Help - cholesterol panic

[SunnyC41]

Hi guys, can anyone offer some input?

45 year old female. Don't drink or smoke. I'm around a stone overweight and my chocolate addiction means that my diet really isn't great.
Just found out my cholesterol is 6.9
HDL is 1.4
LDL is 4.9
(Not sure about triglycerides yet)

History of heart disease on both my parents' sides.

What do I do? Less fat? Less sugar? Fewer eggs?

I'm panicking and filled with more than a little self-loathing (regretting all that chocolate now).

Thanks in advance.

Read the amazing book called the Cholesterol Myth and calm down. GPS in the UK have a very outdated view of cholesterol. It’s not about your total cholesterol. It’s about inflammation in your body. Honestly before you agree to the statins they’ll throw your way - read this book. Only 20% of your diet affects your blood cholesterol levels anyway.

Thank you so much @cheeselolly Will order it now. It sounds pathetic but I'm terrified I need to change my diet and won't be able to. Had a lot of stress lately and sugar is/was my crutch.

Read up on healthy eating - the DASH diet is good for heart health.

If you’re addicted to chocolate, think of this as an early warning to change your diet!

I've recently discovered that mine has risen from 4.7 to 5.8 in a year, which puts me in the 'high' category. I'm 10 years older than you and have been going through a long old perimenopause (periods on and off - last one in March and I'm hoping that's going to be it now!) and I do definitely have a problematic biscuit and late-night chocolate habit, but other than that my diet is pretty good and I certainly haven't been eating more biscuits lately than a year ago.

I panicked a bit too, but a bit of googling suggests that declining oestrogen can lead to a rise in cholesterol, so it's not just diet related. I've cut down on biscuits and chocolate, which I needed to do anyway, but for me the key is going to be moving more. I'm not sure of the science (I'm sure there are far wiser MNers who will be able to explain!) but I think building muscle improves your body's ability to process cholesterol (?) and cardio activity is obviously going to improve heart health, so that's what I'm focusing on, and trying to see it as a positive, helpful thing that I discovered this now rather than a diagnosis of something horrible.

Also, just out of interest after a conversation with DH about whether the French population generally have higher cholesterol than UK (all those croissants, diet heavy in butter, cream, meat) I googled and found that wasn't the case. A bit more digging revealed that this data is based on statin use, and the French govt just do not endorse them in the way our NHS does. My GP hinted as much as she doesn't like prescribing them. They're financially incentivised here and there was quite a big controversy in France about it - it's worth looking up, for a different perspective.

Do a QRISK3 survey on yourself. Apparently you can do it via the NHS ap but haven’t checked.
cholesterol is all about the ratio between good and bad rather than the actual measures. A ratio of 5 or less is ok

High cholesterol isn't always caused by diet its often genetic

Thank you all. I'll do some reading. I know I need to change my diet but I have no real idea where to start (other than cutting out chocolate, obviously). So annoyed with myself for letting it get to this stage.

So do the French still have high cholesterol similar to the UK and they just deal with it in a different way? What is their approach?

If you really want to calm down watch this:

Dr. Paul Mason - 'The truth about high cholesterol'
It is only 20 mins and very interesting.
Luckily, as a woman higher cholesterol correlates with a longer life! :)

Do you have familial (IE, genetic) high cholesterol, given your parent's history? If so, diet only solves so much, you'll need statins

I think rather than sitting with self-loathing and panic see this as a useful turning point and that its positive that you have an issue that you really can address and correct yourself rather than waiting and hoping and being reliant on treatment.

You do need to change your diet, I think you should accept that you need to do so for your health. I would think a proper overhaul rather than cutting out chocolate.

Read up on the foods you should be eating and build your meals around them. Porridge, berries, nuts for breakfast. Buy things like avocado, fish, leafy greens etc and build your lunch around that but don’t go overboard and cut out everything - nice bread jazzes everything up beautifully. Make your dinners simple so you don’t feel overwhelmed but try to cook from scratch. It’s so much more time consuming I know but will make biggest difference.

You’ll feel different if you can manage to do this. Don’t try to cut out all treats, but make them treats.

Hi op. Mine recently came back as 6.6.

But my HDL is 2.4, my ratio of HDL to non HDL is 2.7 and my triclycerides/HDL ratio is 0.47.

GP said it was totally fine and he was very happy with it.

I too have just found out mine is high and been started on statins which I have no idea whether this is the right way to go.
Am trying to overhaul my diet. i am very overweight. Ido plenty of walking in a day. I am having porridge, blueberries etc for breakfast and more oily fish. It's hard though when you're having to cook for a family and fish etc is so expensive.

I think some of it must just be genetics. I lost lots of weight, and run every day, and my cholesterol has still gone up over the past year and half since. Not loads, but 5.6 or something. My HDL was high, higher than the apparently protective level, to the point where it could be a risk in the same way as LDL, but it means that the ratio between them looks very good - possibly masking the real risk. But besides eating oat glucan or whatever it is, I'm not sure if there's a lot more I can do diet-wise. I'm considering the little yoghurt drinks with plant sterols - have you tried them? I don't really want to have to have one every day, but maybe even a few a week might help. I tend to not each much bread, so therefore not much in the way of spreads/butter, but there's also the plant-sterol spreads.

I've been given a telephone appointment with the nurse tomorrow. Anything in particular I should ask?

It's not sugar you need to worry about so much, it's saturated fat, so animal fats really.

Ask for diet advice or guidance. Ask what else you can do to lower cholesterol, eg exercise. Ask about your ratio.

Do you know what your level was a few years ago or any time in the past, for comparison?

I’d advise you to start having porridge for breakfast - oats are great for reducing cholesterol. We have those yogurt plant statin drinks by Benecol too, and have swapped our butter to a Benecol one.

Oh, and eat a lot of porridge, made with plant "milk", not animal milk

Yep, ask what the good/bad cholesterol ratio is. I'm literally just back from the GP this morning who said she isn't concerned about my 5.3 LDL (bad) cholesterol because the ratio between it and the HDL (good) cholesterol has improved and that's what matters.

I've got my LDL down over the last year by cutting out pretty much all saturated fat, other than when I eat at a friend's or at a restaurant.

Also, Lidl does a much cheaper version of Benecol, as does Sainsburys

I believe but may well be wrong that GPS get a fee for every patient they put on statins in the UK.
Ive just refused them as my level was 6 and I’m old.

Key thing is the good to bad ratio (HDL/LDL). If you have a history of heart disease there may be genetic factors at play and, given your age, as hormones levels reduce, the natural protections they give start to decrease which makes higher cholesterol more of a concern.

I’m a similar age and have familial hypercholesterolemia from my Dad due to a genetic mutation in my LDL receptor, so am on statins and another drug to keep my cholesterol at an acceptable level. But there is stuff you can do diet wise and I also take Nattokinase (1 capsule daily) which is reported to be good for cardiovascular health.

Guys, you've been so helpful.
@theresbeautyinwindysun you're spot-on about the attitude I need to adopt.
I have a full list of questions to ask, and feel a bit more well prepared now. I'll also ask about HRT as a protective element. Tried it for four months but felt it didn't agree with me and stopped. Will restart if it'll help.
Most family members on both sides have heart problems, so I need to be proactive.

There's a lot of saturated fat in chocolate though, especially in very dark chocolate. But yes it's that that is the problem more than sugar.