Mocktail Minutes

Cholesterol with Dr. Dylan Dix

• Mocktail Minutes • Episode 97

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This week we are joined by Functional Medical Practitioner Dr. Dylan Dix to talk all things cholesterol. Cholesterol is one of those things that people are commonly confused about - typically because we only think about it in a bad way....but, Dr. Dylan has another perspective! In this episode we talk about the importance of cholesterol what it does for the body, optimal targets to aim for, and what to do if you need to improve your cholesterol.

You can find Dr. Dylan Dix on instagram https://www.instagram.com/funcmedchiro/

If you have questions, or topics that you want to hear about, head over to our Instagrams https://www.instagram.com/bayleethedietitian/ or https://www.instagram.com/brianna.dietitian/ and send us a DM!

Featured Mocktails:

Kevita - https://www.instagram.com/kevitadrinks/

Recess - https://www.instagram.com/takearecess/

Costco - https://www.instagram.com/costco/


**The information provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional or your physician before starting any new supplement. Individual needs and circumstances vary, and only a healthcare provider can determine what is appropriate for your specific situation.**

Click play, sip back, and be empowered.

Baylee:

Hello everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode of Mocktail Minutes. This is Bailey.

Brianna:

And this is Brianna.

Baylee:

Today I am drinking another Covita. So I've done the Mojito one before. And there was another flavor I tried and it was okay, but now I'm trying the Tart Cherry, so we shall see.

Brianna:

Actually a random story about those is I had one on my first day of undergrad. This was a very long time ago. And I was in one of those like science lecture halls, you know, where there's like a bajillion people. And for some reason, I was like shaking and I opened it and exploded all over me and all over like the two people around me. And I was more of it.

Baylee:

We'll have that. The Tart Cherry isn't bad. I like that much better than, I think the other one was the Pinched Mango that I tried.

Brianna:

I liked her cherry.

Baylee:

Mojito is probably the best one, though.

Brianna:

am I doing? I'm doing recess again. I'm really hyper fixated on it. Grapefruit tangerine. That's my favorite.

Baylee:

And today, we do have a guest on here. We haven't had a guest in a while, but we have a Dr. Dylan Dix. He actually works with me at the office that I'm at. And he is our functional med practitioner here. So Dylan, do you want to give a brief introduction about you, and if you have a drink, you can share that as well.

Dylan:

Absolutely. How's it going everybody? So I'm Dr. Dylan Dix Functional Medicine Doc at Back Pain Center. I am a chiropractor, so I went to Logan University. And towards the end of Logan, I kind of realized that we have a broken health care system. We have a sick care system, not a health care system. And I understood that. Within the scope of being a chiropractor, I had the capacity to help people transform their lives through nutrition through supplements, and through lifestyle. And so I really got into functional medicine. I did all my training through the Institute for Functional Medicine, IFM. Did all the coursework there. And then eventually got my title IFMCP actually recently in December. So here we are now, and I'm loving every second of this journey, helping people really create health to prevent disease. My drink today I am a sucker for coconut water. So this is Kirkland brand. I love Costco. I'm like a kid on Christmas morning inside of a Costco. And I love coconut water. It's loaded with electrolytes, tons of potassium helps to prevent headaches. So a good, you know, replacement if you get tired of regular drinking water.

Baylee:

Do you just drink coconut water plain or do you add a little something, something to it?

Dylan:

I drink it plain. Yeah. I love

Baylee:

can't do that. I don't like it plain.

Brianna:

You don't, I like it. I like it. Yeah.

Dylan:

Kind of an acquired taste at first, but it's pretty

Baylee:

It was funny. I went to Mexico for my senior trip and I was like, Oh, coconuts. We're going to try some coconut water. And this was like, when I was younger and I was drinking like the coconut water with sugar and everything. So I drank it straight out of the coconut. I was like, Hmm, this is not the same, Today, our topic is cholesterol. This is a very hot topic. I would say I have so many people that come to me that are, they have high cholesterol, especially LDL cholesterol is high. Triglycerides are high. Total cholesterol is high. Brianna, what about you?

Brianna:

Yes. Or I usually see their LDL is high and their HDL is very low, you know, and then I always get the question like, do I really need to worry about that? And I know it's a bit different in the functional space. And I feel like it's interesting as a dietitian, that's like, you know, we have our recommendations that we're supposed to give, but we're also like. into the functional side of things too, so it's like anytime I'm doing a doctor's note I'm like, like I wonder if any of them are going to be like, never again am I referring my patients to you.

Baylee:

Yes. So Dylan, because we're going to call you our cholesterol expert today. Would, do you want to dive in and kind of break down when someone goes to get their labs? Typically they're usually getting like total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, and that's usually it. As far as that, would you break down what each of those mean, what doctors are typically looking at?

