Why is my cholesterol so high?

[Fannycrad]

My cholesterol has just been measured after a blood test and come back as 7.5. This is surprising as my diet is generally v good. I eat lots of greens, fruit, chicken, oily fish, pulses, brown bread. I'm size 12 and exercise regularly. There is a family problem with this condition. I like biscuits and the odd cake and sweets. Advice needed please! What am I doing wrong?

[TheAwfulToad]

If you have familial hypercholesterolemia you're probably not doing anything "wrong", although you might well benefit from dialling back on things like bread, cakes and sweets. If you feel a continual need to graze on these things your diet is probably deficient in fat and too reliant on carbohydrates as an energy source.

You might be interested in this guy. He's a clinical psychologist who just happens to have familial hypercholesterolemia. Ignore the rather hyperbolic video title - it's not a conspiracy-theory video. He discusses his personal experience with the condition, the science (or lack of it) behind the dietician's view of cholesterol, and his journey to getting his diet sorted:

youtube.com/watch?v=yX1vBA9...(Not working as expected?)

It's a long presentation but pretty relevant to your situation, I think. The bottom line is that doctors are really far too obsessed about cholesterol: at some point, it ceased to be just a diagnostic marker for cardiovascular disease (and not a particularly good one) and morphed into the actual cause of CVD. We know it isn't, partly because there's no known physiological reason why it should be, but mainly because controlling cholesterol doesn't reduce heart disease. Yet doctors carry on handing out statins to every man and his dog. You don't need to worry about cholesterol as such, but you do need to make sure you're eating human-appropriate food.

[Fannycrad in reply to TheAwfulToad]

I can’t thank you enough for that link! I already decided that I would not be taking statins if offered and this talk sealed the deal. 👍🏾

[Hidden]

Mine is 7.5 they said it was fine. I've got good hdl ldl ratio. And anyway it doesn't say if its oxodised ldls which are the bad ones. Ldls carry things around in yoir blood so maybe they're busy carrying all the things around and not being a nuisance. the level at which they recommend statins now is a lot lower so a lot of people will be now in a high bracket.. Doesn't seem to be evidence that high cholesterol is actually bad for you unless its oxodised which they don't test for I suppose.

[Fannycrad in reply to Hidden]

This goes hand in hand with the advice given to me from The Awful Toad. Many thanks, I'm much clearer now 👍🏾

[Fannycrad in reply to Hidden]

Hi, thanks for responding to my high cholesterol post last week. Can you further explain what you mean by good hdl ldl ratio. This was not told to me after my blood tests, only the 7.5 figure which scared the life out of me. Cheers.

[Hidden in reply to Fannycrad]

So the hdl and ldl should be on the lipid panel result. If you got a print out from the doctor it won't say anything about ratios...at least mine didn't ... I'm not sure what those levels are it was my mom who said it was a good ratio she's been studying the while cholesterol thing since she had an injury and meds that caused a whole cascade of things. There's also something called very small ldls which are from what my simple mind has gathered like an empty packet ..the ldls are mwant to carry stuff about but when there used up they become smaller and I think oxidized so they're dangerous then and just flat about causing trouble. My mom sent me a link to a guy called ...Dr berg on your tube. He's not a doctor he's a chiropractor but he does have some well explained videos about it. And he's not too technical. But I can't attest to his methods ..I think he's a keto guru. So pinch of salt and cross check but be a good place to start.

[Fannycrad in reply to Hidden]

Thanks so much for this info. Much appreciated 👍🏾

[MichelleHarris]

Watch your Thyroid. If its not working properly thats another cause for Cholesterol to increase. A normal TSH will be less than 2 but deemed normal up to 5 in some countries x

[Hidden in reply to MichelleHarris]

Interesting is that because different countries have a different average or they consider the problem when its in a less extreme stage or just a different way if measuring so different numbers but mean the same thing? Mine is 3.25 but it was early in the morning so bound to be at its highest then I think. Not sure about that.

[MichelleHarris in reply to Hidden]

Yes something going on with your Thyroid unfortunately. Have you had full Thyroid function plus TPO antibodies and vitamin check?

It may be Iodine deficiency or auto immune or something else but Iodine deficiency can be treated. Iodine is not good if its auto immune but some people can prevent deterioration by going Gluten and Dairy free. Also lacking in vitamins can affect the Thyroid so by addressing that you can prevent deterioration x

[Hidden in reply to MichelleHarris]

Thyroid fine t4 t3 fine eat plenty of seaweed so idodine fine. All fine. I have had adrenal exhaustion before which they also don't recognise until your levels are so bad ...so i know exactly what you mean. At the time of my test I was going in about arythmia which didn't show up anyway and I have solved that with magemsium and realising in general I need a lot of nourishment just the whole shebang. Before I do end up in a state where modern medicine can see a problem lol!

[MichelleHarris in reply to Hidden]

TSH 3.5 isn’t fine. I would post your results on the Thyroid site x

[Hidden in reply to MichelleHarris]

It is fine according to the lab that my gp sends my bloods to. Different laboratories have different testing and machines with different calibrations etc...so in the lab I'm with 3.5 is midrange. Fine. If you went to a different lab the range will be different there. Its not a static thing.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

And I have no symptoms So demonstrably fine. And the world of science says I'm fine. So if I feel fine and I'm within range I don't know why you'd feel the need to tell someone you've never met they're not fine. Lol. Not everyone with a tsh level of 3.5 is unwell..I'm sure some people are but thankfully that's one thing I don't need to worry about. Yoh can worry about it for me if ya like. Lol.

[Eryl]

It used to be thought that colesterol damaged your cardiovascular system, but many doctors now look on HDL colesterol as the repair mechanisms. There are also two types of LDL but there is no simple test to tell you the levels of each one, The one you don't want is the small dense LDL. The way to tell is to test for triglicerides as well and if they're higher than your HDL. The way to lower your triglicerides is to reduce your sugar consumption. Check out a video on youtube called "Sugar: The Bitter Truth* by Robert Lustig esp at 36 mins in where he explains the colesterol issue.

[Fannycrad in reply to Eryl]

Cheers Eryl. This concurs with the David Diamond video I was advised to watch. Absolutely chuffed with the folk on this forum 👍🏾

[Eryl]

No problem. A lot of us have been on long journeys to find the truth. It's good to be able to share what we've found to help others.

[Eryl]

An interesting podcast has been published today by Ivor Cummins on Youtube. It's Ep114: Cholesterol Conundrums Revisited, with Dr Jonny Bowden PhD

[Fannycrad in reply to Eryl]

Cheers Eryl!