

This is the opening day of my blog.

So many people always tell me I know so many things they've never even heard of before. But see, I have an advantage here. I work in the retail field of food service, actually candy and confectionery to be exact.  I am a store owner for the past twenty plus years, marketing candy and snack foods to the general public.

Sounds like I should get into another product line, doesn't it, if I want to talk about Nutritional Tidbits?

But let's face reality here. Sure, candy and snacks isn't at the top of many people's lists of good healthy food. But we all still Love It! and enjoy it anyway, don't we?

And in my business, I work very heavily with people who have Food Allergies and/or Diabetes.

Why?

Because these people like snacks too! And they all want to know what they are safe eating too. (It also helps an awfully lot that I happen to have food allergies also and I am a "recovering type 2 diabetic.") So here I go and get hit with multiple allergens and Diabetes also.

Therefore I get to talk to people on a continuous basis about their daily trials and tribulations with their condition. And you know the best and easiest way to find a "possible means to an end" - in this case a solution to my allergies or my diabetes - it's to talk to an entire group of people and find out what works for them, what doesn't seem to work at all, and what the "umpire" hasn't made a final call on yet.

Medicine has always had the advantage of family member talking to another family member, friend talking to friend and in all this talk, relief is being found for someone else's problems all the time.

Now understand, Do Not Ever Start a new treatment schedule or Stop A Current program your physician has you on without first talking to your doctor!

 Why is this so terribly important? What I consider the #1 top priority is the issue of negating the effectiveness of care because of a cross-reaction between substances you are taking. Now let's face it. 99% of us have no idea if taking 2 aspirins, some cough syrup and a few throat lozenges all at the same time is an absolute No-No! For most people, all they know is they have a headache, sore throat and cough-cough-cough. And taking these three things just might make it all a little better.

But what you probably don't know, all three of those remedies all have the same active ingredients in them. So instead of just taking 2 aspirins, you have probably taken the equivalent of 6 aspirins (maybe more) all at the same time. See how easy it is to get into trouble if you don't know what you are doing?

So, all I'm saying is - talk to your doctor!

But in the meantime, if allergies (whether food or environmental) seems to plague you or a family member or the current plague on our society called Diabetes is your current enemy, feel free to stop over at my websites for many, many of the things I have been learning along the way in all of those twenty plus years.