8 weeks - 120 pt drop in Cholesterol, 630 in Trigs - no drugs
Two months ago I got a nasty wakeup call during my annual (and first in a long while...) blood test. I'm pretty healthy (44 y.o. M, 170 lbs), normal blood pressure, run 3x a week and eat mostly healthy.
Well, test came back followed by a concerned call from my doctor regarding my cholesterol and trigs especially. She wanted immediate intervention with drugs, but we agreed on me making lifestyle changes first and retesting in two months. The results, while not perfect, are very encouraging.
I made some significant but (I believe) sustainable changes to my diet. Swapped 2% milk for unsweetened soy milk, changed my morning breakfast from Grape Nuts to overnight oats, added more fiber (flax meal and chia seeds in the oats), cut out red meat and way back on dining out (no more wings and pizza on the weekends...). Made some other tweaks as well, though who knows if they did anything (swapped French press coffee for filtered, eg.). And of course, the biggest change was cutting out alcohol completely.
I love beer, and was drinking 4(ish) lite beers most nights, with some heavier moments on the weekends. Didn't really affect my life, or so I thought, so wasn't a huge concern. I know I'd let the rope go a bit over the winter, but figured I'd offset it with exercise as I have a marathon to train for this fall.
Between the excess calories, nasty affects alcohol has on trigs, and late-night snacking, drinking was killing my health. I don't plan on being sober forever, but clearly need to moderate and make abstinence the norm. Just wanted to share my small success story for others hoping to avoid a lifetime of statins and fibrates. It may not work for everyone, but diet, exercise and limited alcohol go a long way. That NA beer has made some big strides in quality is a bonus (for me).