FH and diet

[Dollypolly]

Hi I have high cholesterol 8.7 but with a Qrisk of 5, good HDL, tri, BP, BMI etc. The GP says most likely FH. Has anyone on this forum with FH managed to reduce their levels significantly without statins? Thank you

[deepblue]

Hi there,

Depends what you mean by significantly - I reduced mine to 7.5 (from 8.9) following the Portfolio diet. My consultant was not particularly impressed as I still have a LDL level of 6.0 which is very high. However, I cannot tolerate statins and am not overly worried as my QRISK is low. I was tested for FH but they could not find the gene. So I have been diagnosed with inherited high cholesterol but not FH - something similiar. No one in my family has had early heart disease though, so am no longer as anxious as I was about this.

[Dollypolly in reply to deepblue]

Thanks sounds like you have a similar picture to mine, no family history etc. I will look at the portfolio diet.

[sandybrown]

Hi,

What is your understanding on "QRISK of 5?". There is another calculator in "JBS3"Cholesterol can be reduced by life style change, food intake control, NHS food plate is a no no!. Google can help you with the best food list to reduce cholesterol.

Regular exercise can help as well.

Give it a try, good luck.

[Dollypolly in reply to sandybrown]

Thanks. I will look at JBS3.

[sandybrown]

Hi,

Had a look on Google, different calculator ask for different medical condition details. Below is from Heart UK:

Risk calculators, Health professionals commonly use risk calculators to assess the 10 year cardiovascular risk of patients to help them identifying the need for lifestyle change and medication.

Risk calculators should not be used for people already identified as at high risk such as those with diabetes or FH.

Cardiovascular risk scores Risk calculators generate a “score” which estimates the probability of cardiovascular disease in individuals who have not already developed major atherosclerotic disease. These scores aid decision making in clinical practice and guide the type of interventions that doctors and other health care professionals advise and prescribe.

Please look at qrisk.org as well.

[YvonneD]

Hi Dollypolly,

As I have always had an aversion to artificially produced drugs and have preferred to use more natural products, when discovered to have inherited Familial Hypercholesterolaemia, I was recommended to try Kyolic garlic tablets from my local Health Food shop. When I started to take Kyolic tablets, my total cholesterol levels dropped two whole points in twelve months. The "experts" told me this was just coincidence so I stopped taking them and my cholesterol went up. I started to take them and, once gain, my levels dropped. To me this proves these tablets, with no side effects, work for me. Hope they might work for you too.

[Dollypolly]

Thank you I will look into this.