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

Thanks for all your comments & suggestions

I rang my practice & have an appointment to see my gp on monday afternoon to discuss next steps

Given that my diet is already good & my father has been on statins for 40 years i think there's a fair chance i could need the meds too.

Hi op at least you are monitoring it. Heres my readings. Chol 5.6. Trigly is 1.06mmol. Hdl of 1.58. Gp seemed happy but said I need to watch it still. Im awful for sweet things!!

I'm following this. I was sent for a blood test last week for inflammation and GP added cholesterol without mentioning it. So it was a shock to see it on my NHS app!

Mine was 6.6 and GP wrote and said it was normal. No action.
HDL was 2.4 and Total/HDL ratio 2.7 and very low tryglycerides ratio. Both ratios indicate low risk for heart issues and healthy metabolic response.

I eat massive amounts of fibre and avocado and oily fish and have eaten oats daily for many many years - none of that's a hardship. But also lots of weekend crisps. I also drink espresso from a machine (surely the polyphenols are beneficial?) and I eat 4squares of 90% chocolate every day. Not a huge amount of alcohol but a couple of drinks each weekend.

I am also about a stone over my ideal weight (but still under bmi25). I've exercised regularly for many many years. Weights mainly as the only cardio I can do is swimming since surgery a few years ago.

I'm quite confused now after reading all of the above! But GP says it's fine 🤷

Same here and the one time I didn't it was so different to usual that I was retested a week later after fasting

". . .although I suspected it might be the case due to milia on my eyelids... a classic symptom,"

I wonder if you might be confusing milia with xanthelasma?

https://skyclinic.co.uk/explaining-milia-vs-xanthelasma-what-are-the-differences/

GPs use an algorithm to assess whether a patient should be offered statins.

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng238/resources/patient-decision-aid-on-should-i-take-a-statin-pdf-243780159

Looking at the NICE info above, it looks to me that 7% of people taking statins will avoid heart attack. That doesn't sound like a lot to me. Presumably they would be in the high Qrisk score cohort. I'm useless at statistics, so is there anyone out there who can elaborate?

Is it saying that if you are high risk and take a statin you have a 93% chance of still getting heart disease and stroke?

I told you I was dumb about stats. I don't mind being corrected at all, in fact I'd be delighted if someone can explain better!

Nope. 7 out of the 20 people who would have had a heart attack without statins won’t have one. The other 80 people are irrelevant - taking the statins doesn’t affect them either way. So it reduces risk by about 1/3, which is pretty significant. It also reduces risks of strokes and other heart disease.

I told you I was brutal at statistics! I'd be mad as hell if I was one of the 2/3rds who got a heart attack despite my statin taking though. (If I've even got that bit right!). Thanks for your statistical interpretation.

But it might mean you have a survivable heart attack rather than a fatal one. I don't know the stats on that though.