u/ContributionLevel593

Background. 58M. Ultra runner. Disovered I have heart disease (CAC 38, mild soft plaque) after a succession of slightly raised LDL results (130,143,126) and ApoB 93. As soon as I received the CAC I changed my diet immediately and 2 weeks later started 20g Atorvastatin. 2 weeks after LDL down to 39. I’ve been sticking the both diet and statins. I have not retested ApoB as it’s not available on the NHS.

I‘m starting to think about relaxing my diet just to give me a bit more flexibility. I responded very well to statins and I think I have some wiggle room. it was reading about stearic acid that triggered this post.

As I understand it stearic acid is at worst neutral and possible a little beneficial and the following foods have more stearic acid than the other sat fat acids: -

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Avocado
• Dark chocolate
• Cocoa
• Almonds
• Walnuts
• Pistachios
• Peanuts/peanut butter
• Oily fish
• Olives

I already eat most things on this list but not liberally. I no longer count sat fats as I know having done so previously that my average per day is no more than 10g.

It‘s mainly these that I plan to relax. EVOO is probably the main one as it’s the basis of most of the cooking I do. I know it’s about 14% sat fats. But generally my plan is just to eat the above to desire.

Finally, I plan to add parmesan back into my diet but only as an addition to certain pasta dishes as an accouterment. I’d use no more that 1-2 heaped teaspoons (~10g and 1.7g sat fats).

This seems like such common sense that it must surely be being doing by others so I thought I’d ask for feedback.

Ultimately I know this is about LDL and ApoB and I will retest both in a couple of months.

I’m going to be in Italy on and off from now until end of September so I have a great opportunity to immerse myself. I know some Italian from attempts to learn it in the past and I know a fair bit of Portuguese so I recognise some words. I’ll mainly be training for Tor des Géants while I’m there and so can use some of that time for listening exercises. My training will make it harder for me to join traditional classes but I could definitely do online lessons. Clearly I want to put myself in Italian conversational situations as much as possible but at the same time I need to improve to be able to hold those conversations. I’m prepared to go all in. What do you think the best approach would be?

I ran the UTS 50k yesterday. I’m not new to Snowdonia or the event but yesterday’s weather made it so much harder. It rained pretty much the whole way round and the wind chill the higher you went was crucifying.

I heard people were pulled from the course but I didn’t see that myself. I did see people without gloves although everything I wore was wet through so I wasn’t much better off.

The only way I could stay warm was to keep moving. If you stopped you got very cold very quickly.

I don’t see what more I could have done kit wise. I have warm gloves with waterproof mittens over them. I had a long sleeve merino top with a waterproof jacket and I wore leggings. I know that everything wets through eventually.

What do others do in races like this to stave off the cold and from getting wet through? How do 100k and 100 milers cope with prolonged bad weather?

I hope it's ok to do this. It seems that there are many of us that exercise a fair bit that have discovered we have heart disease. A pattern seems to be that we have shrugged off higher LDL readings due to thinking we're immune to heart disease due to the exercise we do.

There's an increasing amount of literature about the effects of exercise on heart health beyond that it's just good.

I think we have a duty to pass on our knowledge about the impact of diet on our hearts and how exercise can and can't help us, without cluttering up this sub.

r/ExerciseDietHeart

Anyone got any recommendations for insurance that covers UK+ Europe for racing and training in the mountains that also covers things like via ferrata? I’m specifically looking for something that gives you mountain rescue so I don’t end up with a massive bill if I get into trouble.

Total cholesterol: 200 mg/dL (5.2 mmol/L) → 116 mg/dL (3.0 mmol/L)
LDL: 126 mg/dL (3.3 mmol/L) → 39 mg/dL (1.0 mmol/L)
HDL: 59 mg/dL (1.5 mmol/L) → 66 mg/dL (1.7 mmol/L)
Triglycerides: 74 mg/dL (0.84 mmol/L) → 56 mg/dL (0.63 mmol/L)
Total/HDL ratio: 3.39 → 1.76

First tests were 18th Feb and I received the results a week or so later. ApoB was 93. ChatGPT/Claude told me to get a CAC/CCTA scan. I did a CCTA scan on 26th Feb and got the results on 1st April. CAC of 38 with mild soft plaque with no stenosis. At this point I booked a GP appointment and changed my diet, reducing sat fats to under 10g per day average and upping fibre through supplements (psyllium husk, flax seed, plant sterols) and eating more oats, beans, lentils, fruit and veg. I've had 5% beed mince twice in the month and both times in a chilli con carne.

I proposed having a period with diet and no statins to the GP to see what could be achieved but she talked me out of it. She said while interesting I have heart disease and should treat it because the statins do more than just lower the LDL. She prescribed 20mg Atorvastatin. I did ask if 20 was necessary and she insisted, saying there was really no difference between 10 and 20 and if I was taking it I may as well do 20.

I don't drink or smoke and I exercise a lot - roughly 10 hours a week this month with a marathon in the middle and taper before and recovery after. I've had no muscle issues. Found myself in a restaurant once and ordered the friendliest looking meal on the menu but it came with the potato cooked in cream and the veg in butter and I was in heaven.

As a wold guess I'd say 50% came from the statins and 20% from diet.

I checked the Salomon reviews for this and saw that a few people had had issues with the flask elastic breaking on first use, the sizing being very small and there being no way to attach a quiver.

Is anyone using this that can share their experiences with it?