Liver Problems | Consumer Product Reviews

Let’s commence with the obvious.

DIET

If you get started out with a healthful diet, which comprises largely of lean protein sources, vegetables that grow above the ground, and fruit, that will help. In addition to a fundamentally healthful diet, to control cholesterol most experts counsel avoiding eating red meat and animal fat in general. For example, if you eat the breast of birds such as chickens and turkeys rather of the legs and thighs, you will eat less animal fat. You may likewise stay clear from animal fat by not eating the skin.

Now, if your cholesterol difficultnesses are diet based, eating a healthful diet will probably solve the problem. If not, then you might need to look into a good deal of sort of supplement to support you control your cholesterol levels.

I assume if you’re reading this article, you’ve already ruled out statin drugs because they are carcinogenic and often have side effects such as muscle pain and weakness, nausea, insomnia, fatigue, slurred speech, remainder problems, memory loss, liver problems, sexual dysfunction, personality changes and irritability.

Fortunately, there are less detrimental and costly number of things from which only one can be chosen available.

NIACIN

Niacin has been known to lower cholesterol since the 1950s. Of peculiar interest is a comparative study amongst Lovastatin (a ordinary statin drug) and Niacin. 136 people who are in need of medical care with high cholesterol were randomly assigned either Lovastatin or Niacin over a 26 week period. Although the Lovastatin introductory lowered LDL cholesterol more speedily than the Niacin, by the end of the study, there was not a whole lot of difference, with Lovastatin letting down LDL by 32% and Niacin letting down LDL by 23%.

But where Niacin actually shines is in increasing HDL (the good cholesterol) and letting down Lp(a), a lipoprotein which is highly predictive of heart disease. By the end of the study, Niacin had increased HDL by 33% and lowered Lp(a) by 35%, equated to 7% and 0% for Lovastatin, respectively.

However, there are a lot of difficulties with Niacin. It causes unpleasing flushing and may impair blood sugar control in diabetics. Worse, if using sustained-release Niacin, almost half of users construct liver toxicity, altho it will have to be brought up that if using regular Niacin, there is little peril of liver toxicity.

Fortunately, there is a form of niacin called inositol hexaniacinate, which has been employed in Europe for a great deal of years to control cholesterol levels.

INOSITOL HEXANIACINATE

Inositol hexaniacinate’s side effects are minimal and it works even better than regular niacin, according to a study comparing the effect of niacin and inositol hexaniacinate on hyperlipidemic Buscat rabbits (The role of nicotinic acid and inositol hexaniacinate as anticholesterolemic and antilipemic agents. Nutr Reports Int 1983;28:899-911). The inositol hexaniacinate caused a 79.5 % reduction in cholesterol while niacin caused a 74.9% reduction. Better yet, inositol hexaniacinate caused a 63.2% triglyceride reduction, equated to a 30.9% reduction for regular niacin.

This same correlation was found by Welsh and Ede (Inositol hexanicotinate for bettered nicotinic acid therapy, Int Record Med 1961;174:9-15).

If you plan to take inositol hexaniacinate to lower your cholesterol, experts commend that you commence out with 500 mg, 3 times a day with meals for 2 weeks. If you tolerate that okay, they suggest upping the dosage to 1000 mg, 3 times a day with meals. Although inositol hexaniacinate appears to have little in the way of side effects, it might still be prudent to have your doctor test your cholesterol levels and liver enzymes with a frequency of each 3 months, at the very least.

Like regular niacin, inositol hexaniacinate is not commended for use by diabetics, because it may interfere with blood sugar metabolism.

Given inositol hexaniacinate’s effectiveness, that’s in all likelihood a good choice to try first. However, if you cannot tolerate inositol hexaniacinate, there are more choices you may try.

PANTETHINE

Pantethine, a stable form of vitamin B5, inhibits the production of cholesterol by the liver. In a one-year clinical trial conducted with 24 patients, pantethine was shown to decrease LDL (the bad cholesterol) by 21% and increase HDL (the good cholesterol) by 23%, with nearly no toxicity (Effectiveness of long-term treatment with pantethine in people who are in need of medical care with dyslipidemia, Clin Ther. 1986;8(5):537-45).

The dosage of pantethine commonly commended for cholesterol management by experts is 300 mg, 3 times a day.

VITAMIN C

It has been shown that the higher the level of vitamin C in the blood, the lower the total cholesterol count and the higher the HDL (the good cholesterol) is (High plasma vitamin C related with high plasma HDL- and HDL2 cholesterol, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 60, 100-105).

