Cholesterol reduction secrets with Igor Klibanov

In this episode, Dr. Cliff Redford and Igor discuss drug-free methods to manage cholesterol and overall health. They explore the roles of inflammation, exercise, diet, and natural supplements in cholesterol management. Igor shares insights on the importance of fiber, weightlifting, and the impact of lifestyle changes on health. The conversation emphasizes the need for a holistic approach to wellness, focusing on understanding the root causes of health issues rather than just treating symptoms.

If you'd like to pick up a copy of Igor's book, "High Cholesterol Reversal Secrets", visit https://amzn.to/3FFYSzA.

If you'd like to learn more about Igor, and his services, visit www.FitnessSolutionsPlus.ca.

To claim your free PDF version of the book "STOP EXERCISING! The Way You Are Doing it Now", visit www.FitnessSolutionsPlus.ca/StopExercising

To email Igor directly, his address is Igor@TorontoFitnessOnline.com

First, if you haven't watched my film and live in Canada (or have one of those VPN things), you can watch it here:

https://youtu.be/oMUx3yuyznc?si=oagpg7bGnpbuyXlJ

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @drcliffworldwidevet.com and on Twitter at @drcliff_vet
Listener questions, episode suggestions, or if you have a good idea for a guest, email me at dr.redford@vet905.com
Additional information can be found at drcliff.ca

Transcript

Dr. Cliff Redford (00:00)

Everyone welcome to another podcast episode that life. I'm Dr. Cliff blah blah blah blah blah blah on today. Today's show we are chatting with my buddy Igor. He is making his return visit one of the few people that I invite to come back on. Last time we talked Igor had written a book about ⁓ drug free ways to treat or to help you with your osteoarthritis. ⁓

And he's written, I don't know, 15 books. We're going to find out. but one of the more recent ones now that we're going to talk about is, ⁓ again, ⁓ drug free ways of reducing your cholesterol. And I got to tell you, everybody, I followed his recommendations and I have a, an appointment tomorrow with my family doctor. She was giving me a hard time. You've got to come in. We've got to talk about your cholesterol. We got to talk about your blood pressure.

Well, I'm very excited to go into this appointment because my cholesterol has dropped like 35 % and my, ⁓ my blood pressure went from like 140 over 80 to 120 over 70. Basically I'm in perfect health, at least for an almost 52 year olds. ⁓ very, very happy. And, we're to talk about that. We're just going to talk about some cool stuff. So stay tuned.

Hey everyone, welcome back. As I mentioned in the beginning, Igor is with me and Igor, you're one of the few people, I'm trying to think, other than like little fun segments I do with my dad, the only other person I've had on more than once is my vet student friend, Joanna. We have her on sort of every...

six months to talk about her academic career. So you're in a very special group here, man.

Igor (01:59)

Wow, I'm so privileged, so honored.

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:00)

There you go. Well, I am

honored to have you here. So last time we had you on, you had written a book regarding ⁓ sort of non-medicinal ways of treating and helping people with arthritis. ⁓ And you've written several books at least since then, but 17, well, not since then though, but total 17 books.

Igor (02:15)

Yes.

17. Sorry, not since then. Total 17.

Well, actually written 18. Published 17. My 18th is coming out in about a week or two.

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:30)

my goodness, what is it on?

Igor (02:31)

The title is The Natural Approach to Chronic Inflammation.

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:35)

the natural approach to chronic inflammation. Stop eating sugar. No, that's you told me before that's rheumatoid arthritis.

Igor (02:43)

Correct. So, enough, so a little sneak peek, sugar is not inflammatory unless it violates the first rule of inflammation, which is don't gain weight. So, if you're of normal weight and you eat sugar, it's not inflammatory. If you're overweight and you eat sugar, it is inflammatory.

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:57)

Really?

There are people and I will be one of those where, you, I have a history of rheumatoid arthritis in my family. So maybe it's that, but like, I, if I eat a, a, a dessert, if I eat something that's high in sugar, ⁓ I feel it the next day. Like I feel it.

Igor (03:07)

Yes.

Yes,

absolutely. And so what I specify in my book is there are different kinds of inflammation. There is the inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis or of autoimmune conditions. Then there's what's called non-specific chronic inflammation. In other words, there is no cause. For example, some people, they wonder, is inflammation a cause of chronic disease or is it a consequence of chronic disease? And the answer is yes. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (03:42)

Yeah, I was gonna say both.

Igor (03:43)

In some conditions, it's a cause. For example, with type 2 diabetes, it is...

one of the causes. It's not the only cause, but it's one of the causes. osteoarthritis is a consequence. With rheumatoid arthritis, is a cause. With heart disease, it is a cause. But with somethings, with osteoarthritis, it's a consequence. With allergies, first you have an allergic reaction and then you get inflamed. ⁓ Same thing with injuries. First you sprain your ankle, then comes the inflammation, not the other way around. And so in some cases, it's a cause of and in some cases, it's a consequence of. ⁓ So what we're talking about

Dr. Cliff Redford (04:12)

Right, right.

