cholesterol levels -- statin or diet?

Total cholesterol for the US population was much higher back in the 70's for example and today we have more heart disease despite better medications. What someones LDL is is not a very good indication (proxy) of heart health simply because there's many other factors that are much more important. With the decrease in total cholesterol over the decades with most always being LDL, heart disease should have been reduced as well if one was to believe they are correlated. Also studies show that most people that have had a heart related event have LDL levels within the acceptable levels, which is a little confusing if one was to believe higher cholesterol was progressive and caused heart disease.


To actually see if you have any plaque (disease) you can request from your Doctor to get a CAC (coronary artery calcium) score and then you'll know for sure. Just to be clear, unless the arteries are compromised and have had some injury from inflammation that creates a lesion the probability of heart disease is in the lottery ticket neighborhood of probably not going to happen. Your triglyceride level of 113 also does not indicate that the phenotype of LDL that is more atherogenic is prevalent which are the small dense LDL particles, so that is a good thing and considering most people's HDL in the US is under 40 your HDL at 67 is actually considered protective against heart disease. If a person wants to reduce their risk of heart disease then consuming more whole foods with an emphasis on quality protein and reducing the amount of sugar and refined carbs that are actually the causality for inflammation would be some pretty basic and foundational advice for our overall health in general and not just for the heart and this is only in relationship to the diet and not other lifestyle interventions that also contribute to lower the probability of increased heart disease.

Score of 0: No calcium detected, indicating a low risk of heart disease.
Score of 1-99: Small amount of calcium, suggesting mild heart disease risk.
Score of 100-399: Moderate amount of calcium, indicating a moderate risk of heart disease.
Score of 400 and above: Large amount of calcium, suggesting a high risk of heart disease

Unfortunately we have been programmed to think LDL causes heart disease and have accepted that statins are one of our only hopes at reducing our chances of dying of heart disease which statins when we look at absolute risk as opposed to relative risk, do pretty much nothing to actually reduce that risk. A few years ago there was a push by the pharmaceutical industrial complex to have children automatically take statins based on the idea that early prevention could help to reduce the progression of heart disease. Fortunately regulations of that nature need to go though rigorous testing and cooler heads prevailed (actual science) to the chagrin of Pfizer and Merck and AstraZeneca.

Weight-loss alone could improve your numbers. Diet could too.
Not that they're that disastrous anyway (high HDL and normal trigs).

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

Re diet:

Since then, however, research has shown that most of the cholesterol in our body is made by our liver — it doesn't come from cholesterol we eat. The liver is stimulated to make cholesterol primarily by saturated fat and trans fat in our diet, not dietary cholesterol. But a large egg contains little saturated fat — about 1.5 grams (g). And research has confirmed that eggs also contain many healthy nutrients: lutein and zeaxanthin, which are good for the eyes; choline, which is good for the brain and nerves; and various vitamins (A, B, and D). In fact, just one large egg contains 270 international units (IU) of vitamin A and 41 IU of vitamin D. One large egg also contains about 6 g of protein and 72 calories.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/are-eggs-risky-for-heart-health

This has been known for over 50 years and it's because dietary cholesterol is hydrophobic and just can't be deposited into the blood stream directly and the reason why dietary cholesterol has little effect on our blood levels.

In the lining of our small intestines are what's called chylomicrons which are a type of lipoprotein (which carry cargo) and the dietary cholesterol is transported through the lymphatic system then through to the blood stream and eventually to the liver where it's then taken up. If someone consumes a lot of cholesterol the liver makes less and if a person doesn't eat any or very little the liver makes more, pretty simple. The quality or type of the manufactured cholesterol in the liver as it pertains to HDL and LDL are primarily lifestyle and genetic factors and not based on dietary cholesterol and the USDA removed the restriction for cholesterol in 2015 finally and considering no other Country ever had a mg daily restriction on cholesterol they probably thought they better reconsider the actual science, and old science at that.

Trust your instincts. That inner voice.. that hints to what is right for you. If that voice tells you.. "lose weight and try eating the right foods.. then recheck before going on a lifetime drug." I'd listen to that. Or if the voice tells you to take them..that they are needed right now.. do that.