I would like to hear mountaindog and Shelby some others like that chime in here.i also have a problem with cholesterol and triglycerides fatty liver,and blood pressure. These are things that we need to change in the bbding community.
I have been reading that HDL is really not as important as once thought as a predictor. With niacin start low and work your way up, I got the XR and that was a bad choice, I was taking a gram before bed but a few times woke up feeling like my skin was on fire.
But I've read you need 3-5 grams of niacin for it to be useful and it would take me forever to slowly increase but aspirin can help reduce flushing.
I've also been reading that fish oils have shown to not really be effective once you already have bad lipids or bp. I still take 3-5g a day, I use to take 10g.
I also use RYR 2400mg, CoQ10 200-400mg.
GW is supposed to help but I didn't get labs. Toremifene will help with lipids and is a better choice than nolva, IMO, so I take 15-30mg a day or eod with that.
Cardio is a good option, I also go for duration not intensity. For bp, 10mg Lisinopril has been great on cycle.
Diet is a big factor and my buddy doesn't eat any meat, once in a while has eggs, but rarely and he's 265-275 and lean but 6'5 still looks huge and can run big cycles with no real issues, and I think it's mainly because of his diet.
But lipids are genetic as well, I know AAS tank them, but I know a friend and his mom who is a vegetarian, runs 5-10 miles a day, and is on all kinds of meds for lipids, same with him, and they are in good shape and neither bb. But 99% of us are obese according to BMI. my doc always says I could lose 20 lbs and only at 225 right now and for a whole at 6'. Lol.
Interesting thread. My Chol ratio always stays very favorable, but AAS seem to just drop my total cholesterol. I also eat a relatively low fat diet: chicken, fish, steak, rice, potato, greens, banana's, fish oil, EVOO form the majority of it. Doc isn't concerned with my cholesterol but I'd like to bring HDL up a bit. Will start niacin at 1g/night to see if that helps. my HDL has been as low as 18 but my LDL will stay at ~60.
May put together a cardio formula - ubiquinol, policosanol, niacin, etc and see if that helps over a few months.
I don't really do cardio unless I'm trying to get below 8% BF...
Sounds like a very good plan. My total used to go down too when I was on steroids. My LDL really never got over 80 or so, yours being at 60 is excellent. HDL was always my battle. I dont agree with those that say its not important. I think we should do all we can to raise HDL until irrefutable evidence is out to say otherwise. Right now the majority of medical evidence says HDL is important in preventing heart attacks. Another thing to keep in mind is that fact that it is not harmful to have high HDL, so it cant hurt you.
Try the script Niaspan through your doc or take OTC niacin (the reg. kind not non flushing). Take 1000 mg/day. This may help some.
Non-flush niacin is not effective for raising HDL. The effective choices are regular old immediate release niacin, slo-niacin which is a longer acting preparation and does reduce flushing to some extent but may not be as effective as immediate release, and niaspan which is great but expensive. Anyone know a relatively inexpensive source for niaspan?