Cholesterol

[Sarah69]

Hi,

What’s the best way to reduce cholesterol without medication please. I don’t know what my result is but had a link from my drs surgery asking me if I wanted to go on a statin which I don’t particularly.

Edit x 1, I have no idea really what cholesterol is, what food it’s in etc


Edit x 2. my level 5.3 is that really high?

 

[dancer]

Losing weight and exercising are 2 ways to reduce cholesterol. You could also try Benecol (or equivalents) spread and yoghurts.

 

[Melgar]

Hi,

What’s the best way to reduce cholesterol without medication please. I don’t know what my result is but had a link from my drs surgery asking me if I wanted to go on a statin which I don’t particularly.

Hi there @Sarah69 I am not going to be much use to you I’m afraid as I chose to go on a very small dose of Statins, which nudged my total cholesterol into range. My Triglycerides have been consistently low, 0.5 - 0.6 ish. My HDL was and still is good , but my LDL figures were out of range, taking my overall Cholesterol into the high range.

It has nothing to do with diet as the liver produces the LDL independently. As a personal testament to that I am currently unable to eat fats due to another issue. Eating next to know fat made no difference to my LDL figures. I tried to get my LDL back into range, but I failed. I’m a lean fitness junkie so exercise did little to help my cholesterol .
If you are willing to share, what are your lipid figures?

 

[LakeWoman]

Hi there @Sarah69 I am not going to be much use to you I’m afraid as I chose to go on a very small dose of Statins, which nudged my total cholesterol into range. My Triglycerides have been consistently low, 0.5 - 0.6 ish. My HDL was and still is good , but my LDL figures were out of range, taking my overall Cholesterol into the high range.

It has nothing to do with diet as the liver produces the LDL independently. As a personal testament to that I am currently unable to eat fats due to another issue. Eating next to know fat made no difference to my LDL figures. I tried to get my LDL back into range, but I failed. I’m a lean fitness junkie so exercise did little to help my cholesterol .
If you are willing to share, what are your lipid figures?

Hallo! May I share mine? I have similar profile as you re: the labs, trigs typically 0.5-0.6 mmol/L; HDL at last labs (11/2024) was 2.50 mmol/L (2.72 in March 2024) but LDL was now come down to 3.54 mmol/L (5.62 in March 2024) since being consistent on 5mg statin since mid-2024. I am far from an exercise junkie but I do power walk 3 times a week, do squats in the morning and pilates 1x week. My HbA1C is lowering (was 6.5% at prediabetes diagnosis, 5.8% on 11/2024). Would welcome suggestions on how else to lower my cholesterol further!?

 

[Melgar]

@LakeWoman if you eat a healthy diet and do plenty of exercise, then that is what they claim lowers your LDLs. It didn’t for me. I believe my cholesterol issues are genetic. My mom had high cholesterol and high blood pressure in her 20’s. She was, at that time, rake thin. As long as I can remember my LDL cholesterol has remained stubbornly high. Even when I was competitively running. So from that I think mine is down to genetics. I’m now on Rosuvastatin 10mg. I just wanted my LdLs in the normal range, which they now are. They are certainly not low, but normal so I’m happy with that.

 

[KennyA]

Hi,

What’s the best way to reduce cholesterol without medication please. I don’t know what my result is but had a link from my drs surgery asking me if I wanted to go on a statin which I don’t particularly.

Edit x 1, I have no idea really what cholesterol is, what food it’s in etc


Edit x 2. my level 5.3 is that really high?

I am not concerned about cholesterol. Mine (at 6.7 last time) has over the years been described as "good" and "too high" without it changing at all.

Your body (your liver) makes most of your cholesterol - about 80% of the total. Statins will definitely stop it doing this - they have no impact on dietary cholesterol at all. I did read a lot of recent research and I'm going to post a few links here. It might be worth having at think about what the current research is showing.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/scien...tm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=the-arrow-188


Journal of the American College of Cardiology:
•Several foods relatively rich in SFAs, such as whole-fat dairy, dark chocolate, and unprocessed meat, are not associated with increased CVD or diabetes risk.
•There is no robust evidence that current population-wide arbitrary upper limits on saturated fat consumption in the United States will prevent CVD or reduce mortality.

