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LDL-cholesterol and osteoporosis
I've started reading McCormick's book 'Great Bones'. He attributes his osteoporosis for the main part to too many MALPS, caused by a high LDL. He also says: "Couple this with a red blood cell count (RBC) below 4.0 million/mm3 and you probably have excessive MALP-production (see pages 46-47).
I searched and found e.g. this article from 2022: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8896571/ "High Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels are Associated with Osteoporosis Among Adults 20–59 Years of Age" .
That article links to this article from 2020: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32163637/ "The Effect of Plasma Lipids and Lipid-Lowering Interventions on Bone Mineral Density: A Mendelian Randomization Study."
By the way, despite McCormick's expectations, according to my google research, tocotrienols don't look effective in lowering LDL cholesterol.
For me, discovering that high levels of LDL cholesterol can form a significant contribution to osteoporosis, is an eye opener.
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Interesting… I have a friend who has an elevated LP(a) and high cholesterol. She was taking Atourvastatin and her doctor kept increasing dosage because her number wasn’t coming down enough. She’s recently added another drug to help and it is Zetia.
I take a Repatha injection every other week and my cholesterol is under 50. Not sure if I would work for everyone, but I did take a statin for three weeks before figuring things out, and I did not feel good while taking and was taken off the statin when I started the Repatha.
I also have read McCormick’s book and got a lot out of it. I didn’t remember about the MALPS so I went back and looked at the pages you cited.
I have seen a lot of cautions on Vit E supplementation, and I think it best to get it from foods.
If you are looking to reduce LDL with food or supplements, I recommend taking a look at the Portfolio Diet. It was developed in Canada at the University of Toronto in the 2000’s and has been validated through a series of trials.
I’ve been adding in the portfolio foods since January 2026. I took 67 points off my total cholesterol and 47 off my LDL specifically.
I’ve found it very easy to implement and plan to stay with it forever.
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4 Reactions@reginacl
Thank you!
Thank you for educating me!
osteoprob48
I take calcium, Vitamin D3 and recently started MK4 to address osteoporosis concerns. Looking to learn about their effect if any on cholesterol levels.
@osteoprob48 I've been taking all those for three years. No effect on cholesterol, not for me anyway.
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1 ReactionThank you!
osteoprob48
It’s a dance—these high carb diets avoid animal protein and bones need high quality protein. Where is the diet study specific to bones? —not heart, liver, etc but actual focus on bone building.
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What are your dexa scores?