Normal — Less than 150 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), or less than 1.7 millimoles per liter (mmol/L)
Borderline high — 150 to 199 mg/dL (1.8 to 2.2 mmol/L)
High — 200 to 499 mg/dL (2.3 to 5.6 mmol/L)
Very high — 500 mg/dL or above (5.7 mmol/L or above)
What’s the best way to lower triglycerides?
Healthy lifestyle choices are key:
Exercise regularly. Aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity on most or all days of the week. Regular exercise can lower triglycerides and boost “good” cholesterol. Try to incorporate more physical activity into your daily tasks — for example, climb the stairs at work or take a walk during breaks.
Avoid sugar and refined carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates, such as sugar and foods made with white flour or fructose, can increase triglycerides.
Lose weight. If you have mild to moderate hypertriglyceridemia, focus on cutting calories. Extra calories are converted to triglycerides and stored as fat. Reducing your calories will reduce triglycerides.
Choose healthier fats. Trade saturated fat found in meats for healthier fat found in plants, such as olive and canola oils. Instead of red meat, try fish high in omega-3 fatty acids — such as mackerel or salmon. Avoid trans fats or foods with hydrogenated oils or fats.
Limit how much alcohol you drink. Alcohol is high in calories and sugar and has a particularly potent effect on triglycerides. If you have severe hypertriglyceridemia, avoid drinking any alcohol.
What about medication?
If healthy lifestyle changes aren’t enough to control high triglycerides, your doctor might recommend:
Statins. These cholesterol-lowering medications may be recommended if you also have poor cholesterol numbers or a history of blocked arteries or diabetes. Examples of statins include atorvastatin calcium (Lipitor) and rosuvastatin calcium (Crestor).
Fibrates. Fibrate medications, such as fenofibrate (TriCor, Fenoglide, others) and gemfibrozil (Lopid), can lower your triglyceride levels. Fibrates aren’t used if you have severe kidney or liver disease.
Fish oil. Also known as omega-3 fatty acids, fish oil can help lower your triglycerides. Prescription fish oil preparations, such as Lovaza, contain more-active fatty acids than many nonprescription supplements. Fish oil taken at high levels can interfere with blood clotting, so talk to your doctor before taking any supplements.
Niacin. Niacin, sometimes called nicotinic acid, can lower your triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol — the “bad” cholesterol. Talk to your doctor before taking over-the-counter niacin because it can interact with other medications and cause significant side effects.
zero-shot chain of thought: asking ChatGPT “What is the fourth word in the phrase ‘I am not what I am?’ ChatGPT: not. The author said a little of zero-shot chain of thought can help get the right answer.
ChatGPT does perform much better when you provide more context and specific examples.
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In the language models developed by OpenAI, there are two primary techniques used to activate its vast store of knowledge and improve the accuracy of responses to prompts.
These techniques are known as “few-shot learning” and “fine-tuning”.
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The oddly named “few-shot” learning, is where the model is trained to recognise and classify a new object or concept with a small number of training examples, typically less than 10, but numbers can vary. For learning where there is only one example, you might also hear it being called “one-shot” learning.
Few-shot learning in OpenAI models can be implemented at both the ChatGPT prompt, as well as programmatically by calling the OpenAI API (Application Programming Interface) “completion” endpoint.
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The “genius in the room” mental model
Jessica recommends three best practices when constructing a prompt to extract the most relevant answers from ChatGPT, as follows:
Explain the problem you want the model to solve
Articulate the output you want — in what format (“ answer in a bulleted list”), in what tone/style (“answer the question as a patient math teacher…”)
Provide the unique knowledge needed for the task
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Zero-Shot Chain of Thought (CoT) Prompting
You may also hear people talking about “zero-shot” learning, where a model is able to classify new concepts or objects that it has not encountered before.
To use this technique, all you need do is to append the words:
“let’s think step by step”, or
“thinking aloud”
At the end of your prompt!
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Fine-tuning
A minimum of a few hundred examples should be your starting point
Some research has also shown that aged garlic extract can help reduce the amount of “soft plaque” in the arteries. Soft plaque is more likely to break off and cause a blockage that leads to a heart attack.
One small study, which involved 55 patients ages 40-75, tracked how the garlic supplement worked for a year. In the end, researchers found those who took the supplement saw an 80% reduction in soft plaque
“The results showed that aged garlic extract actually causes some regression, a little bit of less plaque,” Budhoff said. “Iit actually went away a little bit.”
“We have completed four randomized studies, and they have led us to conclude that aged garlic extract can help slow the progression of atherosclerosis and reverse the early stages of heart disease”
At that time, I followed the standard practices to address my plaque. By going with fasting and low-carb diets, I have been keeping my blood sugar, insulin, and HbA1c (hemoglobin A1c) at much better levels.
Moreover, I did extra changes to my lifestyle:
I started eating salmon every day (like 3 days per week) to get omega 3 oil.
I added niacin to improve my HDL, decrease my LDL, and decrease my triglycerides. Niacin is an over-the-counter supplement, and you get up to about 2 grams daily. So far, it’s the only thing that has a widespread effect on cholesterol values. While niacin is not believed to cause major changes, it did contribute something to my health.
As for blood pressure medications, I switched from ARB to an ACE inhibitor (Ramipril). Apart from decreasing blood pressure, ACE inhibitors also reduce inflammation. (And we just discussed what inflammation can do to your plaque.)
Most of my patients avoid statins due to side effects, but I “bit the bullet” and took a very low dose Crestor (rosuvastatin). I started with 5 mg. Once I got better control of my blood glucose with dietary carb control, I dropped my dosage to 2.5 mg Crestor two times per week. The lower dose also impacts inflammation by decreasing it; the lower dose doesn’t cause diabetes.