Cholesterol

[Ketantanna]

Having suffered a heart attack in March, I am now back to health and have been discharged by my consultant. Since the heart attack, I have lost 3 stones in weight, exercise regularly, given up alocohal and eat a healthy diet. My overall Cholesterol is 2.5 with LDL at 1.1. What does this mean?

[Chappychap]

What you really want is your HDL, and in particular your HDL to total cholesterol, sometimes called Plasma Cholesterol/HDL Ratio. The NHS say over 6.0 is high risk and above 4.0 is moderate risk; but several coronary specialists argue that many NHS risk measurements are too lax, and above 5.0 is a better benchmark for high risk and above 3.5 for moderate risk.

By the way, congratulations on that three stone weight loss, that's amazing! There's a number of experts who say waist measurement is a critical metric to watch for heart problems, because it's about where on your body you put weight on as much as how heavy you are. For a man a waist measurement over 37" puts you at risk, and a measurement above 40" puts you at high risk. You need to measure your waist with a tape measure (no breathing in!) rather than just assume your trousers size is the same as your waist measurement, trouser sizes are typically anywhere from three to seven inches below your actual waist measurement!

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Chappychap]

I struggle with the logic of the waist measurement as the same figure is used for all heights. Surely someone over 6' should have a larger waist than someone under 5'!

[Chappychap in reply to MichaelJH]

At some point I'm sure the rule would need recalibrating, but for the vast majority of men who are in even a remotely normal height range then apparently it still works. I was equally sceptical when I first heard this, but I was buying myself some new jeans in Gap last week and sure enough, the waist size range across their trousers were the same for both the shortest and longest inside legs they had for sale.

Why are the 37"/40" waist size guidelines important? What I read was that neither absolute weight nor BMI capture one critical issue, if you're genetically programmed to put fat on across your shoulders and thighs that's one thing, but belly fat means there's a thick, damaging blanket of fat intertwined around your kidneys and liver. Therefore the risk factors become more accurate when they reflect body shape rather than just body weight.

[jimmyq]

"What does this mean?" It means you are doing brilliantly! Well done!

Chappychap and I have been having a discussion about diet. What have you done for "a healthy diet"?

[Ketantanna in reply to jimmyq]

Thank you to Jimmyq and Chappychap for your replies. The changes to my diet are simple things, for example I’ve reduced my dairy intake as I now only have skimmed milk and use honey on toaste instead of butter or margarine. I’ve cut out snacks such as chocolates, biscuits and crisps, instead I have fruit and nuts. I a also a vegiterian but do eat eggs. I have also cut out fried foods.

[Rosei in reply to Ketantanna]

Brilliant.

[jimmyq in reply to Ketantanna]

Thanks for that. We use hummus instead of butter on savoury butties and peanut butter when having bread-based snacks, e.g. peanut butter and banana on taost. Interesting about the egs though. We watched an article about medical trials the other day. A tribe that had never eaten eggs before were given eggs to eat. Their cholesterol levels shot up. You eat eggs and yours has come down. I do not advocate that you change that as it is working for you. But as a vegetarian you should make sure you get enough protein, in your case eggs, nuts, peas, beans, lentils, mushrooms.

Chappychap, you are probably right: I could tone down my promotion of "Forks Over Knives". Not everyone with heart disease needs to do it.

[Qualipop]

It means it's fantastic. WHatever you are doing, keep doing it

[Hometerry]

Great news with the diet and exercise.I have relapsed a bit but must get

back on track.I felt healthier when I was lighter starting to get a few pains

now relapsed.So your inspiring me.

[Rhinet34]

It means your doing fantastically well , good for you 👏🏻👏🏻