Cholesterol levels

The_One said:
lol @ this one scientist makes a living selling books telling you cholestoral is good for you and you take it as gospel when scientists and doctors the world over tell you its bad for you
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Cholesterol is a MAJOR component of cell membrane structure so good for you is an understatement from a biomedical point of view. Its absolutely essential to maintain a decent level of it in your body or you'll vastly shorten your lifespan or simply die.

Extremely high levels of cholesterol are bad yes but its generally not something you need to actively monitor if your diet is decent.
 
The_One said:
So from what ive researched just i gather

6.6 is your overall cholestoral thats the sum of LDL and HDL

but whats important is how much of that is HDL and whats LDL. If its high levels of HDL and low levels of LDL then thats good right?
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I don't think it's quite as simple as that.

You obviously need some of both in your diet. In theory, nothing is actually bad for you as long as you get the balance right
 
Do you guys go to the doctor to get this checked?

My dad had a heart attack aged 50 last year - he wasn't overweight, but had a few other risk factors. He survived, but required a quad bypass. Am trying to avoid the same. I am young, fit and try to make healthy choices where I can, but it still makes me nervous.

It is worth getting blood pressure and cholesterol checked when you can. Believe me, after seeing the recovery process from a bypass, it really opens your eyes (and in my dad's case, his heart).
 
TheCenturion said:
Just to throw it out there. Unsaturated fats mean that somewhere in the fat molecule there is a double bond. Saturated fats mean that there is no double bond in the molecule.

The double bond means that something can react with it and therefore break the molecule down. This is why excess saturated fats can be particularly difficult to get rid of. You NEED them of course, but having a huge excess of them will lead to them just clogging up your system, especially your heart.

Not sure what this post is meant to do, perhaps to explain that you need to analyse things properly in order to truly understand them
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To add to this also, unsaturated fats are essential in vitamin transportation around the body (due to that double bond) and beta oxidation of fatty acids is essential for your heart so you can't simply remove all saturated and unsaturated fat out of your diet or you'll kill yourself.

Gotta love the load of crap the media peddle on nutrition "facts" :P
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Do you guys go to the doctor to get this checked?

My dad had a heart attack aged 50 last year - he wasn't overweight, but had a few other risk factors. He survived, but required a quad bypass. Am trying to avoid the same. I am young, fit and try to make healthy choices where I can, but it still makes me nervous.

It is worth getting blood pressure and cholesterol checked when you can. Believe me, after seeing the recovery process from a bypass, it really opens your eyes (and in my dad's case, his heart).
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Normally GP gives you some slips to go get tested at your local hospital or clinic
 
Everyone always tells me I eat too much cholocate and sweet stuff as I have a fast metabolism and can get away with it. Comments like...whats your cholestoral level kind of make me think I should get it checked but then.....meh. Do I want to know if I;m morelkely to get a heart attack andthen worry about it having more stress and and and....
 
jaybee said:
Everyone always tells me I eat too much cholocate and sweet stuff as I have a fast metabolism and can get away with it. Comments like...whats your cholestoral level kind of make me think I should get it checked but then.....meh. Do I want to know if I;m morelkely to get a heart attack andthen worry about it having more stress and and and....
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You can still be thin and unhealthy. A fast metabolism makes no difference, the fat is still entering your blood stream and getting deposited in your arteries.
 
Yup it's a bit pathetic really, preying on misinforming people just for a quick buck.

Statins imo are the worst thing you can take, they filter out what is good about cholesterol leaving the harder, artery clogging molecules behind as they're too small for it to block.

Fats again are essential but it has to be natural, once you start processing fats that is where the problems arise, look at how some supermarkets are cutting out trans fats, that's the one you really should be watching out for.

I eat butter, eggs, peanuts butter hell anything with a good bit of fat is fair game to me, and yet im fit as a fiddle. Look at anyone my age i work with, they have low energy, heart problems, asthma, eczema and a whole host of other medical problems, sure some will not be diet related but im willing to bet a lot of their problems are just down to a shoddy diet.

