Cholesterol 7.5

[Readysteadyknit]

Apparently I have very high cholesterol - my GP recommends statins which I am not keen on as my mother stopped taking then as she suffered from terrible muscle pain. Has anyone had any success reducing their cholesterol through diet?

Dh has reduced his cholesterol slightly through fairly radical diet changes. Exercise helps, but at that level I'd take statins. Research is suggesting they have anti cancer properties as well as acting on cholesterol.

Thanks. GP has suggested a family link as my mother and uncle have high cholesterol (no family history of heart attacks though) - my blood tests also showed low vitamin d and iron levels - a quick google brought up some articles suggesting that there is a link.

Is that total cholesterol or your ldl?

And do you know what the ratio of ldl to hdl is as you can still have higher ldl but if your hdl is very high then the ratio may be ok

There are lots of factors to take into account. As well as if you are female and not post menopausal

I think it 's total cholesterol - I was surprised so didn't ask many questions or even know what I should ask. The blood tests also showed that I'm menopausal.

What should I be asking?

Forgot to say thanks for your input riding - I feel I need to be able to ask the right questions when I go back to the GP

Well pre menopause the estrogen helps prevent the cholesterol from blocking the arteries. But if you are menopausal you are going to benefit less from that

But total cholesterol can be misleading. You need to ask for the breakdown of the different types (ldl, hdl, triglycerides etc) and the good to bad ratio.

You can also be genetically tested for familial hypercholesterolaemia as if you have this it will be harder to reduce via diet alone as your body will keep making it anyway (I have this)

There are meds you can take that aren't statins. Google questran as an example.

I haves level of 7 but my ratio is fine although can't remember what it is. 0.52 maybe? Anyway it's fine according to gp

With high cholesterol, low iron and low vitamin D, you should probably get your thyroid tested as well.together with vitamin B12 and folate.

All those are potential diagnostics for underactive thyroid.

tweedle - I had a thyroid test but GP didn't seem to have any concerns. I have asked for a print out of all my blood results - I think they tested everything

Happy to look at your thyroid results when you get the print out. Also the others I mentioned.

Well here are my results tweedle (and anyone else) which don't really mean anything to me.

Serum cholesterol level. 7.8 mmol/L
Serum HDL cholesterol 1.7 mmol/L
Serum cholesterol/HDL ratio. 4.59 mmol/mmol
Serum triglyceride. 1 mmol/L
Serum LDL cholesterol level. 5.6 mmol/L
Serum TSH Level 4.54 miu/L
Serum follicle hormone level. 42.6 iu/L
Serum ferritin level. 24ng/ml
Serum vitamin B12. 542 ng/L
Serum folate. 10.4 ng/ml
Serum total 25-hydroxy vitamin D. 33 nmol/L. 100% vit D3 & 82% D2
Total white blood count. 3.9 10^9/L

It also says to consider familial hypercholesterolaemia, MI or tendon xanthoma and referral to a lipid clinic.

I'd appreciate any comments/suggestions for when I go back to the GP

It always helps with test results if you can give the reference ranges as well as the actual result because the ranges vary from place to place and damnit I'm on an iPad and can't see your post, so I'm going from memory now.

Cholesterol is a bit of a mess, but equally some of this could be because TSH is high. In a normal, healthy person you'd expect that to be around 1. It would be useful to know if it is actually out of range.

B12 and folate could do with a boost and ferritin is woefully low. It needs to be mid range at least.

Lots of info on this sort of stuff on the ThyroidUK website and on their forum at www.healthunlocked.com.