Can there be a hidden cause for high cholesterol ?

[cholesterol]

My GP is constantly telling me I need to lower my cholesterol and make lifestyle changes as it’s been creeping up for a couple of years . They don’t seem to believe me when I tell them my lifestyle / diet isn’t the issue !

Can anyone tell me if there’s ever a hidden cause for high cholesterol? I’m slim, eat healthily, exercise. Don’t smoke drink etc . I’ve been having the cholesterol lowering spread and yogurts but no luck so far. Is there something I’m missing ? Can’t face my next appt being the same as they treat me like I’m lying !!!!

are you in perimenopause? It can be caused by that.

Have you been tested for Familial Hypercholesterolemia? It's genetic. Thanks mum!

Have you cut out/reduced saturated fats?

Can be linked to hypothyroidism

Can be caused by an underactive thyroid

I've inherited high cholesterol, but it's easily managed with statins. Definitely control it before you have cardiac trouble, as chronic fatigue and heart attacks are quite an annoyance.
Current science is that as long as the drugs get your numbers down without giving you any issues themselves, you'll be fine.

This. I'm surprised your GPhasn't considered this, unless you have been tested and it was negative?

No matter what I do lifestyle -wise, I have ridiculously high cholesterol due to this genetic condition.

What do you eat? and how much exercise do you do each week.

Could you avoid anything processed, and try a veggie diet, cooked from scratch. What exercise do you do?

I actually had tests for this and it came back as I’m not (I had them done 2 years ago as well and results are pretty much the same) but my oestrogen is now even higher ?

Same here; I am largely vegan, walk and swim regularly, don't eat much that contains "bad" fats, have tried the yogurts etc - my chlroesterol hasn't budged!

I walk approx 5 miles per day. I have quite a limited diet due to IBS so porridge and fruit , usually chicken and salad for lunch, things like pasta, casseroles , soup , salmon for dinner. Snacks are apples or Greek yogurt. My bmi is 20. I just feel that each time I see the gp they say I need to ‘make changes’ and don’t offer anything else they just look at me like I must be secretly addicted to cheese or something!

I only eat chicken and salmon as it’s good for protein and I can’t manage things like lentils or chickpeas etc due to IBS so might be difficult to cut out .

It’s so confusing isn’t it

There's a lot of hype about " high cholesterol ". It's the ldh/hdl ratio that's important, and triglyceride levels. The pharmaceutical companies make billions out of statins.

Oh I haven’t heard of this I will ask them to check !

What's your levels? I had high triglycerides (hyper something) which pushed my normal cholesterol dangerously high

i take a statin and a low dose fibrate.

It's well known that a lot of people cannot control cholesterol through diet and exercise and it's just genetic. Can be controlled through statins. I'm in a similar position to you and about to have a check to see if my dietary changes have made a difference but I've researched it and I suspect that the only thing that will work for me is statins.

You say you have Greek yogurt, is it full fat? A couple of small pots of 5% fat yoghurt per day gives you half of the recommended amount of saturated fat per day so it's quite easy to end up eating too much saturated fat. As others have said it could be genetic. Do you know your cholesterol numbers?

Cholesterol 5.6
LDL 3.4
HDL 1.95

it has gone up since the last time it was checked when I think it was 5.4 and the ldl and hdl were lower too

What are you putting on your pasta? And are you eating wholemeal pasta, which will help lower cholesterol?
What oil do you use in casseroles, soup and general cooking? And as someone said, greek yoghurt is very high in fat. I'd select a low/no fat option.

I've managed to reduce my cholesterol from 7.2 to 5.2 (and my weight by over a stone) in 6 months just by cutting out animal fats.

Hypothyroidism will push up cholesterol, but doesn't seem like that applies to you OP! Cause can be genetic.

Just to add, you don't have familial hypercholesterolemia with those figures.

I have high cholesterol and it’s linked to my PCOS

Going for skimmed milk / low fat yogurt helped me lowering it a little bit (from 7.2 to 6.5) And, this might be coincidence because there’s no scientific evidence, but I used to eat eggs regularly but stopped because my baby has an egg allergy, and my cholesterol went down even further to 5.

I have high cholesterol, have done all my life since a teenager. My diet is good, not quite as low fat as yours OP but good. My HDL/LDL ratio is good.

I have hypothyroidism, PCOS and I also have a tendency towards diabetes - I had GD so get tested annually and my HbAc1 test is always borderline for pre diabetes.

I am not going to take statins as they carry an increased risk of developing T2 diabetes. I am much more concerned about that risk for me than I am about cardio consequences of high cholesterol. I have zero risk factors for cardiovascular apart from the cholesterol (healthy weight, non smoker, small waist, low blood pressure and no family history of heart issues).

I actually wonder if high cholesterol (HDL st least) has some sort of protective effect against diabetes for people with PCOS. Hence the increased risk of diabetes with statins. No scientific basis for this mind you.