Igor (04:18)

in this book specifically is non-specific chronic inflammation. So this is not the inflammation you'd see with rheumatoid arthritis or with multiple sclerosis or other autoimmune conditions.

Dr. Cliff Redford (04:28)

Right, right. All right. I'm going to have to have you on a third time. We can talk about that. How does inflammation play a role with elevations and cholesterol?

Igor (04:31)

Sounds good. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (04:39)

Does it?

Igor (04:40)

So yeah, so it definitely plays a role. ⁓ That's why one of the inflammatory markers, CRP or HSCRP, ⁓ is now way more commonly used as a predictor of heart disease or the risk of heart disease than it used to be before. So here's a short chronology of heart disease prediction. In the 50s, we just discovered, ⁓ we just really started measuring just total cholesterol.

Dr. Cliff Redford (05:01)

Please.

Igor (05:08)

At that time, we didn't really know about HDL and LDL. We just thought that all cholesterol is bad. By the 70s and 80s, we realized there was two types of cholesterol. There's HDL and LDL. HDL became known as the good cholesterol and LDL became known as the bad cholesterol. Now it is a bit oversimplified because not all HDL is good, not all LDL is bad, but fast forward another 15, 20 years, now we're in the mid 90s to early 2000s and we realized

there's more than one kind of LDL and there's more than one kind of HDL. ⁓ Then we realized that within LDL, there's LDL-C, which is LDL cholesterol, but there's also LDL-P, which is LDL particles. And what's the difference? Well, LDL cholesterol, what is LDL? What do those letters mean? Low density.

Lipoprotein. So LDL is actually not cholesterol. LDL is the protein. It's a lipoprotein. Lipo means fat, protein as well protein. It's a molecule that carries the cholesterol inside it, but it's not just cholesterol. It's cholesterol plus the protein. And so LDL-C is the amount of cholesterol inside the lipoprotein. LDL-P is the number of particles in general. And so if you think of your arteries as a highway,

What adds more to traffic congestion? Is it the number of people in each car or the number of cars on the road? Well, of course, cars on the road. That's LDLP. LDLC is the number of people inside each car. so LDLC has a very weak relationship to heart disease. LDLP has a stronger, not strong, but stronger relationship to heart disease. But CRP is a marker of inflammation. That's the one that's often measured when ⁓

when we're trying to assess risk of heart disease. Because before, it was thought that we didn't really think about inflammation. Now we're starting to get a more proper perspective of what's going on with cholesterol. We used to think that cholesterol is the problem because wherever there was a heart attack, there was also cholesterol. That was the thinking. When studies were done, we actually realized that about 42 to 44 % of people who have a heart attack

have normal to low cholesterol levels. So just total cholesterol does not differentiate between those who have a heart attack and those who don't have a heart attack. ⁓ So that's a conversation of itself. So then we realized maybe cholesterol is not really to blame. Maybe it's just an inert molecule in the wrong time at the wrong place. The analogy to that would be, imagine there's a fire.

Everywhere there's a burning house, you also see firefighters. But that doesn't mean the firefighters caused the fire. The fire came before the firefighters. And so the same thing happens with inflammation. Now the thinking goes is maybe first there was damage to a blood vessel, like an artery or a vein or a capillary or something like that, and then the cholesterol came to patch it up. So now think of cholesterol as drain-out. It plugs, leaks.

⁓ It plugs damaged arteries. So now that's our thinking. And what is it that caused damaged arteries? It's inflammation. So is the goal to squash inflammation at any cost or is it to understand why is there inflammation in the first place and then address the root cause? Because we're often thinking root cause, root cause, root cause. So we're thinking, well, inflammation starts before cholesterol deposits. True. Often, but not always, but often. But even then,

Dr. Cliff Redford (08:35)

Mm-hmm.

Igor (08:40)

Why is inflammation high to begin with? Is it because we have a lack of curcumin in our bodies? No. ⁓ There's other reasons. Usually with non-specific chronic inflammation, it's a combination of lifestyle and genetics, ⁓ and it varies person by person. For some people, the genetic factor is huge. For example, in your case, you had genetically high cholesterol. ⁓

Approximately 1 in 200 people have something called familial hypercholesterolemia and there's specific diagnostic criteria for that But they they know it when they're 5 years old They get tested and it's through the roof despite them not being overweight not eating lots of processed foods or sugar and they're still off the charts. They will need to be on a diet.

Dr. Cliff Redford (09:21)

except I,

so I myself didn't have that because for the longest time, my cholesterol was low. Yeah.

Igor (09:25)

Yeah.

Exactly.

familial hypercholesterolemia only happens in one in 200 people. But that doesn't mean that people don't have high cholesterol for other reasons. In your case, so you do have genetically high cholesterol, but not high enough to meet the diagnostic criteria of familial hypercholesterolemia. ⁓ But that's our thinking on inflammation as it stands right now. We have to understand the root cause and address that.

Dr. Cliff Redford (09:33)

Okay.

