Apoe 4/4 and high triglycerides

[binxlyostrich]

Hello all,

I'm a 33 year old female living in the southern U.S. who just found out through 23andme that i'm Apoe 4/4. My entire life i've struggled with very high triglycerides, often over 1000. My highest triglyceride reading was 1600. I never imagined in a million years that this random genetic test would unveil the reason for my abnormally high triglycerides. I'm currently not on any cholesterol or medications for my triglycerides because I just gave up after years of medicine not helping very much and instead causing me muscle pain.

With the increased risk of late onset alzheimer's, i'm feeling motivated to change my life and start excercising and eating healthy and start taking meds again to help get my lipids under control.

My question is, any advice for getting my triglycerides under control? I have been on just about every cholesterol medicine you can think of and they've all given me muscle ache problems! That's the frustrating bit.

Thanks for any advice.

[Tincup]

Thanks for any advice.

Welcome binxlyostrich. In many cases high triglycerides are responsive to a low carb or keto diet. Because of your ApoE4 status, you may want to implement this in a way that limits saturated fat (i.e. a high monounsaturated fat diet).

If you've not done so, you may wish to read Stavia's Primer. Stavia is a doc who volunteer's with us. In 2014 she posted about a patient with high Tg's. Reading this may be instructive.

[JudyH]

I am also a fairly new member of about 1 year. I take a statin but it has little impact on my Triglycerides. I have had high Triglycerides for years (nothing as high as yours but I am also e3/e4). I made a significant impact on mine this year by reducing my intake of added sugar to about 15 g per day. I got mine near normal doing this and paying no attention to natural sugar. I am significantly older than you.

[Matisse]

My brother had very high trigs and is apoe3/3, so there may be more at work here than your apoe4 status. He was able to reduce his trigs with prescription fish oil.

[binxlyostrich]

Thanks for your feedback everyone. Matisse-I was on prescription fish oil pill (Lovaza) 4 times a day with minimal impact on my triglycerides The lowest triglyceride reading I have ever had was 600 something but they said that could be because the machine couldn't read higher than that.

I have not done any lifetstyle changes in the many years i've struggled with high triglycerides though -so i'm hopeful that a combination of lifestyle changes and medicine could really make an impact

[binxlyostrich]

If you've not done so, you may wish to read Stavia's Primer. Stavia is a doc who volunteer's with us. In 2014 she posted about a patient with high Tg's. Reading this may be instructive.[/quote]


Thank you for the link, it makes me hopeful to see that someone's triglycerides responded so favorably to lifestyle changes. I'm pretty sedentary and have a pretty poor diet so it made me hopeful

[Flo]

With the increased risk of late onset alzheimer's, i'm feeling motivated to change my life and start excercising and eating healthy

Hi binxlyostrich!

And a very warm welcome to our community!
You're definitely in the best place to find out more on how making changes to your lifestyle can improve your health and cognition.
The Primer is jam packed full of amazing information to help you in your journey.
The Wiki is another great source of information - one section is dedicated on how-to use the site and there's even a section on recipes to help you make the right choices!
Wishing all the best,
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!
Warm regards
Flo

[Tincup]

Thank you for the link, it makes me hopeful to see that someone's triglycerides responded so favorably to lifestyle changes. I'm pretty sedentary and have a pretty poor diet so it made me hopeful

Here are some more suggestions. I'm not a doc and know little about you, but here goes, also don't have to do all of this and don't mean to overwhelm you either.

In this podcast, Peter Attia interviews Omega 3 researcher Bill Harris. Harris discusses some of the fish oil studies with prescription fish oil. He notes you don't need the prescription versions and Attia notes he trusts the Nordic Naturals and Carlson's brands.

In this podcast, Peter Attia interviews Iñigo San Millán. San Millán is a proponent of what he calls "Zone 2" training. Attia notes he has a patient who is a type 1 diabetic. This person does a long walk at Zone 2 intensity after he eats and his insulin requirement is 9 IU's - remarkably low for a T1. Dr. Phil Maffetone has a qualitatively similar approach, suggesting people spend a lot of time exercising at a heart rate of 180-age. More details here.. An even simpler approach is to do exercise and always breathe through your nose. Attia notes this approach, which is fairly low intensity, is training your mitochondria.

