Some questions about cholesterole

amblight

So, I recently had some bloodwork done, and my doc said I was super healthy, but I asked to see the details anyways. As he went over them with me, he did note that my cholesterole was actually a bit high, but I shouldn't worry about it.

But, I do :b

Well, looking through the advice often given to lower cholesterole, I pretty much think I do those things already!

I get 10.3g of saturated fat per day, which is below the recommendations (and I get 31.2g unsaturated fats)

Trans fat are not an issue, as they are strictly regulated/banned here in Denmark, and new reports show there is so little of it available in the country that it has no effect on health of Danes. So I've got none of those.

I'm also no longer overweight, and my family doesn't have anyone with high cholesterole.

I always chose lean cuts, I don't really use dressings, oils or butter. I do eat meat everyday, trying to keep up my protein, but it's quite small servings, watching my portions and all.

I flipped through the past few months and my fats can be summed up as following:

Dairy: 5 small low fat servings per week
Beef: 3 small lean servings per week
Pork: 1 small lean servings per week
Poultry: 1 small lean servings per week
Seafood: 3 servings per week (a lot of salmon, but otherwise lean seafoods)
Eggs: 1 serving per week
Other fats: 2 times per week ((like, a bit of oil in the marinade, thin spread butter, oil/vinegar dressing etc.)
"Treats": 2 times per week (note that this also include things like 'one scoop of low fat, sugar free icecream' - yes, I know, sounds sad, lol!)

So, that roughly means I eat meat (incl. seafood) with my dinner everyday, and then egg or seafood with my lunch 3 times a week, and low fat dairy for my mon-fri breakfast, then something sweet in the weekend. And then an occassional bit of fat from elsewhere.

Is that really all it takes to get too high cholesterole? And what can I do to lower it? I guess I could eat even more seafood in place of beef, and cut out treats entirely ( sad face), but since I'm not getting all that much saturated fat to begin with, that doesn't seem like I'd actually be cutting that much down?

Any advice? Something I've missed?

Need2Exerc1se

Total cholesterol is usually the sum of triglycerides, HDL and LDL. You trig and LDL can be in the higher end of the healthy range and a high HDL push your total cholesterol out of range.

If that is the case, then it would be nothing to worry about, because a high HDL is a good thing. HDL is sometimes referred to as "good cholesterol" (and LDL as bad). This may the case with you since your doctor said not to worry about it.

If you don't already know the breakdown, why not give your doctor a call and find out?

amblight

Total cholesterol is usually the sum of triglycerides, HDL and LDL. You trig and LDL can be in the higher end of the healthy range and a high HDL push your total cholesterol out of range.

If that is the case, then it would be nothing to worry about, because a high HDL is a good thing. HDL is sometimes referred to as "good cholesterol" (and LDL as bad). This may the case with you since your doctor said not to worry about it.

If you don't already know the breakdown, why not give your doctor a call and find out?

I thought of that too, that it could be the LDL pushing it up, but when I read about normal total values, I didn't see it listed as a possible reason, so I thought it must be accounted for in some way.

I don't think he tested for the further breakdown of the fats in my blood, so I think it would be a guess from him too. But I need to talk to him anyways about some of the other results, so I will check, especially since my family usually has low, even though they eat fattier then me.

I read that men and post-menopausal women usually have higher - so could the fact that I have ammenorhea have an effect?

Vexxe

Cholesterol isn't as simple as it's too high or too low. Also, fat doesn't cause bad cholesterol.

High triglycerides are bad and have been straight up linked to carbohydrates.
High LDL isn't bad if your triglycerides are low. There are also three types of LDL, the smaller lipo protein being the most dangerous.
High HDL is good.

High fat diets that with <100g of net carbs a day have proven time and time again that triglycerides fall, HDL goes up and LDL can go up or down, depending on the fat being mobilised from your fat cells. A person going through as large body transformation of losing weight will naturally see LDL go up.

tennisdude2004

Cholesterol isn't as simple as it's too high or too low. Also, fat doesn't cause bad cholesterol.

High triglycerides are bad and have been straight up linked to carbohydrates.
High LDL isn't bad if your triglycerides are low. There are also three types of LDL, the smaller lipo protein being the most dangerous.
High HDL is good.

High fat diets that with <100g of net carbs a day have proven time and time again that triglycerides fall, HDL goes up and LDL can go up or down, depending on the fat being mobilised from your fat cells. A person going through as large body transformation of losing weight will naturally see LDL go up.

Also to add to this a diet high in saturated fat and low in carbs has also been shown to increase the LDL particle size.

The main thing to look for is a low ratio between your HDL and triglycerides (the lower the better). Simple diet and exercise will help this.

As more and more research is done it is becoming apparent that the link between high LDL's and cardiovascular disease is not the route cause. I don't have the statistics to hand but last year the proportion of heart attack sufferers who's LDL levels were in and below the normal range was high!

It sounds like you have your health bases covered anyway.