[Help] High cholesterol

[HantsSeagull]

Obviously some dietary issues contribute to high cholesterol. My father had it and my brothers do aswell. I was diagnosed over 20 years ago and went on a strict diet etc- brought me down from 8 to 7! Doctor said that was as good it was going to get with diet and it was largely hereditary. Been on statins ever since and very grateful for it.
made me a bit lazy in watching my diet but have recently lost 15kgs and started walking more and drinking less. I doubt it has made any difference to my cholesterol, but my blood pressure is down!!

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Interesting stuff. A friend of ours (who's a consultant pathologist) is adamant that when the Total Cholesterol level goes above 5, you should be on statins. He's been on them himself for many years. After speaking to him recently I had a blood test, and my TC is 5.5 (but according to my GP, that's "normal")

I went on statins when my TC hit 5.

I had to bully my GP but he'd cocked up his reading of my HDL and LDL and had told me I had a 40% risk of an MI in the next 10 years. When he realized the mistake (I am a fish and veg man and my ratio was actually excellent) I said he can jolly well put me on statins anyway. So he did.

All my cardiology medic pals are on statins. The risk/benefit ratio is really good..

Watch out for muscle pain and change to a different statin if you get it. I started on Simva and switched to Atorva. No ADRs now. The styrofoam shit faded to normal after a while too.

#liveforever.

(wrt @Anger, bacon, sausages, pork......cream cakes, cheese.....we all know what the bad shit is.)

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Thanks for all these posts, kingmaker me feel a little more like it's not the end of the world, so thanks!

Re porridge, i'm a wee bit of a snob when it comes to oat breakfast!

Oats should be jumbo, in processed and organic if possible, refined milled or the microwave stuff has loads less fibre so not as good at lowering cholesterol. Honestly, water is the way forward. I never make my porridge with milk.

I recommend trying oats (I like tesco jumbo organic oats) cooked with water and a pinch of salt. Put the oats and cold water in pan, heat slowly, i add pinch of salt, cinnamon (seems to make it taste sweeter) Then add fruit, apple, grapes, blueberries and seeds. I like Chia and Flax seeds as well as sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Apparently oats souk up pesticides more than any other grain and they also require loads more pesticide that other grains. So organic is a good option as the non organid ones can contain toxins. Apparently.

Always organic. Jumbo. Lactose free milk. Pinch of salt. But I have gluten issues so I don't eat oats anymore. Boo. BOO! Boo.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Interesting stuff. A friend of ours (who's a consultant pathologist) is adamant that when the Total Cholesterol level goes above 5, you should be on statins. He's been on them himself for many years. After speaking to him recently I had a blood test, and my TC is 5.5 (but according to my GP, that's "normal")

I started taking statins about 30 years ago, a couple of years post type 1 diabetes diagnosis.
My GP called me in and said my Cholesterols are a bit high and wanted to start me on statins. At the time I was on a very steep learning curve to understand what was going on with my body. I was in my mid-thirties and had been fit-as-a-fiddle until T1 diagnosis. I remember him explaining that the western world were struggling with cholesterol due to modern lifestyles. i.e. no more hunter-gather activities, living in warm centrally heated homes, inc indoor lavs. Basically, we were all going a bit soft.

The line that will forever stick in my memory (well two actually). I asked how long would I need to take the tablets for, thinking they would be like a course of antibiotics, and was taken aback when he said, for the rest of your life! He closed with: If the NHS could afford to, they would put the whole population on these, because the benefits are enormous (for the general population).

I'm on 40mg per day now and my last cholesterol test was 3.7 in Oct-24. Back in 2016 it was 5.1 so my dose was upped from 10mg to 20mg (Simvastatin back then). 2022 dose was upped to 40mg and switched to Atorvastatin where I've been 4.3 - 4.1 & then 4.0 in 2023.

One of the few benefits of being a T1 diabetic - annual health MOT which includes full blood test, urine, eyes, feet, kidney function and free prescriptions - but I would happily swap this curse to be "normal".

 

[Anger]

(wrt @Anger, bacon, sausages, pork......cream cakes, cheese.....we all know what the bad shit is.)

