Re: What effects would a flush have on a blood test?

The blood test is called a lipid profile and measures the Total Cholesterol level, the HDL, LDL, and Triglycerides.

Total Cholesterol is a substance (a steroid) that is essential for life. It forms the membranes for cells in all organs and tissues in your body. It is used to make hormones that are essential for development, growth and reproduction. It forms bile acids that are needed to absorb nutrients from food. A small amount of your body’s cholesterol circulates in the blood in complex particles called lipoproteins.

We don't all respond in the same way to changes. There is a large group of the population (about 40%) called hyperresponders. In these people, blood-cholesterol concentrations spike disproportionately in response to dietary cholesterol. There is a good bet that they also respond disproportionately to a loss in cholesterol (after a liver flush) although I can't find any medical evidence about this.

Doctors in the United States carried out tests on 517 healthy people over the course of a year. They found that their cholesterol levels changed throughout the year, peaking in winter. They were at their lowest in summer. This suggests that some people may be wrongly diagnosed with high cholesterol. Men had an average cholesterol level of 222 milligrams per decilitre of blood (mg/dl). The figure for women was 213 mg/dl. Anything over 240mg/dl is regarded as high cholesterol. Cholesterol levels in men increased over the year by an average of 3.9mg/dl, peaking in December. The average increase for women was 5.4mg/dl, peaking in January.

HDL is one of the classes of lipoproteins that carry cholesterol in the blood. HDL is considered to be beneficial because it removes excess cholesterol and disposes of it. Hence HDL cholesterol is often termed “good” cholesterol.

LDL is a type of lipoprotein that also carries cholesterol in the blood. LDL is considered to be undesirable because it deposits excess cholesterol in walls of blood vessel and contributes to “hardening of the arteries” and heart disease. Hence LDL cholesterol is often termed “bad” cholesterol.

Triglycerides are the body's storage form for fat. Most triglycerides are found in adipose (fat) tissue. Some triglycerides circulate in the blood to provide fuel for muscles to work. Extra triglycerides are found in the blood after eating a meal—when fat is being sent from the gut to adipose tissue for storage. The test for triglycerides should be done when you are fasting and no extra triglycerides from a recent meal are present.

The body’s cholesterol is almost exclusively excreted through the bile and the interrelationship between blood cholesterol levels or serum lipids and cholesterol Gallstones has been studied frequently. The ability of the body to efficiently produce and dispose of bile is crucial to maintaining a healthy balance (ratios rather absolute measurement) of fat lipids. The right kind of foods (raw and unrefined) can help dissolve cholesterol excreted in bile and evacuate excess cholesterol as faecal matter. Most of the cholesterol produced by the liver is recycled by being absorbed through the ileum; a part of the intestines between the small and large colon. The cholesterol is absorbed into the portal artery and filtered out by the liver to be reused. Liver Flushing helps to establish an efficient cholesterol cycle in the body when combined with other lifestyle changes. The lever cholesterol levels are re-established in 24 to 48 hours after flushing.

My concern is that your doctor may trap you into taking cholesterol lowering drugs when he gets the results of your blood test. There was talk recently that doctors may claim a bonus if they met targets for reducing cholesterol levels. There is much controversy about this because because some statistics show that people with high cholesterol levels are not necessarily prone to more health issue and other factors are far more dominant.

The control of cholesterol by convention medicine has become a major industry. It is frequently claimed that blood and biliary cholesterol isn't linked. However, the drugs used by doctors to reduce cholesterol in the blood (serum levels) also can affect biliary cholesterol levels.

High triglycerides levels (Hypertriglyceridemia) is associated with an increased risk of gallstones. Increased total cholesterol is not associated with an increased risk and is probably associated with a decreased risk of gallstone disease. Not surprisingly, drugs that alter serum lipid levels have important effects on cholesterol secretion in bile, and hence on cholesterol gallstone formation.

Fibric Acids are drugs given to lowering the triglyceride levels. Sometimes they may lower LDL-cholesterol levels and raise HDL-cholesterol levels by a small amount. Two of these drugs called clofibrate and gemfibrozil, increase the amount of cholesterol secreted into bile and have been associated with increased gallstone disease and biliary tract complications.

Nicotinic acid (niacin), a form of vitamin B3, is a naturally occurring vitamin sometimes used in the treatment of high cholesterol. Because of this, it is often referred to as a cholesterol-reducing drug. Nicotinic acid is effective at lowering blood levels of triglycerides and increasing blood levels of HDL (or “good” cholesterol). At a higher dosage, nicotinic acid is also effective at lowering blood levels of LDL (or “bad” cholesterol). Nicotinic acid has also been associated with a modest increase in biliary tract disease.

Statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) like Lovastatin are used with diet changes (restriction of cholesterol and fat intake) to reduce the amount of cholesterol and certain fatty substances in the blood. It works by slowing the production of cholesterol in the body and this also decreases in cholesterol secretion and biliary cholesterol saturation.

Eating two apples high in pectin each day can have the same blood cholesterol lowering effect as many drugs. In an experiment people were given pectin equivalent to two apples each day and in two weeks their blood cholesterol fell by upto 17%. If your doctor offers you drugs, just tell him you prefer to try a change you cholesterol profile by changing your diet and get another test scheduled 6 months to a year later. In this way you get the information you need to make your own decisions Tweet