Dr. Roy Taylor at the MRI Centre of Newcastle, UK found that T2 diabetes was responsive to a very low calorie diet for 8 weeks. One of the things he discovered was that a few grams of fat on the pancreas and liver were responsible for insulin/blood sugar issues. This fat was one of the first to be used in his low calorie studies.

Dr. Satchin Panda of the Salk Institute studies circadian rhythm. He suggests "time restricted feeding." Basically confining your eating during the day to a limited window. Dr. Bredesen, in his book, suggests a 16 hour fast for ApoE4's. Panda goes into detail in this podcast.

Taking this a little further is Dr. Jason Fung. His a Toronto nephrologist who treats people with fasting, among other things. His book is here and website here. As well a podcast with Peter Attia.

Bredesen's book linked above has diet suggestions. So does Dr. Steve Gundry in several of his books 1 and 2

[binxlyostrich]

Thank you for the link, it makes me hopeful to see that someone's triglycerides responded so favorably to lifestyle changes. I'm pretty sedentary and have a pretty poor diet so it made me hopeful

Here are some more suggestions. I'm not a doc and know little about you, but here goes, also don't have to do all of this and don't mean to overwhelm you either.

In this podcast, Peter Attia interviews Omega 3 researcher Bill Harris. Harris discusses some of the fish oil studies with prescription fish oil. He notes you don't need the prescription versions and Attia notes he trusts the Nordic Naturals and Carlson's brands.

In this podcast, Peter Attia interviews Iñigo San Millán. San Millán is a proponent of what he calls "Zone 2" training. Attia notes he has a patient who is a type 1 diabetic. This person does a long walk at Zone 2 intensity after he eats and his insulin requirement is 9 IU's - remarkably low for a T1. Dr. Phil Maffetone has a qualitatively similar approach, suggesting people spend a lot of time exercising at a heart rate of 180-age. More details here.. An even simpler approach is to do exercise and always breathe through your nose. Attia notes this approach, which is fairly low intensity, is training your mitochondria.

Dr. Roy Taylor at the MRI Centre of Newcastle, UK found that T2 diabetes was responsive to a very low calorie diet for 8 weeks. One of the things he discovered was that a few grams of fat on the pancreas and liver were responsible for insulin/blood sugar issues. This fat was one of the first to be used in his low calorie studies.

Dr. Satchin Panda of the Salk Institute studies circadian rhythm. He suggests "time restricted feeding." Basically confining your eating during the day to a limited window. Dr. Bredesen, in his book, suggests a 16 hour fast for ApoE4's. Panda goes into detail in this podcast.

Taking this a little further is Dr. Jason Fung. His a Toronto nephrologist who treats people with fasting, among other things. His book is here and website here. As well a podcast with Peter Attia.

Bredesen's book linked above has diet suggestions. So does Dr. Steve Gundry in several of his books 1 and 2

Thank you I will definitely read into them. I do not have diabetes and my blood sugar is always in the normal range. Just another weird thing about my situation.

[mike]

Thank you I will definitely read into them. I do not have diabetes and my blood sugar is always in the normal range. Just another weird thing about my situation.

Hi from another 4/4 and welcome. I had similar situation at your age, but not so high TG. Now at age 59, I've been a Type 2 diabetic for 20 years... Just because your blood sugar is normal, it does not mean that you do not have metabolic issues - your body is able to maintain blood sugar by raising insulin levels. Higher and higher. At some point this no longer works, and you "suddenly" have diabetes. I would get a HOMA-IR test done (basically testing both fasting sugar and insulin) to see how Insulin Sensitive you are. This will tell you if you have underlying metabolic issues (pre-diabetes). I'm guessing you do. If so, then you will want to cut out ALL added sugar.