My cholesterol is REALLY high - can i fix this?

[CholesterolHelp]

I just got blood work results & my cholesterol is 11.2. 🙁

My GP wrote in the report that i need to really critically look at my diet & then retest in 4 to 6 weeks.

I am 56, 5ft 9" & currently weigh 12 13. I was 14 5 last year & i have worked v hard to lose the weight. Target weight is 11 13.

My typical day of eating looks like:

Porridge (made 2 thirds water, 1 third low fat milk). In the past week i've added chia seeds & 3 chopped walnuts as they're supposed to help cholesterol

A coffee & glass of water (i used to have fresh orange juice but have cut it out)

Midmorning - a coffee with low fat milk

Lunch: homemade vegetable soup - this varies - spiced moroccan tomato & chickpea, roast root veg, carrott & ginger, minestrone (beans no pasta), veg & red lentil etc
I usually have a slice of organic seeded sourdough with real butter (cut that out now)

Dinner - salmon with veg & new potatoes, chicken salad etc

I drink 1.5 ltrs water & cut out all the crap & 90% less alcohol. That's how i've lost 20lbs so far.

Now i have had the odd fuck it day where i've had a takeaway / wine but truthfully my diet is the best its been ever

I have added a daily benecol drink, ditched the red meat (rarely eat anyway) & the butter. Cheese was long gone to aid weight loss

Can i turn this around with diet? Has anyone here managed?

I'm worried now

I did not fast before the test - can this impact things?

My blood tests have always been fasted and apparently even eating saturated fat before the test can have an impact. Which is often why they retest a few weeks later.

But with all that weight loss and good diet you have already reduced significant risks for all sorts of health conditions so no need to get panicky. Monitor and change where required the diet, check back in 42 days and then make informed decisions based on your results in 6 weeks. You've already taken important steps. Take some credit for that.

Fish and chicken are fine.
My cholesterol is spot on for everything and eat a lot of fish snd some chicken.
i don’t eat red meat
I have to be really careful what i eat due to acid reflux so i eat minimal sugar and minimal added fats.

im mid 50s

This i had really high cholesterol just before being diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Cholesterol isn't always about diet it can be because of other conditions or just genetic. Unless you are eating blocks of lard everyday I doubt your cholesterol would be that high from diet alone.

Cholesterol is also very closely linked to estrogen and menopause.
You’re doing all the right things. You need to ask hope more tests

Not really, generic high cholesterol starts from birth, they’d have spotted it in other tests, so it is overwhelmingly more like to be something else.

I suffer from familial hypercholesterolaemia and have been taking a statin for nearly 20 years (I have just turned 50). The lipids specialist I saw said I would never reduce my cholesterol to safe levels through diet alone. Not one doctor has ever mentioned the link with coffee though (and I do drink 4-6 cups a day- some of which are decaf but I have googled and that could be even riskier.) Not any more. Thanks for posting.

A lot of cholesterol is genetic rather than diet related. Just take statins.

Agree with lots of others, that high reading is not just diet related. (I assumed your title would be dramatic and your cholesterol 5.9 or something). I has a high cholesterol. I cut back on booze, did the porridge thing, did even more exercise, cut down on red meat and my cholesterol went even higher! Both my parents are on statins.

What do you mean when you say cholesterol as it’s not one thing? Most cholesterol is a wonderful thing for your body as it’s used to build hormones, membranes and your brain is the most cholesterol rich organ in the body. The liver makes a lot of cholesterol for us everyday such is the importance of it.

Has your doc even bothered to differentiate between your HDL & LDL cholesterol? They should also check your sdLDL as this is the harmful component often triggered by excess refined carbs. Also request triglycerides. You may have to go private if you really want to understand this.

Total cholesterol is not a very useful measure of anything and tends to correlate poorly with heart disease risk. No idea why docs keep rolling out this high cholesterol myth.

If it's genetic, there's diddly squat you can do about it with diet.

That is really high and putting you at high risk of heart problems and stroke - I would be asking for statins now - they are dirt cheap. I was put on them as a precaution when my cholesterol was 5.2 and it brought it down to 3.

Is your blood pressure high? My cholesterol is high but because my blood pressure is low and I am not overweight and don’t smoke I was told I didn’t need statins.

Get it retested, that is unusually high.
Labs make mistakes. I once had a reading of 10 which nearly gave me a heart attack in itself, retest was 4.

You didn’t have one of your infrequent takeaways the day before the test, did you? My doctor said it can distort the results

Tbf, I think most doctors do look at the ratios now.

You say you walk but do you do HIT or weights - they can both help reduce cholesterol

I cut mine (wasn’t as high) with mounjaro and 2 stone weight loss, and careful eating. Your diet looks ok.

Op I had to fast for the test. Im on statins due to it being over 8. Last reading was 6.2. I tend to be eating the wrong stuff so need to do better. God its hard!!

I think your diet doesn't look too bad. So, this big increase may not be entirely down to diet and lifestyle.

Have you had tests to check your liver and kidney function, your thyroid and your blood sugar levels? Perhaps there might be some other imbalance going on that's caused the spike in cholesterol.

Have you any close relatives with high cholesterol? Sometimes these things can have a genetic element.

I agree with medication. I would say you don’t have a chance by making changes to your existing healthy diet.

itll be ok OP

High cholesterol can be genetic, you need to start taking statins now.

Thank you all.

I have the full lab results from all the blood tests.

I went in to chat about hrt & she suggested we do a full & thorough check of all bloods first.

My blood pressure was perfect.

I did not fast as wasn't expecting to have bloods taken. I can't remember what i'd eaten the night before

I think i'll ring the surgery in the morning to discuss as i'm v worried

My father is on statins & has been since his 40s

I would ask about statins. They are weirdly demonised but incredibly safe and can make a huge difference to your long term risk profile. Obviously if you had a very high fat diet that would be something to look at but for most people diet alone won't be enough to cure or cause it.

I think whenever I have had bloods for cholesterol I have had to fast the night before