It's Never "That Easy"

Everyday we are bombarded by articles or advice about how to improve…it could be my health, my finances, my performance at work, my “look”, my relationships…name a topic, someone is trying to help you improve it.  Most of this stuff has one common sentiment, despite the area of focus.  The theme is almost always something like this: “If you make these small changes, you will improve.”  What they seldom touch on though, is how much you will improve.  Good news for you all—I have that answer for you: Not much.  

39 pounds?! Fast?! I'm in!

The vast majority of advice that is circulated around this digital, information-rich world is catered to the Skinny Latte drinking, 45 minute Elliptical “running”, 401k contributing,  Match.com dating common-person.  We are all creatures of habit, and breaking habits is tough.  Most of us have read many-a-great article about cutting out the daily Starbucks and paying our savings account instead or eating that grapefruit first thing in the morning with hopes of being less hungry the rest of the day.  We common-people have tried to add these “tricks” into our bags in hopes of getting richer or skinnier or stronger or happier.  Despite our efforts though, 90% of the time, the little gems that the gurus hand out yield teeny, tiny actual changes. 

I am constantly hypnotized by advice.  I have actually fully adopted the practice of making my morning coffee at home to save that daily two bucks (to the dismay of my local Coffee Bean), and I have not noticed any extra money in my account at the end of each month…oh well.   

Where are the people that actually got wealthy by saving $5.75 on weekdays?  Anybody?

 It seems that little tricks = little action.  On the other hand, whenever I have made a BIG, dramatic change, the results have been (you probably guessed it) big and dramatic.  In the context of health and fitness, I have always been active and interested in operating at a high level.  For most of my life, I ate a relatively “healthy” diet of lean protein, some veggies and fruits, and plenty of whole wheat.  I worked out at least 3-4 times/week with a nice hour or so lift-a-thon followed by 30 minutes or so on the bike or treadmill.  I would incorporate little Men’s Health nuggets on food and workouts into my programs, and all-in-all I felt like I was in pretty good shape.  I was pretty convinced of the following: I was just not built to have visible abs, I would always hover around 200 lbs, and I was not really an endurance sports guy.   

Look at that Men's Health reading beefcake...thanks for the tips, guys.

These remained truths until I stumbled onto some BIG, dramatic changes in the ways that I approached fitness.

In the summer of 2008, I decided to do a triathlon with some friends.  This was my first attempt at any sporting event that required real endurance training…a big change for me.  Well, with big changes came big results.  As I trained more and more often for more races, I realized that I actually could be a sub-200 lb endurance athlete (I use the term “endurance athlete” pretttttttty loosely in this case). 

Wildflower Triathlon

The next change came with Crossfit.  In April 2010, I started training with CrossfitLA in West Los Angeles/Santa Monica.  Over a short period of six months or so, I gave my diet a complete overhaul (I learned what eating healthy really meant) and trained hard and fast.  The ever-elusive six-pack was now in play, and I was down to 185 lbs…all because I ditched the grains and the long, social, gym sessions. The changes didn’t happen slowly and gradually, they happened fast.  I moved on from the little tweaks here and there and graduated to the big leagues of progress. 

"The path to success is determined, massive action." -Tony Robbins

I now know that I can probably duplicate this kind of success in other areas of my life (and Lord knows, there are many more to tackle)…I just need to make the big, bad change that is required.  As much as we all like our advice columns, we have to avoid getting tricked into thinking that these little tips are the answer to meaningful progress in our lives.  If you really want to make a move, close up the laptop and take some massive action.

The Paleo Version of High Cholesterol

So far, we have established that eating a Paleo diet makes you feel better—although, most people feel worse initially as there are “withdrawal” symptoms when kicking processed foods...just a little disclaimer :-).  After just a month though, not a single person I have read about or spoken with has said that they did not feel great.  In fact, many vegetarians now eat Paleo and say that they feel far better and more energized than they felt previously. 

We have also established that people who eat Paleo end up looking leaner.  Just Google some before and after shots for proof.  Paleo diet plus exercise equals sexy lady bodies and stud man bodies.  Period.

