How long to lower your cholesterol

[Jonno34]

My cholesterol has been bubbling round the high for a few years now, high bad neutralised by high good. Recent tests say the both have gone the wrong way. I exercise a lot and take no meds and trying to keep it that way for as long as possible. If I make a serious effort to turn this around, lower alcohol intake, live on all the good stuff etc how long would it take before I could expect to see positive improvements. I am back at the cardiologist tomorrow after a holter and seriously expect her to want to put me on statins but I would like to avoid this if possible so say I made a deal with here to get it back down, if it could be done how long till you see improvement?

TIA

[Lestanding]

Hi Jonno ,if u have followed all the guidelines and Chol. Still up and Dr advice is statins. Then try them but don't stop using them because of a side effect unless of course if it's intolerable after a month ..if your chol down after 6weeks u got your answer hope this mail helps

[Fifimyangel]

I too have high cholesterol. My gp refuses to start me on meds. I dont drink or smoke so I think it's down to heredity factors. I'm doing my best to resist the fatty treats and try exercising a bit more. Fingers crossed

[Jonno34 in reply to Fifimyangel]

I exercise regularly, up until the last couple of weeks anyway. Regularily run 25km per week but recently found my legs tired out very quickly which prompted my check up. My cholesterol has jumped a bit since 3 moths ago so is of concern. I have no history in my family so do not think I am high risk and not according to the NHS calculator. I have an ectopic heartbeat and at the moment wearing a holter with results later today. I did a stress test yesterday and results were OK till the very end when my systolic was high. Think is a couple of weeks ago the test would have been a breeze! Cant help feeling that it is all a bit of a red herring and I have some sort of bug, actually what it feels like! Back at the doc's after the cardiologist today. Missing my running though!

[trash_panda]

I was told the lifestyle changes would at best reduce my cholesterol by 10% so I needed the help of statins too. I changed my diet and aim to have no more than 1.9g of cholesterol per meal where possible. Before I started on the meds and lifestyle change my cholesterol was 7.9, six months later it was 2.3

My lifestyle was also healthy before this, I did a lot of work in the gym. However, I have a strong family history of MIs and ended up having one and a stent myself at 40. The Cardiologist said it is likely there is something in my genes that makes me and my family prone to building up cholesterol. It wasn't FH as I was tested for this.

I am on the max dose of Atorvastatin (80mg) and I also take Ezitimibe (10mg) to reduce how much cholesterol is ingested in the gut.

Statins also have other benefits such as stabilising plaque build ups in the arteries and drawing cholesterol from them. This means there is less chance of them rupturing or breaking off and causing a blockage.

[MountainGoat52]

Like you I was averse to taking drugs, even for things like headaches and colds. However, this can be based on false pride - in my case having reached retirement age only needing a bit of help with my blood pressure. For me having a HA changed all that and I came to realise that taking medication was not going to somehow change my own opinion of myself or how others saw me. I was greatly helped by the staff at the hospital explaining what each drug did and I was certainly encouraged to see taking medication in a positive light. Basically prevention is better than cure!

With regards to statins, I had three "failures" in that I suffered severe side effects with Atorvastatin, Pravastatin and Simvastatin. Thankfully the Clinical Pathologist at the local hospital suggested that I try Rosuvastatin and I have been absolutely fine with this, the results being quite impressive.