Is It Possible To Raise HDL Cholesterol?

I would be interested if anyone has managed to raise their HDL and how they did it. I have managed to lower my total cholesterol from 240 to 180, but my HDL has remained at a stubborn 35.

Here is a list of ways given to raise HDL :

Aerobic exercise for thirty minutes a day
Lose weight
Stop smoking
Reduce trans fatty acids
Drink a few glasses of alcohol
Increase intake of monounsaturated fats
Add soluble fiber
omega-3 fatty acid

The best drug seems to be large doses of Niacin (one of the B vitamins), which can have side effects and can be dangerous. Aerobic exercise seems to have disappointing low influence on HDL. Does anyone have a HDL success story?

Exercise effect on HDL
About.com:Heart Disease

The Coyote Myth Of How Cats Were Created

The following selection is from my novel, The Song of the Coyote. The family of coyotes are eating deer meat and Tyke, a coyote pup, is the last to eat. While she eats, her dad tells her the story about how the cat was created.

"Well," her dad began, "the small cat was the last animal created by the Great Coyote. As I’m sure you remember, it is from the Great Coyote that all things where created. The cat was sort of a mistake, I think." He adjusted his sitting and prepared to tell the story; Tyke knew that when her dad did this he was about to tell her something interesting. "But anyway, what happened is that when the Great Coyote was very sad, the last tear, the very last tear, which dropped while he cried, was not really a full size tear. I suppose the Great Coyote was beginning to feel better. Mostly that last tear was just part of a tear, part of the tear stayed in his eye and the other part dropped. And if you remember," he studied Tyke for a second, "all living things were created from the tears of the Great Coyote."

"Yeah," Tyke thought back, "I seem to remember something about that. He was feeling sad because he was all alone."

"That’s right. Well anyway, from the small part that dropped, the small cat was formed. Like I said, it was a big mistake, because the small cat was born too fatty and too lazy to take care of himself. But the Great Coyote, caring as he does for all life, was sad to think that the small cat would not live because it could not take care of itself."

Her dad stopped talking. Tyke, still smacking on the raw meat, looked up at him. "What happened next?"

He smiled and continued. "The Great Cloud Spirit decided to do something about it. The Great Cloud Spirit, formed from the breath of the Great Coyote, told the small cat to go to man and that man would take care of him. So the small cat went to man, and man took care of the small cat."

"Why?" Tyke's mouth was full with food. "Why would man take care of the small cat?"

"Because man owed the Great Coyote such a big debt for making him such a powerful animal."

"Oh...," Tyke continued chewing.

"Anyway, under man's protection the cat prospered as no other animal ever had. The small cat grew in numbers greater than man himself. And man became concerned because there were so many of them. They were everywhere. Man asked the Great Cloud Spirit for help. And the Great Cloud Spirit, because he always loved coyotes the most, because we're just like the Great Coyote himself, the Great Cloud Spirit gave us permission to feed on the cat."

"Wow." Tyke looked over at Dingo. "Did you hear that? We can eat all the small cats that we want."

Dingo smiled.

Running – A New Beginning

I am a failed runner. Last year I set myself the goal of running the four miles that I normal walked. I stuck with it for  six months, but I never came close to running four miles. My best was to run half a mile without stopping. I probably never ran more than a total of one mile of the four miles of my walk/run. It has made me appreciate the abilities of those who can run for miles and miles. I have gone on thirteen mile hikes and thought pretty high of myself for walking so far, but some can run that distance and still go another thirteen.

I am hoping that running is like quitting smoking; you have to try several times before having success. I have set myself a New Years goal of running those four miles and eventually, maybe next year,  run six miles. The crucial bit of knowledge that I learned last year is that running for me will not come easy or automatically; my muscles need need to develop some flexibility and strength. It will take work and a strategy.

The work required is obvious. The strategy may not be so obvious. For a fitness novice like myself cross training is a necessity to help my body develop an overall fitness level. Cross training is any type of exercise activity that is not running. I plan to use dumbbells and tension tubes. The tension tubes are surprisingly effective, try running in place or doing bends with tension tubes holding you back; they make a difference.

My second strategy is to use the running program found in the book “The Beginning Runner’s Handbook: The Proven 13-Week Walk/Run Program” by Ian Macneill and The Sport Medicine Council Of British Columbia.  Most of the book is written for the true beginner. As a long time walker and a second year want-a-be runner, most of the information in the book I already knew, but for many the information may be enlightening and important. What was new to me was the walk/run program found in chapter nine.

Last year I broke my running into five minute chunks or just ran until I could not anymore, which usually only took a few minute. That did not work. The walk/run program starts out by having you run for one minute and walk two minutes. Then gradually you will run more and walk less. It is designed to help you actually become a runner without hurting yourself in the process.

I am actually using this program on my apartment’s treadmill because it is too cold to walk/run outside. I have only started but I am optimistic that this program will make a runner out of me.

The Wisdom Of Mark Twain

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

Morals are an acquirement—like music, like a foreign language, like piety, poker, paralysis—no man is born with them.—Mark Twain

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. -Mark Twain, U.S. Author (1835-1910)

Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it -- and stop there -- lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again, and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. -- Mark Twain

Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal that has the true religion -- several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

We despise all reverences and all objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our list of sacred things. And yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy to us. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

Noise proves nothing—often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid. -Mark Twain, U.S. Author (1835-1910)

Editor – Grammar And Style Checker

Do You Need A Proofreader? I suffer from bad grammar, bad style and bad spelling. It is like a disease. I have not yet found a cure, but I have found a way to treat the symptoms. I find it helpful to use Microsoft Word grammar checker and a program called Editor. Microsoft word checker gets much bad press, but I find it helpful. Even more helpful is the Editor. The Editor is a proofreader that will check your grammar, your style, and your spelling. The Editor will make your writing better.

Finds Many Errors. The Editor is sold by Serenity Software for $50. It is well worth the price. The software is sophisticated. I am amazed by how often I connect words with the preposition “of” when I do not need to. I am also surprised by how often I use the word “really,” “very,” and “even” without realizing it. These are just the obvious examples, but the Editor catches bucket loads of other errors. It found fifteen questions about this small article alone.

Here Is A Tip. If you work with long documents, you can make a macro that will copy a highlighted area of your document, paste it to a new document, and save it to your hard drive. Then you can open Editor, upload that document, and perform the checks. Once this file is checked, save the output files to the hard drive, so they can be uploaded into Word as described below.

Create Macros To Make Using The Editor Easier. The Editor will produce two files, a draft file and a usage file. (The draft file is a copy of the document uploaded into Editor, but with numbers before each sentence. The usage file shows the problems Editor found and shows the sentence number where the problem is found.) Both of these files are text files. Save these files to your hard drive, always in the same directory, and create a macro in Microsoft Word that will automatically load both text files and position them in Word. I have my macro set up so the source document takes up the left part of the screen, the usage file uses the upper right part and the draft file takes the lower right. This will make them much easier to work with.

You Do Not Have To Use The Macros. If you are a sophisticated computer user, you can use a freeware program like Autohotkey to start the first Word macro; then open Editor, load the Word document, and perform the checks; then go back to Word and start the second macro. Creating these macros can be time consuming and you do not need to do it, but it does make Editor easier to use.

Editor Will Improve Your Writing. The best thing about Editor is that it will improve your writing. The bad thing about Editor is that without the macros I have described, it can be difficult to use.

Here is the code for the macros I use.
Serenity Software
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