In particular, for each increase of .5 mg/dl in vitamin C plasma content, there was a sameness increase in HDL of 2.1 mg/dl in men and 14.9 mg/dl in women.

Many experts recommend taking 2000 mg of vitamin C a day as ordinary nutritional insurance. That ought to be a great deal for cholesterol control purposes as well.

GARLIC

Believe it or not, garlic has a significant effect on cholesterol levels, but you would need among 1 to 4 cloves of fresh garlic a day to achieve a significant therapeutic result. Fortunately, the compounds in garlic responsible for it is therapeutic gain may be detached in pill form.

However, in order to be effective, the supplement must supply the equivalent of 4,000 mg of fresh garlic, not aged garlic. Aged garlic has been proven not to be as effective (A double-blind crossover study in moderately hypercholesterolemic men that equated the effect of aged garlic extract and placebo administration on blood lipids, Am J Clin Nutr. 1996 Dec;64(6):866-70).

On the other hand, a study done at the Clinical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana showed that treatment with standardized fresh garlic of 900 mg a day resulted in a drop of 11% in LDL (the bad cholesterol) (Can garlic reduce levels of serum lipids? A controlled clinical study, Am J Med. 1993 Jun;94(6):632-5).

So, if you wanted similar results, you could either take 900 mg a day of a standardized fresh garlic supplement or 1 to 4 cloves or fresh garlic a day.

GUGULIPID

Gugulipid is extracted from the mukul myrrh tree, which is native to India. It appears to get it’s cholesterol letting down effects from increasing the liver’s metaboli process of LDL (the bad cholesterol).

In a double blind study of 125 persons who requires medical care comparing the effect of gugulipid with the cholesterol letting down drug clofibrate over a amount of time of 12 weeks, the gugulipid group lowered their LDL (the bad cholesterol) by 11% and the clofibrate group by 10% (Clinical tryouts with gugulipid. A new hypolipidaemic agent, J Assoc Physicians India. 1989 May;37(5):323-8). While HDL (the good cholesterol) was unchanged in the clofibrate group, the gugulipid group specifically increased HDL levels by among 16%-20%.

With purified gugulipid preparations, there are no substantial side effects. Experts commend a standardized extract of gugulipid containing 25 mg of guggulsterone per 500 mg tablet, 3 times a day for elevated cholesterol.

Controlling Cholesterol The Natural Way Eat Your Way

Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper’s all-new plan to lower cholesterol without drugs!

The Old News: Elevated levels of cholesterol put you at danger for heart attack and stroke.

The New News: Now you may control cholesterol naturally!

Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, a leading authority on controlling cholesterol, shares his all-new plan for balancing your blood lipids–without drugs and without side effects.

Drawing on clinical tryouts and the most up-to-date medical research, Dr. Cooper explains how stimulating new feed discoveries may give you a revolutionary new way to manage your cholesterol. Inside you’ll discover:

How the new functional foods, such as Benecol and Take Control, may lower bad cholesterol while bettering the symmetry among good and bad cholesterol in only three weeks

How these “anti-cholesterol” foods work, why they are safe to use, and who must use them

How Dr. Cooper’s approach may end–or mainly reduce–your use of prescription cholesterol-lowering medications

Expert counsel on diet and exercise, including recipes and more amazing nutritional discoveries

And much more

You don’t have to go further than your fridge to find an effective, nonprescription cholesterol-controlling product.

From the Inside FlapDr. Kenneth H. Cooper’s all-new plan to lower cholesterol without drugs!

The Old News: Elevated levels of cholesterol put you at risk for heart attack and stroke.

The New News: Now you may control cholesterol naturally!

Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, a leading authority on controlling cholesterol, shares his all-new plan for balancing your blood lipids–without drugs and without side effects.

How the new functional foods, such as Benecol and Take Control, may lower bad cholesterol while bettering the symmetry amongst good and bad cholesterol in only three weeks

How these “anti-cholesterol” foods work, why they are safe to use, and who ought to use them

How Dr. Cooper’s approach may end–or primarily reduce–your use of prescription cholesterol-lowering medications

Expert counsel on diet and exercise, including recipes and more awful nutritional discoveries

And much more

You don’t have to go further than your fridge to find an effective, nonprescription cholesterol-controlling product.About the AuthorKenneth H. Cooper, M.D., M.P.H., is recognized globally as the “father of aerobics” and the leading spokesman for the preventative medicine movement.

A graduate of the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine and the Harvard University School of Public Health, he introduced the term aerobics to the world with his bestseller Aerobics. Soon after publication of this major work, he founded the Cooper Clinic, the Cooper Aerobics Center, and the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas. Landmark scientific studies have regularly emerged from the big database and exploration facilities at the institute in Dallas.

