Cholesterol - management of high cholesterol

My high cholesterol levels were picked up in my 20’s

My diet was incredibly clean, drank little alcohol, exercised 5 times a week and raced 3 out of every 4 weekends.
At the time I had no risk factors, didn’t smoke and never have being one of the big ones. So we decided just to monitor me.
I actually marginally increased my unsaturated fat intake as I was eating almost zero fat and my levels dropped slightly.

Over the years my cholesterol crept up, diet and exercise weren’t as good and my Mum developed high blood pressure, another risk factor.
So in discussion with the doc I opted to go onto a minimal statin dosage.
I don’t suffer from any muscle aches and I am supposed to have annual blood tests (note to self I’m overdue testing) to check not only my cholesterol levels but also my liver function as one of the side effects.

So far so good

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I don’t believe the fat % numbers but I don’t have much else to go on.

My guess on body fat would be closer to 25% but I do not carry it evenly like when I was younger.

I’ve talked it over with my wife and am going to do the following, some because it has some medical backing, some because it feels the right thing to do, and some because I know it generally makes me feel better. Thanks for all the input on here, it has been helpful.

  • Go and see the cardiologist I have been referred to - won’t cost me anything and they should know a lot more than me. Worst case they recommend something I don’t want to do, best case they do more thorough testing and help clarify the situation
  • Change my diet, I’ve done it before on a major scale and know I have a minor intolerance to certain foods. Even if I make some tweaks, regardless of it impacting my cholesterol, it will generally help my energy levels and help me train/recovery. I do have to take care about weight loss though, that is what stopped me continuing with a number of the changes last time. Reviewing what I currently eat I am unsure I can drop much saturated fat but sugar can probably come down a touch.
  • Train more often, might have to tweak intensity down and plan it better (I have been terrible at using TR for a number of reasons, am at crunch time on renewal now).
  • Cut down on the small amount of alcohol I have. Since a job move I hardly drink anyhow as have to drive most days, but that odd evening where I have a few can be cut out, at least for 3 months to see if it makes a difference.

Roll on January, let’s see if small changes actually make a difference and what might come up from the medical experts…

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Was reading a couple studies in regard to own situation, but could be applicable to you as well.

It seems that in men without metabolic syndrome and other risks (no exercise, drinking, smoking, etc), TG/HDL is a better predictor of heart events than the standard LDL/HDL ratio.

Your TG/HDL ratio is 1.11.
Your LDL/HDL ratio is 2.88.
(the studies use mg/dL)

According to both ratios, your risk is even lower than the low-risk group (@3.74 and 2.29 respectively).
(My TG/HDL ratio of 0.97 put me at even lower risk!)

This is thought because low TG+high HDL (or low TG/HDL ratio) is associated with the composition of LDL which has altered to contain more large-particle (low risk) than small-particle (high risk).

Things like this demonstrate that a standard lipid test provides only a very basic but also very incomplete starting point. Before any kind of meds regime is prescribed, a much more detailed investigation should be undertaken.

Good luck. :+1:

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This is fascinating and new knowledge to me, thanks for mentioning it.

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Latest numbers are in:

HDL 1.5 > 1.46 mmol/L
LDL 4.34 > 4.30 mmol/L
Trig 1.67 > 2.99 mmol/L

Apart from Triglycerides virtually unchanged. I don’t know how quickly trig can change or what specifically causes it to raise, but we had been away the weekend and I had eaten pretty damn badly. Can it be a short term blip?

Either way diet already changed and snuck in an extra moderate but short workout tonight.

Will see the cardiologist and what testing they may do and take it from there. Cheers again for info.

Absolutely. I’ve seen swings of 100+ mg/dL in only a week or so. Trig’s are almost exclusively diet dependant and can vary widely, as you’ve seen.

Trigs can respond pretty quickly to alcohol intake, so if part “eating badly” just prior included a lot more booze than normal you should expect to see trigs rise.

Eating badly was just that, a lot of red meat and fried food over the weekend whilst we were away.

I had maybe 5 beers of the previous week (some non-alcoholic).

Either way it isn’t reflective of my typical diet.

LDL Cholesterol is causative or cardiovascular disease. Lowering your exposure to high LDL as soon as possible should be your #1 priority. Don’t believe all the BS you read on the internet from some web “guru”. You can lower your cholesterol yourself by:

  • Reducing Saturated Fat Intake ( Butter, fatty meats, Coconut Oil, etc)
  • Increasing Fiber - Have a cup of Black beans as one of your carbs during the day, eat a bowl of oatmeal, apples are high in pectin
  • Replace Saturated Fats with Unsaturated fats will increase HDL and lower LDL.
  • Eat a single Brazil nut every day,

If you can’t get your level to normal range with lifestyle interventions then it is time to look at a Statin. Statins CAN have side effects, but you never know until you try one, I believe around 10% of people have issues. Recent studies have actually shown that the benefits of lowering LDL cholesterol don’t have a floor - the lower the better for prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Put your #'s in this calculator to get your risk for having a heart attack

Everyday that goes by with your LDL @ 167 your are damaging your arteries.