Dylan:

Yeah, so cholesterol is essentially a construction material It is the critical building block for every single steroid hormone. So we're talking estrogen progesterone testosterone and so it forms like basically the base of all these hormones. We also needed to make vitamin D D3, cholecalciferol. We needed to make bile salts, which help emulsify dietary fat so we can absorb dietary fat. And also it forms about 20 percent of our brain. So it is a major component of the cell membranes. So it helps to kind of maintain good fluidity and stability in our cell membranes. It forms. And myelin, which is kind of like the the coding around our nerves and our brain. So one of the most common side effects with statin drugs is actually brain fog. And it makes sense because if you deplete cholesterol production, you don't have enough to compose what's in your brain and then you run into issues like brain fog and memory issues. And then, so we have cholesterol and then. LDL and HDL are called lipoproteins, so they're like buses that carry cholesterol in the blood. So LDL is what carries cholesterol away from the liver and then kind of drops it off in the tissues throughout the body, so those tissues can make hormones, vitamin D, and form cell membranes, whereas HDL kind of recycles cholesterol, so it, it brings it back to the liver it kind of clears out excess cholesterol in the blood. So HDL is considered protective whereas LDL is considered Not healthy or bad, which I say that in quotes because there's lots of nuance to that, which we'll get into.

Baylee:

So we have what doctors are typically ordering. Now, will you dive into, because I know, and we've talked about this before, of how more, much more in depth that you go into, especially with LDL cholesterol. Will you put that down and explain what you as a functional med practitioner then look at?

Dylan:

Absolutely. Yeah. So unfortunately, less than 1 percent of cholesterol tests ordered by doctors are the right kind of cholesterol testing. So, most of the time you go to your doctor, you get what's called a basic lipid panel. So, you get a total cholesterol, LDLC, HDLC, triglycerides. The. Yeah. better version of that, the more in depth version of that is called lipoprotein fractionation. So it's got different names for different companies, so Quest has CardioIQ LabCorp, which is what I use, has NMR lipoprofile. Now, why this test is really necessary and needed to get the full context is it breaks down not just how much cholesterol you have, but the actual quality and the size of your lipoproteins. So it's going to look at how much of your LDL is small, dense atherogenic promoting particles versus how much is those large, fluffy, buoyant, healthy LDL particles. And then same thing with HDL and VLDL as well. So it kind of brings in more of the context of not just, do you have a high number of LDL cholesterol, but do you have the right Quality of LDL cholesterol and HDL.

Brianna:

The typical ranges that we have right now where it's like you're, you're inside or outside the range, do you agree with those as a functional practitioner as far as cholesterol goes?

Dylan:

Not really. So this is where we get into some debate with potential potentially with medical doctors. So when you look at a cholesterol range, it's going to say that it your total cholesterol should be less than 200. I believe that. In the context of a metabolically healthy person, cholesterol even as high as 250 is completely benign and can actually be health promoting considering all the roles that cholesterol has in the body. So inherently it's not a bad thing. I also think that, this is just my opinion, but it's easier to justify a statin prescription if you lower that number. If you say it's got to be less than 200, and it's very, very common, very easy to be above 200. Therefore, if you're above that number, it justifies being able to write a script for a statin drug. And then LDL, they say that you should be less than 100. But again, I believe it can be as high as 130, 140, and be completely, completely fine and benign. It's all about the context of metabolic health. So. Cholesterol can be a bad thing in the context of high insulin high blood sugar, and the context of inflammation shown by like things like CRP. And so, but in a metabolically healthy person that has, that is very sensitive to insulin, that has normal blood sugar, normal triglycerides, cholesterol is actually health promoting. So it's all about the context of everything else.

Baylee:

So what would you, if you could define it? What, what would you classify as metabolically healthy or what makes someone metabolically healthy?

Dylan:

I would say a fasting insulin of between two and a half to six, ideally in the single digits. And another beef I have is fasting insulin, the range goes up to about 25, which is crazy in my opinion. I think it should be up to 10 at the very highest. So normal fasting insulin, you want to have a hemoglobin A1c, which is a three month average of your blood sugar. Typically around 5. 2, 5. 3, whereas like the low end of prediabetic range is 5. 7 fasting blood sugar. You want it to be probably between 80 to 90, you know, maybe a little bit higher, like 95, maybe at the most and then triglycerides The range goes up to 150 for triglycerides. I like to see them well below 100. So I prefer to see like 50, 60, 70 for fastest state of triglycerides. So it's taking all those markers in a context and then seeing is cholesterol actually a problem for you.

Brianna:

perfect.

Baylee:

Can your triglycerides ever be too low or your LDL?

Dylan:

I think LDL can be too low. Yeah triglycerides. Not so much. Sometimes I'll see as low as 40, 50. I don't really get that concerned. The issue with triglycerides is basically whatever Energy we take in through carbohydrates So the body cannot burn for energy ends up getting converted into triglycerides or blood fat So I don't typically see it as being Too low as a problem.

Baylee:

Okay. I was mainly kind of like personal reasons to ask that, but my triglycerides were. It was in the lower fifties, the last time I had it checked and my fasting glucose is actually slightly high, like not too high, still in the optimal range. But I always thought that was interesting that my triglycerides were on the low end, but then my fasting glucose was on the high end.

Dylan:

Yeah. Yeah, it's there's some nuance to that but big thing is Maintaining, at least in a fasted state, maintaining lower levels of triglycerides is kind of a good indicator.

