Looking for natural ways to fight cholesterol

[Meadowood]

Hello I'm new here and looking for more natural ways to keep my cholesterol under control without using statins. I've been on them for years but this year I've had muscle weakness and a shaky memory. My doctor is aware of these symptoms but feels I should continue with the statins anyway. I disagree. I stopped taking the pills 2 weeks ago and while I still have discomfort it's not as intense but not comfortable either.

[Weeannie]

Hi, I too have high cholesterol but chose to do it with diet and not pills. I stopped eating cakes biscuits bread sweets cheese cream all the usual gorgeous stuff for 3months. I dropped from 9.3 to 8.6. I then started having 1 treat a day and dropped from 8.6 to 7.2. This has taken 8months in total, but my doctor is very pleased with me and the results I have achieved x

[Markl60]

A few pointers first of all Coffee has been shown to increase LDL by 10% and green tea lower it by 10%. I have personally experimented and found that 7% either way is about true.

Secondly Niacin ( Vit B3) will slice 20% off your LDL even at 50mg per day, again personal experience verifies this. Use full flush variety, I use Health Leads B3 (no personal connection)

Thirdly about 20% of people are hyper responders to dietary cholesterol, in other words if they consume dietary cholesterol their own go's up. If you are one of these then avoid eggs, liver etc etc etc

Fourthly a whole food plant based diet will be your best option but for some reason I have never understood many people shy away from this, seemingly preferring a sunday roast to a longer life.

Finally Krill Oil in one Canadian study outperformed fish oil in reducing cholesterol so perhaps make this a standard daily supplement

Others have covered the effects of sugar, white flour products. Finally I do not think you should be too obsessed with those Total cholesterol numbers. Better to know your ratios eg Total to HDL and HDL to Trig's and also your Lp(a) and APO A and APO B numbers. You can have great total and LDL numbers and still get hit by plaque and a heart attack if the LDL you have is prone to oxidisation and entry into the endothelial wall of the arteries.

Also check your Homocysteine levels, these have been linked to heart disease and if they are elevated they are so so easy to lower with Vitamin B12 and Folate.

Glad to hear you have ditched the Statins, nobody is Statin deficient just real food deficient

[Markl60]

By the way if you want to check your Total cholesterol to HDL ratio and find out if its good bad or ugly then there is a calculator at the link below. just type in your numbers

diabetes.co.uk/cholesterol-...

[sos007 Ambassador]

I had a triple bypass in March 2015 and came off all medicines, including statins, in October 2016. Click on this link and read any of my posts relating to lower cholesterol and losing weight.

healthunlocked.com/user/sos007

P.S. It is more important to lower triglyceride levels than cholesterol per se. Triglycerides increase the component of LDL cholesterol known as VLDL (very low density lipoprotein) which is the atherogenic component of cholesterol.

Guidelines say to get your triglyceride levels to less than 1.7 mmol/l, however you should strive for less than 0.7903 mmol/l. Mine are 0.61.

This means a low carb diet. No sweets, no sugar, very very little honey, no artificial sweeteners, avoid fruit juices, soft drinks and alcohol (red wine is acceptable in moderation). Eliminate white flour products like white bread, white pasta and white pizza dough; eliminate white rice and white potatoes. Avoid packaged goods that come in a box or a bag at the supermarket.

Eat whole foods that you prepare yourself.

You also need to exercise daily - brisk walk - 30 - 60 minutes.

I have implemented all of these changes, so can you.

[Londinium]

Thyroid function, even slightly less than optimal, will impact cholesterol and lipid levels.

Infections &/or Inflammations will also impact cholesterol and lipids levels.

[Meadowood in reply to Londinium]

I don't recall seeing a thyroid test on this recent test but I've always been normal for thyroid. I understand that the liver produces cholesterol because the body needs it so taking pills that get rid of it does seem rather counter productive.

[Meadowood]

Sorry I've been slow in responding, have been waiting for my test results. Here they are: Triglyceride 95, HDL 75, LDL 132 only 2 pts. higher than normal. She also had a Muscle Enzyme test run and it came back normal at 108 U/L. I think she's going on the last test as it would seem to show no problem with my muscles but they were definitely in bad shape and are still not back to normal which I probably can't expect for a long time if ever. I don't think the other tests showed I needed statins or any other chemical to lower my cholesterol. I thank you all for the great information you've passed my way.

[Meadowood]

I see this website comes out of the UK, I'm in the US, so I'm guessing that the numbers I listed here make very little if any sense to you. Just accept that all the numbers except the LDL were considered to be normal.

[DakCB-UK in reply to Meadowood]

your numbers were in something like mg/dl, which can be converted to the UK mmol/L numbers fairly simple by searching online

[Meadowood]

Personally I'm beginning to believe that doctors rely too much on tests and pill pushing and not enough on the individual patient. My doctor who in the past has seemed to be very good at listening didn't appear to be listening at all this last appointment. Her last comment in a email to me said she was glad my back was feeling better. I didn't complain about my back.

My son sent me a U tube of a doctor talking about the liver and cholesterol. Don't recall the man's name now but still have the U tube address. I'll put it on here for any who want to look at it.

youtube.com/watch?v=GC9V1TW...(Not working as expected?)

[Meadowood]

OK, will do.