Cholesterol 7.0

[mikado1]

I'd love to know people's experience or knowledge on this. I have been eating more healthily than I ever have, no flour or sugar for months before my blood test. I am active and have a healthy weight. I have looked up signs of high cholesterol and have none of them and apart from cheese, which I don't eat to excess but put in salads and food in small portions, I can't see that I'm doing anything terribly wrong.. My BP is low.

I got the scan because i had another problem that they needed to check wasn't my heart, so i was lucky to get the scan and am grateful as I had no symptoms, and had the low qsort and clear ecgs. The only other thing I've done is to join a gym, which I'm 100% not excited about but am committed to doing for my health. For dairy i eat low fat cottage cheese and 0%fat fage greek yogurt. I make porridge with a no added sugar soy milk that i also put in my tea. I have eggs and turkey (there's a low fat turkey "bacon" that's pretty good), and brown sauce is low fat so i get to have bacon sarnies! I lost some weight this year and hope to lose another 10 to 15 pounds. I'm still learning about it all really, but learning to read the packaging was eye opening.

I eat so much cheese, choc, butter & eggs & I also drink (only 2 glasses) of baileys or Prosecco on Fri, Sat & sun! I eat healthy stuff too. My cholesterol has come down & I’m convinced it’s because I take a baby aspirin every night before bed.

Yes I am going to ask about aspirin as my dad lived to a ripe old age with no later cholesterol problems after a fright jn his 50s, and all he took was aspirin...

Thank you and I'm glad you're doing so well. So I need to check for low Sat fat? See I dont even eat much out of a lack bar dairy.. which I thought was OK really, but perhaps was overdoing. My friend is a RD and says they're saying now that dairy might have a protective element regarding cholesterol...!! It all seems v confusing sometimes.

Your doctor wants you on statins because your overall cholesterol is too high. Daily aspirin won't lower it but could well cause bleeding in your stomach if taken for some time. A healthier diet is great but probably won't reduce your overall levels enough.

Snap! This week my cholesterol came back as 7 in a routine health check where everything else, including thyroid and BP was fine. BMI fine, yoga and at least 7k steps every day. Last cholesterol test was four years ago and was the high end of normal. I am pescatarian, avoid all oils except olive oil and don't drink or smoke (used to do both). Because of lifestyle my risk of cardio vascular disease is below average. I was advised to make an appointment to see a health coach. I have stopped cheese (sob) and started eating oats (for the beta glucan) for breakfast and substituted 0% yogurt for my usuall 5%. I had been avoiding oats as I feel better on a low carb breakfast like eggs. There is lots of useful information in other Mumsnet threads on high cholesterol. Basically, I am avoiding as much saturated fat as I can, but it seems that a dietary approach doesn't work for everyone. I'm going to give it three months and then use a home test to see if there has been a change. I can't work out the ratio of HDL to LDL from the figures I have (can anyone help me with this?). My father had high cholesterol and heart disease and was on statins from his 50s (died of cancer in his late 80s) and I am 56 so I may have a genetic disposition. I was miffed too and hate the thought of taking medication, but hate the thought of heart disease and vascular dementia more and was encouraged to see on another thread lots of posters take statins with no side effects. Because of my age I am wondering if menopause (I'm post menopausal and on HRT) may have caused the raise. Good luck with your research. It is worrying, (and confusing) but there's lots of help and advice out there.

Aspirin definitely does not affect cholesterol.

Chol: 7.0 Trig:0.91
HDL 1.77
LDL: 4.82
These are full results

Mine has come back as borderline. Not high compared to a lot of you, it’s just outside of normal range at 5.6 (total serum chol) but I have a very high cardiovascular risk due to family history and my own medical history and so creeping numbers are a concern. So seeing this thread pop up is timely and the tips are helpful.

Watching this thread as I am currently at just above 5. Had to 'have a chat' with the nurse who suggested small changes. I now eat more fruit, i've cut out white bread and butter 😭 and I exercise a bit more. I also try to eat 30g of nuts a day as apparently these are really good for high cholesterol. Did a bit of research on higher levels of cholesterol and was surprised to find it might actually be related to peri (I'm mid 40's) as estrogen goes down cholesterol goes up..... thanks mother nature!

If it's any consolation, I'm retired and mid 60s now. I had chol of 5.6 -5.8 all along, but I declined statins as too many of my friends had bad side effects (all around my age). I was not overweight and reasonably fit. Then I was admitted to hospital during Covid with Afib. The chol numbers were the same, so they arranged a cardiac calcium scan. All amazed including myself that in my third quarter of life I had a ZERO calcium score. So no blockages and no evidence of any heart disease - echoes, ecg, stress tests the lot!

So I am carrying on doing what I always did which is nothing special. I don't eat fried foods, and don't eat much meat either. I don't drink alcohol but I love chocolate.

I could be the outlier here, but in a sneaky way I was glad that the doctor's dire predictions of my imminent demise were wrong! Afib is a bugger though, but I get on with it best I can, it is not life threatening but can be very frightening. It has nothing to do with cholesterol levels either.

I would like to get a cardiac calcium scan, can I pay to do it privately I wonder?

Google "private cardiac calcium scan UK". I've no idea of the cost if you don't have private health insurance though. I got mine through the in patient hospital admission so of course it was free for me at the time.

Best of luck, but look at my story, and try not to worry too much.

Read 'The Great Cholesterol Con' by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick.

Thank you, I have health insurance but assume would need to be referred.

What's premise of the book? Is it about me having high ldl but that actually being A.Ok?! 😆

Oh wow... that basically is what it's about..!

I have screenshots of three pages of the book.

The pages might not be in the right order.

My cholesterol was over 8. I’m slim, generally eat plant based, and I exercise. I don’t smoke, drink or have caffeine. I don’t use coconut oil. I was referred to a lipid clinic, where there wasn’t anything to say about my diet. I’ve had a Doppler artery scan and that is normal. I now take statins.

Why do you need statins? I think a cardiac calcium scan would have been more appropriate. I had the doppler scan but that was to check blood flow in my legs due to varicose veins, nothing to do with my ticker!

I was put on them because of my cholesterol being over 8. Actually, I requested to. Doppler scan looks at plaque build-up in your neck arteries to see how blocked they are.

I think Kendrick is considered to be a bit of a quack.

But they weren't blocked...

The little I have read up about the non mainstream view is from an Irish doctor called Ivor Cummins. He also recommends the calcium scan over the blood test and says this doesn't tell anything like the full story.

Thank you lesdeluges for those pages, I'd love to see the page after 'tell your doctor to stick it' to see what he does recommend.

Oh?

I think Dr Robert Lustig, who is v celebrated wrt metabolic disease, and also Ivor Cummins, share a similar view. The idea seems to be that the blood test is one piece of information. You wouldn't start someone on chemo after bloods that suggest cancer, you'd investigate further.. makes sense. I'm going to get rechecked and then ask for referral for the cardiac calcium scan. Worth a try instead of worrying.

The pages by Kendrick weren't posted by me, it was Mojolostforever.