My cholesterol is out of this world high - what can I do?

Lots of vegetables.

I find that the #1 influence on my cholesterol number is how much cardio I'm doing. For me, attempts to control cholesterol via diet were unsuccessful.

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Don't go crazy trying to avoid foods with cholesterol or saturated fat. That's very difficult and only minimally helpful. Focus on eating lots of veggies, fruit, and healthy fats (eg fish oil and olive oil). Focus on exercising. Losing weight is also important. Here's some good advice:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/reduce-cholesterol/art-20045935

Not just any fiber but SOLUBLE fiber. The body makes bile from cholesterol, when you get SOLUBLE fiber it binds with bile in the digestive tract and takes it out of the body forcing the body to use more cholesterol to make more bile.

Unless you have health issue like hyperlipidemia or familial hypercholerolemia, dietary cholesterol does not worse your cholesterol, and by that I mean the cholesterol tests that matter most: HDL and triglycerides.

Total cholesterol and LDL are meaningless tests for almost all people. Knowing LDL particle size can be helpful to know but that is not offered everywhere yet. It is best to look at HDL (want it normal to high) and triglycerides (normal). Both are often improved by dropping refined carbs and sugars, which reduces your carb intake, and increasing fats. A LCHF will almost always raise LDL, lower triglycerides, and increase LDL size (a good thing). Even those who eat close to zero carbs (an extreme version of a ketogenic diet) generally have excellent lipid panels.

Saturated fats can affect LDL a bit, but unless you have astronomically high numbers, I would ignore it. This excludes the tiny minority who have familial hypercholesterolemia. Dietary cholesterol does absolutely nothing to negatively affect cardiovascular health.

I would get your LDL particle size tested. It will let you know if you should worry about high LDL or not. Not all LDL is bad.

Peter Attia has an excellent series on cholesterol and a nice summary of CAD:
http://eatingacademy.com/cholesterol-2/heart-disease-begin-tell-us-prevention
http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/the-straight-dope-on-cholesterol-part-i

Books such as the Great Cholesterol Con, Cholesterol Myth, and Cholesterol Clarity will explain more.

My cholesterol is is a little high and my cardiologist wants me to eat lean cuts of meat, chicken without the skin and lots of fruits and veggies. Also, he told me one egg a week.

bms34b wrote: »

So, my cholesterol is ridiculous. VERY high in general, VERY high LDL, high (but not super great) HDL, low triglycerides.

I'm trying to get it better before I go back to the doc to get re-tested.
- Low dietary cholesterol
- Low saturated and trans fats
- High monounsaturated fats
- High SUPER high fiber
- Continuing to work out, walking daily and weight training 3x week

Other suggestions? Target numbers to eat each day? How long until change should be seen? Recipes? I need everything I can get.

first thing I would do is see if you can find out what type of high cholesterol you have and the possible cause. I have FH(familial hypercholesterolemia) for years they told me I just had high cholesterol,the last year I was diagnosed with FH. for me its high fiber,low fat/sat fat,decent amount of carbs and moderate protein.

I have to limit fried foods,white rice,pasta,bread,cookies,cakes,etc. I also was told to eat whole grain breads,rices,pastas. A lot of times FH is misdiagnosed as just high cholesterol. for me in about 6 months with diet,exercise and meds I was able to get my cholesterol into the normal ranges.FH is nothing to mess with if you have it. for some with certain types of cholesterol issues meds are needed with diet and exercise. for others they can control it with just diet and exercise. knowing what you have and how to treat it would be a start.

Give this a read https://tinyurl.com/m5m9war
these types of programs are literally designed to walk you through bettering your cholesterol/blood pressure problems. and this goes for anyone else reading this post with similar issues, i had my problems even back when i was high school and it wasn't until my doc. introduced me to this type of help that i actually started bettering my health. The program i shared with you may or may not be the one for you, but its somewhere to start and thats for sure. Good luck to you my friend

LDL number from the basic blood test is not reliable, they just calculate it from some formula. Ask your doctor for a more comprehensive test where they actually measure the number of LDL particles and also the size of the particles.

rontafoya wrote: »

Any idea WHY your cholesterol is so high? Without that info, I don't know why everyone is spewing so much advice. I never had high cholesterol, but my numbers actually improved eating a ton of eggs, coconut oil, and bacon. Of course I had also started pumping iron so I am guessing I converted a lot of that to testosterone. My point is, this is complex, and without knowing why your numbers are jacked, you are just flailing. One thing I can say definitively is this: if you feel good, energized, alert, and ready to conquer the world after you eat something, that was a good meal. If you feel sluggish, bloated, sleepy...that was garbage you ate.

Because that's what we do here in the forums. "Spew advice". And gosh darn it, no one has ever benefited from any advice we have spewn forth. I guess we should all go eat worms now. Who knows. It may even improve cholesterol.