I recently had my bloods done by the lovely staff at my surgery but received a call a week later saying my total cholesterol was 4.4 so I thought that’s not bad ? But the lady said it’s not that good because my bad fats were 3.2 and they like it at 3 or under or I’m at risk of stroke or heart attack in the future.!!!! I can’t eat any healthier etc so Iv resigned myself to the fact that I’m going to die one day of a heart attack or stroke.!!! Iv got to die of something anyway or will I live to 102 and gently slip away in my sleep( likely not) What are these people wanting with these figures, nothing ever seems good enough.!!
Anybody else feel the same.?
best wishes guys and girls.
ron.👍
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Jetcat
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I’m not medically trained Ron and I know there is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol but sometimes, there seems to be a degree of excess enthusiasm by some surgeries to get their patients on statins quicker than they used to. Without mentioning what your surgery has said, why not discuss with your pharmacy and see what they have to say. Personally, I am up for anything which may prevent a stroke but a second opinion might be useful…..
Sounds like you’re all lined up for the statins talk. Look on the bright side - it’s a great excuse to drink red wine as that’s supposed to boost good and reduce bad cholesterol, unless of course it’s a trigger for your AF!
Iv had red wine and it’s not a trigger as far as I’m aware 👍 I think I’ll start eating seeds and foraged leaves and road kill with spring water and nip out from work in my break and walk 15 miles in 30 mins and see if that is good enough.????
Red wine did trigger a bout of a fib for me, just the once, so I'm not drinking it any more. I seem to remember there was still some in my glass, I didn't want any more but thought 'can't waste that' and knocked it back, went to bed and had a bad dose in the night. Can't bare to see or smell it anymore.
Don't forget to forage for roots too, but don't eat anything from along a roadside - car pollution! Hmmm perhaps you'd better move to a different country, one with cleaner air! Or you could just sit back and enjoy life as it is now. Seriously, I wouldn't want to take statins. Could exercise help lower your bad cholesterol? I know how you feel, it's all very annoying having more pills pressed on you. A friend who was a nurse told me cholesterol can change because of whatever you ate the day before your test. Could you ask to have a re-test in a few months time. A friend takes, (think it's cinnamon) to reduce his. Google it.
I agree! You numbers may not be ‘what they would like’ but neither are they that bad. Maybe lipid numbers will go the way of BP? Those figures had to be lower and lower and suddenly it’s not that important to keep BP below 130 or even 140 🤷
I’ve been ignoring the cholesterol /statins talk for the last 10 years so now my surgery won’t even test me. I’m more worried about inflammatory markers and so should they be. The ideal numbers seem to go lower and lower. To be fair I do keep an eye on my triglycerides and the ratio but they have never been within range as I know I have difficulty clearing fats from my system from the Zoe study but numbers are just numbers. Hope your rant helped.
Personally I think you are on the right pathway - red wine and foraging and forget about it.
My cholesterol was getting up there a few years back so the Cardiologist got me to do a calcium CT score which determines how much calcium in arteries this correlates to how much plaque you have. Mine was zero so cardiologist said no risk there. Also my good cholesterol was high so you must look at the bad and good together. Do the Calcium CT scan which will assist in deciding what to do
Mine was the opposite. Since my cholesterol values were normal my GP held off on statins for me, even though i have a family history of heart attacks and strokes. I had the Coronary CT as part of my A-fib work up at the ER. They found "significant calcification". On the statins now. Wished I'd had the CT scan sooner!
Divide level of triglycerides (in mg/dL) by HDL level (in mg/dL) to find the ratio which predicts LDL size. If lower than 2 that's ideal. If above may be problematic. Because inflammation is a key driver of heart disease, measuring C-reactive protein, which increases as inflammation does,is better at predicting heart disease than cholesterol levels.
Specifically, LDL pattern B cholesterol and inflammation drive heart disease. (LDL pattern A is harmless)
9/10 doctors measure total LDL cholesterol to diagnose heart disease and prescribe statins if it's too high. But what's important is LDL pattern B and inflammation. To add to the problem statins lower LDL pattern A but don't lower the problematic pattern B.