During his career, Dr. Cooper has authored sixteen books, which have sold more than 30 million copies in over forty languages. These include The Aerobics Program for Total Well-Being, Aerobics for Women (with Mildred Cooper), The Antioxident Revolution, Preventing Osteoporosis, Overcoming Hypertension, Kid Fitness, and the bestseller Controlling Cholesterol.Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.More than ten years ago, I joined forces with other medical leaders in a revolution that has exploded into the cognizance of the standard public–a revolution that has required us to confront head-on the lethal risk posed by cholesterol to the humane heart and blood vessels. Through my bestseller Controlling Cholesterol, published in 1988, I was capable to percentage perceptivenesses from my own three decades of clinical work with cholesterol with millions of readers around the world.

Today, the revolution roars on. We now have learned that we may exert powerful control over cholesterol in natural ways that no one ever anticipated–through functional foods, or nutriceuticals, the terms now ordinarily used for table foods that have been particularly designed to heal and prevent disease.

As chairman of the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research, I elected to approve and supervise clinical tryouts on how sure functional foods behave in relation to destructive LDL cholesterol, beneficial HDL cholesterol, and other elements of the blood lipid profile.

These and related exploration projects–at such far-flung centers as the Mayo Clinic, the University of Helsinki, McGill University in Montreal, and the University of British Columbia–have broken much new ground. The startling determinations have convinced those of us directly involved in the investigations that it is in truth possible to “eat your way to good health.”

Yet what proceeds to amaze me is just how a great deal of of my determinations in Controlling Cholesterol have not changed–even though much of our understanding with regards to the operation and treatment of cholesterol has changed.

What Has Changed–and What Hasn’t

What has changed on the cholesterol scene in the past ten years? A elaborated answer will emerge in upcoming chapters, but here are a great deal of of the highlights:

Functional foods are revolutionizing our treatment strategies. Now it’s so much having little impact to control cholesterol naturally, without having to resort to medications.

Our understanding of “normal” total cholesterol has changed. Ten years ago “normal” total cholesterol for an adult in the middle or older years would have been a reading beneath 235 to 240 mg/dl. Today worthy of acceptance or satisfactory total cholesterol is a measurement under 200.

Total cholesterol has taken a backseat to respective cholesterol subcomponents. I may still do not forget when a good deal of labs provided only one cholesterol number for a blood test–total cholesterol. Patients and physicians had to request distinctively a reading on the necessary subcomponents–such as the “bad” LDL (low-density lipoprotein), the “good” HDL (high-density lipoprotein), and the symmetry of total to HDL cholesterol.

Today each competent lab mechanically reports these subcomponents because now we at long last understand the severe danger posed both by low HDL cholesterol and by high LDL cholesterol.

Triglycerides–blood fats related to cholesterol–have assumed increasing importance as a cardiovascular danger factor. Among other things, high levels of triglycerides are now regarded as a strong and independent predictor of the future risk of a heart attack–especially when total cholesterol levels are likewise high.

More attention is being paid to treating the cardiovascular worries of women–especially those who have moved past menopause. Although I cautioned in Controlling Cholesterol that postmenopausal women would lose the shelter of estrogen and would become more vulnerable to heart disease, exploration into this subject was sparse ten years ago. Now we know that it’s as necessary to evaluate and treat women as it is to treat men.

Antioxidants–especially vitamins E and C–are assuming increasing importance in cholesterol-control programs. Ten years ago the terms antioxidant and free radical were largely unknown to the usual public or to practicing physicians. Today antioxidant vitamins have become an integral portion of preventive medicine–and a powerful tool in controlling cholesterol the natural way.

More than ever, we are making use of what I call the Compound Effect in treating cholesterol. This technique may reduce drug doses or even eliminate the need for them altogether. With this scheme (which I describe in detail in chapter 5) you begin with one approach to letting down cholesterol, such as functional foods, and then add a second approach, such as a low-fat diet. If necessary, you may add still another treatment, such as one of the new “statin” drugs.

The combining of two or more of these treatments gives rise to an exponential effect in controlling cholesterol, above and beyond what we’ve witnessed in the past–and quintessentially limits the need for medications.

Noninvasive computer-imaging gimmicks have taken much of the guesswork out of diagnosing clogged arteries–and are dramatically altering treatment strategies. These new diagnostic techniques–which have been validated by various indispensable studies published in major medical journals–are just emergent as a tool for practicing physicians in the United States and abroad. But the new technology, which is now available at the Cooper Clinic, has taught us that it’s often times not necessary to treat high total cholesterol with drugs–if a computer-imaging diagnosis plus a stress test indicate no coronary artery blockage.

