Better HbA1c, but now high cholesterol

[ShyLily]

Mine went up initially. If you are lowering weight you are 'eating' your fat. It enters the bloodstream, hence cholesterol goes up!
Mine has come down since, to 5.8 I am not concerned, they can bleat statins all they like, 5.8 IS NOT high

What is a high number for cholesterol then cause my doctors tried to put me on them last time and I think mine was 6.2

 

[Honeyend]

I can not understand why all these people have been prescribed statins, there is supposed to be a protocol that each patient is assessed for before they are put on them. My cholesterol has been as high as 7.2, and I have never been on them as the other factors asses made me low risk
.https://patient.info/doctor/cardiovascular-risk-assessment

https://qrisk.org/three/

 

[Bluetit1802]

I can not understand why all these people have been prescribed statins, there is supposed to be a protocol that each patient is assessed for before they are put on them. My cholesterol has been as high as 7.2, and I have never been on them as the other factors asses made me low risk
.https://patient.info/doctor/cardiovascular-risk-assessment

The problem with the Q-risk calculation used by doctors (it is Q-risk3 now) is the second you enter diabetes your risk score shoots up over 10% no matter how good your cholesterol or other markers are, and every time you have a birthday it goes up again. As the current guidelines say anyone over 10% should be offered statins, that puts us all in that bracket.

https://qrisk.org/three/

 

[Tannith]

My LDL went up on my last 2 tests. It dropped steadily since diagnosis in 2014, test on test, then suddenly last June it shot up and in November went up a bit again. It is now 3.6, the highest it has been since diagnosis. I have no idea why it should suddenly happen after all this time. There have been no dietary changes. I am not at all concerned and even my DN told me it would be mostly "the big lorries" as she called it, meaning the big fluffy particles that cause no harm - because my trigs are low. (she had been on a cholesterol training session!)

We all know that the big fluffy LDL particles are less dangerous than the lethal very Low Density and Low Density particles. However unless you have X ray vision how on earth could you tell which you have most of? Triglycerides are a different type of blood fat altogether and not part of the LDL system. Perhaps she was telling you what she thought you wanted to hear?

 

[bulkbiker]

We all know that the big fluffy LDL particles are less dangerous than the lethal very Low Density and Low Density particles. However unless you have X ray vision how on earth could you tell which you have most of? Triglycerides are a different type of blood fat altogether and not part of the LDL system. Perhaps she was telling you what she thought you wanted to hear?

We don't "all know that" and especially most HCP's don't know that either.. which is a bit of a problem.
When LDL has been labelled "bad" cholesterol by all of the media (and a number of doctors who should know better) this becomes very evident.
The Trig/HDL ratio is often looked at as a reasonable proxy for the LDL particle size and unless we can persuade our GP's to get the particle size tested it's all we have to go on.

 

[Bluetit1802]

We all know that the big fluffy LDL particles are less dangerous than the lethal very Low Density and Low Density particles. However unless you have X ray vision how on earth could you tell which you have most of? Triglycerides are a different type of blood fat altogether and not part of the LDL system. Perhaps she was telling you what she thought you wanted to hear?

Not at all. The lower the trigs the more big fluffy particles and less little dense ones there are. My DN knew this, as did I. That is why she said I would have mostly "big lorries". My trigs are very low and my HDL is high. My trigs/HDL ratio is 0.24. (Under 0.87 is ideal)

 

[Guzzler]

A very short video (less than five minutes) on cholesterol, enough to make you ask questions and hopefully read more.

 

[Tannith]

Not at all. The lower the trigs the more big fluffy particles and less little dense ones there are. My DN knew this, as did I. That is why she said I would have mostly "big lorries". My trigs are very low and my HDL is high. My trigs/HDL ratio is 0.24. (Under 0.87 is ideal)

Apologies folks. I was mistaken in thinking there was no relationship between trigs (or at least trigs/HDL ratio) and large LDL particles. There is, as some have said above , a relationship between large Ldl particles and the HDL/Trigs ratio.