Brianna:

You kind of brought up like a good segue into a question that we had because I feel like, I mean, you saying, you know, excess carbohydrates that we take in can be converted into triglycerides. I feel like doctors are very focused on eat extremely low fat, you know, things like that when it comes to cholesterol. And I'm mostly like, B, basically trying to reduce the fat, carbohydrate, sugar from highly processed foods, not so much like, let's take a good quality beef out of your diet, but like, how much carbohydrates do you have from highly processed foods? What's like your take on nutrition as far as lowering cholesterol and triglycerides?

Dylan:

Yeah, so like, the old school thought is like, you eat dietary fat, it's gonna raise triglycerides, it's gonna raise cholesterol. But actually people that go on You know, ketogenic diets, like they might have higher cholesterol, but they have perfectly normal blood sugar, perfectly normal insulin. So I'm not saying everyone needs to be on a ketogenic diet, but it's more so how you utilize the energy that you, that you take in. And if it's predominantly carbohydrates and you kind of start to become resistant to insulin, a lot of that gets converted to triglycerides. So yes, it's more about the context of the diet, eating more. of the right quality of fats and not being in this ultra processed context. That is really important.

Baylee:

Yeah. Cause I feel like a big also misconception too, is I have high cholesterol. I should not eat eggs. Everyone has been scared of eggs for years. I'm like, I

Brianna:

I had a dollar for every time I had to correct somebody, I like literally wouldn't need a job anymore.

Baylee:

yeah,

Dylan:

Yeah, and only about 15 percent of the cholesterol in our blood comes from the food we eat. The other 85 percent is synthesized by the liver. So yeah, people should not be afraid of eating eggs because it could raise their cholesterol because the body will kind of regulate itself. It'll start to make more cholesterol if you don't eat enough foods that have cholesterol, and then it'll down regulate production if you eat a lot of foods like eggs or red meat.

Brianna:

Yeah, so it's almost like protective. Very

Baylee:

was living on my own, I would eat like six eggs a day and people would freak out that like, that's a lot of eggs. I'm like, number one, I just like eggs. Number two, it's really not that bad. So I'd rather do eggs than something that's processed or like a granola bar.

Dylan:

Sure,

Baylee:

Eggs are a great source of food.

Dylan:

absolutely. I think they're one of the single most nutrient dense healthy foods we can have as humans.

Baylee:

Yes. And a cheap protein. Yes.

Brianna:

I love my aches. Yeah,

Baylee:

all the time. what would be your take on, cause I get this question all the time too, when I'm explaining all these different labs and how we could look deeper because everyone's like, Oh, I've had labs ran by my doctor. I'm like, no, I want to look more into your cholesterol. I want to break it down more. I also want to look at fasting insulin. I like we're ordering other things that typical doctors, your primary care physician are ordering. Why do you think doctors don't order these?

Dylan:

That's a great question. I think there's a couple reasons. One of the reasons is probably they have roadblocks from insurance companies, so insurance does not want to pay for an NMR lipoprofile. They don't want to pay for a fasting insulin. They don't want to look at more contextual markers other than just a basic lipid panel and like a metabolic panel. I also, this could just be my cynical thinking, but I tend to think doctors wait until the problem is there to justify medication before instead of actually trying to prevent it way before the problem exists. So, for example, like, insulin can appear elevated up to 10 years before blood sugar appears elevated. And so, when it comes to preventing diabetes and metabolic syndrome, you have to look at a fasting insulin. Because by the time your blood sugar Is high in a fasted state, you're already pre diabetic, which you could have seen that years ahead by checking insulin first to see if that is elevated. Is that kind of what you're thinking, Brianna?

Brianna:

Yeah, and also because there's not really like a standards of care, right? It's like if you come back and your insulin is out of range, your doctor doesn't really have kind of like a process in which they're like, Okay, this is how we're going to handle it. If anything, it would be like, okay, clean up your diet, go talk to a dietician. But again, insurance doesn't really cover that unless you have diabetes. And I will say I have had people do fasting insulin and it is still within a good range and they have diabetes, you know? So I'm like, the 22 range is extremely high. Like people are in diabetes and fasting insulin is like 15, you know? Yeah.

Baylee:

That's definitely one that I've been running lately is the fasting insulin. And yeah, it's like, I'm catching people. I'm like, if you keep going at this rate, you will have prediabetes. And I don't think it's something to be like, Oh, you did. I mean, you will have, you will. But I don't think it's something that I'm ever like, Oh, you did this wrong. Like sometimes there are literally things we can't control. And I mean, I guess kind of speaking about that. So when people have like genetically high cholesterol, what are your thoughts on that? Like, should they be put on a statin? What do you think?

