My cholesterol levels were 14.8 but with medication are now about 4.5. Do I need to be on a lipid lowering diet ?

[dano]

The diet has been recommended but I haven't done anything about it, although my diet is pretty good. I have CHD and 3 stents.

[DakCB-UK]

I'm no doctor but yes, I think so, but it sounds like you may get away without it, although depending how old you are 4.5 might still be regarded a bit high, especially if you've had an incident.

I'd give the Ultimate Cholesterol Lowering Plan diet a go, in the hope that it will mean lower medication doses, because personally I don't believe that many drugs are risk-free.

[dano in reply to DakCB-UK]

Hi DakCB-UK - many thanks for your answer i'll have a look at the diet - I'm 44 does that make much difference do you think ?

[DakCB-UK in reply to dano]

If I remember correctly, the broad aim used to be 5.0 at 50, so if you haven't had a heart attack, 4.5 doesn't seem that bad as a total level. What's your LDL and HDL? I think you'd aim for below 2.5 and above 1.0, in that order.

[dano in reply to DakCB-UK]

Not sure i'd have to check but had a blood test not that long ago and now am curious to find out. Especially as gives specific guidance on this in the ULCP diet and i think i will now make some dietary adjustments.in line with what they suggest.

[joannas in reply to DakCB-UK]

my cholesterol is 6.9

[Aliwally]

Hi Dano,

I'm not an expert either and I think that I am slightly more sceptical about cholesterol lowering diets than others on this site, mainly because I can't be bothered to think that much about what I am eating. However, others are living proof that they do work, so no harm in trying .

I'm sure just having a healthy diet, cutting out junk, refined carbs being careful about eating excess fat goes a long way on its own.

[dano in reply to Aliwally]

Hi Aliwally - like you i don't follow the diet thing religously but having looked at some research on the possible side effects of high doses of statins i am going to try to get my levels down a bit further with diet and see what happens, certainly cutting down a bit more on saturated fats.

[smithy]

Hi Dano,

I too have CAD/CHD with 10 stents and what was considered high cholesterol. Was placed on Atorvastatin and got levels down to 2.9. Had changed my diet as well, cutting out saturated fats etc and increasing oily fish, tried an experiment and came off the statins but within 6 weeks Cholesterol had increased to 6.9 with LDL at 4.8. Needless to say Cardiologist asked me to go back on the statin.

I to am no expert, but my results seem to favour the use of statins, and i personally have had no side effects with them.

Hope all goes well

Tony

[dano in reply to smithy]

thanks tony.

[Hidden]

I think the whole diet / cholesterol issue is slightly worrying as research shows that restricting cholesterol in the diet doesn't really reduce cholesterol. Statins are very good at doing that. An example is eggs. People don't eat eggs as they think they are high in cholesterol (they are) and that by eating them, their cholesterol levels will go up (they won't).

See here from the British Heart Foundation:

bhf.org.uk/default.aspx?pag...

Obviously this whole debate assumes saturated fat increases levels of lipoproteins in the blood and that an increased level of lipoproteins in the blood contributes to heart disease, so lowering the level of lipoproteins in the blood will protect you from heart disease. Lots of 'assumes' in here.