Hi Sarz, Your cholesterol level of 6.6 puts you into the "high risk of heart disease" category, so you need to work at reducing it. More particularly you need to reduce the "bad" cholesterol (LDL and triglyceride) and increase the "good" cholesterol (HDL). There are several ways you can do this.
a) Go and see your GP - he will put you straight onto one of the statin drugs (he gets paid a bonus by the government for each patient he prescribes statins for!). Statins do work very well but also have side effects such as muscle pain. Professor Roger Boyle, the government's National Director for Heart Disease in England, said this initiative would double the number of people currently taking statins to 6 or 7 million. But Professor Boyle admitted that clinical studies have shown 99% of this group will gain no benefit from taking the drug!
b) You could try a lower strength statin - Simvastatin in a lower dose than you would get on prescription is available over the counter from any chemists.
c) Put yourself onto a course of Omega-3 and Omega-6 tablets or capsules. These increase HDL and reduce LDL. They are deemed a health product rather than a medicine so are not available on prescription.
d) Add to your diet much higher quantities of natural foods that will lower cholesterol. For example recent studies have shown that almonds are as effective as statins in reducing cholesterol.
e) Try a combination of (b), (c) and (d) above.