Help for my father with High BP and High Cholesterol

[Doc Holliday]

My father is 53 years old. He has been on high blood pressure medication since he was in his early 30s. Now, his doctor is telling him that he may have to go on a High cholesterol medication as well.

I'm looking for online articles that I can print out for him showing the effects of a Vegan diet on these conditions. Can anyone provide any help or info? Thanks.

[CountessKerouac]

I don't know of any off hand, but you should let him know that he doesn't have to go completely vegan if he wants to lower his cholesterol and his BP. Adding more whole grains, legumes, fruits and veggies to his diet, along the reduction/elimination of meat, eggs, milk, etc, can help improve both those things, plus overall health. There should be MANY sites telling you that. :) I do agree that 100% vegan is best and that it will provide the most drastic results. But, that might not sit too well with an omni dad. :)

[sata_rupa_tara]

http://www.earthsave.org/health/

(sorry if you already know this info... ) John Robbins - former heir to the BAskin Robbins fortune turned down his inheritence and started EArthsave,, its an awesome org that advocates a plant based diet and does so by providing level headed fact based information that is interesting at the same time. The link above is to a page at the website that is focused on health. You may want to try starting with the article "Save Your Health - One Bite at a Time" Perhaps print a few of the articles out for your dad to read at his leasure.
You may want to show him the list of famous veggie people at this site:
http://www.famousveggie.com/peoplenew.cfm
there are so many on the list he's bound to have respect and maybe inspiration from a few of them.:)

[rabid_child]

Diet /exercisedoesn't always help lower cholesterol. I've been a vegetarian for 10 yrs and I don't eat dairy or eggs and I exercise and I still have high cholesterol. Certainly can't hurt though, especially if he's not eating a good diet to begin with! Oatmeal is really good for cholesterol!

[SeaSiren]

I don't know about articles. I don't think the information is readily available. Doctors seem to be in the "fix it mode" rather than the seek the cause and reverse it mode.

I was diagnosed with both around the same age as he originally was, I refused to believe I would be on meds all my life, so I went Pesca (easiest jump for me) than finally Vegan. If he is willing to make some adjustments, I would suggest by no dairy, red meat, or pork to begin with and no egg yolks (whites only). Find alternatives to these and make sure all grain products have more than 4 grams of protein in them (or it's like eating straight sugar). One he makes these changes he should begin to feel much better. Hopfully he would be open to dropping poultry and then egg whites and fish, but if you tell him to go Vegan now, he will most likely reject the idea.

In all seriousness my father has the same problem as well as my mother and sister and aunts and uncle. I am the only one not on meds. You would think a light bulb would go off eventually, but no. This from highly "educated" degreed people.

I hope you have better luck.

[Thalia]

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials/managingcholesterol/htm/index.htm is a tutorial which goes over all treatments but says that diet is best and gives specific limits. You could also encourage your dad to keep a food diary so he knows if he has actually made a dietary change within the recommendations. I think many people think they changed their diets but not enough because they weren't keeping a diary.

I also recommend you look for links here: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/cholesterol.html
because your dad is more likely to believe something from the National Library of Medicine than from a vegetarian group with an agenda.

[CountessKerouac]

I don't know about articles. I don't think the information is readily available. Doctors seem to be in the "fix it mode" rather than the seek the cause and reverse it mode.

I was diagnosed with both around the same age as he originally was, I refused to believe I would be on meds all my life, so I went Pesca (easiest jump for me) than finally Vegan. If he is willing to make some adjustments, I would suggest by no dairy, red meat, or pork to begin with and no egg yolks (whites only). Find alternatives to these and make sure all grain products have more than 4 grams of protein in them (or it's like eating straight sugar). One he makes these changes he should begin to feel much better. Hopfully he would be open to dropping poultry and then egg whites and fish, but if you tell him to go Vegan now, he will most likely reject the idea.

In all seriousness my father has the same problem as well as my mother and sister and aunts and uncle. I am the only one not on meds. You would think a light bulb would go off eventually, but no. This from highly "educated" degreed people.

I hope you have better luck.


