cholesterol high

[egton1966]

I have a high level of cholesterol in my blood which was found at my last blood test. I cannot understand why as I eat no fried food cheese use skimmed milk and do not eat cakes or biscuits. I am 53 I have severe osteoarthritis which limits my exercise can you help

[banana1982]

I'm completely new to all this so I'm sure someone else will offer more substantial advice later. However, when I saw the Dr with my Husband last week he advised that the diet only adds 20-30% of cholesterol the rest comes from what your body naturally makes. When my Husband had his heart attack he was advised that high cholesterol can run on families so that may be an area for you to look in to?

[ChicagoGirl1961]

Genetics can play a huge role in elevated cholesterol in spite of a diet that would appear to lead to reduced total cholesterol. Some of us are just biologically predisposed to have elevated cholesterol no matter what our diet. If I'm in your shoes I would continue with the low cholesterol intake that you have in your diet and discuss with my doctor possibly taking a statin medication.

[COYW]

I agree with Chicagogirl. I have led a pretty clean lifestyle up to 61, trying to control high cholesterol with diet. No dairy or fatty meat for about 3 years now. High level of exercise. Then I discover I have one artery blocked by 80%. Diet probably not enough for me alone so I have to take statins. Wish I had done this 5 years ago to be honest but have never wanted to take medication if I can avoid it.

[Adaboo in reply to COYW]

I think most studies now point to inflammation being the cause of heart disease now. Too many people with HAs with normal cholesterol and fit.

[COYW in reply to Adaboo]

Yes I have heard that but inflammation of and caused by?

[Adaboo in reply to COYW]

That’s the problem as it could be different for all of us. Bad teeth is one, and of course sugar is another. Insulin resistance is all about inflammation too so it’s mostly sugar we should be cutting I think.

[PhilGM in reply to COYW]

Inflammation of all tissues caused by excess sugar consumption. We have to remember that carbs are converted to sugar by the body. Also there is a close correlation between diabetes and heart disease.

[Hidden in reply to Adaboo]

I totally agree Adaboo, the satins are worse then the cholesterol, lots of studies have been made on this, lipitor has caused diabetes or Alzheimers

youtube.com/watch?v=42-xv_S...(Not working as expected?)

youtube.com/watch?v=TSqHhy3...(Not working as expected?)

[Adaboo in reply to Hidden]

A program had doctors from the US on it saying they were now embarrassed to say and tell their patients that cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease. I was horrified! How do they say after all these years and pushing statins so much that they are wrong. Beggars belief.

[Hidden in reply to Adaboo]

Exactly , check out this on youtube, it will explain why they misled us and messed up our diet and health for some reason I cannot put it in you have to type this in the subject line

The Story of Fat: Why we were Wrong about Health

[COYW in reply to Hidden]

This chap says the brain is made of Cholesterol. Blimey he lost me at that point. The brain includes it but isn't it in all cells anyway?

[Hidden in reply to COYW]

I think what he meant is that the Brain is 95% Cholesterol, it is so important to your brain that your body makes cholesterol to make sure you always have it, so if you use statin drugs to bring it down you might end up with Alzheimers. All other cells have some cholesterol too. You are not able to get your vitamin D from the sun if you do not have Cholesterol.

[Ianc2]

Try and lose the white foods, refined sugar, biscuits, cakes, breakfast cereals, white bread, white flours, including corn, anything with fructose, glucose or sucrose embedded in it. You will have to develop a new habit of reading labels. The consumption of carbohydrates is controlled by insulin which opens the fat cells for storage as fat or burns the carbs as fuel for the muscles and the brain. When the carbs run out and you exercise, the body draws on its fat stores to run itself.

If you blast sugar into your system it overwhelms the normal processing mechanism - the carbs never run out, and the excess gets stored as more and more stomach fat, around your organs as in fatty liver, and is also dumped into your bloodstream where it sticks to your red blood cells, which in turn stick to the walls and makes them sticky and starts the narrowing process in your arteries.

There are no magic cures, pills or potions. Once you become overweight or obese your chances of dying shoot up by 50%, but it usually it can all be stopped.

[Jack2019 in reply to Ianc2]

Amen! Please research as many sources as you can on the use of Statins. Diet, eating real food, will correct your lipid numbers. Statins will absolutely decrease LDL but it will also impact your bodies ability to synthesise Vit. D and CoQ10 (long term deprivation will damage your heart muscle, Research the "Absolute Risk Reduction, or Number Needed to Treat (NNT) by using statins, you will soon realise cholesterol is a minor player in heart disease, high LDL is a marker you have a problem with insulin. The culprit is insulin resistance (caused by to many refined carbohydrates and fruit consumption) and smoking. This is my opinion, after many years of research, after my own battle with heart disease.

[egton1966]

do not have white bread or biscuits or cake and do not have sugar read all labels carefully so I must be one of the unlucky ones

[Adaboo in reply to egton1966]

I’ve looked at all fruit and veg too to see what converts to high carb. Any bread! And rice and pasta, potatoes all kinds, all high carb. We have been told to eat high carb low fat for decades and we have an epidemic of heart disease. Something is not right 😔

[COYW]

You have to see this on an individual basis. I agree that high sugar/high fat are both very problematic but I was saying this the other day on another thread. I have seen many docs who I trust over the years in Uk and China. Are they all silly enough to be swamped by drug company propaganda? Do they just go along with a falacy and endanger their patients? I think they see what statins can do for some people and they see the long term outcomes; in a way are conducting their own research everyday about what works in what situations. So I'm going to continue with the statins, the exercise which I love and the low fat low sugar diet. But if I cycle 100K I will need some carbs!

[Hidden in reply to COYW]

Coyw, MOST doctors mean well and really believe they are doing the best by you, they are just doing what they were taught to do in medical school, but twenty years later , we are getting fatter and we have an epidemic of Diabetes and Alzheimers. Myself personally I will not take any drugs for the rest of my life , if I take a drug it has to be for a few days and I expect the problem to be solved. I refuse Diabetes medication, Cholesterol Statins , or High blood pressure pills. Not suggesting that you would do the same, but that is a personal choice I made. In the meantime I am working hard to reduce my weight which is a big problem in my life and hopefully all those three things get better.

[COYW in reply to Hidden]

Good on you Natalia I admire your stance 😀

[jimmyq]

Some great stuff on here. People have obviously been studying up. If you really want to get your cholesterol down try eating Brazil Nuts. They have been shown to be as effective as statins. Watch this: nutritionfacts.org/video/fo...