Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the world. Is there anything we can do to stop it?
Today we're going to look at my own blood work. What are my odds of getting a heart attack?
Let's find out
The number one risk factor for heart disease is of course
Cholesterol it's so determinant that some experts believe it's the only necessary factor
That means you can have bad genetics and be overweight
Diabetic and smoke and you still would have little risk of heart disease as long as your cholesterol is under control
ok, got it cholesterol is important. So what values should I be shooting for?according to the guidelines
200 mg/dL is the cutoff if your cholesterol is over that it's considered high
ok, so if I'm under 200, I'm golden, right?unfortunately not
35 percent of heart attacks happen to people under 200. Wait what? if I have normal cholesterol and I can still get a heart attack
That means cholesterol levels are irrelevant, right? That's a common misconception
the higher your cholesterol the higher your risk for example at
230 your risk is twice what it would be at 180 and at 300 it's 4 times higher
But there is a range the experts consider ideal where heart disease is essentially non-existent
Cool, let's have it. What is it? 190? 180? I don't want to have a heart attack
150
Below 150 is a sweet spot where your arteries don't develop the clogs
Above 150 you're at risk and the higher you go the bigger the risk. what??
150? you're joking, right? Is that even humanly possible?
Let's look at my own blood work. between 2006 and 2010 my cholesterol averaged around 170
Ok, so I was in the normal range, but still at risk for heart disease
So that's not great
but about 7 years ago is when I started to research nutrition more in-depth and I completely changed the way I eat and
When I went back to look at my own cholesterol levels again
My jaw literally dropped after I changed my diet my total cholesterol dropped like a rock
Dipping right into the ideal range and it has stayed there ever since. ok, that felt pretty good not gonna lie
But wait isn't LDL the one we're supposed to be careful about the bad cholesterol?
The story with LDL is similar below 100 is considered normal
But the experts agree that in order to be protected from heart disease, you actually need to be below 75
Let's look at my values again. But this time just the LDL
I used to be in the 90s to low hundreds so far from ideal
after the diet change I
dropped to the sweet spot and
Stayed there ever since. Wow
Okay, how do these changes compare to taking a drug, like a cholesterol-lowering drug like lipitor? some studies indicate lipitor
Causes an average 19 percent drop in total cholesterol, not bad
But mine dropped 25 percent just with the diet
What about LDL?
Lipitor drops it by 26%
But I got 27 percent without spending a dime, with no drugs coursing through my veins and no side effects
So what was this miraculous change in diet? Well, actually it's no surprise. I just phased out animal products
I did it gradually it wasn't overnight over maybe a year, a year and a half total
first I got rid of red meat and the rest of the meats gradually and
eventually dairy and eggs and I
gradually replaced all that with plant foods now at the time I made all that change for general health reasons all the research I was
Doing into nutrition suggested that this way of eating is actually much healthier across the board
I wasn't even aware back then of this ideal range of cholesterol
The experts talk about, it's only recently that I started to research this more in depth
and I found out about this recommended range
And I went back to look at my cholesterol levels and see how they compared. but in retrospect this all makes complete sense
Animal foods are the only cholesterol source in our diet plant foods have zero cholesterol
So by removing the cholesterol from my food I left my body basically with only the cholesterol
it was producing naturally so that dropped me to that ideal range
Which I guess is the natural range at least for me all the cholesterol
I was eating three times a day was basically bumping my levels to those higher ranges where I was at a higher risk for heart
disease. now, I understand some people don't care
They just want to eat what they like or what they've always eaten regardless of consequences. And if that's you that's totally your prerogative
No hard feelings. You're still welcome to the channel
you're welcome to watch the videos if you take any value from this or you're just curious
I have no interest in trying to convince people of browbeat people into changing their diet or convincing them to eat like this or like that
none. but I also know that there's probably millions of people out there who just want to know what a healthy diet is
And I know that because I used to be one of them in my 20s and even before
And even in my 30s all I wanted to know was what's the healthiest diet
I can possibly have that's gonna reduce my risk of disease and
if somebody with a medical degree with an MD and
A PhD from good schools and all this access to literature and the resources to go through it can take this long
To find the best information and to have a clear picture of what a healthy diet is
then how many millions of people out there just
want a freakin straight answer and can't get it and
That's why I started making these videos
Even though I have zero experience with filming or editing or YouTube complete rookie
But I figure there's a ton of people out there for sure
Who are gonna get value out of this because I would have killed to have this information
Back when I was 20 or even 30. and if I was able to do it anybody can do it
I mean
I wasn't even that unhealthy to begin with if your cholesterol is higher in the two hundreds or even higher
Then chances are your drop is gonna be even more impressive. now
Maybe you're watching all this and you're skeptical you just don't buy it and that's a good thing
You're not supposed to believe everything you hear online keep researching
But make sure you're relying on the best information the best quality scientific studies
Experts who are actually qualified to give you advice not celebrities giving one-off advice on the magazine cover not
internet gurus and not random people on YouTube wait
Don't take my word for it do an experiment
Try it for yourself
Change your diet for a couple months and do some blood work before and after if you see no change at all maybe
Scientists don't know what they're talking about
And I guess you go back to eating steak and eggs every meal
But if it does if you do see a drop then you've just figured out a way to lower your odds of getting heart disease
the #1 cause of death in the entire world and if that's not worth a shot
then I honestly don't know what is. so I hope that was helpful and
caused some light bulbs to go on or at least made you think about these matters and if you have any questions
Feel free to drop a line below anytime and I will see you on the next video