Welcome to Straight Talk on Health. I’m your host Dr. Chet Zelasko. Straight Talk on Health is a joint production with WGVU in Grand Rapids MI. I examine the practical application of health information. Nutrition. Exercise. Diet. Supplementation. I look at the science behind them, and let you know whether it’s something to consider or not. You can check out other things that I do on my website Drchet.com and sign up for my free emails.
Can you "cop a squat” to “pop a squat?” It’s the reason that strength is important at every age. You may not understand those phrases so let me explain it another way you may relate to better. The next time you go into a bathroom to eliminate waste products, you have to sit down. That’s the cop a squat part – sitting down. Pop a squat generally refers to the act of eliminating waste. All well and good and natural, Then comes the part that requires leg strength. You have to stand up again. That’s the minimal amount of leg strength you need to keep your bathroom visits private. If you can’t do that, you have to rely on someone to assist you. So, if you value your privacy, work on keeping your legs strong enough to stand up. Simplest way? Stand up and sit down from a solic chair with arms and your legs about a shoulder length apart. Work up to 25 reps and then start adding more sets. You can do them over the course of the day or all at once. No fancy equipment needed to train to cop a squat to pop a squat.
Let’s talk about click-bait websites a little. I try to get my leads to the latest research from feeds that publish press releases about research. But I’m just like you. Provocative headlines attract my attention. While what’s written about may be interesting, it’s often a third person removed from the research and usually, focuses on amazing benefits. That’s if you can past all the ads that want you to click on them. This may help you out the next time you see something like that.
One of the most memorable scenes from one of my favorite movies leads to one of my fail safe questions about health news. The movie is War Games and the scene is near the end of the movie when a computer, that’s apparently run amok, is going to start to launch nuclear missiles. It seems like nuclear strikes are imminent in some US locations. The tension is high, the general in charge is ready to launch. The screens show hundreds of missiles ready to strike in the US. That’s when the person, who developed the programming for this very early version of an artificial intelligence computer, asks a simple question. Does what you’re seeing make any sense? The computer was trying to win this game of war so it created a scenario that made a counterstrike the only recourse. It was imaginary. It wasn’t real. In this scenario, the computer figured out nuclear war was a no win game and quit.
That’s what you may have to do when you read or watch health news: does what they are saying make any sense. The cure for a disease big pharma doesn’t want anyone to know. Does that make any sense?
How about getting rock-hard abs in seven days? That’s similar to the 28 day chair exercise program that will make shed fat and pack on muscle. How about the and an actress depicted on a women’s magazine cover that shared her quick easy workout to maintain her rock hard body. 21 day plans. Eat anything you want while losing weight.
Let me ask you again—does any of that make any sense? No matter what it is, no matter in what field it is, ask yourself if what you are reading, seeing, or hearing makes any sense. I would wager that you’ll say no. Just move on.
How about a question I often get asked? It goes something like this: Dr. Chet. My total cholesterol is fine but my HDL cholesterol is low. How can I get it higher? Because my expertise is in nutrition and supplements, most people are looking for some kind of way to raise HDL, maybe without putting in the effort—at least, that’s the impression I get. Let’s begin by putting it out there first: there are no foods or supplements that raise HDL-Cholesterol as of this recording. It takes work and it takes effort. So how about this: why is raising HDL-C so important?
Generally speaking, the higher your HDL, the lower your risk for heart disease.
The problem today is that our HDL levels are lower than they should be; men
should have HDLs over 60 mg/dl and women should have HDLs over 50 mg/dl.
There are really only three effective ways to increase HDL. If you smoke, quit. There are no benefits to smoking as it kills off HDL-C so I’ll leave it there.
For many years—even back when I was a graduate student—we’ve known that one of the benefits of regular aerobic exercise is increased levels of HDL cholesterol, AKA the healthy cholesterol. If you want to increase your HDL, you should exercise regularly. The exact type of exercise remains elusive as does the mechanism of how it works but using aerobic training with some weight training seems to be the best to raise HDL.
The reason we don’t precisely know is that we don’t know how exercise raises HDL levels. Maybe it’s because we burn fat and sugar while we exercise, making less available to make cholesterol. Maybe the genes such as APO-A1 get activated or APO-B get deactivated with the net result an increase in HDL. We just don’t know.
What we do know is that if you exercise regularly, especially aerobic exercise, you can
increase your HDL levels, and that’s something we know is good for us. Put on your
walking or dancing shoes, pull on your swim trunks, or get on your bike; every season of the year is a great time to get your HDL levels up.
What is the number one way to increase HDL? The number one way to increase HDL cholesterol is to lose weight. Losing fat helps increase HDL levels while simultaneously lowering LDL cholesterol. We still don’t know precisely why, but there’s really nothing debatable about it. Perhaps it’s the reduction of saturated fat or simple sugars that are part of that equation but we know it works.
I’ll give you my theory of why weight loss helps raise HDL cholesterol. In order to lose weight, you have to eat less and/or move more; more than likely, it’s a combination of both. When you eat less, you train your body to make less saturated fat. Whether you were eating a higher fat diet or a diet high in refined carbohydrates, the net would be an increase in triglycerides made up of saturated fatty acids: the exact type of fatty acids that our bodies need to make cholesterol. Make less saturated fat, make less cholesterol, and that decreases the LDL cholesterol. That may also be the trigger for the body to stop blunting the APO- A1 gene and make more HDL. Throw in exercise and you can raise the HDL levels even more.
I may or may not be right about the process, but how it works isn’t as important as the fact that it does work. While the data are not absolutely clear, raising HDL should reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. Why not clear? Randomized controlled trials are not long enough to find out, and epidemiological data cannot determine cause and effect. But there’s no doubt that people with higher HDL cholesterol have less cardiovascular disease.
That’s all the time I have for this episode. If you like this podcast, please hit the share button and tell your friends and colleagues about it. Until next time, this is Dr. Chet Zelasko saying health is a choice. Choose wisely today and every day.