Right. But you know, the big worry is if you get a lot of cholesterol plaques in your arteries causing arthrosclerosis or narrowing of the arteries, you are at a much higher risk for heart attacks and various cardiovascular events, negative events. So are you saying, you know, I can have inflammation of my arteries, which then therefore attract the plaques.

which don't really work as Draino. They work more like a band-aid because Draino clears things. okay, so, and by removing those cholesterol plaques, it prevents the narrowing of the arteries. But does that reduce cardiovascular events or should I really be looking at, why did my cholesterol go up? Why am I inflamed? ⁓ And then I can eat whatever I want.

Igor (10:23)

Yes. Yes.

Yeah, so both actually. ⁓ So yes, the plaques are made of cholesterol. However, we need to differentiate between hard plaques and soft plaques. Hard plaques, imagine the river. A hard plaque is, how would I explain it? It's something that despite a very, very hard stream, it's not going to break off. Hard plaques are much safer than soft plaques. Imagine a soft plaque like a piece of mud that if the stream is hard enough,

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:49)

Ha ha.

Igor (11:17)

it could break off from the river and actually clog it at some point. That's why soft plaques are much more dangerous than hard plaques. Hard plaques are not really dangerous until they start blocking more than 50 % of the diameter. ⁓ Soft plaques are dangerous even if they're blocked a very, very small amount because capillaries are much narrower than arteries. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (11:18)

It breaks off, it erodes.

All right.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Igor (11:38)

So it could end up in a capillary and block something. And so, yes, we have to understand why is there, why are there plaque deposits? Why is there cholesterol? Why is there inflammation? And again, address the root cause.

Dr. Cliff Redford (11:50)

So if I had

essentially no vascular inflammation and yet I ate or lived a lifestyle that would increase my cholesterol, in theory I'm not at a higher risk because the cholesterol has no reason to attach to my arteries.

Igor (12:11)

By and large, that is correct. That is our modern understanding of cholesterol. ⁓ We know that like...

All of these measurements, cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, CRP, et cetera, they're really meant to do one thing, predict the risk of cardiovascular events. And I use that word specifically. I don't say heart attacks specifically because heart attacks are one of multiple cardiovascular events. But all it is, is it's meant to predict the risk of cardiovascular events. But by themselves, each one of those markers is a very weak predictor of cardiovascular disease or events. For example, total cholesterol, again, 42, 44 % of people

Dr. Cliff Redford (12:27)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Igor (12:48)

who have heart attack have normal to low cholesterol. ⁓ The numbers are very similar for LDL, for HDL, for CRP, et cetera. There are very, very few markers that are strong predictors by themselves. ⁓ Ironically, the strongest predictor of heart disease is not a blood test. It's a fitness test, and it's your heart rate recovery. ⁓

This is kids don't do this at home, adults don't do this at home either. Do this under medical supervision and what happens is when you're in a doctor's office, the cardiologist or the technician takes your pulse to the max. ⁓

And then after you reach the max, you step on the sides of the treadmill or you stop, or if you're on a bike, you stop pedaling completely immediately. And then you rest completely for one minute. And a minute later, they measure your pulse. Your pulse should be more than 12 beats per minute lower than your max within one minute. If it's higher, if it's less than 12 beats, beats per minute higher.

than it should be, then your risk of a heart attack is extremely high. If a person is under 65, their risk of a heart attack is 19 % if their pulse did not drop 12 beats per minute within one minute. But only 4 to 5 % if it did drop more than that. That's when you're under 65. For people over 65, it's even more pronounced. It's something like 28 % of people whose pulse does not drop at least 12 beats per minute within one minute of recovery, 28 % of people over 65.

will have a heart attack within the next five years. But again, only 5 to 6 % of people under 65 will have a heart attack if their pulse dropped more than 12 beats per minute.

Dr. Cliff Redford (14:14)

Wow.

Interesting and 12 pizza minutes is not a lot.

Igor (14:27)

No, exactly. The higher the pulse, the faster it should drop. For example, if somebody is watching this podcast and they're, let's say, 60 years old, in theory, their max is 160. If they hit 160 in a minute, they should be below 148. It's not huge drop, but if it doesn't drop that much, that is something to look at.

Dr. Cliff Redford (14:48)

Huh. So, um, I don't mean to make this all about me, but, um, I'm just going to use that as an example, as you know, and as we've talked about, I box and when I compete the amateur masters, which is anyone older than 30 though, because I'm almost 52, they only let me boxing Ontario only lets me fight people that are 42 to 62. It's got to be no more than a 10 year variance, but we do three one minute rounds.

And then we have a one minute rest in between. And my cardio is by far my ba my greatest strength. I'm a decent boxer. My defense is good. I'm probably average power. ⁓ but my cardio, like I beat the 30 year olds in, in, my studio. ⁓ and part of it is I can redline it and I can hold lactic acid and I work on my ability to deal with lactic acid.

Igor (15:18)

Yeah.

yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (15:46)

⁓ so I can redline it for the 90 seconds. And by the time my one minute rest is done, I'm not back to what I was, but it's significant. Like I am significantly rested. ⁓ so that if I were to check my heart rate, I'm sure it's dropping much lower than, than 12. ⁓ you know, comparative now you could argue while it's not cardiovascular, that's causing my heart rate to go up. It's adrenaline and fear and.