The big question that remains, though, is around actual health.  Is this lifestyle actually healthy???  Can I really eat bacon, steaks, and vegetables every day to prevent disease and reduce major risk factors???  Instead of speculating or linking to studies and research studies…actually, I am going to do that, also…I decided to first share some of my “numbers” with you all. 

After several months of approximately 70% Paleo compliance, I decided to go full-on for one month: 

Almost immediately afterwards, I had some blood work done.  Specifically, I had some liver tests and a lipid panel (sound familiar, fellow Americans?).  Before I get to my results, let’s talk context.  We will look at: total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, LDL, and VLDL.  According to the Mayo Clinic and American Heart Association:

-Total cholesterol number above 240 mg/dL is “High.” 

-LDL above 160 mg/dL is “High” (“Very High” is above 190). 

-HDL above 60 mg/dL is “Best”. 

*HDL is sometimes referred to as “Good Cholesterol” and LDL, “Bad Cholesterol.”

-VLDL is “Normal” between 5 and 40 mg/dL.

-Triclycerides above 200 mg/dL are “High” (“Very High” is above 500, “Normal” is less than 150 mg/dL).

My numbers:
-Total: 302 mg/dL (uh oh!- High!)

-LDL: 211 mg/dL (yikes!- Very High!)

-HDL: 78 mg/dL (wait, huh?- Better than "Best")

-VLDL: 13 mg/dL (Ok. -Normal)

-Triglycerides: 66 mg/dL (???- Super Low)

The parentheses represent my doctor’s thoughts when he reviewed my info.  His review phone call went something like this:

Doc: “So the results were really interesting…”

Me: “Like, how?”

Doc: “You have really high cholesterol, but I am kinda not too worried about it…”

Me: “Please explain…”

Doc: “Your ‘good cholesterol’ is higher than any patient I have, sooooo I guess the ratios would say that you are okay…what do you eat???”

Me: “Paleo, blah, blah, blah”

Doc: “Wow, that sounds like a lot of meat...ok, well your triglycerides and HDL look awesome, but I am gonna check with some older colleagues about your totals.  I think you are good, but let's do some follow ups because we may want to be aggressive with that total cholesterol number.”

Me: “Um, ok.  See you soon I guess. Bye?”

Why would one number be “Awesome” and another number be worthy of possible "aggressive medical attention" (drugs)?  I still don’t have those answers, and, funny enough, neither does my doctor.  But I have been finding quite a bit of interesting info about cholesterol and health since reviewing my test results.  

Apparently the “link” between high cholesterol and heart disease is not as simple as we’ve been told.  This "link" is based on carefully selected study data that disregards certain data sets from populations that don’t support the theory (for example- Australian Aboriginals, Eastern Europeans: low relative cholesterol, high rates of heart disease. Also, young Japanese men: increasing average cholesterol over the last 20 years…rate of heart disease has fallen.—from Malcolm Kendrick’s “The Great Cholesterol Myth”).

 
The more I read, the more I have trouble believing that my high total cholesterol is a problem.  I have actually found a lot of data suggesting that low cholesterol is actually quite dangerous!

So, at this point, I am questioning the merits of this “Cholesterol Epidemic” and the last thing I will do is take any kind of “aggressive” action (aka statin drug prescription) to fix something that doesn’t seem to be broken.  Next time you have your blood work done, think about investigating what these numbers really mean.  I feel like I have learned a lot.  I decided that I will really only ever be alarmed if my HDL gets low or if my triglycerides get high.

I’ll wrap this up with some interesting data. Lipitor (the most commonly prescribed statin for lowering cholesterol) accounts for $10 billion-a-year in revenue for Pfizer (NY Times, March 7 2011) with tens of millions of patients actively taking this drug.  With that many people on this miracle-drug (there are many others, too) designed to “aggressively” lower their cholesterol levels, the leading cause of death in the US is still--drum roll please--cardiovascular disease.  Either we haven't found the cure to this epidemic or it's one big misdiagnosis.  Maybe I’m better off sticking to the Paleo diet and embracing my high cholesterol.  

Here are some links to some interesting articles/materials on the subject:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/the-cholesterol-myth-that_b_676817.html 
http://thehealthyskeptic.org/cholesterol-doesnt-cause-heart-disease
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/cholesterol/
The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy That Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart DiseaseThe Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It