Total cholesterol and all-cause mortality by sex and age: a prospective cohort study among 12.8 million adults - Scientific Reports

It is unclear whether associations between total cholesterol (TC) levels and all-cause mortality and the optimal TC ranges for lowest mortality vary by sex and age. 12,815,006 Korean adults underwent routine health examinations during 2001–2004, and were followed until 2013. During follow-up...

www.nature.com

No simple conclusion from this huge Korean study but - U-curve associations between TC levels and mortality were found in both men and women. The TC range associated with the lowest mortality was 210–249 mg/dL (5.4- 6.4mmol/l). When age was further considered, U-curve associations were observed regardless of sex or age, and the optimal TC range for survival was 210–249 mg/dL (5.4- 6.4mmol/l) for each age-sex group, except for men at 18–34 years (180–219 mg/dL or 4.6-5.6 mmol/l ) and for women at 18–34 years (160–199 mg/dL or 4.1-5.1 mmol/l) and at 35–44 years (180–219 mg/dL or 4.6-5.6 mmol/l)

Re-evaluation of the traditional diet-heart hypothesis: analysis of recovered data from Minnesota Coronary Experiment (1968-73)

Objective To examine the traditional diet-heart hypothesis through recovery and analysis of previously unpublished data from the Minnesota Coronary Experiment (MCE) and to put findings in the context of existing diet-heart randomized controlled trials through a systematic review and...

www.bmj.com

Conclusion: Available evidence from randomized controlled trials shows that replacement of saturated fat in the diet with linoleic acid effectively lowers serum cholesterol but does not support the hypothesis that this translates to a lower risk of death from coronary heart disease or all causes. Findings from the Minnesota Coronary Experiment add to growing evidence that incomplete publication has contributed to overestimation of the benefits of replacing saturated fat with vegetable oils rich in linoleic acid.

Is the use of cholesterol in mortality risk algorithms in clinical guidelines valid? Ten years prospective data from the Norwegian HUNT 2 study

Many clinical guidelines for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention contain risk estimation charts/calculators. These have shown a tendency to overestimate risk, which indicates that there might be theoretical flaws in the algorithms.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Conclusion: ".....If our findings are generalizable, clinical and public health recommendations regarding the ‘dangers’ of cholesterol should be revised. This is especially true for women, for whom moderately elevated cholesterol (by current standards) may prove to be not only harmless but even beneficial."

 

[Melgar]

Reading that first article @KennyA provided, for me the main take away from that first article is this - it suggests that the type of food containing saturated fats are important so dairy, unprocessed meats, and for some reason they mention dark chocolate, as containing saturated fatty acids that are relatively healthy and are not associated with CVD. If, however, you eat highly processed foods containing SFAs then the saturated fatty acid component becomes far more problematic.

The other point highlighted in the article for me is that everyone’s metabolism is different. Factors like genetics , insulin resistance, and carbohydrate tolerance may influence how individuals metabolize SFAs. For some, a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet may improve metabolic health, while others may benefit from a lower-fat diet. So according to this article it’s more complex than simply saying that Saturated fats do not raise your risk of CVD, or that saturated fats are bad and can raise your risk for CVD.

So in short SFAs impact on health varies depending on the combination of nutrients and components in food, and the overall diet, particularly carbohydrate intake. So whole fat dairy is shown to be relatively healthy due to their complex nutrient profile as opposed to highly processed foods, whether they contain SFAs or not, are far more detrimental. That’s my take. I hope that makes sense.

 

[LakeWoman]

@LakeWoman if you eat a healthy diet and do plenty of exercise, then that is what they claim lowers your LDLs. It didn’t for me. I believe my cholesterol issues are genetic. My mom had high cholesterol and high blood pressure in her 20’s. She was, at that time, rake thin. As long as I can remember my LDL cholesterol has remained stubbornly high. Even when I was competitively running. So from that I think mine is down to genetics. I’m now on Rosuvastatin 10mg. I just wanted my LdLs in the normal range, which they now are. They are certainly not low, but normal so I’m happy with that.

Thank you, I know both my parents have/ had high blood pressure and have taken meds always, never heard mention of high cholesterol. My father is 95 and takes BP meds regularly, I'll check in w/ him ... and with my siblings actually?