Igor (15:53)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:14)

you know, holding your breath, which you're not supposed to do and all those sorts of things and pain. But like, does that, I mean, the answer isn't, well, if I have this great fitness, cardiovascular fitness and recovery, I don't have to worry about my cholesterol. That's not true, right?

Igor (16:14)

Yeah.

No, correct, but ⁓ exercise mitigates a lot of it, especially and ironically, strength training. So we should differentiate between what's good for your cholesterol versus what's good for your heart. Strength training is very good for your cholesterol levels ⁓ and it's good for your heart. Cardio almost doesn't do anything to your cholesterol levels, but it's very good for the heart. Because again, the greatest predictor of a heart attack is not a blood test, but the fitness test of just a heart rate recovery.

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:41)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Igor (16:58)

⁓ Cardio impacts that much more than strength training. However, strength training impacts blood markers more than ⁓ cardio. That's why it's good to do both.

Dr. Cliff Redford (17:02)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, but I mean, your doc, my doctors never asked me to, to do a, like a stress test where, where I stress my heart and see how hard I can push and, whatnot. And in fact, a year ago when my cholesterol was climbing, um, and I had, I think it was maybe a little over a year ago, it was when I turned 50, you know, so I went and I started taking things a little bit more seriously. Um, and I probably should have prior to that, but, um, I felt I was in great physical shape.

and you know, she was worried about it and I, you know, I said, you know, I'd love to do not only the blood work, but could I do an EKG and a stress test, ⁓ running on the treadmill, that sort of thing. And she basically said, you're in great shape. There's, there's, there's no point in doing a stress test. Let's just check your blood. ⁓ do you think that's just, and, and, you know, you're not a doctor, so you don't get to, you know, I get it. You don't want to talk against the medical profession, but.

Igor (17:59)

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (18:08)

We learn, any medical profession, veterinarian, physician, whatever, we learn. And is it that possibly they just don't realize that these stress tests essentially are a better predictor of heart health than these blood tests?

Igor (18:27)

Yeah, I mean the research is out there and it's very, very robust. It's not like I took out one small study with 12 people and that's what I found. This is a meta-analysis. It's used a lot of people and there's a lot of data on this. ⁓ I think, so a lot of doctors don't know this because they feel like it's out of their realm. It isn't, but they feel like it is. They love looking at blood tests, but not as much at fitness tests.

Dr. Cliff Redford (18:45)

Hmm.

Igor (18:49)

they feel like that's a personal trainer's area ⁓ or that is an exercise physiologist's area. So that's one reason. The other reason is that she made a good assumption. ⁓

You're a former Boston marathoner. mean, you're boxing, you're doing spinning classes, you're doing a lot of cardio regularly. So it's a great assumption to think that you're in great cardiovascular shape, but it's not 100 % correct. I'll give you an example. I once had a client who was in his mid-40s. He's been strength training since high school. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:14)

Right.

Igor (19:23)

And he wasn't a small guy. He was maybe 210 pounds at, he wasn't super lean, but he wasn't overweight either. He was like 18, 20 % body fat. And so I was thinking, well, if you've been exercising, if you've been strength training for 30 years without really taking more than a two, three week break, you should be pretty strong. So I started him off on the lat pull downs at a weight that I think would have been appropriate for him. But he had the strength of a sedentary 60 year old woman.

So if I had assumed, which I did, that he had really, really good strength, I would have given him a weight that wasn't appropriate for him. to my surprise, again, he had very, very low strength levels. ⁓ So it started off with where he was at. So we can assume in like 80 plus percent of the time, it'll be a correct assumption. But what about the 20 % or even fewer where it's not a correct assumption? That's where it's helpful to test.

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:15)

Right. And the reality is the average person is not an ex Boston marathon runner who spins, who does boxing, who does this, who does that. ⁓ and so, so running the tests, I don't want to say they're easy, but they're, they're a little bit more standardized and, and it is easy to do. Here's your lab requisition form, go get, go get everything checked out. And they have much, they probably have much quicker, ⁓

Igor (20:23)

Exactly.

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:42)

indicators of, okay, your cholesterol is here. Your blood pressure is this, your family history. Cause that was a big thing for them. They're like, what is your family history? How old was your father when he had his first, uh, heart attack or his first cardiovascular event? Cause if it's under 55, it makes a big difference statistics wise. And they just, they literally just punched it into the computer and they go, okay, you are four times.

more likely, or, you know, you have a 20 % chance in the next five years or whatever it is. Like it's the data is right there. ⁓ but in the end, you know, we should be doing everything. So let's talk, let's talk about this stuff. Let's, ⁓ you know, I'll talk about the things that I did and I followed your protocol a hundred percent, ⁓ to the letter. ⁓ I am a good, I am a good patient and I am a good student.

Igor (21:13)

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, to the letter.