For example, ten years ago I would have prescribed medications for any individual with total cholesterol of 300 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter).

Today if a very low calcification score on computer imaging gives evidence of no buildup of plaque (fatty deposits on arteries) and the treadmill stress test is normal, I wouldn’t commend drugs. Instead I would put the person on a cholesterol-lowering functional feed regimen.

Yet even altho a good deal of things have changed, some have remained the same. In reevaluating Controlling Cholesterol, I found that:

A low-fat, low-cholesterol diet, accompanied by endurance exercise, is still the best starting point for a program to control cholesterol successfully.

Saturated fats, such as those contained in butter and whole-milk products, proceed to be a major dietary villain–and have been joined by trans fats, or those formulated in the hydrogenation procedure for the duration of mercantile construct of a great deal of foods.

Monounsaturated fats–such as those found in olive and canola oil–continue to be the dietary fats of choice because, as Dr. Scott Grundy’s exploration has demonstrated, they are affiliated with lower cardiovascular risk.

Obesity is still as dangerous to your cardiovascular health and cholesterol levels as we believed ten years ago.

Stress may disturb a healthful blood cholesterol remainder as much today as in the past.

There is still a clear correlation among aerobic exercise and higher levels of “good” HDL cholesterol–for both men and women.

The statin drugs were just coming into their own when I had the opportunity, in Controlling Cholesterol, to introduce them to a much broader segment of the ordinary public. Now, when medications are required, statins are the treatment of choice–and some more of them are available.

So we made a good start out in dealing with the dangers of blood fats back in 1988, and significant progression has been made since then. But most important, the message is getting all over both to the medical community and to the ordinary public–even altho public consciousness has now and again been slow in coming.

Most helpful customer reviews

56 of 65 people found the following review helpful.
worth reading
By fblaw6
An excellent book which I heartily endorse for a layperson’s understanding of cholesterol. An everything you need to know book, with all the latest as of the publication date. The doc also has recommendations based on his own experience and research, most obviously well considered and grounded. Of course, things are moving so fast in heart and health research that I have questions since the two months ago I read this book, and things are left unanswered. I felt the book failed to synthesize adequately all the information that is coming out. E.G. how do we combine the benecol with the vitamin e,c,b, the fish oil, the garlic, the COQ-10, the flaxseed oil, melatonin etc. Does the benecol affect absorption of some of these other food ingredients being touted now by the researchers? And, do we take something, or everything, and if we combine everything, when do we ingest? I also had questions, unanswered, about the doc’s touting of oat bran and psyllium fiber, since other research indicates that these foods, like processed wheat flour, have high glycemic indexes, and therefore that large ingestions would by inference tend to increase blood triglycerides. Thus, maybe I consider this more an information book than a program book, as I felt that latter aspect as explained needs more work.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
A great introduction to “functional foods”
By William Davis, MD
For over 30 years, Dr. Ken Cooper has been a trusted source for insights into health, exercise, and heart disease. Despite its release in 1999, Dr. Cooper’s book remains a persuasive and detailed introduction to the use of so-called “functional foods” and “nutriceuticals” to lower cholesterol. These included stanol/sterol esters in butter substitutes, soy products, Phytrol, and oat bran. If you have high cholesterol (LDL or total) and you’re unaware of the power these strategies, you’ve got to read Dr. Cooper’s book to get up to speed.

Dr. Cooper’s book is also the only other book on the market besides mine that discusses how heart scans can be used as a part of your heart disease prevention program. Although the discussion is only 3 pages long, he details how this exciting technology is proving to be among THE most powerful tools available for detecting hidden coronary plaque.

Only one criticism: Dr. Cooper’s discussion of causes of heart attack beyond cholesterol is too brief and you’ll have to turn elsewhere for more information. (In all fairness, much new data has become available since publication of this book.) Nonetheless, Controlling Cholesterol the Natural Way remains a principal reference for people who wish to augment their health program with powerful nutritional strategies.

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
I had no idea lowering my cholesterol could be so easy
By A
I agree wholeheartedly with the other reviewers. At first, I thought it was just hype, but Dr. Cooper convinced me that new foods like Benecol actually work to reduce cholesterol. My doctor wanted me to take medication, but I hate taking pills. This is so much easier and I trust eating food more than taking pills.

Dr. Cooper also proved to me that I needed to be even more concerned about cholesterol than I thought. Cholesterol is a problem in America and lower is better. I was happy to read that there are many other doctors and clinical studies that support Dr. Cooper’s use of Benecol to lower it.

See all 12 customer reviews…