Hey guys,
I had an MI (heart attack) in 1985 when I was 33 years old. I've been a cardiac patient for a very long time -- much longer than most cardiologists have been doctors...
Unlike most cardiac patients I studied the disease and in the late 90s it all came together in my head. The only problem is that my method is not sexy. It does not involve injections, pills or surgical procedures. There is no obvious way to make money from it so you probably won't hear about it anywhere else.
When I started it my chol level steadily dropped to around 125. (no typo) Through many lipid tests over the years I have got to the point where I now eat pretty much anything I like -- and my chol has still never hit 150. Bear in mind that I live and eat in New Orleans.
As I got into the age where normal people traditionally start to have MIs I wanted to tell my friends who were starting to have heart problems what I had found out. I typed out a little thing I could give them after each of them had their MIs. It is reprinted below:
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Hi-
Sorry this has taken so long. It will sound a little overly complex at first but it really isn't. If you give it a good shot it will become second nature in no time. I would print this and just read it a few times in the next couple of days.
About the oat bran...
If you looked up the stuff I gave you when you were here and want to implement something, here is the 'quick and dirty' of it:
Bracket ALL meals and ALL snacks with a little bit of oat bran (OB).
I started out with 1 teaspoon BEFORE and AFTER meals/snacks. Put it in the bottom of a big, tall tumbler, add an inch of water, swish it around and drink it. If there is any OB left in the glass after that, add more water and do it again. That's pretty much IT.
I also add OB to low fat ice cream and anywhere els it works. Use your imagination.
I also take a 'dose' of OB before I go to bed.
The OB not only sops up the fat (where the cholesterol is), but having a little bit in your intestines stops the chol that has already been taken from your blood by your liver from being INSTANTLY RE-ABSORBED back into your blood as it drips into your digestive tract. DO THE RESEARCH!
None of this is sexy. There is no money to be made from this, which is why you'll never hear about this from anyone else.
This is how I've kept my chol under 150 for over 8 years. And I pretty much eat as I like.
BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE! POTIENTIAL HAZARDS!!!
1, ) OB may cause you to rethink your vitamans as more will be evacuated from your system. DO research.
2, ) FIBER affects different people differently. Your body may not tolerate it as well as you'd like at first. In the above method the fiber is also RAW which can also make it harder for some people. You have to start out with light doses.
3, ) Taking OB this way can KILL YOU if you choke on it, so be careful and think about what you are doing, AS YOU DO IT, particularly at the begining.
4, ) If you take OB in some other way and you don't get enough water with it, it can HARDEN LIKE CEMENT in your intestines and have to be surgically removed.
I started out at the 1 tsp dose and VERY SLOWLY worked myself up to my current dose, which is 2 HEAPING TABLESPOONS OB before AND after each meal/snack, with an additional dose before bed.
DON'T START OUT AT THAT DOSE!!!!!
Also, If you get into this and ever exceed a 1 TABLESPOON dose, DON'T take it all at once. YOU WILL CHOKE! Take the first half and ONLY WHEN YOU ARE SURE that it's down without any trouble, take the second half.
Some brands of OB are ground finer than others which makes them more palatable. (Mother's, Quaker are easy)
NOTE: I'll be grading on details. WHEAT bran won't work for this. Oat MEAL ia a waste of time. OAT BRAN. Only OAT BRAN. Only OAT BRAN.
The type I routinely use is very course and I put it in a food processor for 6 min (for a 1 lb box) to bust it up. I'm currently buying it online in 50 pound lots.
I keep track of how much OB I use and since 08/24/00 I have gone through 800 lbs in this manner (08.19.06). Perhaps it would be more accurate to say it has GONE THROUGH ME. (That, like mine, is now a very old figure.)
Anyway my highest chol has been 135 and my lowest has been 106 (no typo). Remember, I DO NOT TAKE ANY CHOLESTEROL LOWERING DRUGS. At the clinic they let me schedule cardio consults once every 12 mo instead of once every 4 months for everyone else, and my chol numbers are are stable enough that by mutual agreement I have a lipid profile once every 12 mo instead of every 4 mo for everyone else. I've been doing this since about 1998.
In spite of the fact that I take no chol lowering drugs, I have had the lowesr chol numbers OF EVERYONE AT THE CARDIAC CLINIC for YEARS.
As you may have noticed, I feel very strongly about this issue. It's a comlicated subject to write up which is why it has taken me so long. If I start out with too much detail it becomes unmanagable. There is a great deal of details I have not filled in here as I needed to just get it WRITTEN, but it's ALL true. Do the research.
Do not hesitate to email or call me with ANY questions. Really.
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OK, so that's it. Carefully take a bit of oat bran BEFORE and AFTER every meal and BEFORE and AFTER every snack and again just before bedtime if it won't interfere with your meds. Of course you can do the research and there is more but that is the bulk of it. If you are interested, DO THE RESEARCH FOR YOURSELF.
Note the warnings. If they sound severe bear in mind that there are hazards in ANY treatment -- and oat bran is pretty safe if you don't choke or take it with too little water -- it's not like it's going to eat your liver.
If you try my method KEEP DOING LIPID PROFILES so you can see how you are doing.
While I feel very strongly about this and have had outstanding results from this simple program, I'm kinda burnt out on people who just have to have some sexy program or they can't get a nut.
I love this place and I love the people and that's why I took the time to respond with something that really has worked for a long time for me -- in spite of the fact that I've never known anyone besides myself who even tried it. It's just not sexy enough for the 21st century. I am just putting it out there in case anyone actually wants to try a really low-tech approach that works better than the drugs OR eating like a monk all the time. Good luck.