Dylan:

Again, I really think it is the context of. Overall metabolic health and the presence of lots of inflammation in the body manifested by things like a high CRP or a high SED rate or high homocysteine that in combination with, you know, high insulin, high triglycerides. And then a really important marker, maybe I think one of the most important markers, is the number of small, dense LDL particles. So in that context, a statin might be indicated. But regardless if you have genetics that predispose you to high cholesterol or not I still look at it the same way. You have to look at all the markers in context to know if it would be truly appropriate for someone to try and lower their cholesterol. So

Brianna:

I'm always like, so hesitant. Now I think statins are great. I think sometimes people are put on them very early and then they're not really educated on like the things that statins can do in terms of like blood sugar and things like that. So it's, it's kind of hard. I get people who are like frustrated and they're like, well, my cholesterol was high, so I went on a statin and I tried to fix it, but now I'm pre diabetic and it's like, what do I do? And so I think definitely looking at the bigger picture is something that needs to be done. And I just don't think it's standard practice yet. That's

Dylan:

Another thing with cholesterol is like, the idea around statins is you take a statin to lower cholesterol because cholesterol causes heart disease. That, that's the prevailing thought. But I like to say cholesterol's at the scene of the crime, but it does not commit the crime. So think of cholesterol as wood. So like to start a fire, you have wood, but in order to start the fire, you need a spark. And so cholesterol is there as the wood, but that doesn't mean that a, a fire will just spontaneously come about. So and the setting of inflammation that is that spark that makes it dangerous, but without inflammation, it's really just there doing its job. I think it's kind of a good analogy to think of, but yeah,

Baylee:

And inflammation always kind of seems it's the driving force for a lot of different things. Like so many people that you and I even work with together, it's like as soon as we get their inflammation down, they're like off to the races. So what are some things that impact inflammation?

Brianna:

good one.

Dylan:

Yeah, it's I call it avoiding the terrible trio of white sugar, white flour, and seed oils vegetable and seed oils. There's lots of debate on seed oils. Some people will promote them because they lower your total cholesterol, but at the same time, they might lower your cholesterol, but they actually raise the number of small, dense LDL particles, which is what we're actually worried about. Those are the ones that actually oxidize in your arteries. They, they attract white blood cells to basically try and put out this damage from all of this free radical. Reactive oxygen species, and that does contribute to plaque, atherosclerosis, and eventually calcification. So, and white sugar and white flour kind of do the same things in terms of like changing the, the quality and the size of your lipoproteins to make them more atherogenic. So that would be the big thing is avoiding the foods that will cause oxidative stress. In your blood vessels and eventually inflammation. So the white sugar, white flour and then seed oils. Also exercise and everything lifestyle. So, you know, trying to sleep seven to eight hours per night, trying to get a good number, a good number of minutes of exercise throughout the week. Managing your stress is big, managing cortisol. So I think it's like trying to bring in all of the fundamental pillars of health as they all work together.

Baylee:

So if you have someone that comes to you, they're like, well, I know I have high cholesterol, total cholesterol is high, LDL cholesterol is high, you go in, you do lab work, let's say you see more of like the small dense and not so much, so much of the large fluffy, or you have like the pattern B, so what would be your approach? How are we getting them from small and dense to large and fluffy? And how are we getting them? Because we want pattern A, correct?

Dylan:

yeah, we won't paternate. Yep.

Baylee:

How are we getting there? And I guess rewind for a little bit thing that I think that helps people. Remember is what type of cholesterol do we want? Think of it as a golf ball versus a beach ball. You could throw them both at someone. If a golf ball hits you in the head, it's going to hurt a lot worse. It's going to do a lot more damage. If I throw a beach ball at you, it's not going to hurt that bad. It's going to be fine. It probably won't at all.

Dylan:

So first thing I would say is cut vegetable and seed oils out of your life As best as you can try to avoid them Eat more animal fats eat butter eat beef tallow eat ghee coconut oil eat red meat These foods will raise your cholesterol. I admit that but what they're gonna raise is the beach balls the large fluffy buoyant sometimes I can enter, you can intervene with certain nutraceuticals, so the most common one that I'll recommend is niacin niacin helps to shift the LDL subclass from the smaller ones to the larger ones, those are things we can look at to like like a blend of polyphenols, so looking at things like Curcumin, resveratrol, green tea extract stuff like that also helps to kind of shift that size distribution. But the big thing is trying to avoid the, the insults that will drive that, you know, oxidative stress process, which gives you those golf balls.

Brianna:

Thanks. Do you because I talk with, because honestly, nobody's eating fiber. And I actually, I think it's really funny because I'll get people that come to me that have certain GI issues. And like my doctor told me to be on low fiber. And then I do their diet recall and I'm like, you're fine. Like you're not even, you're getting like six grams. You're that is low fiber. What kind of fiber education, or do you even focus on fiber in terms of like lowering cholesterol?

Dylan:

Yeah, absolutely. That's a good point. So fiber does help to bind up excess cholesterol and then help you eliminating your stool. So that is a good way to help also kind of naturally lower your cholesterol with food. Also, especially people that have lots of gut issues mainly constipation. So like, you know, doing a soluble prebiotic fiber supplement or just trying to focus on the right foods that provide the fiber to promote healthy motility within the gut, which then as you know, I guess a good side effect, you help to naturally lower your cholesterol. So yeah, fiber is a good another added input along with looking at supplements and that other kind of stuff.

Baylee:

I usually recommend, like, a sun fiber. Is there, like, a certain one that you like to recommend?

Dylan:

In terms of like food or like a supplement?

