Meet Cliff. He’s a 51-year-old world-famous veterinarian (he’s on TV, and even has a documentary in major film festivals about his world travels, helping homeless animals), with 3 adult children and a wife. He’s a busy guy. Despite that, he prioritizes health and fitness. Cliff does boxing 2-3 times per week, and surfs year-round (yes, year-round. In Canada. Yes, he’s nuts ). So imagine his surprise when about 5 years ago, his LDL and total cholesterol levels started rising.
I guess it shouldn’t have been a total surprise, since he does have a family history of high cholesterol, but still, he was hoping that given how active he was, and how healthily he ate, he could avoid it.
Eventually, it got to the point where his doctor recommended that he go on medications. While Cliff is not an anti-medication guy, he knew the potential side effects of statins, like:
- Constant muscle soreness
- Slower recovery from exercise
- Higher risk of Alzheimer’s
…and others.
Of course, just because these are possible risks, doesn’t mean they are definite risks. Too bad you don’t know if you’re one of the people who will experience these side effects until months, years or decades after you start taking them.
So he wasn’t opposed to medications, but he wanted to try some targeted lifestyle changes first. He promised his doctor to take matters into his own hands, and if at the next test, he wasn’t any better, he’d go on meds.
Fast forward 4 months, and Cliff has normalized his cholesterol levels. How did he do it? That’s what we’ll cover in this article. If you want to hear from Cliff himself, check out this 7-minute video:
And if you need help either improving your own cholesterol levels, or more broadly, improving your heart health, we have a program just for you. It’s called the “Healthy Heart Program.” If you want to see whether you qualify for this service, just fill out the application form on our home page.
Cliff’s Life Before
Cliff is a lifelong athlete. He did the Boston Marathon in 1998, in his 20s, then did judo for a couple of decades, into his 40s. Additionally, he did some powerlifting, and his latest 2 loves are boxing and surfing.
Most of his life, he was an omnivore. In 2016, he became a vegetarian, and a bit later, he started including fish in his diet, and is now a pescatarian.
At no point in his life was he overweight.
But as he started boxing (about 5 years ago), the amount of strength training he did went down. And his cholesterol went up. Interesting coincidence.
Fast forward to January 2024, and despite being as active as he’s ever been, his total and LDL cholesterol were now so high that his doctor recommended medications.
It was a mini-surprise. On the one hand, the surprise came because he’s not overweight, and he’s very active. Not just “I walk 10,000 steps a day” active, but serious, “I compete against other men in boxing. They try to take my head off, and I try to take their head off.”
On the other hand, it also ran in his family (his dad was on cholesterol medications for 25 years at the time of this writing), so it wasn’t that much of a surprise.
How Cliff Lowered His Cholesterol
As luck would have it, just before Cliff’s cholesterol peaked, I published my cholesterol book a month earlier. Once he got his blood test results in January, my book was fresh on his mind.
He bought it, and got to work. I like to think that my books give advice that’s extremely easy to follow. No “cut out your favourite foods, and only eat broccoli and chicken for the rest of your life”, and no “get this exotic, overpriced, overhyped supplement.” Just simple “here are very small modifications you can make.” I know that behaviour change is really difficult. So in my books, I look for the simplest, easiest things that someone can do that lead to the biggest changes. I look for the shortest path to the biggest results.
Cliff followed those to the letter. Here’s what he did differently:
- He started lifting weights again. He was doing full body workouts, 3-4 days per week. Three sets of 8-10 reps. There’s a specific way to exercise for high cholesterol, which is different than for high blood pressure, or osteoporosis or arthritis. Cliff’s exercise routine was geared towards high cholesterol. Interestingly enough, the studies that I show in my book show that cardio doesn’t reduce cholesterol. It’s very good for the heart (for other reasons), but doesn’t change cholesterol levels. Strength training does. In one study, strength training decreased LDL by 36%. In a different study, it reduced LDL by 37%. This is all without weight loss or dietary changes.
- He started eating more salmon. In my book, I advocate a minimum of 300 grams per week of fatty fish. Cliff chose salmon.
- In addition to salmon, he also supplemented with fish oil, red yeast rice and bergamot extract.
- In my book, I also recommend eating 50-100 grams/day of nuts. All nuts are good. Cliff chose almonds. Research shows that almonds in particular reduce LDL by 19%.
- One of the most potent nutritional factors for cholesterol is fibre. Not only did Cliff increase his fibre intake (which was already pretty decent to begin with), but on the occasions when he had a high-calorie meal (like pizza), he’d consume it along with Metamucil.
The Results
Theory is nice, but what were Cliff’s bottom-line results? Extremely good. When he first told me his numbers, my initial reaction was “did you go on medications?” He emphatically said “no!!” (and yes, he really used exclamation marks).
So how did he do? In 4 months:
- His total cholesterol decreased from 09 mmol/l to 4.89 mmol/l (the cutoff for high cholesterol is 5.2 mmol/l). For my American readers, that’s a drop from 235.5 mg/dL to 189.1 mg/dL.
- His LDL cholesterol decreased from 38 mmol/l to 3.4 mmol/l (the cutoff for high LDL is 3.5 mmol/l). For my American readers, that’s a drop from 169.4 mg/dL to 131.5 mg/dL.
How His Life is Different Now
Now that Cliff is not only athletic, but actually has a good lipid profile, how’s his life different? First of all, he’s very confident that the changes he made are long-term. He didn’t have to overhaul his entire life to make them happen.
He’s also looking forward to seeing his doctor in 2 weeks to review the results – and how he achieved them without medications.
Even his dad, who was on statins for 25 years asked him how he did it, because he wants to try the same thing.
If you need help either improving your own cholesterol levels, or more broadly, improving your heart health, we have a program just for you. It’s called the “Healthy Heart Program.” If you want to see whether you qualify for this service, just fill out the application form on our home page.
