Goldilocks and your cholesterol: Getting it "just right"

Q: A few years ago, my doctor diagnosed me with high cholesterol. I chose not to go the statin drug route and have been working on lowering my levels with diet and exercise. I guess it paid off, but maybe too much -- at my last checkup my doctor told me my levels might actually be too low! What do I do now?

JVW: As with blood pressure, much more attention is given to the dangers of high cholesterol than those associated with low cholesterol. But low serum levels of cholesterol can increase your risk of cancer, stroke, and depression.

I generally start to pay particular attention to cholesterol levels if they're 140 mg/dl or below, and then advise patients to take the few effective measures known to raise serum cholesterol, starting with manganese.

Although I have not found it effective in raising serum cholesterol to the normal range in every patient who tries it, in my experience, manganese is at least partially effective in more than 50 percent of cases.

My usual recommendation is to take 50 milligrams of manganese citrate once or twice daily. When your cholesterol levels are back up within a normal range, reduce the dosage to 10 to 15 milligrams once daily.

What is...manganese?

Manganese is a trace mineral essential to human health. It is a key co-factor in the transformation of cholesterol to steroid hormones.

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