Actually, whole grains, even if they don't have much protein, still only have like 1 or 2 grams of sugar per serving.

About the meds, I know! If my mom would just change her diet, she wouldn't even need them. Everyone likes to take the easy way out, it seems. :no:

[SeaSiren]

There is most likely many ideas on the subject. When I was being trained by a nationally ranked bodybuilder that was key to my grain intake as it was also reiterated in many BB articles. I have also found this article on grains which may help for persons with high cholestrol:
http://www.mercola.com/2005/feb/23/cereal_fiber.htm


Myth: All Whole Grains are Good for You

I agree with most nutrition experts that most whole grains are better for you than refined grains. However, in my experience the bulk of the population has problems with insulin stabilization such that avoiding whole grains would improve their health.

So, over 75 percent of Americans would benefit from severely limiting or eliminating all grains -- refined, whole, sprouted or otherwise -- from their diets. This is because nearly everyone with high insulin levels benefits from avoiding grains -- yes, even whole grains. People in this group include anyone who is:

Overweight
Suffers from high blood pressure
High cholesterol
Diabetes
An additional one-third of the remaining people who don't fall into the above category will need to avoid grains because they are protein metabolic types.

So even if you are purchasing whole grain, organic sprouted bread, more than likely it will not move your body toward health and you are better off avoiding it until you don't exhibit any of the above listed problems. If you don't have any of the above health problems and you feel great after eating whole grain bread, you can take that as a major clue that it is likely good for you to eat it.

(Note: If you are interested in incorporating more fiber into your diet without the reliance on whole grains, I encourage you to increase your vegetable intake, as vegetable-based fibers have better health consequences for the majority of people.)

[zoebird]

Dr Dean Ornish's book discusses his work with heart patients that deals with these same issues. the diet is vegetarian, and is very successful (it also adds in meditation and yoga for stress reduction, which can decrease these symptoms).

those medications are nasty--very hard on the system. if possible, he should strive to use diet to remove himself from these medications.

[rabid_child]

About the meds, I know! If my mom would just change her diet, she wouldn't even need them. Everyone likes to take the easy way out, it seems. :no:

Again, it isn't necessarily true that a good diet and exercise will eliminate cholestol problems! It is certainly a good start if you don't already do these things, but it may not make any difference whatsoever.

[CountessKerouac]

Oh, I forgot to mention that my mom has a terrible diet. She is underweight and eats crap...literally. She only will drink diet coke and coffee and eat candy. She has the diet of a 7 year old run amok. And she doesn't know what a whole grain is. :D

I know that in your case you need medicine because diet did not work. :)

[Banana1]

My god, my Mum was the same. She was very underweight and lived on coke (not diet), coffee (with four sugars per cup) and cigarettes. When she did eat, it was white toast with butter and vegemite, soft boiled eggs and teddybear biscuits. She died at a ripe old age of 46 :(

[CountessKerouac]

I'm so sorry, Banana. :hug: My mom stopped smoking 2 months ago and is doing well. She is trying to eat more recently and I am happy about that. But, she still doesn't eat enough or healthily. I hope she lives long, she's only 53.

[nkace]

My parents run into bouts of high cholesterol. When I see them they eat veggie of course & I will do all the cooking. They will do ok for a few months eating more oatmeal & veggies & fish & they try to cut down on their dairy, seafood & meat intake. Then they start slacking, get checked again & it will be high again. It's very much a roller coaster ride.

[Blue Plastic Straw]

Dr. Dean Ornish has done some compelling research that show that changes in lifestyle can reverse heart disease in many people. He advocates not only changes in diet, but also meditation, yogo and stretching as a form of stress reduction. His book Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease is available at most libraries.

Oops, I realized that zoebird posted the exact same thing above. I missed that post reading through the thread. :o

[Banana1]

I'm so sorry, Banana. :hug: My mom stopped smoking 2 months ago and is doing well. She is trying to eat more recently and I am happy about that. But, she still doesn't eat enough or healthily. I hope she lives long, she's only 53.

Thanx CK

I wish your Mum all the best with her smoking, and I wish you all the best of luck trying to get her to eat better. It can be so hard to persuade someone to get healthy.