Baylee:

For a fiber supplement.

Dylan:

Yeah, there's different brands. Probably just like a prebiotic fiber. So it's going to be, there's different kinds. There's xylo oligosaccharides, there's citrus pectin. What else? There's kiwi fruit extract. Sometimes it's also polyphenols from fruits that can have very similar effects as well as being like a prebiotic. Thorne has a good one called Fibermend. I like that one a lot.

Brianna:

I do like that one. Honestly, ever since Rachel was on here talking about gut health, I'm like, everyone should eat a kiwi a day.

Dylan:

Yes,

Baylee:

I tell so many people that I'm like, just go get kiwis.

Brianna:

Like, and you can eat the skin. And then that's where I lose people.

Baylee:

Yeah. Dylan, don't, do you eat, you eat the skin, don't you?

Dylan:

I do eat the skin. I think it's the best part.

Brianna:

I eat it too.

Baylee:

do it.

Dylan:

The skin

Brianna:

slice it long ways. So they're like circles with just a little on the outside. It's doable.

Dylan:

yeah, I agree. And also, apparently the skin has more vitamin C and folate than the fruit itself. So, and obviously the fiber that comes with the skin, so.

Baylee:

Maybe if I, like, dice it up really tiny and, like, mash it all together, then I can

Brianna:

Put it in a, just put a smoothie.

Baylee:

Oh, yeah.

Dylan:

Yeah,

Brianna:

how that would change the

Baylee:

I need to Yes, yes. I need to decide if I'm allergic or sensitive to them or not. They always make my tongue go, my tongue go numb. So, I don't know.

Brianna:

that happens to me. That happens to me with orange peels as well, as well. So maybe it's like a vitamin C thing. I don't know, but I just kind of, it goes away. So.

Dylan:

a very low, low grade allergy response,

Baylee:

yeah, it's been like five years since I've tried it, so, I mean, maybe I should just try them again. I'm

Dylan:

Give it a shot.

Baylee:

not gonna die, so it's fine.

Brianna:

you'll keep breathing. It'll be okay. I wanted to ask a question specifically about males versus females because I have worked with a couple of females who work with functional medicine practitioners and usually they are trying to conceive or they're like, you know, thinking about trying to conceive like in a year or so. And they tell me that their functional medicine practitioners want to see their cholesterol a little bit higher.

Dylan:

Yeah, cholesterol is, like I mentioned earlier, it forms 20 percent of our brains, but especially for like a growing and developing fetus, cholesterol is very, very, very important for a developing brain of a newborn. So yes, I would say, especially with pregnant women, focusing on foods like steak, ground beef, chuck roast, eating lots of butter trying to actually build up a healthy amount of cholesterol. And also when you go through you know, pregnancy, like your hormones are all over the place, and so you want to have enough of that building block to be able to produce enough hormones for the development of the fetus as well, so.

Brianna:

It makes sense.

Dylan:

Mm hmm.

Baylee:

Would you say, because you brought up red meat a few times, that's another kind of fear area for many, just because it's been shoved down our throats to like avoid red meat. What are your thoughts on red meat? Should

Dylan:

Yeah, so,

Baylee:

it anyway?

Dylan:

so you look at studies that say red meat causes cancer, red meat causes, like, you know, all this different stuff. Those studies basically They're including things like burgers and tacos and basically they're not isolating red meat itself. They're having it in context in a standard American diet. And they're trying to say, they're trying to associate people that eat more red meat as having more cancer without actually specifically looking at red meat itself. So that's a big issue I have with the research that tries to demonize red meat is it doesn't, it looks at actually the whole context of standard American diet, not actually red meat and, and, and specific. But another thing I will say about red meat is I believe the quality does matter. I'm a big proponent of grass fed. red meat versus like a grain fed GMO GMO grain fed beef, which the, the difference there is the composition of omega 6 versus omega 3 fatty acids. So your grass fed beef is going to have a much higher concentration of omega 3 fatty acids, which are anti inflammatory. Whereas a GMO grain fed beef is going to have much more omega 6 fats, which we have so much of those already in our diet. That once you have a really high ratio of 63, you're much more in a pro inflammatory state. So that's.

Baylee:

Yeah, with that being said, I know kind of budget is a lot of people's concern. I mean, where grass fed beef is more expensive. So would you say it's still beneficial to say they can't afford grass fed beef? What if they're doing grain fed? It's kind of the cheaper beef at the store. are your thoughts on that? Like, do you still think that's better than doing, I don't know, like beef stroganoff in a box?

Dylan:

Yes, absolutely. I still think it is 100 percent better than any other version of kind of a processed version of red meat. You're still getting, you get more nutrients from red meat than you can get from any other food. You get B12, you get K2 you get amino acids like ansarine, taurine, carnitine So yes, if price is an issue, it's not the end of the world. If you can't buy grass fed grain fed is still okay. It's definitely better than something like a beef stroganoff or ultra processed, but I will say if you go to Aldi, you can get two. Grass fed steaks for like 12 or 13 bucks. So it is possible.

