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I have personally witnessed this and reading the forum my cursory understanding is this that when you eat low fat plant based whole foods diet, your total cholesterol drops about 60 points. So if your starting TC is 220, you can expect to see it go down to 160; like wise if your starting TC is 200, it may go down to 140. This is also dependent upon how close you were to low fat. The closer you were, the less difference you will see.

Cholesterol is like weight, it is relatively easy to lose first 80%, last 10-20% is much much harder. Some are lucky in a way, they start eating this way and their cholesterol falls in a what is known as comfortable zone. TC below 150, LDL, below 80.

I would like to learn from other's experiences where in you thought you hit plateau and there is nothing more you could do, but then found tried few more things and you noticed it go further down by 20-30 points which put you below 150 magic mark.

What specific foods within whole foods that you can include which gives you best bang for the buck.

I know Dr Esselstyn recommends Oats which act as cholesterol scavenger. Are their other foods you have found which particularly reduces cholesterol?

Anything you want to share which will naturally reduce cholesterol?

In 2004 I had a total cholesterol of 211, a 135 LDL, 38 HDL and 190 Trig.

In 2009 it was 189 total chol, 113 LDL, 54 HDL, 110 Trig.

In September 2010 I went on the McDougall diet (age 44 at that time).

In December 2010 I got my blood drawn and got 148 total cholesterol, 77 LDL, 40 HDL and 155 Trig.

In January 2011 I had another blood draw, the results were better: 126 total cholesterol, 65 LDL, 37 HDL and 120 Trig.

I finished reading "Pritikin: The Man Who Healed America's Heart" (a biography of Nathan Pritikin).

Pritikin started out with 280 mg/dL for total cholesterol. After many years of experimenting with different foods, at one point he choose to eat beans as his main startch he ended up with a 102 mg/dL total cholesterol.

Dr. McDougall does not recommend making beans your main starch because of the high protein content. But I do believe that any food with soluable fiber, including beans, oats, berries, lower your cholesterol. Soluable fiber seems to move the cholesterol out of your body.

If you want to see how Dr. Esselstyn's original patients did, check out his published work as of 12 years into his diet-heart study. Many of Dr. Esselstyn's original heart patients were in very bad shape.

Look at Table 1 more than half way down the page.

Esselstyn Study At 12 Years

Interesting.

Good question, Chim! I have also observed a positive correlation between my body weight and TC and I think others here have mentioned this.

So if you are carrying extra fat on your body and you reduce it significantly by McDougalling, you may also reduce your TC significantly!

Let us know how you do!

Jeff has said to eat beans, yams, oats, berries and barley(BYOB &B) because these foods are high in soluble fiber which can help lower cholesterol.

Spiral,

I must say that you have lots of interesting stories to tell. That's quite the drop. I use beans and legumes along with brown rice everyday. Only deviation that I can think of is 1/2 cup of non fat dairy that goes in my black tea. My TC without statins was 165, prior to McDougall, it used to be 220.

I don't eat oats right now.

Amazing how some people get it in 110-130 range. That's quite the difference from 150-160.

Before attempting this diet, beseiged with angina, hypertension, and carrying 60lbs of excess weight and taking 40mg of Simvastatin my total cholesterol was 339. I fully adopted the Esselstyn diet which is completely McDougall qualified and my first lipid panel was 11 weeks later. After 11 weeks my total cholesterol was 119. This was still on Simvastatin. After 27 weeks my total cholesterol was 108. With increasing pain in the muscles above and below my knees I convinced my cardiologist to discontinue my Simvastatin. I had another blood panel done around 90 days later. My total cholesterol taking zero statins had risen to 121. It has stayed with 4 or 5 points since then.
I believe in a two pronged attack on cholesterol. First is ZERO intake of any form of animal products. Dr. Ornish had reversal using a similar diet incorporating egg whites and non-fat dairy. I looked at the data and found Dr. Esselstyns was more compelling while eliminating those items. I also am fervent about eliminating added oils. Chest pain will motivate you to compliance. I also have a large bowl of oatmeal every morning and incorporate barley and other sources of cholesterol removing fiber, which is the second prong of the attack. First thinking where sources other than your bodies own production can come from, then harnessing the natural removers of cholesterol out of the body.
I still believe there are variations in people and what these techniques will achieve as a final TC number but I'm convinced that following these principles will get you to a state of heart health regardless of that final number. I think it's best to gauge your number against yourself, not necessarily others. I am firmly convinced that if someone truly follows these principles they will become virtually heart attack proof regardless if the TC number is 120 or 175. Healthy eating cultures rarely get heart disease and the closer to eating this type of diet they get the rarer heart disease becomes. As Dr. Esselstyn says "Heart disease is a paper tiger. It need not happen and if it does it need not progress. He, Dr. Ornish, and others have lead the way. All we have to do is follow. It isn't always easy but it's simple! If you are going to experiment with this program give it all you are worth. See just how effective this can be. You will be pleased with the results and so will your doctors. I'm just flapping my gums assuming your experience will be similar. Join me and if it makes you feel better prove me wrong. I'm betting you will never look back.
f1jim

Jim,

As always, very through.

