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Cholesterol

Trans Fatty Acids

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Fantastic book/chapter on Trans Fatty Acid (Nutrition and Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases) ….. otherwise known as the vegetable oil most fast foods are cooked with.
I’m only able to include the link for the teaser without getting into trouble for posting “paid for” material. Nonetheless, there are nuggets just in the teaser.
Trans Fatty Acids are consistently associated with coronary heart disease, as well as sudden death.
Other things TFA’s are good at? 🤔
🧐raising triglycerides (one of the reasons triglycerides are often thought of as the “tattletale” on a lipid panel… it is a marker (usually) of the junk someone is consuming.
🧐lowering HDL while raising LDL ( what we think of as “good” vs “bad” cholesterol)
🧐raising lipoprotein(a): the worst type of LDL that increases risk for blood clots
🧐promoting generalized body inflammation
🧐promoting insulin resistance (which leads to diabetes)
🧐visceral fat (no amount of working out to compensate for diet will get rid of this so you can eat junk and still have 6pack abs)
🧐 heart arrythmias
Why are they even allowed in the food industry? 🥴 Good question! Follow the money. They are cheap, and increase shelf stability of products, making something “stay fresh (ha!)” longer.
You can read what is free to read here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/…/neuros…/trans-fatty-acid
Know better. Do better. Be better.
Take care of that temple….. it’s the only one we’ve got!
xoxo

~ liz

The Good Egg

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Eggs… they do a body good! Healthy hens produce healthy eggs that are rich in cholesterol. Yep. Cholesterol gets a bad rap… we must have cholesterol in our lives in order to function properly. Every cell requires it. 50% of our brain is cholesterol. Our nerves couldn’t function well if it’s in deficit. Our hormones wouldn’t exist if we didn’t have it.
 
There are maaaaany health issues that result when the body is deprived of cholesterol, but make no mistake, there’s a big difference in quality of cholesterol when you use junk sources (ie processed foods) versus healthy sources (ie walnuts, avocados, grass fed butter and meats). The body most certainly can tell the difference!
 
Get to know your egg source. Free range matters as does the quality of feed the hens are given. Non soy, non GMO, corn free, and free of the same unhealthy oils that are found in processed foods. We are what we eat, and the same can be said of hens🐔 and their eggs🥚.
 
Know your farmers. Know your food!
 
Happy Friday friends! May you have an egg-cellent day!🥰
 
xoxo~ liz
 

Clues From Our Thyroid – part 1

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Thyroid disorders are like🦎 chameleonic villians. They look different in every person, and their characteristics may change according to their environment. Thyroid disease is a master of disguise! This is important to understand
 

 Two key reasons:

  1. Innocent until proven guilty. It’s estimated that perhaps 18-25% of women have an underlying thyroid disorder (It’s somewhat less common in men). This still means that 75-82% of us (women, for statistical ease) do not. Become well acquainted with your body so that you may better decipher the clues you are being given, and remember that there are many possible causes for almost every clue the body gives. Cluster clues for the win!
  2. Thyroid disease is overwhelmingly mistaken and/or overlooked in favor of other disorders (often mental health related) by the corporate owned medical community. Thyroid diagnosis often requires intuition (Holy Spirit discernment), patience, persistence, and attention to details. If you feel “off”, and yet your doctor tell you “everything looks good”…. Who do you believe? I hope you pointed a finger back at yourself just now. You believe what you know about your body and your refined detective skills!

Function of the Thyroid

While every little organ and gland of the endocrine system is important for stellar body function, very often the trail of tears leads back to the thyroid, the butterfly 🦋shaped gland located just below the Adam’s apple along the front of the windpipe. The thyroid’s function is to regulate all the processes of energy release on microscopic (cellular) and macroscopic (full body) levels. Because hypothyroidism (especially Hashimoto’s) is the predominant thyroid disorder, most of what I write about will be centered upon thyroid deficiency. Grab a mirror (you’ll need it for a few of them!) and your journal and take stock of your own possible crime scene.
 

Symptoms of thyroid deficiency might include:

