Just wanted to share what has just happened to me to give hope to others who might find themselves in similar circumstances. I am a 56 year old woman who was found to have a cholesterol of 8 three months ago on a routine blood test for something else entirely. My GP wanted to put me onto statins which I was not happy to do, and so he referred me to a consultant at the hospital. Most of my tests were within normal limits and my HDL was good but my ldl was 5.3. I have normal blood pressure, a normal hba1c and my inflammatory markers were fine. I exercise regularly and am slightly over weight. FH was banded about as a possibility. I was not given any advice from the GP and came away feeling very apprehensive. I have since read and researched as much as I could and yesterday went to my consultant appointment armed with my arguments against starting statins.
To my utter amazement he told me that I have postmeopausal hypercholstranemia and that my q risk has come out at 3, which is fine. He wants me to check my bloods again in 5 YEARS time! I asked why I had been seen at the hospital and he said it was to both reassure me and to reassure the GP. I am obviously very pleased to have this news although I will continue to follow the advice I have found in many places to perhaps slow down the rise in the cholesterol, but am saddened to have had 3 months of unavoidable stress if the GP had of been able to analyse my results accurately. I have another friend of the same age as me who has a GP who has also tried to put her onto statins with similar results to mine.
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Kas14
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How very interesting Kas. Glad to hear you had a good outcome.
Cholesterol levels go up naturally after the menopause, but if you need to reduce them, it should be possible to do so by eating the right kind of foods. Your GP should have suggested something like the Mediterranean diet rather than reaching for the prescription pad. It really is shocking that GPs continue to do this.
I wonder how your GP and consultant had such different results when they carried out your Q risk?
To be honest I'm not sure the GP did my q risk, not that he told me anyway. Once I had said that I didn't want statins he pretty much referred me straight away to the lipid clinic.
It was interesting that at the clinic they were not at all worried about me changing my diet, needing to loose weight or getting the levels down. He simply said I needed to have them rechecked in five years time.
Next blood test in five years time, relax and enjoy one life.
Watch out for hidden sugar and free sugar in food and drinks. Regular exercise can also help.
This week in news paper there was an article, porridge is better than statin!
Try and see if you can get this porridge "Dorset cereal oat & Barley Oats porridge."
I have to order this online. Other food, real butter, full fat milk, (cheese, blue cheese not on its own), avocado, green veg, fresh fruits berries, fish, chicken without skin, coconut oil, nuts and many more good food. Indian species, cinnamon, turmeric and Methi a green veg. This is what we eat for a healthy life.
Is this a diet for high cholesterol? butter, full fat milk, cheese and coconut oil are high in saturated fats. What do you mean blue cheese not on its own? Who is "we" that eat this for a healthy life.
NHS, food guide line is very old. There a lot of new information available, UK, TV programmes also have highlighted this.
Once I spoke at Heart UK meeting, saying I use coconut oils on my toast as it is spreadable in UK room temperature. you should have seen the faces of many people in the room, no ne believed me!.
Today many people are using coconut oil and coconut milk, we use both in our cooking. We make fresh coconut milk at home, do not use the tin milk. Blue top milk and cream are also good, there are two shops sell spreadable butter, we (my family) regularly use it.
Cheese on its own is not good so I am told, but with toast (we use soda bread) or good quality biscuit is good.
I am alarmed by the mistakes made by the NHS regarding my health. Fortunately, like yourself it seems I have nothing to worry about but it shouldn't happen at all. This has happened to me three times within the last ten weeks. I had two incorrect diagnoses and the third incident related to my cholesterol result. I received a reading of 6.7 and immediately prescribed Atoravastatin as necessary by one G.P. A second one I saw last week said 6.7 is "average" and statins weren't necessary - maybe a minor issue but one of the incorrect diagnoses was given by a hospital. How vulnerable I feel.
GP's and doctors need training, Oxford University is doing research on it.
total cholesterol numbers do vary person to person but NHS have a guide line number.
Once a doctor told me when he was in medical school total cholesterol number was 7.25!!!!
You need to ask for a QRISK or JBS3 risk analysis, A GP can do this and also can offer advice on life style change, give it a try. There is a post in this site where this lady explain her problems ad no more blood tests for five years, have a read..
In the news this week a good quality porridge is better then statin!
Screening for a disease in a population at low risk results in lots and lots of false positives and even more stress . Uncalibrated BP machines are in any case notorious for inaccurate measurements. a 3 percent risk over ten years obviously means that for 100 people like you 97 won't get the event in the next ten years. If you are in the proportion of the population who gets muscle pain from statins this may reduce your ability to exercise less , increasing your BP , weight and possibly mood.
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Cholesterol from 8.1 down to 5.5
Memory & muscle recovery time post Statin medication
Simvastatin 
RELUCTANT TO TAKE STATINS 
Possible FH 
