HIGH TG & LOW HDL

Question
Dear Todd Bublitz ,
I have moderately high Tg and slightly low HDL .In spite of the daily exercise and no- meat diet i take , it doesn't help.Once a dr prescribed me LIPANTHRL SUPRA (a kind of drug produced by a pharmaceutical company ) for three months , my Tg and HDL levels became normal .
As i didn't want to depend on such drug , i stopped taking it after three months and my HDL and TG now become abnormal again . My question is , WHAT ARE THE NUTRITION OR HEALTH PRODUCTS AVAILABLE IN THE HEALTH SUPPLEMENT STORES WHICH I CAN TAKE TO HELP INCREASE MY HDL AND REDUCE MY TG ?( no animal source because i am a vegetarian )
Thank you very much .
Chinese  

Answer
POH,

Any substance or chemical that alters your lipid levels is, by definition, a medication or drug.  It does not matter if it comes as a prescription, a "health product", supplement or a vitamin.

Niacin (vitamin B-3) is very effective at lowering Triglycerides and increasing HDL.  It has been used to improve lipid levels for decades in the USA.  Nothing increases HDL levels as well as niacin.  It requires very high levels of niacin to be effective and it can have side effects, mainly flushing of the skin.  This flushing is not harmful, is temporary (usually lasting 30-60 minutes) and often stops occurring at all after several weeks.  Flushing is more common and more severe with "immediate-release" niacin, and is less common with "Extended-Release" niacin.  There have been bad side effects with "Sustain-release" niacin - it can cause liver toxicity and I suggest you DO NOT use "sustained-release" forms of niacin.  It is very important that you find the "Extended-Release" niacin - it comes as a prescription called "Niaspan" in the USA (www.niaspan.com).  I don't know if anything similar is available in your country.  The pharmaceutical company that makes Niaspan has a patent on the "Extended-release" formulation of the medicine, but it is still niacin (vitamin B-3).

You can get more information on Triglycerides and HDL (and ways to improve them) at this website: http://www.lipid-clinic.com/lipids.html

I suggest you talk with your doctor about niacin to see if it may be helpful for you.  

Best of luck!

Todd
www.Lipid-Clinic.com

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