Baylee:

Yes, I have not bought red meat in the store in a very long time. Josh's grandpa is a cattle farmer, so we know

Brianna:

Oh,

Baylee:

where our meat is coming from. So we are big fans of red meat.

Brianna:

I live in Texas, so I have very good options.

Dylan:

nice

Brianna:

like a lot of local people, but that is a good question because I think anytime someone has cholesterol, they're like number one, like doctor told me I'm cutting out butter. I'm cutting out red meat and, you know, I'm like, I'm okay to eat meat, you know, and then I feel like I get some pushback. I

Dylan:

Yeah, I would say

Baylee:

feeling like we have to do like the best, highest Best option out here where then we get so caught up where it's like, okay, we're only buying grass fed beef, but, oh, I couldn't afford it this week. So now I had cheese. It's for dinner. I'm like, but we can, we can find a middle ground. So I think with anything, there's always like good, better, best options.

Dylan:

Yeah, I totally agree with that. Yeah to those people that are really concerned I would have them ask their doctor for lipoprotein fractionation so they can actually know the whole context because Patients get fear mongered by a single number without knowing again, the quality of the LDL and HDL really want to highlight that. Hopefully the doctor is receptive to that and will order that test. But a lot of times they don't want to. So,

Baylee:

yes. With concerns of heart health, because that's often what comes up with cholesterol, what other things or labs should people be looking at?

Dylan:

Definitely a cardiac C reactive protein. So this is a marker for. Systemic inflammation is very sensitive to any anything that will cause inflammation, but it's not specific towards any one thing. I also look at homocysteine. when it's high it's a marker of information because it can actually damage your your arteries and cause high blood pressure. And you can. Very easy fix for high homocysteine, and that is methylated B vitamins, so methylfolate, methyl B12, active B6 to kind of help the breakdown of homocysteine to a different amino acid. So those are two big ones, homocysteine and CRP, both cardiovascular risk markers. And then, of course, everything else with metabolic health, insulin, A1C, triglycerides.

Brianna:

Knowing that you're not anyone's. Functional practitioner, unless they're working with groomers into this, but

Baylee:

have a lot of disclaimers in our episodes that we are not your healthcare professional. This is all for general education

Dylan:

Yes, absolutely.

Brianna:

what would your, like in a perfect world, what are some ratios or targets that you would like to see people at in terms of cholesterol and triglycerides?

Dylan:

Triglycerides, I like to see them ideally less than 80, like between 50 and 80. So I'm kind of picky about that one. This is controversial, but I'd rather see a total cholesterol of 240 than 150, 160.

Brianna:

Okay.

Dylan:

especially, yeah, especially if the triglycerides are low, the HDL is high and the small particles are low. So like, some people will have a really low total cholesterol and a low LDL cholesterol, but their LDL particles are really high and their small particles are really high, which that's actually more dangerous than someone who has high cholesterol but really low or small particles. So there's yeah, it's the context of all that stuff. And then with the small particles, you want those to take up as small of a percentage of your total LDL particles as possible. So let's say your total LDL particles are around 1, 000, 1, 200. You want your small particles to be around like 1, 200, 300. So a very small percentage of your total LDL particles. And then for HDL, I like to see HDL typically above 60, is what I'm looking for, for that. but I don't put as much emphasis on an LDL cholesterol until you look at the size breakdown of the particles.

Baylee:

with that. I guess one last question I have is overall, what would you say is kind of outdated information related to cholesterol?

Dylan:

Well it'd be nice if they would change the reference ranges. I think those are outdated. Like I said anything above 200 is considered high cholesterol, which I just completely disagree with. Um, outdated, I think the insulin range is pretty outdated. It goes up to 20, the range is 2. 5 to 25, which is just, again, that's crazy. So I do think some of the ranges need to be adjusted to say, now that we have more Knowledge that it's the context of metabolic health, not just these markers in isolation. There should be more room to raise these range numbers. So people don't feel like so nervous and scared about having a high number because it could be completely normal in the context of being metabolically healthy. And some doctors, I think what's outdated is some doctors still say eat a very low fat diet. Like still eat your, your grains, your pastas, your, I'm not saying don't eat those foods, but. You should not avoid healthy fats, or not even healthy, like, yeah, fats in general. Other than vegetable and seed oils, we want to avoid those, which we can get into that if you guys want. But yeah, don't be afraid. Fat does not make you fat. Fat is good for you. So I think that's outdated.

Baylee:

All right.

Brianna:

I always tell people that. Fat does not make you fat.

Baylee:

Yes. And what I have found, a lot of my weight watchers population are your low fat eaters

Brianna:

Always.

Baylee:

You get too many points for a fat. I'm like, no, no, no. This is why your hormones are not working right. This is why you're like losing hair. This is why you can't function very well. You need fat. I would say, Dylan, I don't know if you get a specific recommendations usually as far as how much fat, but in general, I would say adult women need at least 50 grams of fat a day.

Dylan:

Yeah, see, I don't get super into macros. I let you

Baylee:

But usually I kind of take over that part.

