Rule of 60: HDL 60 mg/dl or greater, LDL 60 mg/dl or less, triglycerides 60 mg/dl - High Cholesterol Message Board

ACE28 · 05-13-2009, 05:35 PM

This is the cholesterol guideline to live by according to many leading experts, Especially the Cardio-CT Scan experts. These levels avoid plaque and Calcium build-up in arteries and prevent all forms of heart disease and Strokes. Any levels higher than these put everyone at risk for future cardiac events. If they saw my latest cholesterol levels they would probably through me out of their institute. There is lot's of information available regarding "The rule of 60".
Can this really be regarded as true science???? The pioneers of this heart CT-scan also stress the importance of Vitamin D testing.

namelessme · 05-13-2009, 07:04 PM

The 60-60-60 levels are optimal, especially if you have diagnosed coronary disease. Plaque reduction is possible once you get to these levels.

It doesn't mean you have to get to those numbers, or you are doomed, but ideally.. yeah, that's what to shoot for.

And vitamin D testing is extremely important. I'd also throw in thyroid testing too... it can negatively affect lipid values as well.

tjlhb · 05-13-2009, 07:30 PM

Never heard or read of this goal, although I have read of cardiologists self medicating with statins to get their blood LDL cholesterol levels very low.

On the other hand, HDL, LDL, and TG all around 60 or better may well be typical for rural poor in places like China, where heart disease is rare compared to suburban US. Of course, they aren't using statins to get that way; they instead do things like:

* Exercise a lot. Even office workers are likely to commute by walking or riding bicycles. But most rural poor get exercise doing jobs which require some amount of manual labor.
* Eat a low amount of meat and its saturated fat.
* Eat almost no dairy products and their saturated fat.
* Eat very little processed and junk foods with hydrogenated oils and their trans-fats and large amounts of sugars and highly refined carbohydrates.
* Eat a large amount and variety of vegetables.
* Have low body weight and body fat percentage.

namelessme · 05-13-2009, 08:04 PM

Dr. Davis, a cardiologist who uses calcium scoring to measure plaque, has used the 60-60-60 levels for many of his patients.

Niacin, fish oil, normalizing vitamin D levels and elimination of wheat products gets many of his patients to this level.

tjlhb · 05-13-2009, 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by namelessme

Niacin, fish oil, normalizing vitamin D levels and elimination of wheat products gets many of his patients to this level.

Somehow, I doubt that the rural poor in China do the above consciously to improve their blood lipid levels. Though their exercise raises HDL (what people often take niacin for), they like fish (even if they don't get to eat it as much as they like), and they get vitamin D from sunlight while working in the fields. They do eat a lot of staple grain products (wheat in the north, rice in the south). Of course, most American wheat consumption is highly refined, and/or part of some junk food that is high in sugar and/or hydrogenated oil and/or saturated fat, so the benefits of eliminating wheat mean eliminating a lot of very junky food from a typical American diet.