How have you managed to lower your cholesterol?

[DownInOldVirginnie]

I was told I have high cholesterol - Total 6.7mmol, LDL 4.1, QRisk is 0.9% and to manage with dietary changes and retest in a few months. I want to hear what others have done to successfully lower their cholesterol please. I'm vegetarian so don't eat any meat, basically tee total and pregnant now anyway so no booze. I have a sweet tooth, tend to binge sweet treats so don't have them in the house. I'll buy something for a movie night rather than having sweet treats in the house. I've improved here but still a way to go. I exercise - mostly weights, should i increase walking? I've lost 10 lbs since May but cholesterol test was in July so not sure what it waa in April.

Please - any tips or advice, info on how long it took to lower your cholesterol. Thank you!

Following because my levels are similar and I was expecting to be put on statins. But no, all my other tests were 'okay' apparently.

I’m on statins but changed my diet to reduce my cholesterol levels too and my readings do fluctuate depending on how strict I am. Mainly reducing cheese for me and stodgy puddings like cheese cake.

But I’m surprised you haven’t been offered statins with that reading. That is a big reduction to do with diet alone if you have a fairly healthy vegetarian diet already. Did your GP say why? Did you ask to be put on statins? Are you quite young?

For anyone who is peri/menopausal, evidence shows HRT is better than statins at reducing heart disease and cardiac events.

Look at plant sterols on Amazon. I take them and my doctor is happy. So no statins for me.

Is there family history of high cholesterol? If you’ve inherited it, then you might not be able to reduce it with diet alone. Colleague discovered this after having a heart attack relatively young!

Exercise, no alcohol and HRT in reverse order of importance.

Soluble fibre. Apples, nuts / nut butters, flaxseed, oats, whole grain everything. Everyday. I didn’t eat meat either but halved the milk in my coffee and cut out butter / cheese almost completely. Hard exercise every morning (fasted) plus another fast walk in the afternoons. Worked a treat. Statins have awful side effects I would make any lifestyle changes possible to avoid them.

Which do you take

Genetics might set the pattern but behaviour pulls the trigger.

By upping exercise and improving diet..lots of pulses etc, benecol etc I reduced my levels a bit but after the 3 months I still needed statins...then GP told me that you can only reduce levels by about 20 % via lifestyle changes anyway

I had bloods done last week, very similar results to you.
I'm vegetarian, dairy free as it upsets my stomach, don't drink alcohol. I eat lots of whole foods, veggies, etc. Walk everywhere. I can't see any lifestyle changes that will bring cholesterol down to the desired range so I'm going to talk to my GP about statins. DH and half my family take them with no side effects so I'm fairly sanguine about it.

Cholesterol raises quite a lot naturally during pregnancy, it is very normal. Very important for placenta and fetal development.

Also, being vegetarian doesn't automatically mean a healthy diet. If you have a sweet tooth, most sweets (which are unhealthy) happen to be vegetarian too. Actually, the unhealthiest eater I've known was vegetarian, she was eating cake every day! So being vegetarian doesn't equal healthy if that's the pattern.

How old are you? Q risk of 0.9% is really not bad if you are 40+. I have cholesterol similar to yours and Q risk of 1.1% but the average Q risk for a healthy person my age (46) is 1.4%, so I’m actually less at risk than someone with lower cholesterol. Basically my cholesterol is high but my Q risk is brought down because I have fairly low blood pressure, am not overweight and have a good cholesterol: HDL ratio.

I have not been recommended statins and I doubt you would be with that Q risk.

Upping fibre and exercise would be a good idea for lots of reasons and would help your cholesterol but tbh it doesn’t sound like you need to worry too much about the cholesterol. It’s the Q risk you need to look at really not the cholesterol.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm 39, overweight (working on weight loss before the cholesterol results). I only mentioned that I'm vegetarian as there's no red meat to cut out. I've upped my fibre eg porridge for breakfast, bulgar wheat with main meals and pulses/legumes everyday. I got the test results back around a week before I found out I was pregnant.

I was given the results via text from my gp. Had a busy summer so tried to start making changes but felt quite adrift without even so much as a conversation about it so had a ohone appointment with the nurse. She said to prioritise cutting food out over introducing healthier options (eg swapping to fat is more important than starting to eat porridge). She also said QRisk is very low and not to worry too much (i think she could tell i was/am quite worried about it). I didnt find her hugely helpful or reassuring.

I'm not sure about family history. I think probably not on my dads side. He is dead so can't check. Ill ask about my mums side though.

Apparently espresso based coffee can raise cholesterol- I was surprised by that (but still drinking lattes) but filter coffee is a lot better n terms of cholesterol.

I also keep meaning to cut out butter as apparently that pretty clearly raises cholesterol and much more than cheese for example.

I note that you’re pregnant so this might not work for you, but I lowered my cholesterol from 8.7 to 3.5 in less than six months using Mounjaro.

With regards to statins I was just told they think I'd be able to lower it with lifestyle changes alone. If it's possible to do, that's my preference for now

Porridge and benecol drinks or the Lidl version

Thank you. I think butter and cheese are my poison! Had reduced them almost completely by August but they've crept back in after we went away so I need to work on that too

Mine was over 9. I was very slim, fit, vegan, no alcohol. I’m on statins. Absolutely no side effects.

I need to lower my LDL too

From what I read sugars or carbs are the enemy.

I have Greek yoghurt, berries, walnuts and flax seeds/ chia for breakfast or steel cut oats porridge with the same stuff on top.

I have avocado cottage cheese salad for lunch or sauted mushroom and beans

I have mostly given up on sandwich with crisps for lunch as it’s just a carb fest

I try to have things like veg / chickpea curry and quinoa for dinner etc or minestrone

physilliim husk before bed also might help

polyphenols in black coffee are meant to be good

also a lot relates to liver health ie no alcohol, milk thistle and turmeric with black pepper

snacks are things like almonds or pistachios, apples chunks with peanut butter

no fruit juices only whole fruit but forest fruits preferred

Get the Zoe’s app to check for healthier food at the supermarket.

Limit processed foods / trans fats/ saturated fats

have mufa and pufa fats

we are also meant to exercise for 15 mins after each meal but as yet can’t do that after dinner so not good

It's incredibly difficult by diet alone. DH tried for a year but major dietary changes produced negligible results so he's on statins
My cholesterol was never high but my wrist was 15 due to other conditions so I'm on a very low dose stating.
Zero side effects apart from a much lower cholesterol. In fact I don't know anyone who has had side effects, it's commonly mentioned and people are often reluctant to even try them. Tbh statins are the least nasty of the drugs I have to take but even so I resent having to take a drug for which I feel no benefit. The nastier drugs make me well.

I reduced mine from 7.4 to 6.4 over a couple of years by losing weight, adding cardiovascular exercise and making dietary changes but I am now on low dose statins because I think I've done everything possible with lifestyle. I was only slightly overweight to start with.