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.

Well, yeah. But the cholesterol is still high. I’ve been on statins for a year. I’ve only had the Doppler artery scan today.

Oh apologies and thank you mojo!

Oh wow you just had the scan. I wonder what is your risk now if arteries are not blocked? Here's a report of a study led by doctors https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/no-evidence-high-cholesterol-causes-heart-disease-say-doctors-1.3627093
Seems to back up Kendrick and those others.. It's a really interesting one and so important to get right. A childhood neighbour died suddenly at 45 a month ago with no markers or high cholesterol etc so I'm quite suddenly worried about it all.

Considered by whom? And that doesn't mean he's wrong.
He is not the only doctor to have written about cholesterol and strains.
There is also
"The Dark Side of Statins" by Duane Graveline MD MPH
"The truth about Statins" by Barbara H Roberts MD.
And more if you search for them.

The carotid artery ultrasound is primarily for stroke prevention I thought, not cardiac plaque.

There appear to be a lot of "worried well" out there. All I can say is do your research and if you are worried about blocked arteries get a cardiac CT. I think it is the gold standard anyway.

https://robertlustig.com/cholesterol-hypothesis/
Here's another opinion that looks reasonable and balanced. He sees triglycerides as important and mine are vg and he doesn't seem to think my ldl us high enough to automatically go on a statin. He also mentions what my friend says, that dairy fat can be a protective factor!
Anyway I must run now but appreciate the back and forth, I think it's good to look at all views and have something to discuss with doc. I will take benecol in meantime as it is meant to be good and surely can't do any harm.

Have a look at the Heart UK website. It gives diatry advice and has lots of recipes.

One of my numbers is close to 7 but other ones are good. When age and lifestyle are factored in, despite being a fatty I'm at average risk. I generally stick to foods that are under 5% saturated fat and eat the wholemeal versions of pasta/ rice/ bread when I can.

Oh and I avoid palm and coconut oil because they are way higher in saturated fats than other oils

My cholesterol, measured whilst in hospital after a heart attack was 4.3. You can have high cholesterol, low cholesterol, anything in between and still have or not have heart disease.

Yes, it was for stroke prevention. I’m not at all worried about blocked arteries. I just want to get my cholesterol down. Statins can help prevent recurrence in certain types of cancer, which I have, so it’s a double benefit for me, and why I wanted statins.

So sorry to hear about your cancer @WashItTomorrow . You hadn't mentioned that aspect. Hope you are recovering well and I can understand why you want to take statins in your circumstances.

Yes, wishing you the best. I didn't know statins can be protective in that way. I've learned a lot in 24h!!

Mine was 7 and I got it down to 4-5 by exercising more and becoming vegan for 4 months. I then gradually added back lean meat.

I have a weakness for cheese so I wasn't really surprised :)

Do you drink unfiltered coffee? It could be a contributing factor due to the cafestol it contains. My cholesterol was high for my activity levels/diet/genetics/lifestyle and I could not figure out why, came across this link. Earlier this year I started drinking only filtered coffee rather than the French press I have been drinking for 20+ years, within 3 months it was in the normal range.

Check out Dr. Peter Attia, he does a lot on cholesterol.

Thank you both, v helpful. That's a super drop in 4m!

My ground coffee is water filtered it says but I only take one a week now, as it was the dairy I was trying to reduce so hopefully thats a double whammy, I only saw yesterday that coffee can be an issue. I hadn't realised.

https://qrisk.org/

My last cholesterol test came in at 7.19, but my Q-risk is low for my age because everything else is good (bp, sex, bmi, family history) so my gp has no interest in putting me on statins. My diet is healthy, I lead an active lifestyle, I exercise regularly, my resting heart rate is in the very low 50s.

My feeling is that you can probably improve if your diet is rubbish, but if your diet is already OK then you may have to accept that this is genetic for you and put the effort in for the other risk factors to keep your overall risk low.

@Hermione101 interesting re the coffee. I'm watching this thread as my DH's cholesterol is around 6 but it seems to run in his family. He drinks 2 or 3 Nespresso coffees a day. Would this be classed as filtered or unfiltered do you know?

It took longer than 4 months - I think they retested after a year but that first 4 months set the scene I think. Once you stop meat/dairy, I don't think you ever add back as much!

I was also over weight when it was 7 and lost a significant amount in that year so I think it all helped

Good luck!