Need to lower cholesterol
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tomorrowperfume
Posts: 67 Member
So, I'm a 30 year old female with a normal BMI and a slowly increasing cholesterol level. My doctor recently gave me an ultimatum: "Get your cholesterol down to normal in the next six months, or you're going on statins."
The results of my last lipid panel:
Calculated cholesterol total: 250 mg/dL
HDL: 91
LDL: 136
Triglycerides: 116
Statins? No! I don't want that! And apparently cholesterol and heart science has been in a big flux over the past four or five years - is total cholesterol bad? Are ratios more important? Is artificially lowering your total cholesterol number even beneficial? Is it associated with a loss of mortality?
Anyways, I quit smoking nineteen days before the test. I'm still smoke-free and that's another battle, but one that I seem to be winning at the moment,
I know I need to eat less sweets, especially because I've been replacing my smoke breaks lately with cookie breaks. But what else can I do?
The results of my last lipid panel:
Calculated cholesterol total: 250 mg/dL
HDL: 91
LDL: 136
Triglycerides: 116
Statins? No! I don't want that! And apparently cholesterol and heart science has been in a big flux over the past four or five years - is total cholesterol bad? Are ratios more important? Is artificially lowering your total cholesterol number even beneficial? Is it associated with a loss of mortality?
Anyways, I quit smoking nineteen days before the test. I'm still smoke-free and that's another battle, but one that I seem to be winning at the moment,
I know I need to eat less sweets, especially because I've been replacing my smoke breaks lately with cookie breaks. But what else can I do?
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Replies
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Also, not sure if this is relevant, but my step-father has been hospitalized for the past 24 days and I flew out to take care of both him and my mom. I don't know if stress and/or weird eating habits out of the hospital cafeteria have any effect on cholesterol, but maybe I just need to do some yoga and chill out?0
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tomorrowperfume wrote: »So, I'm a 30 year old female with a normal BMI and a slowly increasing cholesterol level. My doctor recently gave me an ultimatum: "Get your cholesterol down to normal in the next six months, or you're going on statins."
The results of my last lipid panel:
Calculated cholesterol total: 250 mg/dL
HDL: 91
LDL: 136
Triglycerides: 116
Statins? No! I don't want that! And apparently cholesterol and heart science has been in a big flux over the past four or five years - is total cholesterol bad? Are ratios more important? Is artificially lowering your total cholesterol number even beneficial? Is it associated with a loss of mortality?
Anyways, I quit smoking nineteen days before the test. I'm still smoke-free and that's another battle, but one that I seem to be winning at the moment,
I know I need to eat less sweets, especially because I've been replacing my smoke breaks lately with cookie breaks. But what else can I do?
These would all be good questions to ask your doctor before accepting his or her recommendations to go on statins. (Yes, research the questions yourself, as well, but if it were me, I wouldn't accept medical advice to take statins from a doctor who couldn't or wouldn't respond adequately to these questions, and to any follow-up questions you might have if the answers were wildly different from your understanding based on your research.)
Not all doctors keep up-to-date on research as well as they should, and you are right that there has been a lot of shifting consensus on cholesterol and statins, including an increased focus not just of LDL but on a specific type of LDL, as well as on HDL-to-total cholesterol, as opposed to just overall cholesterol. Plus, from what I understand, no evidence that statins prevent first cardio or stroke events -- as opposed to repeat incidents after a first event -- or that they improve mortality.
Things you can do to improve your cholesterol numbers:
Get more exercise (even a daily walk can help).
Get more fiber, including soluble fiber and especially viscous soluble fiber (e.g., oatmeal, barley, peas, beans, flaxseed, apples with skins, eggplant, okra, prunes).
Eat almonds, almond butter, and walnuts for monounsaturated fat, fiber, vitamin E.
Increase your omega 3s (flaxseed, fish, canola oil, grass-fed animals).
I started on MFP about three years ago when I had some blood results with bad cholesterol and blood sugar numbers, and I found "Cholesterol Down" by Janet Bond Brill very helpful for a science-backed list of food and exercise habits that can improve cholesterol numbers. It's about eight years old now, though, so it's possible there's more recent information out there.