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (21:35)

⁓ when I, when I get injured and I go to the physiotherapist and they say, do these exercises three to five sets, two to three times a day, I do five sets and I do three times a day. Like I do the max and I follow it perfectly and et cetera, et cetera. Like I, I at least understand that. So, ⁓ a couple of things I did, ⁓ I obviously, ⁓ you know, everyone, I think everyone knows about fish oils and everyone, lot of people know about like almonds.

Igor (21:52)

Exactly.

Dr. Cliff Redford (22:04)

but let's talk about fiber. A lot of people may not understand why fiber improves your cholesterol numbers. Potentially. a lot of people talk about fiber as controlling your sugar levels, which it can, ⁓ or at least help reduce your, your risk of diabetes. But not only fiber just increase your fiber, but you had said, eat some right before a junk meal. Like if you're going to have some pizza, you know, pop some Metamucil or pop some, you know, eat some broccoli and

Igor (22:06)

Yes.

Yep.

Good luck.

Dr. Cliff Redford (22:34)

Why is that? Why did the fiber help me so much?

Igor (22:38)

Yeah, fiber is extremely, extremely underrated. People are looking for all these ways to increase longevity and improve their lifespan, et cetera. And they're looking at these very experimental, theoretical antioxidants when the most powerful potent proven with lots of evidence behind it is just little fiber exercise, et cetera. ⁓ But here's why fiber works even before cheat meals. It's a binder. ⁓ It binds

fat and what is cholesterol? Cholesterol is a fatty molecule. So it binds fat and just takes it out of the luster. It's extremely simple.

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:15)

Yeah, yeah. It's just like, let's get out of here. And where does it go Igor?

Igor (23:19)

It goes well first if it binds it in. So the way all food travels is it goes from the mouth down the esophagus into the stomach. It spends some time in the stomach depending on composition of the meal, etc. Size of the meal goes from there into the small intestine, small intestine to the liver and to the large intestine. And then if it's in a large intestine, it gets out of your body. If it's in the liver, it goes into your bloodstream. And so fiber binds it both in the small intestine and in the bloodstream.

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:47)

And then it goes out your poop. That's what I was going to get to cause I'm a child. Cause I'm still pretty child. It goes out your poop. ⁓ and I'm full of poop. ⁓ actually no, because I have a lot of fiber. ⁓ and it's like, like Metamucil gummies are flavor. They're tasty. Like they're yummy.

Igor (23:49)

And it goes out there as well. Yeah, exactly.

That's right. You're all clean.

Yeah, mean, so

interestingly enough, I hear all this flack about processed foods, this processed foods, that, and that's because of the history of processed foods. When they were first coming on the market, I don't know, 100 years ago, they were legitimately bad. They were low protein, low fiber, high sodium, low magnesium, low potassium, legitimately bad. The processed foods nowadays are way better than the processed foods 100 years ago, and heck, even 20 years ago. Now you see processed foods that are high fiber, high protein.

And so that's why taking these very simple gummies, A, they're delicious, B, they're super high in fiber. Yes, they're processed, but they're still good for you.

Dr. Cliff Redford (24:44)

Yeah, I think when people hear process, they think of sugary cereals and fast food, burgers and fries. And that stuff's not good for you. But, but, but taking a, something with nutritional value or a health value like fiber and processing it into flavorful little gummies. Cause I have the palette of a child. They're not processing it isn't necessarily bad.

Igor (24:52)

Exactly.

No one's asking.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:14)

⁓ so I guess

it depends upon the, sort of how people are using that label. ⁓ and then, so weightlifting was another one. and, and I, I believe that a big reason my cholesterol climbed over the last three or four years was because I went from lifting weights six days a week, ⁓ to lifting weights two days a week and really not focusing on heavy. Like I was, I was just focusing on sort of.

speed, like lifting quick. Cause I was again, focusing on my boxing. and you know, I just didn't want to air quotes, bulk up or maintain this massive structure that I have as a strong young man. ⁓ but once you said start lifting weights, you know, minimum three times a week, I went back to deadlifting and squatting and doing all the man broke kind of exercises right back in the old days. I'm even doing it in bare feet sometimes like Arnold Schwarzenegger did.

Igor (26:08)

Yeah.

Right.

Dr. Cliff Redford (26:13)

⁓ and I did some research because I'm going to be seeing my doctor, ⁓ tomorrow. ⁓ and I'm really excited to show her how, how much my cholesterol has dropped. ⁓ and my blood pressure has improved. ⁓ and I suspect she probably won't see the connection, but the studies I had found showed that weightlifting could drop LDL as much as 12%. ⁓ which is significant.

Igor (26:40)

Yeah.

Well, in some of research that I've done for the book, yeah, 12%, some studies, up to 25%.

Dr. Cliff Redford (26:50)

And why is that? So what is it about lifting weights?