This is why statins don't decrease the risk of heart attack.
All of above from, Glucose Revolution by Jessie Inchauspe. Worth discussion with your GP?
I live in South Africa where large numbers of the Afrikaans population suffer from hereditary high cholesterol - this apparently can be traced back to a single Huguenot family who settled in the country in the 17th century. From what I gather , not a lot can be done if the problem is genetic. They do not appear to die more frequently from heart attacks than the population from other roots.
Yes, there’s a book a friend lent me when I was first told mine was rather high (the friend who suggested red yeast rice capsules) written by a doctor and called “the Great Cholesterol Con”!
It's only guidelines, based on international studies looking at statistics of cardiovascular diseases, nothing more sinister! These things get the conspiracy theorists like my "I hate Big Pharma" brother hot under the collar. Good luck to them.
So why are they thinking what they're thinking? Get your full results from the GP (you're allowed this), this will likely give you a score for all of the serum tests and a range of normality, example typically it will say (example) "thing, 4.5 doo-dahs, normal (3-6 doo-dahs)". The doo-dahs will be lab specific and test specific , but look up there at gtkelly's reply for examples. Then there'll be a statement from the lab "inform patient no action" or similar. This may be because your numbers are safely in the middle,or actually because they're not sufficiently at the end for them to act. This is a value judgement. There is a debate on how valid these ranges are I won't go into here but there are not accepted WHO or NHS norms, each lab takes a view and they mainly agree.Then next go and find the NIHCE guidelines on your problem (cholesterol) and see what it says.
That's not especially high. What they've done is an algorithm that factors your age, BP, the fact that you have AF and your total cholesterol score and the number crunching announces that you might die a few years earlier. Its a cardiovascular risk score.
My cholesterol btw is higher than yours. My arrhythmia nurse told me to aim for 5.0 or under so by that advice you're doing OK. Eat more 'good cholesterol' foods such as olive oil, nut butters, avocado etc. These help break down the bad cholesterol, which we don't want to get higher.
That's not a worryingly high level but if the doctors are concerned about the bad cholesterol then perhaps it's worth listening to what they have to say.
In exploring a congential heart issue that was picked up in December, my doctors also noticed I had moderate coronary artery disease at aged 38. My cholesterol was 6. I lead a very healthy lifestyle but my dad (also very active, skinny non smoker t totaler) was diagnosed with high cholesterol at 40 and opted to start taking statins. He is now without any heart disease at 75. So I started on statins too. My consultant told me I could try addressing it with diet but seeing as my diet was good anyway it was unlikely I'd be able to move the dial much on the numbers. In 6 months my cholesterol is now down to 2.9.
I had surgery to repair my congenital heart defect in June and have been in cardiac rehab since with a bunch of heart attack survivors. I was chatting to one yesterday. He was told he needed to reduce his cholesterol in his 30s and decided he could 'lifestyle' his way out of the problem without statins. He then had a heart attack 25 years later and if he had his time again he'd have started the statins when first offered.
By all means get another medical opinion based on your case - other people's stories are helpful, but only up to a point. You must do what's right for you!
Meds aren't so bad. As a woman you're often resigned to starting hormonal contraception in young adulthood and while some people don't get on with them, for me it was fantastic and improved my quality of life. There's a backlash against filling your body full of 'nasties' or things it might not need, but looking around at our modern lifestyles, processed food etc etc I don't think it's really any worse... I started a cocktail of drugs for my heart and now am totally used to them, even the 80mg statin. I prefer that to the idea of a heart attack in later life!
I’m a 79 year old female, have never been overweight and eat a healthy diet with no meat or dairy and lots if fruit and veg etc but I too get odd high cholesterol readings after a blood test! So I take red yeast rice capsules until the next blood test when my results are always fine. Of course, we are all different but do try it and see if it works for you. Hope it does.
