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Anyone got any experience of having high cholesterol despite eating a good diet (very little dietary cholesterol taken in) and no apparent family history? In particular, any experience of how you reduced it? Recent reading was really high but with low HDLs.....most strange.
Nothing much to do with fitness and diet, although some foods, like lots of cheese, don't help. An old problem of mine now under control. Couldn't tolerate Statins so after medical advice from my son the doctor I had a milder drug prescribed. Send me pm Richard for details.
Yep.
See an old Fellrunner about statins - 70+ runner from one of the Pennine clubs. Leave them alone unless your 'sedentary'.
Me: 'Well Man' clinic at local surgery (lasted just a couple of months): 'Oh dear, your cholesterol is in the orange band but everything else, diet and exercise look good'. Three months after a few changes (dropped most dairy prods - bothy pack never gets smelly nowadays) when results of a 'proper test' sent: 'Your good cholesterol is even better but the bad is worse. We can put you on statins'.
Considering that it's not so long until the Three Score and Ten: 'Get lost, Im out'.
Same story, though, for one, lot younger, runner (who measures absolutely everything)!
Cholesterol in the diet has little effect on blood cholesterol. The idea that saturated fat is "bad" is questioned by many, who now blame sugar/refined carbs - often hidden in processed foods - for obesity/type 2 diabetes/high cholesterol/metabolic syndrome. The Mediterranean diet is a good way forward - fruit/veggies/legumes/wholemeal grains/oily fish and only occasional meat. Eggs are OK, as is some dairy stuff. It may not lower your cholesterol, but it has for example been shown to be more affective than any tablet after a heart attack, including statins. If overweight then weight reduction helps - whatever diet you can stick to is the best one. Beware of "lo-fat" products, for example yoghurt - to make up for the missing fat, sugar and other rubbish is often added so that the taste/texture is acceptable.
As for statins, unless you have symptoms of vascular disease - heart attack/angina/stroke/claudication/aneurysm and so on - they are not worth taking - it has been estimated that it would need an infinite number of people to be treated to save just one life.
Thanks for all of this info. YDT, pm coming your way. Mostly, it's nice to hear other people saying "leave the statins alone". I'm very much against them.
MikeT - I've been reading plenty about diet and cholesterol as well and had pretty much come to the conclusion that, within reasonable limits, intake of dietary cholesterol has little effect on blood cholesterol levels. That's not the reason I take little in, it's primarily through choice. We don't have dairy, we don't eat meat but do eat fish once every couple of weeks and do eat some eggs. I also don't go in for those lo-fat options.
EddieD - I'm expecting a similar thing to happen in a few months with some lifestyle changes I'm making.
Interestingly, after completing my BG a few years ago, I stopped exercising much for a few months - life got busy with other things and my body still felt like it was recovering. I had a blood test at that time and my cholesterol was high, with high LDLs and low HDLs. I started training again, in earnest and, a few months later, had another test.....back within NHS acceptable levels!
Thanks for the reassurance and info. I also have a local herbalist who is highly trained and whose opinions I very much trust - she's offered some initial advice and, once I get second blood test results back, i'll be seeing her for a full consultation and a herby potion. I;ll let you know how that goes
I should add that nuts are felt to be good for us, as are yoghurt and cheese, despite their fat content. Of all the foods we eat oily fish is one that really does us good - because of its omega 3 content - though those right at the top of the food chain - swordfish, for example - are best avoided, as they can have quite a bit of mercury in them - mackerel/salmon/trout/tuna/sardines/herrings all taste much nicer than swordfish anyway.
Of the vegetable oils the best are olive oil and cold pressed rapeseed oil. Some of the others are highly processed, or have too much omega 6 in them - sunflower oil for example.
Back to oily fish - ideally eaten at least twice a week!
Thanks for the additional info MikeT, useful to know.
Nuts - they form part of my everyday diet, a wee snack including some walnuts. That's an interesting one about yogurt and cheese though, I wouldn't have expected that and those are two foodstuffs I don't have these days since being non-dairy.
Re fish, unfortunately it is difficult to find anything other than farmed salmon these days and I understand that this is not considered as good for us. Is that your understanding as well? And what are your thoughts on omega 3 from non-fish sources such as flaxseed?
Even farmed fish has enough omega 3 to be well and truly worthwhile eating. The non-fish omega 3 fatty acids, though still classified as omega 3, are a different molecule from that in fish, so not as beneficial, and flaxseed oil is said by many to go off too quickly to be useful. Flaxseeds and milled flaxseed are OK, though milled it should be consumed quickly once opened and kept in the fridge.
