Mine was over 11 a few years ago so I made it my business to look into the subject deeply.
There is still a lot of perpetuated misinformation on this subject.
Firstly, cholesterol is usually not a problem, we need it to live, if we eat less of it our liver makes more and vice versa.
In the 1960s the medical profession spoke about high cholesterol versus low cholesterol. By the 1990s they had changed to speaking about good cholesterol versus bad cholesterol. Nowadays the real experts talk about cholesterol particle size not LDL versus HDL. Small particles of LDL being sometimes bad in that they can get behind endothelial layer - most often when the artery is damaged due to smoking or excessive glycatation damage, insulin resistance or diabetes from long-term high carb diets.
In more medically advanced countries like australia they do LDL-p tests to determine cholesterol particle size counts but over here on our poor NHS they don’t do that - most UK doctors and nurses won’t even know what an LDL-p test is - we are not as far ahead medically.
A very small percentage of people have Hypercholestemia a genetic condition in which cholesterol level is elevated - your levels are not high enough to indicate that.
Around 25% of people (like me) however have something called LP(a) - this is also a genetic condition but much more common - in this condition Lipoprotein particles made by the liver cannot be recycled efficiently by the liver so they build up resulting in higher cholesterol scores. You might have this, but again don’t hold your breath trying to get tested for it on the NHS - it’s not seen as important, they’d rather just prescribe statin drugs in this country than get to the root of peoples problems as there are not many drugs here yet that can be effectively used to treat LP(s) - PSK9 inhibitors and the like. More money is made with statins. Of course dietary cholesterol does not have LP(a) so eating more dietary cholesterol for these people can result in better scores as the liver will make less LP(a) cholesterol If someone eats lots of cholesterol.
Other people are what are sometimes called hyper-absorbers - they have more receptors in their body so they absorb more dietary cholesterol than normal. These people can mitigate their absorption by eating more foods with stenols in (stenols compete with cholesterol at the receptor level) - Benecol is made with stenols for this reason.
Around 80% of the cholesterol in a person’s body is made by the liver, and if we eat less the liver makes more to keep equilibrium, so dietary changes can only make small changes, especially if you are not a hyper-absorber.
If you want to improve your health keep exercising, eat real food (eggs, meat, vegatables, small amounts of fruit) and cut down the grains (sugar, flour, rice).
I’m on the maximum statin dose and not had any side-effects but FIL was on statins and had awful side-effects. Statins do not just lower cholesterol btw, they have other good effects for people with arterial damage such as leading to plaque stabilising or even reduction - that is why I stay on them, I’m not actually concerned about cholesterol itself - I eat plenty of eggs, dairy and meat and my consultant cardiologist is also said it was okay for me to go on a keto diet if I wanted. Saturated fat is not the enemy; man-made trans fats in vegetable oils are the enemy.