Listen to your doctor - give statins a try in indicated, they are life saving drugs and may just save your life if well tolerated.

If you feel the need to hear an expert then listen to guys like Spencer Nadolsky, Ron Krause, Tom Dayspring(excellent). But don’t listen to any of the diet camp crazies, not saying they are all wrong, just they all have a slant that reinforces their narrative and you don’t want that.

My $0.02.
FYI - I am a 51 year old male

Cheers

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Best thing you can do is adopt a vegan diet. My cholesterol dropped significantly after just 6 weeks. it wasn’t particularly high to start with but dropped significantly with most of the drop in LDL cholesterol which is the bad kind. also cured my restless legs which had been a nightmare for years and my recovery after exercise is so much better.

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Agree with this, I tested mine along with family members, we eat HCLF vegan and my last tests showed (theirs very similar):

Tot Chol - 3.13 mmol/L - Optimal
LDL - 1.35 – Normal Range, but lower than optimal
HDL - 1.49 – optimal
Chol Non HDL - 1.64 – Normal
Chol/HDL ratio - 2.1:1 – Normal, little under optimal
Tri - 0.63 – Optimal

Have eaten the same for the past 4.5years and unfortunately never tested beforehand, though I was 15kg heavier, ate heavy meat and cheese and never exercised, so it would have been interesting to compare.

I do bloodwork every 4-6 months and follow my cholesterol (type 2 diabetic which puts me at risk for heat related stuff). My #'s were higher when I first started and my last test showed: HDL 1.5
LDL 1.34
Tri .8
What worked for me was basically following a method of eating called the plate method - which is a very heart healthy way of eating that works well for diabetics and other humans too. I used to eat a junky sort of diet and when I switched to a non processed way of eating with lots of veggies it made a huge difference as does all the intense cycling.
As others have said if it is genetic - there is not likely anything you are going to do to effect it in a big way. But eating smart is always going to help.
I take a stating daily and will for the rest of my life even though my Dr. tells me I have the best APO B in all his practice (20) and he attributes this to all the cycling above all else.
Be careful with the suggestion to go veto as someone suggested above. I am not arguing that it may have helped the poster - but it doesn’t work for all - and in my case my #'s went straight into the toilet. returning to a more balanced and sensible way of eating got my #'s right back in line.

Keep in mind that the genetic component cannot be addressed by diet changes. It’s easy to test for: get a blood test, cut all sources from your diet for a month, and test again. If your levels reacted, you have some diet leverage. If they didn’t, you don’t. Doesn’t mean you should disregard improving your diet for other reasons, of course.

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FWIW:

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My dad has high cholesterol for many years a d reduced it naturally finally after years of crappy medication.

Given major cholesterol culprits are majority animal based, cut out animal products if it’s that serious. Also, flaxseed is a natural product that helps reduce it, evidence is very strong for this. About a tablespoon a day.

Good luck.

I’ve been using flaxseed in my greek yogurt. It adds a really nice texture and flavor to it!

Me too! I just adore this flavour. By the way, cholesterol management is really important if you’re concerned about your well-being. My sister is always getting examined in order to check if everything is fine with her. She’d better change her attitude instead of checking her results. I guess, it’s easier to follow basic rules like doing physical exercises, having a nutrition healthy diet. I’ve come across a review of a book on https://fruitfulkitchen.org/ and it’s all about cholesterol level, how you should act in order to prevent strokes or heart attacks. Having read this book about the oxidized cholesterol strategy , I’ve changed my mind on my daily routine and my health in general. I’d recommend you to check it.

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An old thread but relevant to me today so joining in so I can track back when I receive the results of my blood test which I had this morning. I’m expecting the numbers to be high (in a bad way) but from what I’ve been reading I do not want to be taking medication for the rest of my life, I’m 54. OK you may say well the rest of your life may be quite short without tablets but deep down I know I can make some dietary changes which hopefully would help.

My RHR is low 50s and my blood pressure is always ‘normal’ so I believe my other risk factors are quite low.

Anyway, now tracking this thread. I’m going to get all my numbers from my last test from my GP and compare them to the new ones from today.

