Cholesterol help!

[Donnadoobie]

Hi all I am back after a long break.

Had a phone call,just after Christmas and just before I went off to Scotland for Hogmanay. My GP wanted me to go in for BP check and blood test. As My Hba1c is normally in March, I was thinking this would be a kidney function blood test for my BP medication. I carried on with the festivities with some lapses in my low carb diet ( not a lot but some) and a few Proseccos. Anyway on Monday I went off to the nurse for the blood test. Imagine my horror when I asked if it was my kidney function test to be told, no it was kidneys, liver, sugar and cholesterol!
I was panicking, BP taken 138/52 pleased. Went off home to wait to be called with results. Last night she called, my heart dropped. Liver and kidneys fine. HBA1C 43 ( was expecting higher after Christmas). She had phoned because my cholesterol was up from 5.9 ( last tested in 2015) to 8.0! She wanted to put me in statins ( which I will never take) but agreed to have a fasting re test in about 6 weeks. I have no idea of the breakdown as she said that this had to come from a fasting one ( not sure that is true) but now feel too scared to eat! Anyone have any advice how to get this number down under the magic 7.5 ( point at which statins will be prescribed) in 6 weeks on a low carb diet?

 

[bulkbiker]

If you had eaten before the blood draw then the results would probably have been skewed anyway so nothing really can be said about them.
It is of course up to you which medications you take so feel free to say no thanks to statins anyway.
If you wish to blind your doctor with some newer science then you could take a read and watch through this thread which you may find interesting..

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/cholesterol-and-statins.156985/

enjoy...

 

[Donnadoobie]

Won’t take statins as I watched my mum deteriorate very quickly after reacting badly, went from an active 83 year old to a forgetful, unkempt woman before her 84th birthday. She finally died with Alzheimer’s aged 88. I have always blamed statins and my research has not changed my opinion.

I did eat a lot of cheese and strawberries and cream over Christmas and the two days before the test saw me eating a chicken Korma using coconut oil and coconut milk, bacon, lamb steaks ( with fat). Cheeses left over from Christmas and more strawberries and cream! May have played it differently if I had know a cholesterol test was on the cards. Ate late, about 9.30 and did not eat breakfast but had coffee with almond milk and blood test was 12 hours later, so was effectively a fasting one but they did not treat it as such. On a mission now.

 

[Ponchu]

Won’t take statins as I watched them destroy my parents.
I’ve read too much on them.

I filled Rx, to not be labeled “trouble” or be booted out

 

[SaskiaKC]

@Donnadoobie I am so glad you started this thread! I'm not glad you had the need to, but selfishly I am glad you did, because I felt like starting a thread with the same title.

I just got back from my A1C checkup two days ago. A1C was way down (5.8 from 7.5 last summer), weight down, blood pressure down. LDL cholesterol was 216!!! Horrors! My doctor wants it below 100. I don't know how to convert it (or A1C) to UK/European numbers. Someone one here said my 5.8 = 40, so your 43 looks great to me.

My doctor's assistant, who called me with the cholesterol test results, gave me a list of foods to eat and foods to avoid. She said to cut way back on red meat, pork, and egg yolks; and to eat oatmeal, more vegetables, fruit, and fish. She did not mention statins, thank goodness. I wouldn't take them anyway.

I have felt very stressed and frustrated the past couple of days trying to learn about cholesterol, so I'm certainly not qualified to offer you any advice or even recommendations, other than the little I have learned. Fish such as tuna and salmon are good, almonds and walnuts and pecans are good, oatmeal is good for your heart and has fiber. Plain Greek yogurt is good. Chicken is OK in moderation. It seems that mozzarella is better than, say, cheddar, for the cheeses.

Inflammation can raise cholesterol.

None of that is medical advice, other than what my doctor's assistant told me. The rest is from other people with diabetes and from various medical websites, for what that's worth.

Do you have any idea how to translate your 5.9 and 8.0 into American?

Big hug, and best wishes. Thanks for starting this thread.