I keep a bookmarked file of posts like this to reference when people ask me questions. Recently I shared a video of Dr. McD on FB and got some comments from interested people. I am trying to figure out how to put other stuff on FB too.

Anyway, this post goes in my file too! Thanks, JIm!

Jim,

I have watched your video over at the Star McDougallers page several times and I have always found your story motivating.

But your detailed analysis of your before and after blood work numbers, I had never come across that before. Very interesting and very dramatic results.

I realize that evidence like this doesn't get published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Hard-nosed scientists and cholesterol skeptics can blow this stuff off as anecdotal evidence. One story like yours, maybe it's just luck. But when you come across several, dozens of them, it makes a believer out of me.

Thanks for sharing the details of your story. In this day of high-tech medicine, oatmeal and black beans still kicks the stuffing out of bypass surgery and stents.

Yesterday, just for kicks, I checked out of my local library the book, "Fat and Cholesterol are good for you," by Uffe Ravnskov. (Sally Fallon, a Weston Price Foundation devotee, got the book published.)

On page 1, Uffe Ravnskov writes
Page 40 begins a chapter titled "Saturated Fat Has Nothing To Do With Cholesterol"

I know that back in 1991, when I temporarily adopted the Ornish Reversal diet, my total cholesterol plunged to 135 to 138.

So, I am amazed that people like Ravnskov can write stuff like this. Just as Dr. Campbell in the China Study wrote that researchers could turn on and turn off cancer growth by adjusting the level of protein in the rats' diet, I know that I can raise and lower my total cholesterol level simply by adjusting the amount of animal based food in my diet.

Chimichanga,

Have you seen the Documentary Chow Down?

I think that movie, along with Forks Over Knives, is very motivating.

Watched FOK but not the Chow Down. I will see if it is available on netflix.

We live in a small box here on the McDougall forum. If you attend one of his Advanced Study Weekends he presents twice a year you run into hundreds of people that don't even know the forums exist. You will meet many people with histories that parallel mine. Many in worse shape than I was. It's there I learned the true scope of how many people have had their health and lives transformed by a better diet. Meal time gathered around tables with people explaining how they came to the program and what their experiences have been is one of the highlights of attending. People from all over the country and even international attendees clue you in that this is a much bigger movement than our small group here on the forum. Many have little interest in this kind of dialog. Being immersed around so many people with histories of nagging chronic disease given new pathways their doctors could never deliver. When you see this played out over and over again with so many people it dawns on you that something very powerful is at work. Don't get me wrong, some are there because their spouse dragged them to this "health" gimmick and they are not pleased to be dragged along. By the time the weekend is over they got some good food, listened to some interesting speakers and at the very least better understand what their spouses have been hammering at them about! They get some eye opening, first hand accounts of getting out from the clutches of the medical system. Those are sometimes more powerful than the official speakers. It all let's you know that we here on the McDougall boards are the tip of the iceberg. If you want to see the power of diet on cholesterol go to one of these events. After that there will be no question about what a healthy diet can do for high cholesterol. These are not actors, these are living breathing, working people that live their lives much as anyone else. It's "interactive" unlike a movie. You can ask pertinent questions and get specific answers back. Same with the speakers. It's better than celluloid. Plus, you don't have to cook!
f1jim

f1jim, I appreciate all that you do in writing your long informative writings in the form of a post. Each and everyone of your posting are very educational to me. I am determined to get my Tc as low as it possibly is going to be on this planet. So the last reading from 2/26/11 was 178, and my internist, PCM, was smiling at me,telling me how great that was, and my LDD was down from 138 to 111!! He was clearly and visibly tickled by my new lab numbers. My highest had been TC 233, on 7/11/08. I was never put on any meds for it, and I am so glad that never happened to me.
Congratulations on your compliance. You are so right, we are in a small box and there are people all over globally that who are now my kin and kith, and that is what keeps me going some days. My oldest and youngest sons are also vegan, 30 and soon to be 27! Middle son. 28, who is the tallest and the most athletic thinks we are nutty, and so does DH! I wish they were all converts to this way of eating. It is the turtle who runs this race.
Anyway, I just wanted to write and say thanks for your postings, and are you a writer? If not, then you seem to have that gift of gab down pat!!

Like they said "Adherence over time" is what does the trick. But you might try adding more barley to your diet (unless you have gluten issues). There have been several studies that indicate that the soluable fiber in barley is particularly effective at removing cholesterol. FWIW.

After battling cholesterol problems that was hovering around 300, I finally found nicotinic acid (niacin) that did the trick. Prior to that I tried every statin on pharma's horizon with always the same result: stunning low numbers of total cholesterol but global muscle pain, especially between my shoulders made me drop the statins in search of something less toxic. As of last count (about 3 mos. ago) my total was 140 which I was pleased with. I take 500mg. of niacin three times a day and have had no problems with it (I ordered Enduracin over the net and it is a slow release capsule, so no flushing was noticed). My only concern is the concentrated dosage which is not natural for the liver to process, so I plan on regular lab test to peek into what my liver profile numbers are. I have been a vegan for about 3.5 years and diet just was not getting the job done for me.