Cholesterol levels

Oh I'm not blaming the GPs, they follow the |NICE guidelines and government statutes... it's just a shame that a lot of the context has been skewed into a "cholesterol" catch-all. I just don't feel from what I've read that the jump to statins is the right thing to do straight away - of course if you have a pre-disposition or have other medical implications in terms of your body's processing of cholesterol and the ratio imbalance I appreciate that a medicated route to assist a lifestyle change is clearly necessary. Undoubtedly you know more about this than most and certainly me! The keyword as you say is contributing, however, that problem is swiftly averted without medical intervention.

I think the main reason behind what I'm saying is that people should help themselves by living healthily and adapting a more "Mediterranean style diet" (for example, lots of fresh veg, fruit, fish and fats), and improved activity levels before reaching for quick fixes. Being healthy doesn't take a lot of effort, but probably takes more than people are willing to give.
 
I've been on simvastatin for about 3 months now and I can honestly say that it's been one of the unhappiest periods of my life.
My sleep pattern was totally disrupted, giving me about 3 hours of continous sleep each night. When I did sleep the dreams were horrible.Thank goodness I no longer work (retired) as my own patients would have been put at risk!
The GP who prescribed them refuses to discuss the difference between lipophilic and hydrophilic statins which translates into not prescribing the more expensive statins that should not give me these side effects.

Fortunately we have a sympathetic locum GP who is prepared to experiment.
I am not against the proper use of statins in at risk individuals, it would be foolish to totally ignore the body of experimental and clinical data that has been accumulated.
 
I had to have a blood test before going on my current medication and it return a result of 5.5 for my cholesterol, was thinking about going and getting it checked at the GP...
 
Great... nurse this morning gave me my results. 7.1!

7.1?!?! I'm only 36, and barely eat fatty foods at all.

Ok, I've kind of let me exercise and fruit/veg/fibre intake slide a little in the past year, but this has shocked me. Was advised to cut out things I don't eat anyway.

Full-fat milk? Nope, don't drink it. Cakes, biscuits, pastries? Don't eat them. Cheese? Well, the occasional cheese sarnie and a bit of parmesan with my pasta, but that's it. Eggs? Barely at all. Prawns? Prawn curry once a fortnight if that. Kidneys? What, who the hell eats kidneys these days?

Bah.

Took another tube of blood, and now waiting for the LDL/HDL breakdown next week.

:(
 
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Fact is elevated cholesterol levels in the blood is one of the bodies preventative measure when something is wrong.

People think eating fat = high cholesterol / poor health, they're wrong, people see low fat activia yoghurt adverts and think that 0% fat and 20g of sugar per portion = healthy.

BUT it is in fact high levels of processed food high in refined carbohydrates and bad fats (trans fats, vegetable oils, saturated fats), add in a lack of fresh live food that has healthy fats, enzymes, enough vitamins/minerals, combined with lack of exercise, aswell as various other lifestyle factors that give rise to an overall chronic inflammation of the body, hence high cholesterol.
 
Von Smallhausen said:
It's not the end of the world and that level can be lowered.
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Yeah, gotta work on that now.

Spent the morning feeling I've got a ticking time-bomb in my chest, but need to get things in perspective.

I'm young(ish), (fairly) fit, not overweight, no other health problems I'm aware of, so highly unlikely just to drop dead any time soon. :)

Really could do with increasing my fibre intake anyway, I think.

Porridge for brekkie from now on, and must start actually eating some fruit and veg, etc. Oh, and must start exercising again!
 
Can you have a blood test at a check-up? Or do you have to book in advance? Going for my first check-up in nearly 10 years tomorrow :o:o and to assess the return of my chest pains.
 
I'm fine, but my gf has inherited high cholesterol from her dad, no amount of dietary influence can change it, she just has to keep an eye on it for the rest of her life. :(
 
ah the joys of mass media and marketing... the amount of 'low fat' products where they have removed the fat and stuffed it full of carbs (sugar) is unreal.