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This thread caught my attention since it’s something that I’ve experienced in my family and in my own personal life. I was an active kid/teenager/young adult all my life and grew up racing Motocross and BMX. After racing racing both for 10 years (12-22 yours old) I quit cold turkey to jump into the schooling/working life. After of a few years of treadmill running and lifting weights with a poor diet I found myself overweight and unhappy about it. So I read a few things and decided to try the Keto type diet at the time. Mind you, this is 2001 and many more diets have been introduced.
In my Keto diet, I lost 40 pounds and I thought I was healthy again. I got back into riding MX again and was doing ok with my endurance, minus the forearm pump. I was eating this way for just over 6 months and I thought I would get my bloodwork done since High cholesterol runs in my family along with high blood pressure and my father has type 2 diabetes. To my surprise, I had high blood pressure when the nurse checked it prior to my blood work. The Dr. talked to me about all the ways to try and lower my blood pressure and lets see how the blood work comes back
Whoa, not good. I had high cholesterol, high sugar levels that were type 2 diabetic level, hypertension (high blood pressure) and I just developed kidney stones. This was 19 years ago and I can’t remember the exact numbers, but I thought I was good and healthy with my weight loss and I was active. The real crazy part was my high blood sugar level since I wasn’t eating any sugar except for some fruit here or there.
So my journey to eating healthy, or what I thought was healthy, and not have to take any medications to control these health risks. After 3 months I had it checked again and it was still at the high levels across the whole panel. I was bummed and started taking Statins to lower my cholesterol and hope everything else comes back down and surprisingly the cholesterol did. I say that they came down, but my levels were still high in a sense that they were in the good range but at the high border of the good range. Total cholesterol was at a 196, blood sugar was at a 120 and blood pressure was at 140/90 (which was actually high but much lower).
In my statin journey I felt sluggish and unmotivated, but my blood work/ was just fine. So I thought. I stopped riding MX, stopped working out and became sedentary outside of my job as an Electrician. I gained the weight back and was not eating healthy at all since the statins could allow me to make poor eating choices. But hey, my blood work looks good.
Fast forward to 2014 and I picked up a mountain bike from an old BMX sponsor / friend for super cheap. As I’m building the bike I started to day dream about how I’m going to tear it up again!! My “now” physical state was no where near ready to tear anything up. I made it 2.5 miles and the last 1 mile was a climb to a spot where I thought I was going to die and have a heart attack. I was seeing spots and felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. Completely out of shape, well round is a shape so I was in shape. I was not physically ready for this and not only did I not do any real exercising, the statins I was taking, actually weakened me physically (after future research).
The point to all this previous warmup is, controlling medical issues with medication should be a last resort and I learned that genetics plays a extremely SMALL part in my bad cardiovascular condition. Since my mother and father have all of these same issues, it has to be hereditary, I now call BULL. It was my poor choices in what I was bringing into my mouth and life. In addition to that, there were a lot of Doctors I was going to who were giving me bad advice on diet and how to control these risk factors. Come to find out, some of them are not dietitians or cardiovascular experts and even some of them are influenced by money and numbers…just saying. Not all of them, but the ones I visited misguided me down a medical path that was more beneficial to him and not me.
I found some real information by a few Doctors that are not influenced by big money and only use research and studies that are not funded by a corporation that will benefit from it. I’m providing this because I have reversed all my bad and poor choices by changing what I eat and seeing for myself that my DNA has a very very small part in this. Now, it still can but is less likely to be influenced if you are WILLING to do what it takes to change you habits. Doing what it takes is the hard part and my parents are not willing to do it after I’ve proved to them how to do it.
I’m not a doctor or cardiologist, just this is my experience with what I learned about myself. I went whole food plant based for 2 years and the results were amazing. As a disclaimer, I’m not currently and completely plant based, but I’m still 80-90% plant based now. FOR ME, the two years was needed and got me on the right track on how to really eat healthy and how things influence our bodies. High levels of cholesterol has such a negative affect on so many area’s of our health. I no longer take statins, my blood pressure is ideal at 120/72 (taken on 9/4/2020) and my blood sugar is lower than it ever has despite eating more sugar than ever have. Since I started back riding and training for racing at the ripe ole age of 48 I take GU, tailwind, and other kinds or sugars to fuel my rides and training and my Doctor is amazed at my results. There is so much more to this, I’m just running out of time and probably boring anyone who reads this.
Now I’m just improving my physical capacity since this transformation and I’ve gotten to a CAT3 top 10 finisher and a top 5 in Rock crusher in MTB racing along with learning how to run correctly and getting a second place in age group in a 5k race, completed a 10K, 15K and Half marathon along the way. Steps in the process to get to where I want to go. I’ve jumped back to riding bikes 80% of the time and after joining Trainer Road, I have a journey to accomplish. There is so more work ahead but I feel better than ever and I can elaborate on more later.

The two area’s I trust and get most of my factual information is https://nutritionfacts.org/ and an author who prescribed plant based from decades ago, http://deanornish.com/.

Got to go and jump on Kaweah!

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Fiber, especially soluble fiber.

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