Shane's Drivel

Counting cholesterol September 29, 2007

After about a year and a half of a consistent fitness program, I’m in the best shape of my life.

And as a result, my cholesterol is higher than its ever been. Its not “high”. Its just borderline, a few ticks over 200.

I can confidently say a person can’t eat much healthier than I’m already eating. Sure I could do better, but not by much. That hasn’t always been the case. I used to have bad eating habits – and back then my cholesterol was a lot lower (blood pressure and especially triglycerides were a LOT higher back then too).

All my other blood stats are healthy. Dramatic improvement in triglycerides has been made. That level is now about 150 which is down from, oh, around 900 several years ago.

I know second hand of a marathon runner who has a similar cholesterol problem. He runs like the win blows, is obviously fit, and has high cholesterol. Upon discovering this, he tried fixing his diet and he cholesterol only got higher.

So color me unconvinced that the medical world understands cholesterol. I think the general guidelines are probably good for a lot of people. But there also a ton of people out there whose cholesterol numbers make no sense per current guidelines – which makes me think the impacts of “high” cholesterol in those individuals is probably also misunderstood as well.

Considering heath experts got the government nutritional food guildeline/pyramid completely upside down (eg: saying to eat lots of carbs and not much meat), it would not be surprising if they’re wrong on cholesterol too.

Behold, the power of fish oil July 4, 2007

I was just explaining to my mother that fish oil is the closest thing to a silver bullet that I’ve ever seen. It helps metabolize fat in the body. It reduces inflammation. It is insanely healthy for cardiovascular health, and can (in my case) dramatically reduce triglycerides.

Dr. Christopher Mohr agrees in a t-nation interview, Green Tea, Fish Oil, and LL Cool J.

T-Nation: What do you think the “next big thing” in supplementation is going to be?

Dr. Mohr: The next big thing… that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? I get similar questions from readers all the time, asking about product XYZ being the “next magical pill.”

To be honest, this may be a boring answer, but omega-3′s are the biggest thing in my mind. It’s like, what else will they discover that these are useful for? And it’s not just about disease prevention. There’s very cool data with fish oil and weight loss, recovery, decreasing neck and back pain, mental acuity, etc.

For example, a recent study published in Surgical Neurology supplemented individuals with 1100 mg of EPA/DHA. Most patients had degenerative disc conditions (notice the carry-over for powerlifters or those who move some serious iron with potential overuse injuries). After 75 days of fish oil supplementation, 60% of respondents reported significant improvements, including reduction in overall pain, and 59% were able to stop taking other pain medicine!

To me, that’s cool data. Sure, performance is fantastic, but so is the ability to continue to move well past your 30′s.

It took the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) a long time to finally suggest all adults should take a multivitamin. I have a feeling fish oil will follow in those footsteps. Of course, whole fish provides a ton of other nutrients as well, above and beyond supplementation alone, so I encourage you to get a nice chunk of your protein from fish like wild Alaskan salmon and other cold water fish.

And speaking of wild salmon, I recently came across one of my favorite products on the market — salmon jerky. It’s an amazing source of protein and omega-3′s — so take that, beef jerky. Don’t get me wrong, I love beef jerky as much as the next guy, but if I can get the same protein and omega-3′s, sign me up!

So, omega-3′s are the “next” big supplement in my mind.

Those degenerative disc stats have me wanting to get an MRI to compare before and after pictures. Granted, I do plenty of exercises that support my back. But I also take 2 fish oil pills with each of 6 meals ever day.

More good on omega-3 fatty acids June 5, 2007

Fish oil! Walnuts! Flaxseed! Salmon! Get your omega-3 fatty acids here!

Omega-3 fatty acids can lower your blood pressure. Not by a lot, but every bit helps. Combined with other common-sense adjustments, you can lower your blood pressure a lot.

For those keeping score at home, omega-3 fatty acids can:

• lower your blood pressure
• dramatically reduce triglycerides
• lower cholesterol
• provide natural inflammation against arthritis and other aches (at least if you get your omega-3 from fish oil)
• promote brain development
• protect against cancer & heart disease

Got fish oil? What are you waiting on?

A wire story with accurate nutrition advice May 23, 2007

High triglycerides? Take fish oil capsules. Lots of it. I take 2 with each meal, or 12 per day. I’m living proof that fish oil can reduce triglycerides more effectively than prescription drugs. Once my triglycerides were at 250 with the aid of Tricor. For completely unrelated reasons, I quit Tricor and started taking fish oil. I also gave up bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes (with the exception of my 10%-of-the-time cheat meals). A month later, my triglycerides were 50 – the lowest number I’ve ever measured. Yes, a month of fish oil (well – and the aforementioned starchy carb ban) did more for my triglycerides than years and years of prescription drugs ever did. Yeah, I exercised too – BUT no more so than when my triglycerides were at 250.

Fish oil also helps the body’s metabolism in a very positive way. Simply put, fish oil helps you burn more fat. It isn’t a silver bullet. You still have to exercise to get the engine turning, but fish oil greases the wheels so to speak. Fish oil also helps the body metabolize carbohydrates in a way that steers more fuel into muscle development and less fuel into fat storage. There’s more on that in this Dr. John Berardi article, “Lean Eatin’ Part II“.

Just so ya know, I can’t recommend John Berardi’s nutrition information highly enough. Forget everything you think you know about dieting and nutrition and just start reading here. Trust me on this.

But enough with articles on websites of folks with PhD’s in nutrition and fitness consulting contracts with professional sports organizations and Olympic athletes. What do they know. Sheesh.

All most folks pay attention to are wire stories they glance over on their coffee break at work. Unfortunately, that stuff is often utter crap published by authors with a niche books to sell or by student researchers whose semester isn’t long enough for a proper study. But today I was pleasantly surprised to see a Reuters wire story about, you guessed it, fish oil.

So here ya go – “Fish oil plus exercise may banish body fat“.

In a study of overweight adults, Australian researchers found that a combination of exercise and fish oil supplements was effective at reducing body fat and improving cholesterol levels and blood vessel function.

Study participants who took fish oil, alone or with exercise, saw their levels of “good” HDL cholesterol go up, while their triglycerides (an unhealthy form of blood fat) took a dip. Meanwhile, both exercise and fish oil seemed to cut body fat.

Ya don’t say.

There’s also evidence from lab studies that fish oil affects metabolism in a way that can reduce body fat, but the little research that has been done in humans has yielded conflicting findings, according to Hill’s team.

Bah. They didn’t look very hard.