How do you reduce cholesterol?

[Lindy2]

Apparently my cholesterol is a bit high. I've been sent an NHS link on how to reduce cholesterol but I'm already doing practically everything it suggests already.

I'm in the healthy BMI range at 5 foot 6 and 10 stone 7 (after loosing 2 stone since the start of the year), I'm still calorie counting so I'm eating healthily at least 80% of the time. I don't smoke. I'm only drinking 1 or 2 glasses of wine a week as I'm calorie counting. I'm fairly active and do a very intense 1 hour exercise class each week.

How come my cholesterol is high? What else can I do?

Google says to eat nuts and apples....

Is there anything else I can do (not statins). I don't like the idea of fatty blood and frankly I'm a bit peed off about it as I've been being so healthy lately.

Eating healthy will mean very different things depending who you ask.
What do you eat? A lot of meat? Low carb?
The only diet proven to work in medical trials is the Portfolio diet.

Why not statins?

How old are you?
mine is also high despite a good diet, gynacologist said it’s due to menopause and to take artichoke supplements

The portfolio diet is researched and effective. Loads of research papers and information online. Fibre is key.

Statins. Diet has very little effect in most cases, and you're obviously one of them.

I'm very interested to hear what other posters suggest. My cholesterol level is fine but apparently cholesterol is 'leaking' into my arteries causing some hardening. I have tried all sorts of statins and related cholesterol lowering medications with lots of unpleasant side effects. My diet is pretty healthy.
I've also recently started taking plant sterol tablets, does anyone have any experience with these? You can buy them in Boots and Holland and Barratt

I'm early 50s.

I've been told by my doctor I'm not at the level to needs statins. I'm not a fan of statins anyway because of the side effects I've seen in other people.

I'd rather try a diet based approach.

I eat fairly low carb. I mostly have chicken or fish and salads, veg etc.

I do have quite a few eggs in a week because I find them filling but quite low calorie.

I do aim for 1 sweet treat a day and I am partial to a bit of cheese but I don't have very much, as sadly, I do put weight on quite easily.

I will have a look at the portfolio diet.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I've also had a high reading this week, total cholesterol 5.9. I'm 57, 5ft 5 and 8.6 stone.
I workout 4 times a week and eat healthy eg avocados, whole grains, fruit & veg.

My cardiologist told me it's mainly hereditary and what you eat doesn't make a huge difference. When I heard that I reached for the crisps (not helpful sorry). I'm going on statins, same age as my mum when she went on them.

I've had exactly the same today. Total cholesterol is 6.14! I'm 5 foot 8, 8 and a half stone, a teetotal vegetarian and cannot see why it's so high unless it's hereditary. The doctor suggested taking Benecol, which I'd rather not do but pretty much all my diet is plant based already. No dairy or eggs.

Reading replies with interest. Oh and I'm 55.

How high is it?

What are the HDL, LDL and triglycerides levels?

Unfortunately, about 80% of cholesterol levels are due to genetics not diet. You can try the cholesterol lowering drinks. Cut out the eggs, cheese and alcohol. Maybe try that for a couple of months and get retested. But unfortunately, I did all those things and mine still went up - because mine is mostly genetic.

There is some evidence that time restricted eating - 14:10 going to 16:8 can lower cholesterol. It's not clear if that's due to it causing weight loss, or if there are additional factors at play. The evidence is inconclusive, some studies suggest it's just weight loss related, others that being in a fasted state specifically is beneficial. It might be worth discussing with your GP.

What is your cholesterol to HDL ratio?

I don't know yet. I have a follow up appointment in a couple of weeks.

I've just had a text following a health check blood test, saying cholesterol is a bit high but no need for statins at the moment.

It was this:

What is your cholesterol to HDL ratio?

As others have said it is mainly hereditary. My husband and I eat the same diet he has high cholesterol and I have low normal cholesterol.

I have zero heart disease in my family. His Dad died of a heart attack, he has had 3 stents and a triple bypass and he's 60.

Whole food plant based diet - try . Look at books / podcasts by people like 80-10-10 diet by Dr Douglas Graham, dr Neil Barnard, Joel Kahn (all about heart health), Mastering Diabetes guys, Chris Wark, Dr Patrick Quillin. The list goes on.

I was diagnosed with high cholesterol. I didn't want statins, I'd heard lots of stories too, so I did everything I could to bring it down naturally - lost weight, exercised, watched what I ate, the lot, but it still remained stubbornly high. So I started taking statins, and straight away the cholesterol level had dropped and the doctor was happy. But a year or two later, I was told that high cholesterol is treated more aggressively these days, and so the statin dose was doubled. Side effects? The first week on statins I had sore thighs like I'd overdone it in the gym, but I've had nothing since. I assume that its a hereditary thing, my mum had high cholesterol too.

Aren't the results in your NHS app?

My GP went by the Qrisk - https://www.qrisk.org/

When it came out at 2.3%, they said 'Oh, we'll retest in two years, then'.

DH and I are both on statins, two different brands. Neither of us has noticed any side-effects at all.

If you have the NHS app your full results will be on there

I have also got a low Q- risk, but mine is similarly high. HDL ratio Ok though. I have heard avocados can help HDL.

This. Mine was ridiculously high. I went on a quite extreme diet. It got down by about 0.5.

Statins. They work.

Do statins actually reduce the risk of a heart attack though, do they reduce the HDL too?