  • Chronic fatigue or tiredness.
  • Muscular fatigue
  • Puffiness or evidence of fluid retention
  • Difficulty regulating body temperature (chronic feelings of being hot or cold. Recall the posts on body temperature)
  • Development of Reynaud’s Syndrome
  • Reduced pulse pressure and blood pressure
  • Heart rate fluctuations
  • Angina and/or feelings of breathlessness
  • Higher cholesterol. People with subclinical hypothyroidism often have higher levels of LDL cholesterol. Thyroid disease is a major contributor to cholesterol problems.
  • Arteriosclerosis (decreased elasticity of arteries)
  • Changes in bruising or clotting (generally, bruising will become more common)
  • Depression and/or anxiousness
  • Difficulty gathering thoughts, memory, focus and concentration
  • Headaches with unknown origin
  • Moodiness or lack of enthusiasm in life
  • Peripheral neuropathy
  • Carpal tunnel (there is a strong link!)
  • Random shooting pains in the hands and feet
  • Osteoporosis (chronic hypothyroidism can be a contributor)
  • Visual problems: dry eyes, age related macular degeneration, primary open angle glaucoma
  • Loss of the outer eyebrows
  • Chronic constipation
  • Increased incidence of gallstones (thyroid hormones affects the composition of bile and how well it flows)
  • Poor digestion of fats and proteins
  • Decreased stomach acid resulting in poorly digested foods (If this clue is on your radar, grab your YL Essentialzyme and give your body digestive support!)
  • Bloating, gassy
  • Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
  • Insulin resistance (and therefore) increased risk of developing Type II Diabetes
  • Thicker tongue, perhaps even with scalloped teeth marks on the sides of the tongue.
  • Changes in how food tastes.
  • Periodontal disease
  • Development of a husky or hoarse voice
  • Infertility or difficulty maintaining a pregnancy
  • Heavy periods (There is often a link between hypothyroidism and PCOS)
  • Sex hormone imbalances (progesterone, estrogen and testosterone in women)
  • Loss of libido
  • Postpartum depression (very common)
  • Premature menopause
  • Dry skin
  • Deep cracks and scales on the bottoms of the feet
  • Deep lines on the palms of hands or soles of feet
  • Yellowish orange or reddish color on palms of hands or soles of feet
  • Reddish spots, bumps, or rashes that come and go
  • Acne (often seen in conjunction with testosterone level disturbances)
  • Brittle, flaking nails or nails that fail to grow well
  • Hair loss (on the head) or gaining hair in all the wrong places elsewhere
  • Getting sick more often, especially upper respiratory tract infections and in women, persistent urinary tract infections.
  • Bedwetting in kiddos
  • Delayed wound healing
  • Gaining or losing weight without trying
  • Poor sleep
  • Iron deficiency anemia (roughly 50% of people with thyroid disease struggle with this)
That’s the bulk of this particular crime scene checklist. Thyroid disease is very interesting in that the severity of symptoms often are not reflected in thyroid specific lab work. Lab Work is based on a standardized bell curve and not everyone fits exactly into that bell curve mold. Additionally, many western medicine health professionals only test TSH when first evaluating the competency of the thyroid gland. That alone is insufficient information to determine thyroid function. This list of possible symptoms, while not completely comprehensive, is more valuable in determining the probable health of your thyroid than a single TSH test.
More to come friends.
 
xoxo~ liz
#sharingiscaring
#lovingyourthyroidisgoodmedicine
#itsthelittlethings
#becomingyourownhealthdetective
#goodmedicine

Guilty or Innocent? Weighing in on Cholesterol

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Cholesterol has been heavy on my heart for the last month… haha! No pun intended there… my cholesterol is actually fine….. but I tend to root for the the misunderstood and the underdog when given a choice. (That’s probably why our farm tends to be a haven for rescue dogs and cats…. but I digress!) 

Did you know that approximately 80% of people with acute cornary syndrome….(ie: reduced blood flow to the heart… often leading to heart attack) have NORMAL cholesterol values? What’s up with that? 

Cholesterol is one of those underdogs. Bless its sticky little heart….. it’s given a bad rap more so than nearly any other body produced compound. What would we do without cholesterol?  That’s a good question…. I’m not entirely sure any of us would be around to discuss it if we lacked it in our bodies! It is a major component of cell membranes and is a necessary building block for hormones, fat soluble vitamin D, and bile salts (aiding in the digestion of fats and fat soluble nutrients). Cholesterol is also extremely important to the function of our nervous system. Without it, we’d be bumbling malfunctioning idiots….especially considering that our brains are roughly comprised of 50% cholesterol. So why all the hate?

Our bodies are efficient producers of cholesterol…. producing about 80% of what is in our bodies (the other 20% comes from dietary sources). Cholesterol should not be confused with Triglycerides (perhaps the real bad boys), or the obscure thug that likes to hang on to its buddy LDL….. lipoprotein(a).