 

[SaskiaKC]

I just want to add that I think the reason my cholesterol number was so high day before yesterday is that I have been eating too much beef the past six months. I was diagnosed T2 last April, and went very low-carb, and lost 26 pounds and my BG numbers came down.

But I also stopped having any appetite for vegetables. I did eat some salads over the summer, but later in the year I started trying cooked vegetables and just had no appetite for them. So I started eating more fish and chicken and, when I got fed up with them, beef (which I never seem to get tired of). I also started putting heavy whipping cream in my coffee, and having on average 1 or 1 1/2 cups a day.

So for the next 3 months, until my follow-up cholesterol blood work and A1C, I am not going to have any cream, and I am going to try not to eat any red meat. I will also cut back on chicken, eat more fish, more oatmeal (maybe 1 bowl a day), and more vegetables. Then I will see if that lowers my LDL cholesterol AND doesn't raise my A1C. I will keep checking BG in the morning and after meals with the increased veg, and oatmeal, and yogurt, and see if BG increases, and weight, or decreases, or stays about the same.

People recommend "eating to your meter" so I am going to see how my eating over the next 3 months registers on my BG meter and on my doctor's cholesterol meter. Then I will take things from there.

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

Total cholesterol has very little to do with your health. Did they give you the HDL, LDL, triglyceride breakdown?

I recommend getting a printout of your lab results every time you get tests done. That way you can review them at your leisure and also see changes over time.

 

[Tophat1900]

Don't lose sleep over a random test

 

[Donnadoobie]

SaskiaKC I think 8.0 is a US 309.

NoCrbs4Me My GP said she didn’t have a break down as it was not a fasting test, will have one next time.

Tophat1900. You are right, it was a random test and I had been eating a higher fat diet than I would normally.

The thing is, I have been low carb now for 3 years and feel great, kept my weigh off, well most of it ( lost 26lbs) a1C since 2015 have been 49, 46, 43, 40, 40, 42 and now 43. I know the last two were due to either stress or Christmas so am not worried about them

When cholesterol was first tested in 2015 it was 7.8 but got it down in 6 months with plant sterol tablets and doing the 8 wk BSD, to 5.9, which was enough to leave me alone for 3 years.

I am not really worried about the results as I sort of know they were taken at the worst time of year and also have learned not to fear cholesterol as much as they would have us believe but just want to get her off my back. Have ordered some more plant sterol tabs, Lecithin powder, which worked before also and having Apple Cider vinegar twice a day before meals, using turmeric adding psyllium, using extra virgin olive oil, eating lots of salads and veg ( which I do anyway) and eating almonds. Not sure what else I can do.

I don’t really want to have the difficult conversation where I refuse statins. I told her before that I believed statins caused my mums dementia and she said it was the cholesterol that caused it. I don’t believe that and anyway she lived to be 88 and did not die of any cardiovascular problems.

Thanks for your input everyone. Have been away from this forum too long! I had forgotten how supportive it was.

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

Anyway on Monday I went off to the nurse for the blood test. Imagine my horror when I asked if it was my kidney function test to be told, no it was kidneys, liver, sugar and cholesterol!

I was under the impression that cholesterol tests were usually after fasting, so they should have told you before hand.

She had phoned because my cholesterol was up from 5.9 ( last tested in 2015) to 8.0!

If it's not a fasting test . . . . . . . Also, you might be surprised at how quickly total cholesterol can change. I don't usually go out of my way to increase the amount of fat in my diet, but eating full fat yogurt and adding cream to my coffee does make a difference to my readings.

She wanted to put me in statins

It's her job to suggest treatment and your prerogative to say no thanks. I'm assuming you're in the U.K.

Anyone have any advice how to get this number down under the magic 7.5 ( point at which statins will be prescribed)

I'm not sure there's a magic number. Most U.K. medics are supposed to use something called QRISK, you can find the calculator they use at https://qrisk.org/. As for getting the number down, I remember that my total cholesterol dropped dramatically as soon as I went onto a low carb diet. Emphasis on low carb and not high fat. As I mentioned, introducing things like cream and full fat yogurt will affect my total cholesterol.