Igor (26:53)

Yeah, so one of the main reasons that lifting weights improves ⁓ cholesterol profiles or lipid profiles rather, ⁓ is its effects on insulin resistance. ⁓

Now, even in somebody who's not insulin resistant like you to begin with and still has high cholesterol, ⁓ it just improves blood flow locally. ⁓ But there's different effects on the heart between having a high heart rate from ⁓ cardio versus from strength training. With cardio, you get something called eccentric cardiac hypertrophy, which means that the heart has four chambers. And one of those chambers is called the left ventricle. The left ventricle expands in size in response to cardio.

However, that's not the same as in responsive strength training. So when you get strength training, you get something different. You get an effect called concentric cardiac hypertrophy, which means that the volume of the chamber does not increase. However, the thickness of the walls increase. It's almost like doing biceps curls. Your biceps gets thicker when you do biceps curls and so does the heart muscle. ⁓

The reason for that is because of the different stimuli, the different demands on the body. With cardio, you don't have one specific area to pump blood to, like a lot of blood at very, very fast. Yes, your legs are moving, but not with a lot of force. ⁓ With strength training, you need to pump blood to one specific area, to the muscle being worked at that moment. You don't need to pump blood overall, you need to throw it fast to one area. That's why the thickness increases with strength training, but the volume increases with cardio.

And so with somebody who is insulin resistant, strength training is better for insulin resistance compared to cardio. But for somebody who's not insulin resistant, ⁓ there's other mechanisms at play that can help with ⁓ the reduction in cholesterol levels. And ⁓ one of them has to do with the way the blood flows during strength training versus the way the blood flows during cardio.

Dr. Cliff Redford (28:53)

Wow. Yeah, that was a big one. I don't know, just have, it's obviously totally anecdotal. I just have a feeling that the two greatest improvements or the two greatest effects for me were going back to power lifting of a more frequent nature. And you had said to be for weightlifting, for cholesterol, it's got to be eight or less reps, right?

Igor (29:19)

Yes. ⁓ So, and funny enough, as a fitness professional, always have a, this is drilled into our brains, ⁓ F-I-T-T, frequency and density, time and type. There needs to be specificity in exercise prescription. In other words, when a doctor prescribes a medication, there's specificity. There's a lot of precision. In other words, there's the name of the medication, dosage, with food or away from food morning or evening. Well,

It's not enough to just say you should exercise. You're missing so much detail and the devil is in the details. You need to know a bunch of factors, parameters in order to do it precisely the right way. Because for example, for osteoporosis, I often hear people say, I'll ask them, do you do strength training? They'll say, yes, I do body pump plasmas. I say, that's not strength training. That's cardio with weights. That's not bad for you. Cardio is great, but it's not strength training. You need to do it the right way.

Sometimes the right way is low reps, ⁓ high weights. Sometimes the right way is high reps, low weights. ⁓ For cholesterol, it's actually moderate. It's like eight to 15 reps, somewhere there. That happens to be the sweet spot for cholesterol, but not necessarily for osteoporosis or other factors.

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:24)

Okay, okay.

Gotcha. ⁓ okay. So some other things that I did, I started taking red rice yeast. Is that right? Red yeast rice capsules. They're very nice pink color. ⁓ what is that? I just took it. You told me to, and I took it. What is that and how does it help?

Igor (30:38)

Read with Price.

Red yeast rice is, so you know how approximately 50 % of pharmaceuticals are derived from plants. Red yeast rice is the original statin. That's what, essentially, red yeast rice is a natural version of a statin. It's not Lipitor, it's not Crestor, but it's a different statin.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:04)

Are you telling me I'm taking drugs? I wanted to do this without drugs. Come on.

Igor (31:16)

And it's very, effective. statins are the generic term or the general public term for it. The scientific name for it is HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors. They inhibit the enzyme that makes cholesterol. ⁓ Obviously not completely because nobody's cholesterol levels are zero, except for dead people. ⁓ But that's one mechanism. It's not the only mechanism. ⁓

⁓ But statins are highly effective and this is a natural statin, not quite as potent as a pharmaceutical-grade statin, but still very, very potent in combination with everything else you did, the fiber, the strength training, the other supplements. That made a big difference.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:58)

Beautiful, beautiful. And then another one is I took a bergamot, is that right? Yeah, so again, what is it and how does it work?

Igor (32:01)

Yeah.

Yeah, bergamot is a natural supplement derived from just fruits. And one of the mechanisms of action is also is an HMG CoA reductase inhibitor. In addition to that is an antioxidant. ⁓ And you know how early we talked about fiber and poop and stuff like that. ⁓ bergamot extract increases the amount of fiber of cholesterol you lose in your poop. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:36)

⁓ I got greasy poops

Igor (32:37)

Also, yeah, greasy poops, that's it. ⁓ It also

decreases the synthesis of triglycerides. Triglycerides are a different kind of fat, cholesterol is a different kind of fat. it helps not just cholesterol levels, it doesn't just help you beat the test, but it actually helps you have a healthier heart.

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:45)

Okay.

Beautiful. Okay. wow. That's a, that's, that's fantastic. Do you think, and you can say, you're not allowed to say, if you've got someone that has elevated cholesterol, they've been on statins for a while. et cetera, et cetera. And their cholesterol levels are now good because they're on these statins. Could they start? I mean, there'd be no problems with them upping their fiber. There'd be no problems with them lifting weights.

