Need to drop cholesterol fast, any ideas?

vinib

Hi everyone,

Recently got the shock of my life with a cholesterol reading of 7! It’s been screening up and now is at danger stage. Dr puts it down to hereditary but I need to lower it fast.
I have removed red meat, eggs and take away.
Eating silverbeet and rice 3 times a week and fish/chicken with veggies for the rest of my dinners.

I’m 47 so metabolism and body is changing so need to make some long term diet changes.
Working out 3 times a week and doing between 13k-18k steps a day, around 10k on workout days.

Any suggestions would be great! 👍🏽

sollyn23l2

Lifestyle changes are great, but you likely will need a statin unless you have a fair amount of weight to lose. I ultimately had to go on a statin because no amount of lifestyle changes were enough. It sounds like your making all the relevant lifestyle changes already by focusing on lean meats and making sure you exercise. I would also add eating plenty of vegetables is important too.

Lietchi

You've eliminated foods from your diet. I would focus now on adding to your diet: soluble fibers most notably, as well as healthy fats. For example oatmeal, nuts, fatty fish.

PS: are you at a healthy weight? If overweight, losing weight can help too.

SafariGalNYC

lower saturated fat, increased fiber and activity. Stress can also impact cholesterol. I didn’t know it until it happened to me!

Re metabolism and body changing… 47 is not old… sometimes I feel 40s hype is a stereotype “at this age it gets difficult” - many women in my orbit in late 40s haven’t had a problem.. unless you have been less active…

sollyn23l2

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48846615#Comment_48846615

They've been majorly hyping up the hormone changes. I've been seeing constant ads for "ooooh, pre-menopause starts in your 30's... scary scary scary... you're a helpless old hag now... better buy my program and supplements before you become even more of an old hag...." It's all bs, honestly.

AnnPT77

If you have familial hypercholesterolemia, it may be hard to get cholesterol to a level you hope for without medication, realistically. I'm not disagreeing with you for seeking alternative non-medication methods. I did the same. Luckily, in retrospect it seems I don't have a genetic predisposition.

The main change that helped me was weight loss, but I had a fair amount available to lose - around 50lbs/23kg. I suspect a diet high in veggies, fruits, whole grains and relatively low in saturated fats helped. I'd eaten in the same general style while obese, but probably more of calorie dense foods, sweets and other treats, fried foods, highly processed foods, full-fat cheeses. I was and am quite active, too: Exercise has been identified as helpful. Most of the year, I'm doing higher intensity cardiovascular exercise 5-6 days a week, but not a lot of steps-based activity.

I'm not saying that what I did works, and other things don't/wouldn't work. I'm just describing what seems to be working OK for me. My formerly high cholesterol (and triglycerides) have been solidly normal for the nearly 10 years since weight loss eating in my current style, and with my current exercise routine. But that's just me.

I can understand the silverbeet (known as swiss chard, too, I think), but I'm not sure it's valuable much beyond other high fiber, nutrient dense veggies. Maybe you know more about it. Rice surprises me: Brown rice has some fiber, but there are higher fiber grains, and grains with a better micronutrient profile. White rice isn't IMU all that helpful for cholesterol levels.

Lower carb diets help some people, but some find that eating style leads to elevated LDL cholesterol, so that strategy may be iffy. (I don't eat low carb. One of my friends with familial hypercholesterolemia seemed to benefit from that approach.)

Increasing Omega-3 fats might be beneficial - some fish are good sources, such as salmon, mackerel, herring, anchoviesanchovies and sardines among others. There are plant sources, but most of those are less bioavailable. Since I'm vegetarian, I supplement with algae-sourced Omega-3s. Omnivores might use fish oil supplements, though there are some risks with those as I understand it.