How do you cut cholesterol urgently and drastically?

[stressed2007]

My mother has to do this urgently due to claudification(sp?) (hardening of the arteries). Does anyone have experience of how to do this (other than/as well as medication) - she seems to have been given very limited information.

On a specific question am I right in thinking that one of the biotic drinks like Aptimel(but not that one I think) can help to cut cholesterol?

Thanks

My dad had to do this and he had a very very strict low cholesterol diet. Literally every portion of food had to be weighed. no red meat only fish and chicken (not sure about turkey) limited processed carbs, not to much sugar. Nothing can be fried, everything meat wise cooked was baked or grilled and on a rack to drain any fat off. No adding of juices to gravy. It was known as the chicken diet in the house. Harsh and evil but worked and shifted his excess weight which was part of his issues. It did it fairly quickly and then he could sensibly put things back in. Twas a while again and smacked of crash dieting so not sure they would recommend it in quite the same manner now.

The flora pro active spread type stuff is supposed to cut cholestoral.

three quarters of the cholesterol in your blood is manufactured by the body so there is only so much you can do by dietary measures.
Is she taking statins?

There are several products you can use that contain plant sterols which are known to control cholesterol levels - these are Benecol and Flora ProActiv. The actimel type things are only probiotic yogurts and don't contain the sterols.

The other thing is to cut out red meat and cheese, limit eggs and eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg and wholegrains

I might be worth posting this on the Family Recipes board.

Both my parents have high cholesterol and my dad has been having TIA's as a result. Mine is slightly raised so I have a vested interest in this.

Porrige is good at reducing cholesterol and you can buy oat milk made from this. Reduce salt intake. Apparently, raw garlic is also good at reducing cholesterol.

However, it all depends on why the cholesterol is high. It could be due to diet but often is due to the body making too much of the bad cholesterol best reduced by medication. HTH

sorry that was meant to start with 'It'

You can reduce your cholesterol level by approx 10% through dietary changes, as has already been stated, cut down on the dairy, and red meat.
STOP SMOKING
Get on a statin - will help reduce cholesterol and reduces inflamation in the lining of the arteries.
PLENTY of fruit and veg - this will help to lower cholesterol levels, but the antioxidants in them will help to prevent inflammation in the lining of the arteries which is what causes the claudication in the first instance.
Regular exercise will help as well. Get checked out by the GP first but 5 minutes of brisk walking a day, and building it up by 5 minutes per week means that 6 weeks later she's achieving her recommended amount of exercise.
lots more advice on here, if you haven't found this site already. Good luck with it all!
www.heartuk.org.uk

as long as it is suitable she can be put on a statin depending on other meds.

Remove eggs from diet as they are really high in cholesterol. Take omega 3 fatty acids.Remove all animal fats ,ckes and cream.Is it in the family or is it just your mum?

Believe it or not, your body needs cholesterol. Have a google, the truth about cholesterol. My mum was put on statins for chole' and after three years her finger ends split and bled, every finger, she couldn't do anything! Also she could hardly walk and got really bad pains in her shoulder. She thought it may be the statins and gave them up. It took a few months but her fingers healed and no pains in her shoulder anymore. Her walking, only slightly better but we shall see.

This is interesting because I have been prescribed statins but for the reasons just mentioned I don't want to take them.

My cholestrol is 5.1 but recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes gp says it should be 4.

I have decided to wait three months and go down the diet/flora/supplement route to see if I can get it down without medication.

I've also heard that in the past the accepted levels were higher but once statins were produced the acceptable levels became lower - in order to encourage more taking of statins.

it used to be 5.8...now i think they have lowered it too less than 5 as good. I dont think i would be worried bout 5.1 tho

maybe not relevant, but my GP pinpointed my increased cholesterol to nuts/coconut products, so I am cutting that down

aly - they want it lower in people with diabetes than for people without it.

as others have said, in addition to medication, a strict low fat diet will help, (but OK to have oily fish and small amounts of avocado, as the omega 3s help raise the HDL, the good cholesterol). He needs to watch out for the saturated fats/oils in processed food. Things like biscuits/cakes/pastries/pies from the shops are chock full of saturated fat.

Benecol drinks and Flora Activ spread are apparently designed to help with cholesterol. I'm a bit on the fence about these sort of products though.

What is the actual benefit of having a lower cholesterol when you have diabetes as opposed to not having diabetes....not too sure........not too well up on the diabetes front

it's because diabetes in itself will carry risks in terms of cardiovascular problems, so the docs are more concerned to make sure bp and cholesterol are firmly in the normal range.

I would avoid statins. I don't know anyone who has had a good result with them.

One of the key things with high cholesterol is exercise, so can you get her to go for a brisk walk everyday ?

A good natural diet will also help. I am interested in the niacin..will google soon.

thankyou

Porridge every morning for breakfast.
Switch to brown rice and pasta.
Plenty of oily fish such a mackerel.
Avoid red meats and saturated fats.
Eat a portion of soya daily (eg soya milk, soya yoghurts, soya desserts) if you can tolerate it as it has been shown to help reduce cholesterol.
Exercise to shift any excess weight
Then only problem with Benecol and similar spreads and yogurts is that for a lot of people they can cause stomach problems, namely cramps and constipation, so if your mother finds this a problem, stick to the above measures rather than relying on expensive products marketed for reducing cholesterol.

FWIW I lowered my cholesterol from 5.8 to 4.5 in less than a year by doing all of the above, which my gp was very impressed with. I didn't use Benecol because it gave me bad tummy aches.

See the BHF site for more information.

my friend is on atorvastatin and his cholesterol has dropped significantly without changing his diet. Initially doctors didnt put patients on the highest strength first. I believe its more beneficial to start off high and then lower it accordingly

thanks display this is very helpful

'Remove eggs from diet as they are really high in cholesterol'

This is outdated information. Eggs are fine.
uk.askmen.com/sports/foodcourt_60/66_eating_well.html

You can tackle cholesterol reduction from several angles

1. Greatly reduce the amount of animal fats in your diet (all types of meat, eggs and dairy products) and increase the vegetable fats and fish oils instead.

1. Greatly increase your intake of fresh vegetables, fruit and wholegrain foods. Extra fibre helps a huge amount. Kiwifruit would be a particularly good fruit choice, for example

1. Get moving. Daily exercise decreases blood cholesterol

1. Be a healthy weight. Anything you can do to get into the healthy BMI zone of 20-25 will help bring down blood-cholesterol

1. Don't smoke or drink alcohol. Both raise blood cholesterol levels.

i had a blood test last week to check for coeliac etc due to bloating.
i received a letter from the doctor today telling me the blood test showed a cholesterol reading of 6.6. i have to follow a low fat diet for 6 months and then re-test.
it was a fasting test.

my diet is pretty good. i eat granola, fruit aand probiotic natural yoghurt for breakfast. i don't smoke at all. i exercise at least twice a week, walk the kids to school every day. weigh 9.5 stones (5'3" tall) and a size 10.

advice please!

p.s. both my parents have high cholesterol (age 61, fit and healthy). Dad is on statins and bp tablets.

My dad was diagnosed with high cholesterol in the 80s. He gave up full-fat dairy items and cut down on red meat but what made the hugest difference was having acupuncture. The GP was amazed that he cut it by about 2 points in under a year. Might be worth a go?

Oat bran

high carb is the worst culprit! For real!