Dylan:

Yeah, you take that part over. My big thing is like the quality of the food. I help people try to focus more on the quality of the food rather than the quantity. And people, if they want to track their macros, that's great by all means go for it. But I never make that a requirement for people because I think it can be overwhelming sometimes. But I like to say like Naturally, if you eat the right quality of food, you eat single ingredient, nutrient dense, whole foods, your body's very intelligent and will regulate your, your appetite and your intake. So you have better satiety signals. It's very difficult to overeat avocados, right? But those are a very calorically dense food. But you're not gonna binge, like, three, four avocados. You eat one and you're full. Whereas you can very easily binge, like, potato chips or some other type of food.

Brianna:

Yeah. The, I have a couple of ex Weight Watcher women and like, I see their whole face completely change and I'm like, yeah, I'd like, you know, half an avocado and they're like, what are you talking about?

Baylee:

Like, that's a lot of points.

Brianna:

in like 25 years. Like that's a red food. I'm like, I promise you, like watch what happens to your cravings and your appetite and your society. Like, and also avocados are great because it's healthy fat and fibers. Personally.

Dylan:

Yeah.

Brianna:

Eat your

Baylee:

a lot of times, if you're not feeling satisfied with meals, it's often because, I mean, there could be a couple of reasons, but one big reason that I have seen lately is just, you're not eating enough fat. You're missing that satisfaction piece at your meals. That's why you're always hungry. That's why you're always diving into the pantry.

Dylan:

Mm hmm.

Baylee:

not normal to be hungry all the time. Oh

Dylan:

That's totally true. Protein, PFF, as you guys, as you guys preach, protein, fat, fiber. Yeah,

Baylee:

yeah, I got Dylan on the PFF, right?

Brianna:

I love it.

Dylan:

Yeah. And one of the note there is like you know, I guess. You guys believe that the, the old school thought of like just eat less calories. That doesn't work. It's, it's not sustainable. It's actually, you want to try and give the body signals of abundance. So maybe in a sense you almost reverse diet. You eat more food, but you eat nutrient dense food that gives your body signals of abundance. And then you actually raise your BMR and then you're able to burn more energy throughout the day. So it's not restrict calories and then your BMR slows down. You have to be in a starvation. Phase to lose weight. It's actually more food, but the right quality of food and your body will adapt and start to burn more energy

Baylee:

Yes. I think a big part of it is like, what, what are we eating? Not necessarily always how much, and I kind of broke this down for someone the other day where honestly, two things could be the exact same calories and they're going to affect your body very differently. So I broke it down with oatmeal and I think I just put raspberries in there. That's all I had for breakfast. Oatmeal and raspberries, 500 calories. It was right there from oatmeal and raspberries and I splashed milk too. So then I changed it, changed how much oatmeal, how much raspberries, added peanut butter, added protein powder, did some chia seeds, same calories, protein was very different, fat was very different. Fiber was different. So, and I was like, if you, I want you to try both of these, honestly, and I want you to see how different you are going to feel. Calories are the same, but it's even that thinking of recognizing how you could swap foods and do different types of macros and see how differently they're going to make you feel energy wise, satisfaction wise. And because I think when I tell people like add peanut butter, add a protein, like switch up these things. It's nerve wracking because it feels like more food, but it's really not necessarily. It just feels like it.

Brianna:

In the balance. Yeah. I think, like, low calorie snack foods is the demise for all women's metabolism. I'm like,

Baylee:

100 calorie snack bars.

Brianna:

yeah, I'm like. No.

Dylan:

Yeah, like we should be eating a high volume of food We should be eating lots of because like, you know You have very low calorie foods and fruits and vegetables You can eat a lot of and feel very full and get the same effect as eating, you know a very tiny amount of french fries but you're getting so much more out of your food, and you're not, you're less likely to overeat.

Baylee:

because, I mean, Dylan, you and I have even worked together before with, like, helping increase your protein and everything to kind of help build that muscle. So, I think, at times, we do need more food than what we think and more metabolically supported food.

Dylan:

Yes, yep, absolutely. Do you guys believe with, do you guys believe in the idea that there's an order in which you should eat your food?

Baylee:

Yes. So I do. Yeah, I do share this with some of my clients when they are ready. First, I got to get the meeting. I got to get the meeting consistently. I got to get the components there, but then I do always like to present like, here's a hack, you know, we all like lifestyle hacks. So doing your veggies, your protein, then more of your starch, your carb great for your bowels.

Brianna:

Oh yeah. And I, cause I like to play around with it, like I'll wear CGMs and do it. And it's just completely different response that your blood sugar has. And for people who like to dine out often, or they're like, feel like they have a hard time with portions or eating too fast, that's such a good hack. Yeah. You can still have some of your French fries that you enjoy, but don't load up on them before. Have your veggies, have your protein. You'll notice your portions are a little bit smaller. You feel satiated. All is well in the world. Whereas if you have the bread and chips and everything prior to your meal, that's where we're going wrong in multiple different ways. But

Dylan:

Yeah. Yeah. That's a great point. It's like when you, when the first thing you eat is the fiber, it almost like it coats your gut lining, makes it less porous and it's you're, you're not going to have a crazy spike in blood sugar.

Baylee:

And it slows everything down.

