Have you successfully reduced your cholesterol levels through diet (and exercise?)

sarabushby

Morning!
So my mother has been told to take statins as her cholesterol levels are high, around 7. She’s 74yo around 5ft4 and probably weighs in the region of 10.5st.

She doesn’t like the idea of taking statins and had tried but not got on with Atorvostatin. So I said well, you’ll have to try and manage it by diet & exercise. There’s lots of advice online about foods that COULD help.

But does anyone have any real life experience of being successful with this and if so, have you any tips on things that worked especially well? Or those which did not. I know everyone’s mileage may vary.

Sorry if this was posted before, I did do a search first without much success.

Lietchi

For my BF it wasn't bad enough for statins, but his LDL was mildly above normal range and his HDL below recommended range.

He raised his HDL and lowered his LDL after:
- exercising regularly
- changing his breakfast from cereal to avocado, egg and yogurt
- losing a bit of weight
Obviously, it's hard to tell whether all of these had a (positive) effect, but his cholesterol levels are now within normal range.

PS the reason he started doing these things wasn't the cholesterol, it was a side effect though.

neanderthin

All health markers improve including the markers that effect how our body (the liver) manufacturers cholesterol with lifestyle and diet intervention. Being in a healthy weight range, involving ourselves in regular exercise and consuming what would be considered a whole food diet will generally get the gob done, in spades and improves our overall quality of life which by default will extend our health span.

Trying to reduce 1 health marker with drugs is generally a fools errand but is considered business as usual with overall health generally taking a hit with additional side effects that generally come with this reductive style of primary care that is the status quo in western medicine, and that imo needs to change. cheers.

paperpudding

Presuming the method of numbers is same as here in Australia - 7 is quite high.

Yes I have known people who have reduced their cholesterol levels with weight loss, excercise and improved diet - some people's cholesterol is more affected by this than others so it doesnt work for everyone.

I wouldnt be taking no medication in the meantime in her scenario though - at her age and that level, I would see if it can come down with lifestyle changes and medication and then try reducing the medication under medical supervision
(I am not familiar with stones/pounds so not sure if losing weight is relevant for her)

The other thing is, as with all medications, if one is not suiting you, you could try alternatives.

neanderthin

This study might shed some light, especially for elderly people like your mom and within geriatric medicine, this is well known. Food for thought.


Lack of an association or an inverse association between low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality in the elderly: a systematic review

https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/6/e010401

Results: We identified 19 cohort studies including 30 cohorts with a total of 68 094 elderly people, where all-cause mortality was recorded in 28 cohorts and CV mortality in 9 cohorts. Inverse association between all-cause mortality and LDL-C was seen in 16 cohorts (in 14 with statistical significance) representing 92% of the number of participants, where this association was recorded. In the rest, no association was found. In two cohorts, CV mortality was highest in the lowest LDL-C quartile and with statistical significance; in seven cohorts, no association was found.

Conclusions: High LDL-C is inversely associated with mortality in most people over 60 years. This finding is inconsistent with the cholesterol hypothesis (ie, that cholesterol, particularly LDL-C, is inherently atherogenic). Since elderly people with high LDL-C live as long or longer than those with low LDL-C, our analysis provides reason to question the validity of the cholesterol hypothesis. Moreover, our study provides the rationale for a re-evaluation of guidelines recommending pharmacological reduction of LDL-C in the elderly as a component of cardiovascular disease prevention strategies.

My personal caveat:

I've done my fair share of research in this subject and in this cohort (old people, like me) one of the reasons why higher total cholesterol might be protective could involve cancer mortality, which if your 70+ there's a good chance it was either cardiovascular disease or cancer a person died of and the former accounting for about a third of all deaths and cancer accounting for about 20%. It appears from the research that low total cholesterol shows a higher accociation with cancer mortality. Basically the higher cholesterol one had in this demographic the fewer incidences from cancers which translates into living longer so actually, being protective, but that's just my thinking on this and could change in the future. Even if we die of cancer there is a good chance that we'll also have some form of cardiovascular disease present. Cheers.

One of many showing this relationship.
https://journals.lww.com/eurjcancerprev/Abstract/2018/11000/Is_low_cholesterol_a_risk_factor_for_cancer.8.aspx

sarabushby

Thank you folks, some really insightful reading there.

bathsheba_c

It really depends what the cause of the high cholesterol is. For example, your mom is a little on the heavy side, but older women are supposed to be a little on the heavy side, so weight loss is not likely to help much. Everyone with high cholesterol is advised to eat more healthily and exercise, but we don’t know what your mother’s baseline is. Lastly, genetics also play a major role here. I know skinny, active people in their 30s and 40s who take medications to lower their triglycerides and cholesterol because their blood work is sky high and they have a family history of cardiac-related deaths and diabetes at normal body weight.

So basically, your mother needs to ask her doctor specific questions like:
1. How much will statins actually lower my risk given my medical history and age; and
2. Can I accomplish a similar level of risk reduction through diet and exercise alone?

kshama2001

paperpudding wrote: »

Presuming the method of numbers is same as here in Australia - 7 is quite high.

Yes I have known people who have reduced their cholesterol levels with weight loss, excercise and improved diet - some people's cholesterol is more affected by this than others so it doesnt work for everyone.

I wouldnt be taking no medication in the meantime in her scenario though - at her age and that level, I would see if it can come down with lifestyle changes and medication and then try reducing the medication under medical supervision
(I am not familiar with stones/pounds so not sure if losing weight is relevant for her)

The other thing is, as with all medications, if one is not suiting you, you could try alternatives.

10.5st = 147 pounds, and at 5'4", her BMI is 25.2.

paperpudding

Ok, so her weight is pretty well in normal range so losing weight isnt really relevant to her.