My cholesterol is extremely high and I’m gutted, furious and embarrassed

[ButternutSquishSquash]

As the title says. :( I know this is self inflicted and I am taking ownership of my choices. I am now taking urgent steps to address this.

To be open, I am obese, my BMI is around 35. I was diagnosed with a neurological disorder which has meant I’ve been on high dose steroids for several years. I was unwell and immobile. I am coming down on the steroid dose. I’m a bit better so I can move more. I’ve comfort eaten a lot though, especially during Covid and shielding. This is not an excuse but an explanation.

I started going on walks and eating healthily a few months ago. I’ve lost weight, slowly but surely.

In my routine blood test, they found my total cholesterol to be 9mmol! GP phoned to say it was “extremely high” and I need referring to a lipid clinic because it may be genetic. I explained I’m fat and unhealthy but working on it. I don’t want to give a false portrayal of my lifestyle.

I’m embarrassed about the whole situation. Should I ask if they will pause the referral while
I keep working on eating better, losing weight and moving more? Am I really at such risk? I’m 37 with no family history of heart disease or stroke. Why waste a referral when it’s unlikely to be genetic and a result of my ill health and subsequent lifestyle?

Well as the dr says it may be genetic which means nothing you do lifestyle wise will change it
There are medications for those with familial high cholesterol

Thanks, I know you’re right. I’m emotional about it. I feel very selfish wasting a referral while my weight still needs to be reduced a lot. My diet is improving but it needs work. I’m embarrassed mainly, I was always fit and healthy.

You will get fat people whose cholesterol is absolutely fine.
Honestly just take the referral. People thing blood pressure, cholesterol etc is all lifestyle but actually there’s a lot which isn’t and it’s the luck of the draw.
Going to that referral and having some treatment is fine and in the meantime you can continue your lifestyle overhaul anyway!

They put it through a Q risk calculator to work out your extra risk.

I'm also 35 bmi. My diet is fab but my cholesterol is sky high too. It's probably genetic in my case. I eat well, exercise, now on statins, certainly don't stress about it, done all I can to mitigate it.

Mine was nearly 6 when I weighed just under eight stone a couple of years back. Irony was that I'd been on a low fat diet for 18 months due to gallbladder issues! The nurse helpfully told me to eat more lentils - I told her I lived off the damn things and have done for years. Seeing as I was talking to her over the phone I told her my weight and height (5'5) and that I was extremely lean due to a very physical job - she just signed and said "it's familial then."

Unfortunately high cholesterol runs in the family... heart attack at around age 60 is generally the cause of death on my father's side.I mean, it may not entirely be down to your weight, so medication may be necessary...I'd get tests done if I were you.

I think lots of high cholesterol cases are due to genetics not lifestyle. Please take all the help going and don't be so hard on yourself, you doing great things.

Take the help OP. Thin people get high cholesterol too!

Lots of new research into this - worth reading up on it before taking statins. You may get it a little down through a reducing diet but cutting sugar and refined carbs is possibly important to help prevent the damage to the vessels around which the cholesterol is collecting to try to heal. But please don’t be hard on yourself - it’s so counter-productive.

Anorexics often have high cholesterol - it's really not straightforward in terms of the causes and is nothing to be embarrassed about. You sound like you're doing a bloody good job at getting healthier.

Hi OP, my recent cholesterol test confirmed mine is currently sitting at 6.4.

I have a bmi of 23, have a great diet and do loads of exercise. It’s genetic.

Please don’t be angry and embarrassed. Accept the referral and take all the help you can get. At least now you know, so you can do things to reduce it. Best of luck.

Thanks for the support, so much appreciated.

If I’m honest, I needed a kick up the backside with my diet anyway. I’ll keep going and try not to be too hard on myself.

Be careful to speak kindly to yourself.. you have and are making changes.. as far as you know you still a healthy heart.. you went and had your cholesterol checked, you are health conscious.. you are improving every day… negative self talk might lead you to feeling there’s no point in trying.. and you are doing so well! You probably have genetic tendency towards it, many Western Europe’s people do.. take the tablets, keep doing what your doing, and well done for making the move!!

Please don’t be so unkind to yourself. It sounds like you’ve been through a lot health wise and if this is genetic it won’t even be your fault! My dd has high cholesterol due to genetics- she’s 18 and 5ft 9 and size 6-8 and hers is 9! They are just monitoring her due to her age and she may need medication as she gets older. She got it from her dads side. Ironically I am overweight, on steroids long term for lupus and autoimmune conditions and fairly inactive (on highest rates of PIP indefinitely) and mine is 3.2….! So it really isn’t always as cut and dry as people think. So much of it is down to luck and genetics. It’s really good you’re moving more and trying to look after yourself but if this is genetics you will get the help you need and shouldn’t beat yourself up.

I know people as thin as a plank and who eat a low fat, high fibre diet and take regular exercise who have very high cholesterol. For a lot of people it’s genetic. Please don’t beat yourself up about this. You’ve been unwell, on steroids and like a lot of people your diet might not have been the best through lockdown. There is nothing here to be embarrassed about that I can see. You feel how you feel obviously but it is very likely that even without all these factors your cholesterol would still be high.

Try to focus on the changes you’re making and not feeling shitty about having been unwell, on medication and comfort eating at a time life had been turned upside down in scary and unprecedented ways by COVID.

Please don't pause the referral. My mother's family is full of thin active people with low blood pressure. They also have a genetic tendency to high cholesterol. My mother made it to her mid 80s solely because of cholesterol lowering drugs. Diet is not enough for them. Both my mother's parents died of heart related conditions - so did both her brothers and her sister. The first thing my mother's cardiologist did was ask her about her children. (I was very lucky as I took after another branch of the family though I suspect one of my children inherited the bad genes but I'm assuming that the heart disease part of their medical degree might snap them out of complacency.)

So don't think you must have done this to yourself. It may be independent of diet. Even if it isn't, there is nothing wrong with getting help to lower it while you improve your diet. Far more women die of heart trouble than breast cancer so please take this opportunity to help yourself. In fact, women get much less treatment than men for cardiac issues and more of them die of it than men.

I would take the referral, if only because if you diet carefully for a year and your cholesterol is still high you'll have to start at the bottom of the pile for referrals all over again and wait who knows how long. You might as well start the process of being seen now.

Don't pause the referral. There could very easily be a component of it due to your need for steroids (known side effect) plus any genetic influence. And the sooner you're being supported, the quicker it's going to come down, or not, depending on the main factors, which means the sooner your risk decreases.

My BIL's family have high cholesterol. BIL lived on steamed fish and veg and went down to about 9 stone but it was still really high. He needed medication. I am sorry to have to say that he died young but his Mum has the same condition and is still going in her late 80s.

Please accept the referral. You need monitoring.

Dh is an extremely fit ultra marathon runner, not an ounce of fat on him. He eats veg, no meat, no processed food, doesn’t drink. Has high cholesterol.

I’m overweight, eat shit and have low cholesterol.

Like others have said it’s mainly genetic.

I have borderline cholesterol but only of late. I am 57 and barely eat meat no sugar barely any junk don't smoke or drink. I have started eating rolled oats a few times weekly plus cut down on bread.

My reading is 6.7. I refuse to take statins and just monitor it. I take a blood pressure tablet already so the doctor is aware.

Thing is with statins @Guacamole001 they don't just lower cholesterol. They stabilise deposits in blood vessels to prevent bits breaking off and causing MIs and CVAs. That's why they are used post MI even if cholesterol normal.