I am a diabetic and have followed a 'reduced' carb diet for a couple of years now to help with blood glucose control, this has meant an increase in the amount of fat that I eat... have to get the energy from somewhere... fun-illy enough reducing proceed carbohydrate, eating low GI and plenty of fruit and veg.. but still eating full fat products I have seen a massive decrease in my LDL's
 
The reason for that Pneumonic is that for the body to make cholesterol it has to start with glucose, when you are eating a lower or managed carb diet the body stops make as much cholesterol and uses all the glucose as fuel.
 
strumpusplunket said:
7.1?!?! I'm only 36, and barely eat fatty foods at all.
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Funnily enough that could actually be the problem, healthy, natural fats from animals or other unprocessed sources such as nuts help to lower Cholesterol levels, people following Atkins and other low carb diets tend to have better Cholesterol levels, which is the exact opposite of what a lot of doctors will tell you.

Eggs used to get a really bad rep due to being fairly high in dietary Cholesterol, even though dietary Cholesterol doesn't really affect blood Cholesterol

This video is really interesting, watching it from 24 mins in, it tells you that no other diet did better than Akins when it came to metabolic changes.

 
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Saturated fat is not in any way bad for you!

Crowort said:
Total level is fairly useless all this <5 stuff isn't what is important. It is the ratio of HDL, LDL, and trigs that is important. Very healthy levels of will most likely be high. HDL (the good one) getting higher is good but it is just added to the totally which means it just goes up when you are doing well. Having high HDL with low trigs will change the size of LDL and make them 'fluffy' which is good.

If you go read the research papers you'll find none (or only badly do ones) that say <5 is important. But you'll find many that will say higher levels are in fact good. Again total level isn't the important factor it is the balance of its parts that matters.

Statins don't even lower it, what they in fact do is make the stuff you have stay hard and stuck in plaques which is good if you need them as the problems you get from it are caused by bits breaking away.
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Exactly right. Total cholesterol in a completely nonsensical proxy for bad health.

My Aunt was prescribed statins for high cholesterol and told to avoid eggs, saturated fat etc. It took me a lot of explaining for her to understand that this was all rather terrible advice.
Freefaller said:
Cholesterol is overly berated.

Too low cholesterol is bad for you.
But too high cholesterol is your body's protection system in place trying to protect the arterial walls and arterial structures. If left at too high a level it will then have very serious health implications.

Generally the whole cholesterol issue is based on Big Pharma making money from statins (which are very bad for you). They've integrated themselves into to society so deeply (with the help of GPs being misled and thus spreading the myth) that it will take many many years to dispel it.

It doesn't mean you should ignore choleesterol levels but just know the real facts. Also, too high cholesterol levels can be easily lowered quite fast to a safe and healthy level by eating & drinking healthily.

I recently bought a couple of books:

http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm

From this chap - I've got dozens of nutrition and health books as I like to get a broad picture/idea/knowledge. I can't recommend to anyone enough about reading a bit more about nutrition and on how our bodies function.
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Yep!

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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This is actually completely irrelevant. I remember discussing the same ideas when I was doing GCSEs/A-Levels, which I'm guessing is where you are at.

I've also heard things like "any dietary fat that is solid at room temperature will be the same in your body thus clogging up your arteries" :confused:
 
There's so much misunderstanding and misinformation in this thread.

It seems odd to me that considering how often the "no medical advice" rule is quoted, you got one of the longest running moderators here making comments that would contradict the medical advice that most people would receive from a qualified physician.

I'm not disagreeing with everything that's been said, but without a wider understanding of human physiology that takes some time to achieve you can't claim to have a decent understanding of what is going on. Disagree with me if you will (and it's the internet, so I expect it), but reading a couple of health books and websites doesn't put you in a position to claim that GPs are being misled by drug companies into believing the wrong thing, that they only blindly follow NICE guidelines and that statins are bad for you.
 
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