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

She said to cut way back on red meat, pork, and egg yolks

The cholesterol in egg yolks won't make any difference. Ingested cholesterol won't make any difference. The more cholesterol you eat, the less the body makes. https://www.heartuk.org.uk/low-cholesterol-foods/choose-low-cholesterol-foods might be worth a read. Slightly misleading title though, the foods aren't low in cholesterol, just their effect.

 

[Donnadoobie]

I was under the impression that cholesterol tests were usually after fasting, so they should have told you before hand.



If it's not a fasting test . . . . . . . Also, you might be surprised at how quickly total cholesterol can change. I don't usually go out of my way to increase the amount of fat in my diet, but eating full fat yogurt and adding cream to my coffee does make a difference to my readings.



It's her job to suggest treatment and your prerogative to say no thanks. I'm assuming you're in the U.K.



I'm not sure there's a magic number. Most U.K. medics are supposed to use something called QRISK, you can find the calculator they use at https://qrisk.org/. As for getting the number down, I remember that my total cholesterol dropped dramatically as soon as I went onto a low carb diet. Emphasis on low carb and not high fat. As I mentioned, introducing things like cream and full fat yogurt will affect my total cholesterol.

She said my risk was not high ( BP fine, weight in healthy range) but statins were normally prescribed if over 7.5

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

She said my risk was not high ( BP fine, weight in healthy range) but statins were normally prescribed if over 7.5

I hope your nurse doesn't give you any grief for politely refusing statins. For me it took a low carb low fat diet and total cholesterol dropping dramatically to stop taking statins after 17 years. I wish I'd stopped a lot sooner because I put up with a lot of muscle pain and brain fog for years. When I read the word "unkempt" it struck a chord, that was me.

Christmas is behind you now and I think you should feel confident that returning to "normal" will have the desired effect. All the best.

 

[Daibell]

A cholesterol test that isn't a fasting one is a waste of time as there could be fat in the blood from the last meal. The test should be a fasting one and with full lipids 'panel' (breakdown). It's the ratios in the breakdown and not the total that matters. It sounds like your nurse knows what's she's doing

 

[SaskiaKC]

For what these are worth:

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-you-should-no-longer-worry-about-cholesterol-in-food/

http://www.statinnation.net/blog/20...your-cholesterol-level-is-normal-and-not-high

http://www.statinnation.net/statin-nation-ii/

And these new guidelines say you may or may not need to fast before a cholesterol test:

https://www.healthline.com/health/high-cholesterol/fast-before-cholesterol-test#fasting

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/high-cholesterol/diagnosis/

 

[Charis1213]

My dad also went down hill with statins and died in 2017 , won't go into it breaks my heart at what i saw .
My cholesterol was 7.3 in November I dread to think what it is now after lchf , but they can stick their statins where the sun don't shine.

I have read that women benefit from higher cholesterol as they age so its not all bad .

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Worrying about high cholesterol is so last year.

There is more and more evidence that higher cholesterol levels are not harmful and can be beneficial.

There is also more and more evidence that statins can be harmful.

Stay strong, and just say no to statins.

 

[Energize]

@Donnadoo
May I suggest you listen to the GPs reasoning etc and then say you'd "like to think about it before making a decision". That way, you won't cause any 'argument' with the GP. It's amazing how long it took me to 'think about it' regarding statins. They've given up mentioning statins now

As previously mentioned, it's your body and your decision whether you are prepared to take them. Some people seem to tolerate them well; others don't. I had issues, as did my father and brother, hence not happy to take them since.

 

[smw99]

We have no idea what healthy levels of cholesterol are in low carb eating people. It could be that the higher levels some of us get are completely normal and in fact good. Most of the research, much of which seems inconclusive is done on high carb eating populations over the last 30 years. My numbers are higher on low carb and I believe that means my brain functions well and I will live longer!

 

[HelenHak]

I have reluctantly agreed to take statins following background retinopathy being found. My doctor is very supportive of me. I am giving them a go for a while and if there are no side effects I will review the situation with her. One statement she made was...your BP and BG are perfect, why not go for the hat trick?