Doctor rang me a few minutes ago going on about my liver enzymes that are creeping up and my cholesterol, she said that was high at 7 and wanted to give me statins to which I refused point blank, I told her statins had almost disabled my brother until he managed to get off them.
Then she said that must have been a long time ago and statins have improved a lot these days, in fact there is rarely any complaints over them now. Are you supposed to believe that?
I told her that being hypo can raise cholesterol and that I do drink oat milk, use olive oil to cook with and have olive spread on a slice of sourdough bread. So then she said she knew that but if I’m doing something right and it’s still high then it needs to be addressed medically!!!
I told her I wanted to go down the natural route to try and lower it, she said to look on the NHS website for diets.
Has anyone else had this problem and managed to fix it, does anyone know how I could attempt to lower it please, apart from eating oats etc. ?
Are choc ices, 2 finger Kit Kats and cheese full of saturated fat? because they are what I like to eat a few times a week.
Thank you so much.
Written by
Ellie-Louise
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I tried statins many, many years ago. I took them quite happily because at that point I knew very little about them. Turned out they were disastrous for me. So I stopped very quickly. Unfortunately since then the baseline for wanting to start you on them has come down.
I discovered that when my TSH crept up so did my cholesterol. I mentioned that to my last GP and she smiled sweetly so she obviously knew too.
I still come under pressure to take statins. I had a long phone discussion with the practice nurse at my birthday treat health check! That was at Christmas - I said ‘Thanks but no thanks’ she must have put me down as a ‘maybe’ because a few months later I got a text asking if a) I wanted to start statins b) I wanted to have a further discussion about starting statins or c) I did not want to take statins. Needless to say I chose (c)
Apart from the fact that I could barely walk within a couple of weeks of starting statins I felt incredibly depressed while taking them - I didn’t take them for much longer, we were on holiday and I had stopped them by the time we came home.
To be honest I’m not sure that statins have improved all that much. They are still using the same statin that I was given.
The interesting thing is that they can do some sort of test that will show who is likely to have problems but I don’t think many doctors do that.
I would eat healthy foods and cut back a bit on the kitkats etc but that is coming from someone who has just finished eating a bag of M&S Belgian Chocolate Covered Raisins. I try my best but none of us is perfect.
Porridge for breakfast is supposed to be healthy, but if you don’t like porridge then you don’t like it!
Several books have been written about the pitfalls of taking statins so you could read some of them. Your body / brain actually needs cholesterol.
The Great Cholesterol Con by Malcolm Kendrick
A Statin Free Life by Dr Aseem Malhotra are two good books. At least that way as well as pointing out the link between the thyroid and statins you will have more evidence.
What a fab reply, you are now my official best friend, you and your chocolate raisins…pass them over. Lol
I’ve just been reading through a few things, for instance if Levo isn’t optimal it affects your cholesterol. Very intriguing because looking at my Patients Know Best records, my raised cholesterol and my raised liver enzymes appear to coincide with the time my Levo was lowered to 75 from 100. Before that time I was pretty much levelled out.
It is interesting isn’t it. If you can see from looking at your PKB record that things changed when they lowered your levo then you wonder why your doctor can’t figure it out too - without resorting to statins. Perhaps you can get yourself back to 100 levo. You could point out what you have noticed and ask to go back to the 100.
There's a lot of "encouragement" for doctors to prescribe statins, they probably get extra funding for the practice. Its less about your interests and more about reaching targets and extra cash for them. Sorry to be cynical but GP's are all about being a business these days. I wouldnt touch statins if you paid me either.
High cholesterol is not a problem. It doesn't cause heart attacks or strokes as they would have you believe. It is a symptom, not a disease.
And, it has nothing to do with diet. It is made in the liver and the liver keeps levels steady by making more when you consume less, and vice versa. However, when T3 is low, the body cannot process cholesterol correctly and it builds up in the blood.
It certainly has nothing to do with eating oats or saturated fat! Fat and cholesterol are two different substances, and one does not turn into the other when you eat it. So, enjoy your choc ices, 2 finger Kit Kats and cheese, they are not making the slightest difference to your cholesterol levels. And, never take dietary advice from a doctor. They know absolutely nothing about it.
You can make changes, dietary and exercise, but ultimately its all about whether your thyroid hormones are 'optimal'. My cholesterol was up at 6.something when I saw a private endo. She told me not to worry about it... so I don't!
Do you always get same brand levothyroxine at each prescription
when you retest bloods…….Make sure you get vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 tested as well as FULL thyroid TSH, Ft4 and Ft3
Recommended that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally just before 9am, only drink water between waking and test and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)
Testing options and includes money off codes for private testing
No, the doctor had got scared of my low TSH so eventually I had to give in and accept it. Previously I had argued against it and she accepted just a slight reduction but later it was taken away from me and I was told I had to take 75mcg. I got fed up with arguing. But I haven’t given up.
Here’s link for how to request Thyroid U.K.list of private Doctors emailed to you, but within the email a link to download list of recommended thyroid specialist endocrinologists
Ideally choose an endocrinologist to see privately initially and who also does NHS consultations
Actually I had requested all that I should be tested for as advised, re: those you mentioned above, but because another doctor had ordered a liver test at the same time it all got missed. Even the phlebotomist was confused as to what she was taking blood for although I did tell her that I was there for my thyroid. So thinking it was for my thyroid it surprised me when the results came through. It seems they hadn’t tested my thyroid at all other than for the TSH and T4. The rest of the tests were for full body.
I've had that wretched statin discussion so many times over the years but always refused them. Last time the GP said shall we mark your notes that you don't want anymore cholesterol testing?. That was music to my ears! I'm almost 73, no heart or diabetes in my family history so according to them my risk is very low anyway. Good luck with your endeavour trying to appease them and their rotten numbers they keep lowering anyway.
I’ve been thinking about trying to lower my cholesterol by using plant sterols instead of statins. There’s research that shows it’s possible. Whether it’s necessary is certainly up for debate but if it keeps the NHS happy maybe it’s worth a try. It’s possible to buy supplements with plant sterols or stanols in them or there are processed foods with them in. See photo
. If you’re concerned about cholesterol it might be worth trying, at least you can tell NHS staff your taking an alternative route.
I researched that yesterday and bought some Cholesterol Complex, a bit expensive but we shall see how it goes. She told me to get tested again in 3 months.
Do you have the copies of your results ? How were the Triglycerides ? If raised then sugars can be the cause ! So maybe a good idea to reduce ice creams and kit-kat !
Have a read up about berberine supplement. Can't say 100% that it was the berberine that changed things for me for sure as i started a different brand of t3 same time.Did also have lifestyle change last January of diet and exercise but only in May when started on berberine and new t3 did things change.
Remember diogenes described this thinking as “mechanical thinking”. It’s all done by tick box now. No actual thinking involved. I started thyroid meds when my cholesterol was at 9.9 and refused statins. I am not optimally treated yet for my thyroid but it’s now 6.4. In itself cholesterol is not something to concern yourself with. In fact higher cholesterol people allegedly live longer. Yes check out Dr. Malcolm Kendrick. He is still doing real thinking.
I am having to return the Cholesterol Complex. I haven’t taken any but when I opened the package and scanned the label it reads that it is not suitable for anyone over 70.
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