Noooo! Please don’t let that be true!

They’re so tasty.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

When I lived in the States I noticed their food labelling included the amount of cholesterol inside a product. Not sure why this information is not available on our food packaging as it would be useful to know IMO

 

[alanfp]

I understand (having been alerted to this fact by a retired GP) that there is little correlation between cholesterol in food intake and the cholesterol level in your body... it's mainly down to your intake of saturated fats.

I found this extract on the interweb as a summary:

When it comes to lowering your cholesterol levels, research shows it’s not dietary cholesterol we should worry about. Instead, two types of unhealthy fats — saturated fat and trans fat — are the culprits behind elevated bad cholesterol.

As a disclaimer, I am not a doctor - I never really bothered

 

[Shorehamseagull]

Have a look into Magnesium and Vitamin D supplementation. There’s lots of emerging evidence that deficiencies alongside stress and poor sleep have a much more significant impact than diet on cholesterol.

Comparison of Mechanism and Functional Effects of Magnesium and Statin Pharmaceuticals

A lot of the traditional advice stems from things that make pharma and food companies more profit.

 

[Albion my Albion]

I'm 44, I run about 20 miles a week, i have run 2 marathons and 2 ultra marathons this year, I don't drink alcohol... but, just been told that i have High cholesterol. FFS!!! I do eat healthy-ish but, I've been a bachelor/divorcee for 4 years so i'm not always cooking the right things. I cook well when i have the kids but have been known to eat crap when they are not here. I can emotionally eat cake, biscuits ice cream etc. I like my bacon, sausages, pies etc.

Any tips? It's not really high but it's a worry. I have asked to have another test in 6 months and try and lower it with a change in my diet.

You mostly eat by habit not because you are hungry. Stop the eating by habit, because someone else is eating and you feel you need to social eat with them, you eat when watching a TV programme or other regular event (watching sport, walking by a food provider--ice cream parlor, watching films in the theater & eating popcorn) or providing a treat to a child and joining in the eating, etc.

 

[Albion my Albion]

When I lived in the States I noticed their food labelling included the amount of cholesterol inside a product. Not sure why this information is not available on our food packaging as it would be useful to know IMO

View attachment 191172

Getting Americans to actually read the "boring" labels and paying attention to the high numbers of cholesterol in certain products is the tough part.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Getting Americans to actually read the "boring" labels and paying attention to the high numbers of cholesterol in certain products is the tough part.

Yes agreed - I didn't notice much attention being paid to the numbers when I used to get my coffee in Dunkin Donuts !

 

[METALMICKY]

Have a look into Magnesium and Vitamin D supplementation. There’s lots of emerging evidence that deficiencies alongside stress and poor sleep have a much more significant impact than diet on cholesterol.

Comparison of Mechanism and Functional Effects of Magnesium and Statin Pharmaceuticals

A lot of the traditional advice stems from things that make pharma and food companies more profit.

Stress? On that basis anyone want my kids as you will be doing my cholesterol level the world on good apparently

 

[Shorehamseagull]

Stress? On that basis anyone want my kids as you will be doing my cholesterol level the world on good apparently

Yeah there’s a lot of papers on it. Chronic stress results in chronic high levels of cortisol which affects the body’s metabolism. This results lower levels of HDLs which mop up LDLs

Sleep also helps reduce cortisol and aids metabolic function.

I know it’s impossible to be stress free but there’s certainly steps that can help.

 

[madinthehead]

Same happened to me April this year. 37, regularly run, a few kilos over weight but nothing major.

My numbers were so high doctors certain it’s Familial hypercholesterolemia, but got to wait ages for a test to confirm. I’m now on statins as only real option with FH. Also changed my diet and my numbers came down pretty quick (also lost 7kg in the process!).

Try and keep saturated fat to 10g a day and increase fiber intake. Nuts, seeds, oats and berries all good for lowering LDL. Have had to cut dairy right back, but actually for general health/weight, that’s been no bad thing.

I got diagnosed with FH, just after I turned 40. As you said the statins and a bit of care not to overdo the goodies, it's all good!