Would there be any problems with them taking these plant derived pharmaceuticals like the red yeast rice? Is that right? Red yeast rice or the bergamot while they're on the statins.

Igor (33:31)

Yeah.

Yeah, I can't answer that not because I don't want to, but because this is really a question for a pharmacist. The best people to talk to about drug-nutrient interactions are pharmacists. Doctors don't really know supplements, so many of them, just to be on the safe side, they'll say, don't take it. Not because they know, but just because they don't know. Pharmacists do know supplements. So pharmacists are the best people to speak to about drug-nutrient interactions. However...

Dr. Cliff Redford (33:53)

Gotcha. That's fair.

Igor (34:02)

Having said that, I will say this. There are a couple of possible interactions between drugs and ⁓ supplements. One, they can have an additive effect. In other words, the supplement lowers your cholesterol and so does whatever supplement you're taking. That's not necessarily good. There is such a thing as too low cholesterol. ⁓ So that's not good either. You don't want excessively low cholesterol. There is a reason that perfect cholesterol is not zero, millimoles per liter. It's like below 5.2, but it's not zero. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (34:16)

Yeah.

Igor (34:30)

So they could have an additive effect. That's not, you don't want that. They could also have a negative effect, not negative in the sense of it's bad for you, but it negates the effect of statins. In other words, the statins lower cholesterol and the supplement raises cholesterol. So the next net effect is no effect. You don't want that either. Now, most of them,

Bergamot extract, ready strata, et cetera, will have an additive effect to most add-ins, Lipitor, Prestor, et cetera. And so again, I don't know the exact interactions, but a pharmacist would know those interactions. So if somebody really wants to get personalized with their medications and supplements, speak to a pharmacist.

Dr. Cliff Redford (35:07)

Yeah. Yeah. Cause I mean, I'm whether this is just a natural sort of ego thing or there's got to be some sort of logic behind it. I want to be drug free. You know, like if, if I can keep my cholesterol down without taking a prescribed pharmaceuticals, then I'm happy. and

for those, especially the loved ones in my family, and they will be listening and they know who I'm talking about. They know I'm talking about them. If there's a way to reduce their cholesterol and then therefore able to wean them off the drugs that they're on, I would think there's got to be a benefit. Like for example, fiber, if you can max out your fiber and take it at appropriate times or more specific times, and that's going to naturally lower your cholesterol, great.

Also, it reduces colon cancer risk. Also, it improves your diabetes risk, you know, numbers, ⁓ et cetera, et ⁓ So, you know, there's got to be, Mother Nature has found benefits in all these ⁓ foods and sort of products and things that we can take from Earth versus from a laboratory. ⁓

Igor (36:03)

Yes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (36:28)

beyond just the one marker that we're considering. Yeah.

Igor (36:31)

Yes, 100%.

I always say like your goal is health, not just to beat the test. ⁓ And the reason I made the distinction is because while people are thinking, doesn't my health improve if I my cholesterol levels? If you just do it to beat the test, then probably not. For example, prior to the invention of statins, there was vitamin B3 niacin, and that was used ⁓ very, very effectively to lower total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, et cetera.

So people are wondering, well, why do they stop using it? Is it because statins came on the market? Is it the pharmaceutical companies, et cetera? No. They were actually shown that niacin, despite producing these markers, don't reduce what really matters, the risk of heart disease. But statins actually reduce the risk of heart disease. Granted, there's other things that can also reduce the risk of heart disease, ⁓ and those other things like fiber don't come with side effects.

unless you go too much and then you stay close to the toilet. But I think, my non-medical opinion, is that think that statins and medications general are overprescribed in North America, but from the parts of the world, even the Western world. And I don't blame doctors. I completely understand why. And that is because...

doctor's faith in patient's compliance to lifestyle changes is atrocious. However, exactly.

Dr. Cliff Redford (37:54)

We're lazy. We're lazy. Like

as a society, you know, we're, we're, ⁓ but the hamburger tastes so good. The French fries tastes so good. I don't like broccoli. So I don't want to eat broccoli for the fiber. And the doctor knows that's not going to, you're not going to probably, I think my doctor is going to be very pleasantly surprised. but like she, when I, when I told her I was going to reduce it through diet and exercise and this and that.

Igor (38:03)

Yes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (38:24)

She was like, okay, eat more fish. ⁓ you know, increase your fiber. That was it. That was all she told me. And it's not that she was doing a bad job. She's probably met every day five guys in their fifties. like, ⁓ don't want to take statins. Like, I don't want to take drugs. I'm fine. I feel great. I can lift 250 pounds. I'm amazing. You know, I can't lift that much, but so, so she was just like, ⁓

Igor (38:47)

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (38:53)

Get on the drugs because I know that's going to work, you know, ⁓ and you know, it's yeah, get on the drugs. That's going to help. ⁓ but yeah, we, as a society, we don't, a lot of us aren't willing to put in the work, ⁓ needed. And, you know, as far as let's say weightlifting, you know, people will say, you want, you want to get in better shape exercise more, but that's not specific.

