Cholesterol testing often confuses many, with doctors focusing on less informative total and LDL values. The podcast highlights that HDL cholesterol and triglycerides offer real insights into metabolic health. Low HDL can signal issues like insulin resistance and inflammation, while triglyceride levels can remain elevated well after eating carbs. Understanding these connections is crucial for heart health. Listeners learn how maintaining triglycerides below 60 mg/dl and recognizing the relationship between triglycerides and HDL can aid in achieving better cardiovascular outcomes.
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insights INSIGHT
Cholesterol Testing Misconceptions
Total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol are often the least helpful values in cholesterol testing despite doctors' focus on them.
HDL cholesterol and triglycerides provide more reliable insights into metabolic health and cardiovascular risk.
insights INSIGHT
Triglyceride Rises Explained
Consuming fats causes a modest rise in triglycerides for a few hours due to chylomicrons.
Liver conversion of carbohydrates to triglycerides causes a larger, delayed rise after 6 to 8 hours or more.
insights INSIGHT
Amplifiers of Triglyceride Production
Insulin resistance, inflammation, excessive intra-abdominal fat, and dysbiosis amplify liver conversion of carbohydrates to triglycerides.
These processes fuel high triglyceride levels and increase cardiovascular risk.
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Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health
William Davis
In this book, Dr. William Davis argues that wheat is the single largest contributor to the nationwide obesity epidemic and that its elimination is key to dramatic weight loss and optimal health. He provides a user-friendly, step-by-step plan to navigate a new wheat-free lifestyle, supported by cutting-edge science and nutrition, as well as case studies from patients who have experienced significant health improvements after giving up wheat. The book exposes the harmful effects of modern wheat and offers practical advice on how to adopt a wheat-free diet to achieve better health and disease resistance.
Super Gut
A Four-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight
William Davis
In 'Super Gut', Dr. William Davis connects the dots between gut health and modern ailments, highlighting the impact of highly processed diets, pesticides, and overuse of antibiotics on the human microbiome. The book provides a four-week plan to reprogram the microbiome, including more than forty recipes, a diet plan, and resources to correct gut issues and maintain long-term health and well-being. It also discusses the silent epidemic of SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and its wide-ranging health consequences.
Cholesterol testing is among the most common blood tests run in conventional healthcare, yet it is a perennial source of confusion and, to be honest, abuse by doctors who don’t appreciate the full implications of the values. It may surprise you to know that doctors focus on the least helpful values such as total or LDL cholesterol while often ignoring the two genuinely helpful values, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides. HDL for instance is packed with useful insights into your health, as it is a reliable index of metabolic health. Low HDL, that I would define as less than 60 mg/dl, is a reflection of multiple health distortions such as insulin resistance, inflammation, excessive intra-abdominal fat, small LDL particles and VLDL that cause heart disease.
You might also be surprised to learn that consuming fats only spikes triglyceride levels for a few hours, whereas the process of your liver converting carbohydrates to triglycerides can cause a much larger increase after six to eight hours or more. Discover the factors that can amplify this process, including insulin resistance, inflammation, excessive intra-abdominal fat, and even dysbiosis and small intestine bacterial overgrowth.
The road to cardiovascular health doesn't have to be paved with cholesterol. We'll reveal how VLDL particles and triglyceride levels are intricately linked, why it's essential to keep your triglycerides below 60 milligrams per deciliter, and how higher triglycerides can result in lower HDL levels. Discover how simple dietary changes can lead to lower triglycerides and higher HDL levels, and why measuring LDL particles using NMR lipoprotein analysis offers a more accurate picture than the commonly used LDL cholesterol. Join us as we dispel the myths around cholesterol and empower you to take control of your cardiovascular health.
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Defiant Health Radio with Dr. William Davis 