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Can't really help much unless you tell us what you are eating, if you are eating alot of dairy or meat cut back and add more veggies and grains.1
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See a dietician.0
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Changing your diet is less important than exercise when it comes to cholesterol. A lot of people -- particularly older doctors, educated in the '80s and '90s -- will tell you to cut out eggs and bacon and things like that, but what you really need to do is get your heart pumping.
When my doctor saw my cholesterol drop a few years back, he said something like, "Looks like you've been cutting out the bacon. Your cholesterol looks great!" Meanwhile, I was on a low-carb diet, eating tons of cholesterol-rich foods like bacon, eggs, and steak. The main differentiator for me was that I stepped up my exercise.4 -
More soluble fiber. Soluble fiber binds with bile in the digestive tract and takes it out of the body which means the liver must create more bile from cholesterol which in turn lowers your cholesterol. This is the best way to get your cholesterol down. I have posted this calculator before in other threads concerning lowering of cholesterol and people seem to find it helpful. Maybe it will help you. Lowering carbs can also lower cholesterol as a high carbohydrate diet can cause high cholesterol.
globalrph.com/fiber_content_soluble.htm2 -
tomorrowperfume wrote: »Also, not sure if this is relevant, but my step-father has been hospitalized for the past 24 days and I flew out to take care of both him and my mom. I don't know if stress and/or weird eating habits out of the hospital cafeteria have any effect on cholesterol, but maybe I just need to do some yoga and chill out?
Fun fact here. Hospitals definitely aren't known for serving health food. Kind of makes you wonder.0 -
I lowered my overall cholesterol from 290 to 170 in 5 months. My triglycerides went down over 100 points. I'm a vegetarian who ate a lot of dairy (lots of cheese and sugary Greek yogurt), other sweets, fruit, and junk food. My doctor told me my high blood pressure and high cholesterol put me at high risk of a heart attack or stroke.
I've read that diet is not supposed to make that much of a difference, but I changed my food anyway to see what would happen. I don't know if the change in food helped, or if it was mainly my weight loss.
What I did:
Lost weight (36 pounds)
Exercise every by walking at least 30 minutes (usually an hour or more)
Changed my food. I cut out the dairy to see what would happen.
I cut out most added sugar (it's in most products you buy, but I read labels now and look for low or no sugar). I won't eat products with corn syrup because it is harder to work off than regular sugar, per the professor in a nutrition class I took this year.
I stopped eating massive amounts of fruit because of the sugar and just eat a couple of apples a day.
I eat more vegetables instead of fruit.
I added oatmeal, leafy greens like collards and kale, and lentils.
I also added fats like almonds, avocados and olives.
i'm not a purist and am not going to say I will never have another cookie, etc. plus there is social pressure to eat sweets especially at the holidays, but preventing a heart attack is more important to me right now.
I agree with the comment above that you might talk to a professional about your diet.
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first of all find out if your cholesterol is a regular cholesterol issue or a hereditary one(like familial hypercholesterolemia). if the latter you will most likely have to watch your cholesterol and saturated fat intake, exercise and take a statin. I have FH and for me losing weight and changing what I eat didnt help much. I wasnt eating low fat either at the time and it continued to raise.so here I am back on statins and eating a low fat,low cholesterol diet because my liver doesnt process fat and cholesterol like most peoples liver does.I was doing lower carb too and it too was not making much of a difference.so find out what kind you have. if you are at a normal weight do you have any other health issues that can cause the cholesterol issues?(thyroid problems can be one,also certain medications can raise it).0
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ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »More soluble fiber. Soluble fiber binds with bile in the digestive tract and takes it out of the body which means the liver must create more bile from cholesterol which in turn lowers your cholesterol. This is the best way to get your cholesterol down. I have posted this calculator before in other threads concerning lowering of cholesterol and people seem to find it helpful. Maybe it will help you. Lowering carbs can also lower cholesterol as a high carbohydrate diet can cause high cholesterol.
globalrph.com/fiber_content_soluble.htm
I have whats called FH and most people who do low carb have to have high fat(especially those doing keto). for people like me high fat is a no no.I did low carb for awhile and it did not work well. my cholesterol slowly kept climbing. People with the condition I have cannot process cholesterol and fat like others can,our livers also sends a signal to the brain/body to make more cholesterol because its not getting the right signals due to it not being processed correctly. so it gets stored and for me that caused xanthomas and Xanthelasma. now that Im on statins,a low fat diet and get my exercise in those things have improved in a short time. Im now waiting on blood work to come back to see where my levels are at.
