Cholesterol control

Tattoomama4440

There is nothing that makes you realized you are getting older then when your doctor is concerned about your bad Cholesterol. So much so that if I don’t bring it down by three months I may need to be out on medication. I’m not wanting that and truthfully who would. My plan is to becoming more active and it’s perfect timing now that weather is getting better. I love walking outside. In the meantime, working out in the house until the snow is off the road, is what I must do. My only problem I face is what type of food is best at helping bring my cholesterol down. Thank you for your assistance.

lulabelbo

Try increasing fiber.

MyUpgradedBody

I feel you! something that worked for me years ago was reducing refined sugar (not specifically sweet things). So i kept eating fruits and sweet potatoes … just way fewer cookies, dinner rolls, muffins, crackers, biscuits, pasta, cake. Dropped 36 points off my LDL… i’m at it again and this time using my fitness pal to track macros - started last week - i want to get to 45% carbs and less than 5% added sugars… got some adjustments to make. there are a few good articles in the news feed about sugar swaps and they could help you you too :-)

you can do it!

Theoldguy1

Yep IMO, statins suck, check my recent post:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10885677/muscle-joint-pain-with-statins#latest

neanderthin

I suggest you watch this, Peter basically slays the good/bad cholesterol mantra-myth-mis/dis information that is still a live and well after 40 years.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=eod36TNGcUI

There's a phenotype within LDL that specifically effect your chances for CVD that contribute to calcification of the arteries that is, generally speaking a diet and lifestyle problem. This phenotype is well known within the cardiologist community and I would suggest you get a recommendation to see a cardiologist.

Losing weight, exercise, getting enough quality sleep and consuming what would be considered a whole food diet with mostly processed and ultra processed food reduced would influence your liver to produce fewer LDL particles that can and will be candidates for oxidation and getting stuck within the walls of the epithelium. It's pretty basic stuff really, not complicated.

Another point that I found interesting in the general research is that increased cholesterol within the elderly community, especially female is protective, strange but true.

https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-017-0685-z

Results
During 23,196 person-years of follow-up (median per person, 7.5 years), 1059 (34.3%) participants died. Compared to normal total cholesterol (<5.18 mmol/l), borderline-high (5.18–6.21 mmol/l) and high (≥6.22 mmol/l) total cholesterol were associated with a decreased risk of all-cause mortality, with the multiple-adjusted hazard ratio (95% confidence interval, CI) of 0.71 (0.61–0.83) and 0.68 (0.57–0.80), respectively (P for trend <0.001). The competing risk regression models revealed that the reduced all-cause mortality associated with high total cholesterol (≥6.22 mmol/l)) was mainly due to the reduced risk of non-cardiovascular mortality (hazard ratio = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.51–0.88). These associations were statistically evident only among individuals without use of cholesterol-lowering medications.

AnnPT77

Weight loss brought mine down at age 59, within a few months. I wasn't even all the way to a healthy weight, more like half way. It's been in the normal range ever since (7 years). Keeps improving, in fact. That won't necessarily work if the high cholesterol is familial, i.e., you're not overweight, thin relatives in your line have had high cholesterol, etc. May help, even then, if you're overweight/obese.

Increase fruits and veggies, increase monounsaturated/polyunsaturated fats (nuts, seeds, olive oil, avocados, etc.) vs saturated fat (going for balance, not total elimination of sat fats), eat foods with Omega-3s, avoid hydrogenated fats, reduce non-nutrient-dense high calorie refined carbohydrates foods if those are things you eat regularly, get fiber, avoid alcohol . . . those are mainstream kinds of recommendations for increasing HDL ("good cholesterol"), reducing LDL ("bad cholesterol") and triglycerides. Also, get exercise.

My doctor was pushing me to take statins, had been for quite a long time. I tried various changes in eating or supplements (while staying fat). There were minor improvements, but not enough. For me, reaching a healthy weight was key. We haven't talked about statins since.