I swear the pharma and food companies are in bed with each other. :mad:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/10/doctors-cut-some-financia_n_780917.html

Freefaller said:
Gotta love the media and the pharma companies pushing disinformation.

Glad I'm not alone in this thinking.
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It's not the total figure you watch, it's the hdl/ldl levels you want.

The higher the hdl, whilst the lower the ldl is what you should be after.

All docs do is test for total cholesterol which is wrong.
 
i really could do with getting mine checked, i eat a lot of fatty food.
where can i get it done? or do i just go to my GP?
 
I agree partly with freefaller here (from the media point of view). Having worked in GP I understand it from the otherside too. Some clinical studies have shown that cholsterol often doesn't respond well to statins BUT, there is no denying that for the VAST majority of patients on statins they help to contribute to lowering of cholesterol. There are many studies which have shown this.

As you've just eluded to its not the total level of cholesterol which we look at. Its the ratio between the "good" (HDL) and "bad" (LDL) cholesterol.

Also triglycerides are very important to look at too.

Finally the numbers shouldn't be looked at in complete isolation, you need to see what the baseline level of cholesterol is for each individual and then see how it responds to treatment and lifestyle changes.

A good place of somebody to start to by having a read of the Framingham Heart Study which discusses causes and risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
hux said:
It's not the total figure you watch, it's the hdl/ldl levels you want.

The higher the hdl, whilst the lower the ldl is what you should be after.

All docs do is test for total cholesterol which is wrong.
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When you have your "cholesterol" done you get a break down of all the different levels too.

There is very little doubt that diet is a major contributing factor for "high cholesterol" and which particularly in the western world where lifestyles have become very sedentary, is contributing to the rise in cardiovascular disease.
 
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Anyone who is sceptical should have a read of the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study which showed a significant reduction in relative risk (death) between those on the Statin and those taking a placebo.

Good video demonstrating atherosclerosis

 
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Oh Absolutely triglycerides need to be monitored and minimised. However like everything in life a good balanced diet and exercise is all you need. People just don't have a clue what they're shoving down their gullets most of the time and just soak up media frenzy and look for a quick fix rather than addressing root causes. If you don't fix the root cause of your problem it'll come back in time. Diet is not for losing weight or dropping cholesterol but a lifestyle to follow.

Good post shadow boxer. Cant really disagree though, but as we've agreed that a lot of this is down to education and basic health. Clearly it also depends on what your goals are - as sat fats and cholesterol help boost test levels and improve your ability to build muscle through increased protein synthesis but as ever too much of one thing with no balance of the other creates an imbalance. If muscle building was your goal of course.

Our bodies are finely tuned and compensates for lack of nutrition and synthesis of certain elements ie insulin and fat storage owing to cheap refined carbs to name but one example.
 
Freefaller said:
However like everything in life a good balanced diet and exercise is all you need.
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Yeah absolutely. For the majority of patients who do this throughout life their cholesterol will not be a major problem. However, many people will have resistant hypercholesterolaemia that despite lifestyles changes won't come down. These are the high risk patients that will need statins (as well as lifestyle modification & medications) to lower their risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Those who fall into this latter category may be at higher risk inherently (high family history risk or ethnicity [Asian for example]) or because of their lifestyles (smokers, excess alcohol, obesity etc).

The point I do agree also is the fact that the media seems to focus on cholesterol as being this grave high risk etc etc where as it is a contributing risk factor. It's unfair to point the finger at GPs as saying they routinely will put people onto statins as well. NICE have public guidelines that GPs will need to adhere to, not to mention targets that the government set. Some people won't take well to statins, but the same can be said about many other drugs, ibuprofen and aspirin for example aren't well tolerated either by many many more people than statins. Also don't forget there are quite a few different statins that are used and each may have a different side effect profile for any one individual.

Anyway I digress. Healthy balanced diet & exercise is the key to reducing this contributing risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

...where's my doughnut gone...;)
 
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