oh and I was diagnosed with cholesterol issues at a healthy weight as well. this was way before I gained any weight0 -
CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »More soluble fiber. Soluble fiber binds with bile in the digestive tract and takes it out of the body which means the liver must create more bile from cholesterol which in turn lowers your cholesterol. This is the best way to get your cholesterol down. I have posted this calculator before in other threads concerning lowering of cholesterol and people seem to find it helpful. Maybe it will help you. Lowering carbs can also lower cholesterol as a high carbohydrate diet can cause high cholesterol.
globalrph.com/fiber_content_soluble.htm
I have whats called FH and most people who do low carb have to have high fat(especially those doing keto). for people like me high fat is a no no.I did low carb for awhile and it did not work well. my cholesterol slowly kept climbing. People with the condition I have cannot process cholesterol and fat like others can,our livers also sends a signal to the brain/body to make more cholesterol because its not getting the right signals due to it not being processed correctly. so it gets stored and for me that caused xanthomas and Xanthelasma. now that Im on statins,a low fat diet and get my exercise in those things have improved in a short time. Im now waiting on blood work to come back to see where my levels are at.
oh and I was diagnosed with cholesterol issues at a healthy weight as well. this was way before I gained any weight
Yep. Exceptions are always a given.0 -
As a general rule, a LCHF diet will lower triglycerides, raise HDL, and change LDL to the fluffier, healthier variety. A high carb diet, heavy with grains and sugars, will do the reverse in most people.
That being said, total cholesterol is an outdated test that doesn't show much of anything. I would ignore it. HDL, and triglycerides are more helpful as an indicator of heart health. A weak indicator of heart health at that.
Read Cholesterol Clarity, or the Great Cholesterol Myth or the Cholesterol Con. It gets into those ideas, plus the fact that statins are usually of no benefit to women. At all. The only time I would even consider a statin is if I already had some serious heart disease. Even then... I don't know.
Also try Perter Attia's blog. He has a lot of information on cholesterol. Great if you like a technical read.1 -
I've started eating several servings of oatmeal a week, a few months ago (2-2.5 servings per meal, 3-5 times a week), and my last blood work panel in October put my total cholesterol at something like 143. Lowest it's ever been and I haven't really changed anything else besides becoming obsessed with oats, lol. Might be worth a shot adding them to your meal plan a few times a week and see if it makes a difference?0
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As a general rule, a LCHF diet will lower triglycerides, raise HDL, and change LDL to the fluffier, healthier variety. A high carb diet, heavy with grains and sugars, will do the reverse in most people.
That being said, total cholesterol is an outdated test that doesn't show much of anything. I would ignore it. HDL, and triglycerides are more helpful as an indicator of heart health. A weak indicator of heart health at that.
Read Cholesterol Clarity, or the Great Cholesterol Myth or the Cholesterol Con. It gets into those ideas, plus the fact that statins are usually of no benefit to women. At all. The only time I would even consider a statin is if I already had some serious heart disease. Even then... I don't know.
Also try Perter Attia's blog. He has a lot of information on cholesterol. Great if you like a technical read.
in someone that has a regular cholesterol issue sure. but for those of us who have FH which is a genetic defect low carb high fat is a no no,especially the high fat part.and as for the statins I would say yes they do help,I noticed a difference just in the appearance in my xanthomas/Xanthelasmas.I dont know how statins are of no benefit to a woman,I have had no issues with some statins(some have caused me issues) but I also know when taking statins that you need to take coQ10 as statins robs your body of that. I take that and have had no issues. for me though,with my condition I can end up with heart disease due to my cholesterol because again fat and cholesterol is not processed by the liver like most other peoples cholesterol is. I also have a higher risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes because of this genetic defect. so I also watch my sugar intake. I try to avoid things with added sugar or processed sugar.for me I eat the whole grains and eating more carbs than I was(most from fruits,veggies, and dairy) and Like I said I know mine is going down just waiting until blood work comes back to compare it to 3 months ago(I have to have mine tested every 3 months). for me my HDL and LDL is good,its triglycerides/ LDL-C that is high. so thats makes my total cholesterol high as well.2 -
ICharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »As a general rule, a LCHF diet will lower triglycerides, raise HDL, and change LDL to the fluffier, healthier variety. A high carb diet, heavy with grains and sugars, will do the reverse in most people.
