Cholesterol. Keeping it Low.
What I've found that works
I like to go out and about in town. To grab a drink. To grab a meal. To people watch. Not too often. Maybe once twice a week. But by doing so, what I receive in return is often much greater than the time and energy I've invested. Like when I happen to be within an earshot of some very interesting conversations among friends whom are doing the same as I in the presence of trusted company. Little do they know of my bat-like hearing.
Back in the day when I used to live near a waterfront, going into its small but vibrant town never seemed to disappoint. On one such occasion, I overheard two older males having a conversation about their sex lives. Which was odd, because I didn't know dudes liked to talk so openly about that sorta stuff. Well, at least they did and after all, I was younger. Now that roughly 15 years have passed, it's less of a stretch for me to understand. Anyway, this one dude kept bangin' on about some male appendage issues he was having when trying to make love to his wife. The conversation got quite detailed which I won't divulge here, but, there were two things I took away from that conversation. One, he's gotta have a sit down with his wife because he was complaining about other things she was doing fully clothed in normal life that seemed to be harming his libido. And secondly, in a separate part of the conversation he mentioned getting his cholesterol checked and how his bad cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein or LDL) and total cholesterol were ridiculously high. When I heard this bit I thought to myself, 'Nah partner... Poor male appendage performance in the boudoir and high cholesterol equal a high potential for problems.'
Before I go any further, I would like to mention that a human’s sexual health, or the health of their nether regions, often can be considered a canary in the coal mine of sorts. In other words, if your sexual health isn't tip top, it's most likely that your overall health isn't either. And usually, poor sexual function may be the first to show as symptoms of a deeper underlying health issue.
In this case, it seemed as though this gentleman had somewhat of a correlation between his below average sexual health and the well below average state of his cardiovascular system.
In particular, if you have high cholesterol via elevated levels of LDL cholesterol, combined with high levels of inflammation in the arteries (and perhaps veins) then this could be a bad scenario. Your body will want to repair the inflammation with LDL cholesterol. If you have too much of it, then too much will be deposited in your arteries forming arterial plaques. To the point where you may end up with a significant blockage due to plaque buildup where the flow of blood to your organs is not sufficient, causing very serious health complications. In this case, this man maybe had a blood flow issue to, um, down there. He may have even seen some other issues come about in other areas of his body for similar reasons. But, as I alluded before, I bet his male appendage was one of the first to show signs.
So how does one combat this...? Like the cholesterol bit. To make sure blood is flowing full pressure, as intended, throughout your body. Well, by making sure you are not in danger of forming plaques of course. One way to do this is by watching your cholesterol. The thing is, however, it is not necessarily the amount of cholesterol you ingest that is the problem. Rather, it is the amount of saturated fats you're ingesting. High levels of saturated fats in your diet will cause your liver to produce more levels of LDL cholesterol that your blood actually needs. And interestingly enough, different ethnicity's have varying levels of sensitivity to this process. Being someone who has ancestors from the Mediterranean region of earth, I am especially cursed with this affliction. Translation, I have to be hyper vigilant about the amount of saturated fats I ingest.
The rule of thumb is about 20g of saturated fat for every 2000 calories consumed in total. Although I do not watch these figures like a hawk, what I am doing is sticking to nonfat dairy as much as possible. Trying to stick to lean meats as much as possible. And consuming healthy fats that are high in mono and poly unsaturated fats. Why? Because these are so called good fats that make your liver produce HDL cholesterol which helps lower LDL cholesterol...again the bad kind. And that's it.
I used to do full fat dairy. Chicken with the skin. Bacon with my eggs on the weekends. But I had high cholesterol so I do this no more. Here are my old figures: LDL = 160, HDL = 105, Total = 278 (units of mg/dl – milligram per deciliter). And after going the low saturated fat route, here is how I improved only after three months: LDL = 114, HDL = 79, Total = 210. After the first test, the doctor wanted to put me on statins (medication to lower my cholesterol), I told him don't bother to order them. He did anyway, I left them at the pharmacy never having picked them up. He didn't listen to me. As you can see, I did it on my own and he was happy with the second test results.
The LDL upper limit is 99 mg/dl. HDL needs to be above 39 mg/dl. Since I consume lots of nuts, seeds, and olive oil which are all loaded with healthy fats, my HDL will likely always be high. I'm due for another checkup as it has been nearly two years since the last test so we will see how I fair. I'm guessing just a skosh lower. Regardless, my ldl to hdl ratio from those two tests are still great, which some medical professionals believe is worth considering.
So if you have a high cholesterol situation, statins are not always necessary. If ever. This according to a very accomplished cardiologist I once talked to mind you. Just make sure the amount of saturated fat is below the threshold mentioned above. And get yourself some good fats in your diet. You will be amazed at the difference in your man and/or lady region performance.
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