Igor (38:55)

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah,

exactly.

Dr. Cliff Redford (39:20)

You

know, not only for cholesterol, but cardiovascular disease or weight loss, or, know, I exercise more. So I had a donut. Okay. Guess what? Your weight loss just went, you know, went, ⁓ went out the window. ⁓ you know, all these different, all these different factors. So, ⁓ they all it's like, they need a personal trainer like you are at fitness solution.

Igor (39:29)

Yeah, out the window.

Well, exactly. But that's why

doctors prescribe medication so much. They rightfully assume that compliance is going to be bad. And that's why you're not typical. Your compliance is ridiculous. ⁓ You're not your average patient, right? ⁓ Yeah, yeah. So the average person, I don't know the stats on this, but if I was to give my estimate, probably less than 10 % of people who get recommended lifestyle changes will actually stick to them beyond, let's say, three months. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (39:48)

and ⁓

Igor (40:07)

And so I completely understand why doctors will just say, here's a pill, because compliance to that is so much higher than stop the burger. Don't eat that cotton candy. Drop the chocolate bar. ⁓ Go to the gym three times a weekend and lift weights. Compliance to that is going to be terrible. But compliance to here, take a pill, that's going to be so high.

Dr. Cliff Redford (40:26)

Yeah, yeah, it's going to be very, quick. one last question. You also recommended I reduce my sugar, my processed sugar to help lower my cholesterol. Is that just like an insulin thing?

Igor (40:37)

Yes.

Yeah. So ⁓ part of it is insulin resistance, ⁓ also, in, in we, and that's why I hesitate to talk about macros, just carbohydrates, because vegetables like spinach is a carbohydrate. So sugar, are they the same thing though? Well, they're not fast. They're not protein. So by definition, they're carbs, but they have different effects on the body. So yeah, sugar. Yes. It increases insulin resistance, even when calories are matched.

Dr. Cliff Redford (40:56)

Mm. Mm-hmm. No.

Gotcha. So basically live a good lifestyle, healthy lifestyle and exercise more. No, no, it's got to be specific. I'm being a smart ass here.

Igor (41:16)

Yeah, but again, nothing to do now.

Yeah, well,

exactly. It's very, very simple. Like in general, if I was to boil down good health to like only three things from the perspective of nutrition, not including the exercise, supplements, sleep, et cetera, but just nutrition. Assuming somebody does not already have chronic conditions, there's really only three things you need to do. Eat the right number of calories, eat the right amount of protein, eat the right amount of fiber, and that's it. Everything else is just details. If you want to eat two big meals per day or five small meals per day, doesn't matter. If you eat after six, you eat only after six, doesn't matter.

The ratio of carbs to fats doesn't matter. Just hit those three things, calories, protein, fiber, and you're good to go. If somebody has chronic conditions, just doing those three things will improve something that's completely reversed that condition. There's a few more things to do with conditions. If they're a diabetic, they need slightly more fiber. A non-diabetic needs 14 grams per thousand calories. A diabetic needs 70 to 20 grams per thousand calories.

with osteoporosis, fiber is not important at all, but protein is. Calories are not important at all either. There's one thing that matters and it's just protein. So with some conditions, there are a few other things that matter, but by and large, just for general healthy living, calories, protein, fiber, and you're good to go.

Dr. Cliff Redford (42:31)

Mr. Igor, how can people, first of all, you're going to send me the link to your book, this book specifically, and I will put it on my little summary thing. But you have this great newsletter. You did an article about my cholesterol dropping and then my stepmom ⁓ reached out to me. She's like, my God, I read the article and I have some questions. ⁓ How can people get ahold of you? How can people learn from you? Basically sell yourself to all my listeners.

Igor (42:35)

Yes.

Sure, so I'm actually giving away a free PDF version of one of my other books called stop exercising the way you're doing it now ⁓ They can get it for again for free if they just visit www.fitnesssolutionsplus.ca slash stop exercising ⁓ I'm very bad with social media. So don't don't don't try looking me up on there. I mean you're welcome to but It's a ghost town and but but

Dr. Cliff Redford (43:22)

It's not going to work. Yeah. Yeah. You're smart.

Igor (43:25)

My email address is Igor at TorontoFitnessOnline.com and my website is FitnessSolutionsPlus.ca

Dr. Cliff Redford (43:34)

Okay. I'll throw those all on the summary and, ⁓ everyone really does need to reach out to Igor, even if you're not looking for personal training, even if you're not looking for specific assistance and nutrition or anything like that. if you're not in the area, cause you're in the Toronto area. the reality is, is just getting on your newsletter list. It's free. It's not overwhelming the number of newsletters you send and the information is really useful and simple to read. So.

Igor (44:02)

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Dr. Cliff Redford (44:03)

Everyone has to do it. Perfect. Thanks for, uh, thanks for coming on. We're going to do this again. You're going to be, uh, three times a charm soon. All right. Thanks buddy.

Igor (44:09)

It sounds good. Thank you for doing this.