High Triglycerides

[Tsip]

So with all the health benefits claimed with cinnamon (ceylon) and honey, I assume that goes away if you have high triglycerides?

[Activity2004 Administrator]

Hi Tsip ,

Welcome to the group. Please continue to post your postings and comments, read and reply to other member's postings and comments, take the polls on the Polls section, go through the Topics section for information and suggestions, attend the Monthly Meetings held once a month (usually a Saturday), ask questions and of course, meet the rest of the members from the group.

About the triglyceride question.... What has your doctor told you? When was your last doctor's appointment?

[Tsip in reply to Activity2004]

The doctor just basically said that I should eat more of a Mediterranean diet. But that was before my lab test came back with Triglycerides at 380. So there does seem to be some conflicting information out there as to what foods are bad for that. The good foods seem to be few.

[Hidden in reply to Tsip]

I used to have high triglycerides. My doc told me to cut back on the meat and cheeses. I don’t there is anything holistic to take that would lower it. And I lost weight from it. So it was a win win situation

[BadHare]

I'd think that if you are able to burn the calories from a little honey,

that would be ok. Be aware that it's only raw honey that has health

benefits. Once it's been pasteurised or heated it becomes another sugar.

Have you thought about adding nuts (NOT PEANUTS) & seeds to your diet for a better balance of healthy fats?

This website might be useful for you to look at:

chriskresser.com/what-cause...

[Tsip in reply to BadHare]

Thanks Chris...yes, unsalted walnuts and pecans are in my diet plan.

[Hidden]

High fasting TG is a function of high carbs High sugars and High fructose

Lower down a bit with these and see

[Tsip]

This is the problem I see so often with info about what is good and bad about health issues. Hard to discern what is really true:

livescience.com/46839-dange...

[grace111]

this is what the link said as i copied it and pasted it.

Don't Take Niacin for Heart Health, Docs Warn

By Bahar Gholipour, Staff Writer | July 16, 2014 05:00pm ET

Don't Take Niacin for Heart Health, Docs Warn

Cholesterol plaque in artery (atherosclerosis): Top artery is healthy. Middle & bottom arteries show plaque formation, rupturing, clotting & blood flow occlusion.

Credit: Diamond Images | shutterstock

Niacin, or vitamin B3, is too dangerous and should not be used routinely by people looking to control their cholesterol levels or prevent heart disease, doctors say. The warning comes following recent evidence showing the vitamin does not reduce heart attacks or strokes, and instead is linked to an increased risk of bleeding, diabetes and death.

Niacin has long been used to increase people's levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or the "good" cholesterol, and has been a major focus of research into heart disease prevention for several decades. However, clinical trials have not shown that taking niacin in any form actually prevents heart problems. Considering the alarming side effects of niacin, researchers now say the vitamin shouldn't even be prescribed anymore.

"There might be one excess death for every 200 people we put on niacin," said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, a cardiologist and chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "With that kind of signal, this is an unacceptable therapy for the vast majority of patients." [8 Tips for Healthy Aging]

The latest and largest study of niacin, which included more than 25,000 people with heart disease, was published today (July 16) in The New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers found that using long-acting niacin to raise the HDL cholesterol level did not result in reducing heart attacks, strokes or deaths. The results were presented prior to publication last year, after which the manufacturer of the niacin medication used in the study, Merck & Co., said it would stop selling the drug.

The study also found some unexpected and serious side effects. People who took niacin were more likely than people taking a placebo to experience liver problems, infections and bleeding in various body areas including the stomach, intestines and brain.

Niacin was also linked with more hospitalizations among diabetic patients and the development of diabetes in people who didn't have it at the beginning of the study.

The Merck drug was a combination of niacin and laropiprant, a drug that prevents the facial flushing that can be caused by high doses of niacin. However, the study researchers said the side effects were consistent with the problems seen in previous studies of Niacin alone, and that the new findings "are likely to be generalizable to all high-dose niacin formulations."

"That particular medication is not being sold anymore, but the issue is that there's still an awful lot of niacin prescriptions being given to patients, whether that's plain niacin or extended-release niacin," Lloyd-Jones told Live Science.

"When you look at the totality of the data, particularly with this largest and the most recent trial, it suggests that it's actually niacin itself that's the problem, and not this specific niacin-laropiprant combination," said Lloyd-Jones, who wasn't involved with the new study.

The popular rise of niacin

Prescriptions for niacin have jumped in recent years, tripling over just eight years to reach 700,000 prescriptions monthly in the United States by the end of 2009, researchers have found. Of all niacin prescriptions written in 2009, 80 percent were for Niaspan, a slow-releasing niacin tablet made by Abbott Laboratories, according to a study published last year.

However, the rate of niacin prescriptions may have decreased after the results of several studies were released, Lloyd-Jones said.

Niacin can also be bought over the counter as a supplement. These supplements may have their own issues because vitamin products are not regulated in the same way that pharmaceutical products are. "It may come with other things in the preparation that we don't know about, and could potentially enhance the toxicity of niacin," Lloyd-Jones said. "Because it is available over the counter, I think it's important for consumers to understand that this signal appears to apply to all types of niacin."

The available evidence suggests that having higher levels of good cholesterol is only a sign of lower risk for heart problems, and trying to artificially raise levels of the good cholesterol doesn't appear to translate into lowering a person's risk of heart problems.

"HDL is a nice marker — if it's higher, you tend to be at lower risk. So if you could manipulate that with healthy lifestyle and physical activity, that's undoubtedly a good thing to do, but we haven't found a drug that will raise HDL in isolation and provide benefit in terms of lower risks," Lloyd-Jones said.

A healthy lifestyle is the first recommendation for lowering LDL, or the "bad" cholesterol, and reducing the risk of heart disease. For people who are not successful in controlling their cholesterol levels by changing their lifestyle, doctors may prescribe statins, which remain the best choice to reduce heart attack and stroke risk, Lloyd-Jones said.

Niacin should only be considered for patients at very high risk for a heart attack and stroke who can't take statins, and for whom there are no other evidence-based options, Lloyd-Jones said.

Email Bahar Gholipour. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science.

[grace111]

i just wanted to get that link for you because as you said you could not get it. im a helpful person. yes i agree with you about a lot of those medications ( poisons as thats what they are) a lot of people are to lazy to follow life style changes or perhaps like i was many years ago they trust those doctors. whom i wonder if they know themselves as i went to the doctor with a bad cough and he told me to get tixylix cough syrup he said he gives it to his children. its full of rubbish and the doctor looked terrible.