It does seem odd that nuts/cheese/yoghurt, once frowned on for their fat content, are now felt to be beneficial. The type of sugar in milk - lactose - is largely missing from cheese/yoghurt. Lactose is broken down into glucose plus galactose; the latter is used in animal studies to accelerate ageing! For this and many other reasons I try to avoid cow's milk, and make my own almond milk for my daily porridge.
Thanks for all of that MikeT. I didn't realise that about flaxseeds....I'll go and pop them in the fridge straight away! I'm pleased to see someone else does the homemade almond milk with their porridge! I'll definitely consider eating more fish then and, since Derby Tup taught me well, I should be able to catch a few nice pollock from the loch once we stop having 90mph winds here!
Have you done any more fishing Rich?
My doc has just recommended statins.
My answer was "no thanks".
I will lose weight and control it by change of diet.
Are the home purchased test kits and good?
Fair play Stagger. You should do that. But don't beat yourself up too hard. Take a look at your family/parents. If any of them had high cholesterol there's a good chance that much of your problem is genetic. In that case you will need statinsQuote:
Originally Posted by Stagger
Thanks for your reply Wheeze.
Grandad, Dad and Brother were all taken by Huntingdons disease.
My test came back negative.
My Grandma 94, Mum 85 and Me (who knows)
Personally I would prefer to have a 6 month effort to start improving the cholesterol.
In conjunction with the Doc i am starting to reduce my Citalopram dosage.
Exercise has just started again.
Weight loss on agenda.
Diet and food change will start upon return from holiday.
If there are anymore thing's i could change to avoid statins please reply.
Plan sounds right. Good luck Trev
By all means do all those good things. But if your weight is OK, i.e you have BMI less than 25, and you dont abuse the diet too much, then there may not be much of an impact. But I'm interested to see wht youi can achieve, whats your numbers now?Quote:
Originally Posted by Stagger
Stagger my boss has some of those yoghurt things that were actually recommended by his doctor. They worked for him (I assume along with his daily lunchtime walk and effort with his diet).
Maybe a more European approach to your diet would help Trev?
Ha ha ha I have been on that DT.
Fruit and continental breakfast with soy milk.
Chicken and fresh vegetables for evening meal.
On hand full of nuts per day.
On and the downside. A few Tuborg Amber's. A very nice drink after a long hot day and excellent for replenishing fluids.
Stagger, can I suggest you read up on the link between high levels of stress and cholesterol. I know you've had a tough period these last couple of years when your cortisol levels will have been through the roof and there is a knock-on effect, potentially, on cholesterol levels.
Thanks Richard.
Very interesting and informative.
Not only Stress and high cholesterol but you can add depression into the equation.
This is usually increased by poor diet and lack of motivation for exercise.
Stress is known to increase cholesterol levels and in particular the bad LDL cholesterol.
The amount of stress in your life isn't as important as how you deal with it. The more anger and hostility that stress produces in you, the higher (and worse) your LDL and triglyceride levels tend to be. Fight/flight mode has a bearing in this.
Stress encourages the body to produce more energy in the form of metabolic fuels, which cause the liver to produce and secrete more of the bad cholesterol, LDL. Also, stress may interfere with the body's ability to clear lipids.
All of the research shows that I should have tried to deal better with the divorce. I was angry.
Also the stress of losing an Ex, your sons, your home, your village where you lived all my life, my job of 14 years and starting life again. Couple this with depression and no wonder I recorded a high value.
In consultation with the Doc I hope to go until Christmas with a change in diet, more exercise (as demonstrated on this holiday) and lowering of Citalapram dosage.
Laugh it off and keep relaxed is the way forward for my new life.
Cheers to Wheeze also for your informed comments.
Just for info Stagger.
In June my cholesterol was 6.1 with bad ratio.
I went on to statin 20mg.
I've been veggie for 2 years but admittedly eat a lot of dairy.
Cut down on nuts.
Cholesterol this week is 3.9 with excellent ratio.
Happy bunny!
I'm glad to hear it Wheeze. Keep taking those pills - and eating well of course.
This would be more interesting as a controlled experiment. We need three more Wheezes: one takes statins but has no change in diet; one turns vegetarian but doesn't take statins; and one makes no change at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wheeze