My levels are similar to yours and my surgery recently sent me a message to advise me to take ststins. I think that they advocate statin use for anybody with a risk of 10% or more of stroke or heart disease within the next 10 years. They use the Qrisk calculator to determine this figure. This calculator estimates my risk to be 16.3%.I have recently read around the subject and my understanding is that the trygliseride/hdl ratio is the best indicator of future risk. I suspect that the great majority of affibbers would have a risk score greater than 10%via a Qrisk score.
There are side effects from taking statins.The most widely reported being muscle pain and muscle wastage which might effect 20% of users. The use of statins is also associated with memory loss,raised bloodsugar levels.
To my own mind the use of statins for me offered a very modest increase in life expectancy for a significant increase in risk of side effects. It also puts me on the path for multiple use of medications.
I think it is fair to say that most healthcare professionals would approve the use of statins and would point to a substantial evidence base to support this view.
I have been taking 85mg of Atorvastin daily since my heart attack in 2017. I have had no muscle pains cramps or any other side effects from taking it and my HDL and LDL is in the normal range. I am puzzled that people who’ve recovered from heart attacks/strokes who’ve had to rely on all the drugs and meds to save their lives are so worried about taking a statin that prevents further problems from the risk of high cholesterol.
In my view it's essential we all balance the risks of taking medications with not taking them. My aunt died as a result of damage caused by her meds, my brother and a friend now have heart failure, plus seriously damaged liver and kidneys, again resulting from meds. Yet another friend still had a stroke while taking everything prescribed after a previous stroke. There are no guarantees either way. How many people read the long leaflets that come with the meds? And the history of results on line. Things get more complicated when the meds make you feel ill, but you don't want another stroke.
Decisions.... and celery, avocado, nuts and spinach. 🙄🤔 I'm on Dabigatran but that has killed over 200 people just causing heart damage, I thought it was to protect my heart.
I'm trying to deal with other things naturally at the moment, there are other ways to work as anticoagulants but not enough testing and advice on that..... no money in it. 😏
My gp surgery kept giving me results for cholesterol tests higher each time i rang for results ,as high as 7.8 . my gp rang me numerous times saying i should be on statins, i politely declined, then gp rings me and tells me i have a 29 out of 30 [quite high] chance of a heart attack in next 10 years[ alarm bells] so i started on plant sterols 1200 x 2 times per day, speaking to my ep he told me my cholesterol was 4.8 and said that was reasonable. Statins are big business.
I've been wanting to say the same thing but was in fear of negative feedback. but I agree that we're all going to die of something so why worry. Before we were born our time on earth is already set and when it's your time to go there is nothing anyone of us can do to change it. "Only by Grace are we Saved".
I guess you have AF and already take an anti-coagulant. That is miles better for you than your cholesterol level.
You could have a stroke from a blood clot stray. I had one but also they found on day 4 whilst doing a carotid scan that there was a shadow on my thyroid. Papilliary cancer was proven and within 4 months it was out alonf with 12 right lymph nodes (2 already infected along with a 1.9mm carcinoma in right lobe and a surgeon saw a bit in left lobe. 3 scans later from 2020 all clear.
Now the clinic earns money if you take statins.
My EP said 4 level was the best for me. When one takes away the good cholesterol from bad it was 5.5. Personally I would not worry with statins. Men are usually lower. It's either a gene thing or an eating-diet thing.
Your decision and she should not be 'over the top' in her pressurerising you.. Was your triglycerides higher than 2? You need some cholesterol. Read all about it. There are any statin folks and those who swear about it.
I guess 10mg Avorastatin Statin wont hurt you but there are some unpleasant side effects which can surface after taking them for a couple of years.
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These things get the conspiracy theorists like my "I hate Big Pharma" brother hot under the collar. Good luck to them.
Some bad news…
Blood thinners and bleeding
AF and leaking heart valves.
Bad night and terrifying morning
Is it possible to live with symptoms without beta blockers and just have anticoagulent? 