That being said, total cholesterol is an outdated test that doesn't show much of anything. I would ignore it. HDL, and triglycerides are more helpful as an indicator of heart health. A weak indicator of heart health at that.
Read Cholesterol Clarity, or the Great Cholesterol Myth or the Cholesterol Con. It gets into those ideas, plus the fact that statins are usually of no benefit to women. At all. The only time I would even consider a statin is if I already had some serious heart disease. Even then... I don't know.
Also try Perter Attia's blog. He has a lot of information on cholesterol. Great if you like a technical read.
in someone that has a regular cholesterol issue sure. but for those of us who have FH which is a genetic defect low carb high fat is a no no,especially the high fat part.and as for the statins I would say yes they do help,I noticed a difference just in the appearance in my xanthomas/Xanthelasmas.I dont know how statins are of no benefit to a woman,I have had no issues with some statins(some have caused me issues) but I also know when taking statins that you need to take coQ10 as statins robs your body of that. I take that and have had no issues. for me though,with my condition I can end up with heart disease due to my cholesterol because again fat and cholesterol is not processed by the liver like most other peoples cholesterol is. I also have a higher risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes because of this genetic defect. so I also watch my sugar intake. I try to avoid things with added sugar or processed sugar.for me I eat the whole grains and eating more carbs than I was(most from fruits,veggies, and dairy) and Like I said I know mine is going down just waiting until blood work comes back to compare it to 3 months ago(I have to have mine tested every 3 months). for me my HDL and LDL is good,its triglycerides/ LDL-C that is high. so thats makes my total cholesterol high as well.
It is unfortunate that you have this to deal with. I am glad that you have a found a treatment that seems to be working for you. You are a minority though. I do believe that for the vast majority of people, a LCHF diet will improve their cholesterol numbers. What is true for you (which is unfortunate) will not be true for others.
Slightly elevated cholesterol is actually found to be slightly healthier for the typical woman than lower cholesterol is. I'm actually hoping that my triglycerides come up because they were below normal.
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ICharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »As a general rule, a LCHF diet will lower triglycerides, raise HDL, and change LDL to the fluffier, healthier variety. A high carb diet, heavy with grains and sugars, will do the reverse in most people.
That being said, total cholesterol is an outdated test that doesn't show much of anything. I would ignore it. HDL, and triglycerides are more helpful as an indicator of heart health. A weak indicator of heart health at that.
Read Cholesterol Clarity, or the Great Cholesterol Myth or the Cholesterol Con. It gets into those ideas, plus the fact that statins are usually of no benefit to women. At all. The only time I would even consider a statin is if I already had some serious heart disease. Even then... I don't know.
Also try Perter Attia's blog. He has a lot of information on cholesterol. Great if you like a technical read.
in someone that has a regular cholesterol issue sure. but for those of us who have FH which is a genetic defect low carb high fat is a no no,especially the high fat part.and as for the statins I would say yes they do help,I noticed a difference just in the appearance in my xanthomas/Xanthelasmas.I dont know how statins are of no benefit to a woman,I have had no issues with some statins(some have caused me issues) but I also know when taking statins that you need to take coQ10 as statins robs your body of that. I take that and have had no issues. for me though,with my condition I can end up with heart disease due to my cholesterol because again fat and cholesterol is not processed by the liver like most other peoples cholesterol is. I also have a higher risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes because of this genetic defect. so I also watch my sugar intake. I try to avoid things with added sugar or processed sugar.for me I eat the whole grains and eating more carbs than I was(most from fruits,veggies, and dairy) and Like I said I know mine is going down just waiting until blood work comes back to compare it to 3 months ago(I have to have mine tested every 3 months). for me my HDL and LDL is good,its triglycerides/ LDL-C that is high. so thats makes my total cholesterol high as well.
