Advice please

[yamyam]

Following a blood test I was told that my cholesterol is high, at just under what it should be but my QRISK is low at 0.9 and GP said that medication isn't necessary. I am stunned as didn't think that I ate that badly and my lifestyle is fairly good. My question is how do I reduce it without meds. TIA

[Aliwally]

Do you know how high your cholesterol was? As with many of us, genetics play a big part, so don't be too hard on yourself and your lifestyle.

[sandybrown]

Hi, It is imperative that you look at all four blood test results. Total (ratio), LDL,HDL and triglycride.

Had a look at QRISK calculater, I am confuded with my results on the screen! Please check all the four test results against the normal numbers.

[yamyam]

My cholesterol was just under the normal, ie if normal is 5 then I was 4.9 :-(. My bmi wasn't high, I don't drink so was quite shocked. Gp didn't seem concerned, he said my QRisk was 0.9

But he didn't give details of ldl and hdl, just said cholesterol was high basically.

[sandybrown]

Hi yamyam, It took me a very long time to understand cholesterol numbers! Please ask your GP for full results. Look on the web and compare the umbers. If your QRISK is 0.9, what does it say? very long life? I am afraid you need to ask more questions on this to get a better understanding. There are many factors to be considered. Age, sex, hight, weight, BP, chelesterol ratio and so on. Have a look at the QRISK on web, see if you have all the information to input to the calculater to check it yourself. you can vary the numbers to find out more on it.

[yamyam in reply to sandybrown]

He checked all the other factors such as BP, weight and height etc that's why my QRisk came out at 0.9

[Penel]

Since when is 4.9 high? If you've got no BP or heart problems it sounds fine to me.

UK Heart recommend cutting out cakes, biscuits etc which is very good advice, I would go further and say cut down on all processed food, including bread. If you are looking at yoghurt drinks check that they don't contain sugar. lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/f...

[Aliwally]

I agree totally with Penel, a total cholesterol of 4.9 is wonderful. If you can be bothered you could ask your GP for the exact figures.

Please don't be stunned, it sounds like you are perfectly healthy and this sounds like a normal result being "medicalised". I don't know why your GP said that four letter word "high" !

[yamyam]

I don't know if it was 4.9, I used that as an example, as I don't know what normal level is. My reading was just below normal. (if normal is 10 I was 9.9, etc) I've cut salt out and cut down sugary things. I was too hung up on the fact that GP said level was high so didn't get exact figures, but just remember him saying no need for meds despite being high!

[amandac]

My understanding is that normal is around 5.4 so if yours was just below normal it is presumably less than this. I really would try not to worry about this as the others on the forum have previously suggested.