Dylan:

right. Slows down the absorption of sugar. Whereas if you start with, you know, potatoes or the breads or the starch, then you're going to have a dramatic rise in blood sugar where that could be mitigated by eating that last in a meal.

Brianna:

yeah, that's going to mitigate energy and blood sugar balance for the rest of the day. How you utilize and store nutrients. No, it's, I didn't want to believe that. I really didn't, but the data doesn't lie. Yeah.

Dylan:

yeah, it's like you're telling me I got to eat all my broccoli and then my steak and then I can have my potato. It's like, well, yeah, for best results, you would, you would do that.

Brianna:

And again, it's kind of like Bailey said, I always tell people like, try it. See how you feel.

Dylan:

Mm hmm.

Brianna:

Let me know, you know, and it's always like this epiphany. People are like, Oh, this is wild. Like it actually works. Yeah, it's

Baylee:

always tell people when they come back, they're like, like when I, when I listen to you, everything like really worked out and like, it's, it's crazy. And I was like, thank you for the ego boost. And yes, if you do what I tell you, it's going to work.

Brianna:

just meeting people where they're at, baby stepping in, get them to actually apply it. And then it's an art, you

Baylee:

Yes. Well, Dylan, any last words or any last tidbits of advice that you want to end this episode with?

Dylan:

actually. So when it comes to what you cook your food in,

Brianna:

know

Dylan:

Olive oil and avocado oil are very healthy fats. However, what I will say is, they are not great to cook with. So, the reason why is they are they have more, they're called polyunsaturated fats, or Mono or polyunsaturated fat. So they're, they have more of what are called double bonds. So when you heat them up at high temperatures they have, they very easily break down and oxidize. So if you are going to use olive or avocado oil, I'd actually recommend using it more as like a salad dressing or as a topping for your food. But what you want to cook with is saturated fats like butter, coconut ghee, or beef tallow. Because those really Do not break down or oxidize to the same degree that olive or avocado oil would. And then especially if it's not one of those that I mentioned, if it's canola or corn or peanut or soybean or sunflower or safflower, I would say just try to get rid of those altogether and again, there's debate on the, the seed oils, but I'm a firm believer that they actually drive heart disease more so than, than butter and red meat because they are omega 6 polyunsaturated fats. They are very, very easily oxidized and broken down especially with high heat cooking,

Brianna:

which is why fast food is not great. It's not the beef in your fast food. It's

Dylan:

right? Yes,

Brianna:

maybe a little bit of the beef, but you know,

Baylee:

Yes. Perfect. Perfect. I guess, last question because you brought up oils again thoughts on palm oil.

Dylan:

a fan of palm oil. Cause I mean, you take the industrial processing of. A plant or a seed or a vegetable that otherwise doesn't really naturally have a lot of fat in it. So, I mean, these things have to be highly processed or, or deodorized. They are heated to about 500 degrees and they become rancid. And then you have to deodorize them. You have to bleach them. You have to refine them. So you have to do all these things just to extract something that's edible. And It's the, it's the, the distance from farm to table. So if you take them as a whole food, you take a peanut, you take a soybean they're not inherently bad foods, but it's the, it's the industrial process that's required to extract an oil from those foods that is, actually ends up being kind of toxic for, for humans. So.

Brianna:

and that's like the cancer driving agents are those highly oxidized fats,

Dylan:

Mm hmm. Yeah, lipid peroxides. Yep.

Baylee:

I've had a couple of things that I bought recently that have expeller pressed palm oil in it.

Dylan:

Yeah, that's not the worst. So yeah, expeller press is actually a much better Alternative than like the the typical Industrial processing which would be like the deodorizing the bleach because the expeller cold press are basically pressing out the oil and then you have it Yeah, versus like having to go through all these different Processes to get to the end product.

Baylee:

Perfect.

Brianna:

good, better, best.

Baylee:

Yes. Well, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. I hope you enjoyed your time with us. I think we definitely need to have you back for another episode because, I mean, We can always just keep talking and go into all these different rabbit holes.

Brianna:

Alex.

Dylan:

this was this was awesome. Thanks so much for having me it's my first time on a podcast and That's cool. So I'd love to come back.

Baylee:

Awesome. And do you want to share your social media, like where people can find you?

Dylan:

Yeah, so my business instagram and facebook is called funk med cairo all lowercase all one word. So funk med cairo. I haven't posted on it in like a year Unfortunately, i've gotten really away from it, but I have made maybe 25 30 reels and they're still Good, relevant, I would say, so if you want to look through those, you can, but Nowadays, most of the content is coming from the Backpain Center page. And I believe my posts go out every other Tuesday. So one actually should be coming out today, over the labs that I look at. So, currently, that's where my social media comes out, is through Backpain Center page, but you can still go back and look at all the old reels that I've made.

Baylee:

Maybe you'll have to fire up your page again, get some new videos out there.

Dylan:

I know, I've been saying that.

Baylee:

this could be your moment.

Dylan:

Yeah, yeah, that is true.

Baylee:

right, everybody. Well, thank you for listening to this week's episode and we will be back next week for another one. We will talk to you soon. Bye.

Brianna:

Transcribed

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Baylee

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