It is unfortunate that you have this to deal with. I am glad that you have a found a treatment that seems to be working for you. You are a minority though. I do believe that for the vast majority of people, a LCHF diet will improve their cholesterol numbers. What is true for you (which is unfortunate) will not be true for others.
Slightly elevated cholesterol is actually found to be slightly healthier for the typical woman than lower cholesterol is. I'm actually hoping that my triglycerides come up because they were below normal.
well there is such a thing as too low of cholesterol and there are some out there that cant produce enough cholesterol as well. my situation says it happens 1 in 250 or something along those lines. but I agree what is true for me will not be for others. since the op says she is at a healthy weight she needs to see if she has cholesterol problems which are hereditary like mine, or if hers is something diet alone can change. but statins for some are needed while others can take non statin cholesterol lowering drugs. unfortunately for me I cannot. I tried not taking any meds and just doing the diet and exercise and it wasnt good enough.It does suck but its life and Id rather not have a heart attack by the time Im 50(Im 42 and women who have this and dont treat it have a higher risk of heart attack,stroke,TIA by the time they are in their 50s, and I dont want to have to go through LDL-apheresis if I can prevent it(its rare but some have to have this done). so I wanna prevent that. which is why OP would be better off to find out.I was diagnosed in my mid 20s but had NO idea it was FH until the last year or so. https://thefhfoundation.org/about-fh/what-is-fh/. maybe I worry too much but to me its best to find out now,rather than later.0 -
tomorrowperfume wrote: »So, I'm a 30 year old female with a normal BMI and a slowly increasing cholesterol level. My doctor recently gave me an ultimatum: "Get your cholesterol down to normal in the next six months, or you're going on statins."
As others have mentioned, current science says you'll get the biggest bang for your buck from regular exercise (something that actually elevates your heart rate) and soluble fiber intake.2 -
You guys are great!
As far as I can tell from a family history of diabetes, high blood pressure, lymphocytic leukemia and Alzheimer's, a cholesterol or thyroid disorder is seemingly the only thing that I probably won't inherit.
I get a lipid panel every year when I get a physical, and though my weight is pretty static my LDL levels have slowly risen. I don't think that's indicative of my body having trouble processing fats, unless it's been slowly getting worse.
The LCHF diet is intriguing, but also terrifying. While I think that maybe my General Practitioner isn't up on all the hip new cholesterol research, going strictly against her orders of "eat less saturated fat" is still a bit daunting of a first step.
On the other hand, I have no trouble throwing in 30 minutes of daily cardio and eating a serving of oatmeal for breakfast. I guess we'll see how that lipid panel looks in six months!
And perhaps less cookies, too.1 -
I was in a similar situation, my total chol went up to almost 300 mg/dl, LDL went over 200 and my doc said do something or else...statins. I was eating a LCHF diet/paleo at the time and wasn't that overweight at the time of the test, I was around 145 lbs, so it was the diet that was causing it.tomorrowperfume wrote: »..........
The LCHF diet is intriguing, but also terrifying. While I think that maybe my General Practitioner isn't up on all the hip new cholesterol research, going strictly against her orders of "eat less saturated fat" is still a bit daunting of a first step.
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I reversed my high cholesterol by cutting back on saturated fats, less meat in general, less butters, oils etc and started eating more whole grains, beans, lentils, oats, fruits and veg, plus exercise, and all my labs are back to normal range. So, check your current diet and evaluate the fat content and try cutting back and recheck in a couple months or so. It doesn't take too long to reverse it.
Also, the other poster's suggestion to read 'Cholesterol Clarity' is kinda interesting considering the author Jimmy Moore, still is and has been obese for years while touting his LCHF diet, and per his blog, has horrendously high cholesterol himself so, be warned.
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I agree with fiber, nuts, exercise. I have genetic cholesterol, which sucks, and I'm kinda in the same boat as you OP... After a year and losing 80 lbs, my bad cholesterol actually went up, but my ratio improved. I said no to statin and my doctor told me to eat low fat/fat free everything. I actually started eating more fat (around 70-80g a day) and my numbers improved the next year.
Shows you that most doctors really don't have a clue.
I can't do high fat anyway (too much of it and I end up with diarrhea and stomach pains) so that's a moot point for me, but I try to eat more fiber and I exercise a lot.1
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