Unpacking Cholesterol: The cholesterol in our vascular system is a mixed bag of good and bad. HDL (the good guys) has the job of bouncer…. and it escorts out the shadier gang members, LDL, from our bloodstream. LDL comes in a variety of sizes…. and the smaller sizes (subunits 3 & 4) are really bad news. The bigger ones (subunits 1 &2) are fluffier and are actually pretty helpful. Because they (subunits 3&4) are small, they can easily work their way into the lining of our arteries where the bouncer (HDL) can’t reach them. In a whopping 20% of the population (1 in 5) there is something called Lipoprotein(a) that makes LDL ‘extra sticky’….. if you carry this genetic characteristic, it is best to know about it early on in life, as it dramatically increases your risk for clogged arteries and  blood clots leading to strokes and heart attacks. It is a serious health risk, and frankly…. should be tested for at least once in everyone’s life.
While managing total cholesterol with careful eating habits (avoid processed and ‘fast’ foods) is important, …. the real culprits we should be monitoring are inflammation, triglycerides, and lipoprotein(a).

Triglycerides are produced predominately by the liver. When we eat, the body stores any excess calories as triglycerides in our fat cells. It is particularly fond of doing this with carbs. Later…. between meals…. hormones will signal a need for more energy, and those triglycerides will be released. Herein lies the rub tho….. if you eat more than you exert energy, triglycerides begin building up and you end up with hypertriglyceridemia (HTG), and THAT my friends, is cause for alarm. Even if someone has verified genetic HTG, management can be achieved with responsible ownership of the vessel you reside in:

  • Daily physical activity
  • Conscious consuming of healthy fats… avoiding processed foods and other sources of “bad fats”
  • no smoking
  • Optimizing body weight
  • Limit processed sugar intake to no more than the equivalent of 6 teaspoons of sugar per day. (The average North American consumes about 200gms or 48 teaspoons of processed sugar in their diet daily)
  • Work towards optimal triglyceride lab values of <100 and a triglyceride to HDL ratio of 1:1 to 2:1. 

Lipoprotein(a) is no joke. 73 million people in the USA are estimated to be living with this ‘sticky’ situation. It is extremely dangerous because the molecule itself is so small, sticky, and it difficult to manage. What makes it even more dangerous is this: most insurance companies refuse to pay for the test that determines if you have it….. and many doctors don’t even mention the test to patients because insurance doesn’t pay. I have not been able to wrap my brain around the logic of NOT paying for a potentially life saving test…. but there you have it. It’s just one more reason to take charge of your own health and ask for the test and pay for it out of pocket, ESPECIALLY if you have family history of heart disease. Nothing….. no vacation, no daily coffee, no new phone…. should be more valuable to you than knowing this information about yourself. Once you know, you have the power to act…. and that can change the trajectory of your life. If you do carry this genetic trait, you will want to have your children tested. They need to learn healthy habits early in life. It’s never too young to become a CEO of oneself!

IF you have inherited lipoprotein(a), you’ll want to pay very close attention to what you CAN do, because it’s time to take your health seriously. Some people do not get a warning, and find themselves diagnosed at the same time their mortality is realized. Lp(a) requires close attention and monitoring. Tools to help in management include: 

  • Daily baby aspirin
  • High quality Omega3 fish oil…. lots of it… has been found to lower Lp(a)LDL by approximately 10%. (Poor quality Omega 3’s become oxidized and can actually do more damage than taking nothing at all. Know your supplement company…not just their name, but how they do business. This is especially important with Omega 3’s.) Omegagize3 from Young Living!
  • High doses of Niacin (1-3 gms/day) … the flushing kind (ex: Slo-Niacin)… have been found to lower Lp(a)LDL by up to 30%
  • Maintain a fasting blood glucose of <100
  • Vitamin C @ 3000mg/day
  • L-lysine, L-proline & L-carnitine in high doses (L-carnitine helps make lp(a) less sticky)
  • Test for and maintain hs-CRP (high sensitivity c reactive protein) at <1. This measures inflammation in the body and high levels are a risk factor for heart attack.
  • Control blood pressure ideally at 120/70.
  • Consistent exercise
  • Abstain from smoking
  • Get (regularly) an Advanced Lipid Panel every 6 months w/ the following goals:
  1. LDL< 60
  2. Triglycerides < 60
  3. LDL particle # < 700

I realize this has been kind of a heavy post. I’m sorry about that. It’s a heavy topic tho. Most people (even healthcare professionals) don’t have a clear understanding of exactly what causes the real problems in our vascular system. Hopefully, you can see that cholesterol itself is not the real monster….. it’s actually pretty awesome stuff. Too much of a good thing is bad tho…. no matter what it is. Although I only barely touched on inflammation in this post, it’s HUGELY important to this topic too. Sticky Lp(a)LDL is especially fond of a chronically inflamed vascular system.

It is my hope and blessing that this helps someone better manage their own health, and to prompt personal responsibility one’s own health. I am not a doctor. Information here is for recommendation purposes only, and not intended to substitute for specific medical advice. Please do use this information as a starting point for your own research, and use as discussion points with your personal healthcare provider.

Love and hugs,  Liz

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