Anyone on here lowered their cholesterol WITHOUT taking statins ?

sophieschoice

This and other stuff on the net, notably 'the great cholesterol con' makes for interesting reading

http://www.thecholesteroltruth.com/

easy

sophieschoice wrote: »

This and other stuff on the net, notably 'the great cholesterol con' makes for interesting reading

http://www.thecholesteroltruth.com/

Yes, I got "The Great Cholesterol Con" from Amazon on Friday, and have been reading over the weekend.

Pennylane

"Easy" - let us know what you think!

melancholly

Eric_Pisch wrote: »

there seams to be a complex relationship between insulin, fat storage (insulin causes excess carbs to be stored like crazy), fat burning (insulin inhibits this), massive weight gain and CVD (which pretty much didn't exist 100 years ago)

it will probably be 15-20 years before they can do enough research to get definitive results but we do know that the majority of people who change over to a diet closer to how we used to eat have near perfect blood results.

i think that to be fair, the idea of eating what we used to has to be taken hand in hand with the kind of active lifestyle that we used to have. otherwise, it's only half the story!

Debtphobic_Dinah

I have recently read Gary Taube's new book "why we get fat and what to do about it" He is a top science writer in America and it is quite shocking how the advice re low fat,high carb diets being good for your heart is based on the flimsiest evidence and since it was adopted wholesale by medics and governments we have all got loads fatter. I found this book recommended when browsing an Atkins forum and its an excellent look at the whole weight loss advice debate with references to all the actual trials which underpin it. I am losing weight well on 20g of carbs which come mostly from green leafy veg and salad and loads of meat, cream, fish, eggs, butter, coconut oil and cheese.

wilroda

Hi

I had an annual review at the gp the other week as i take meds for hypertension which is in the family. The nurse initially said that my bloods were fine but then went on to say that an HDL of 1.7 and an LDL of something like 4.5.. when ratio'd out means i have a total cholesterol of about 4.6 and she said this was above the normal range....This hasnt changed much since i went last year and was told that it was good!

As I am a little overweight ( just lost over a stone and and a half working on it!)and my bp was up a bit at the surgery but normal at home I left my appointment with a presc for statins! I suppose I could have put up a bit more of a fight about them when i was there but like many people I hate visiting the surgery...

I take loads of exercise and have a good diet with skimmed milk - flora - olive oils- etc etc.

I have taken them for 2 weeks now and have felt awful!

I am now thinking of stopping them and trying Benecol etc to help reduce it another way.

I have read this topic and its very helpful by the way but has anyone had any success with Benecol etc?

patchwork_cat

Eric_Pisch wrote: »

my readings where way over 10+ ...

I have now cut it down to the 4.3-4.8 range without drugs

I have done this by loosing some weight, taking a little exercise (3 hours a week) but mostly by adjusting my diet to something closer to what we are evolved for, a reduced carb (under 100g a day) and moderate fat diet.

35-40% of my cal intake is fat and a lot of it is animal fat (tonnes of cheese, semi skimmed milk and red meat), just goes to confirm the WHO study in 2010 on 350k people that ingested cholesterol has no relation to blood serum cholesterol.

The final nail in the low fat high carb diet scam

a meta-analysis published this week in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It pooled together data from 21 unique studies that included almost 350,000 people, about 11,000 of whom developed cardiovascular disease (CVD), tracked for an average of 14 years, and concluded that there is no relationship between the intake of saturated fat and the incidence of heart disease or stroke.

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2010/01/19/eating_saturated_fat_does_not_cause_heart_disease_health_supreme_newsgrabs_tuesday_19_january_2010.htm

It should be noted that eating some healthy fats and oils did show a reduction in risk thou, so eat both

Am I right in thinking that you lost a fair bit of weight? For every 3 kg of weight lost your HDL level increases by 0.03mmol/L. I found it most useful when calculating my DH's cholesterol to convert it into US mg/dL.

My DH has corrected his poor HDL/LDL ratio purely by diet and weight loss. His overall figure was fine, but at 0.8 mmol/L his HDL was poor. He ate oat bran for breakfast ( similar to porridge, but higher in soluble fibre Beta Glucagon- get it from Tesco and Sainsburys) he had Flora proactive spread and oily fish and generally a low fat diet. You can get soluble fibre from Isphagula husk, 7g a day, and apples are another good source.

Have you had an HDL/LDL ratio? If not it is much more informative than just a cholesterol figure.

patchwork_cat

wilroda wrote: »

Hi

I had an annual review at the gp the other week as i take meds for hypertension which is in the family. The nurse initially said that my bloods were fine but then went on to say that an HDL of 1.7 and an LDL of something like 4.5.. when ratio'd out means i have a total cholesterol of about 4.6 and she said this was above the normal range....This hasnt changed much since i went last year and was told that it was good!

As I am a little overweight ( just lost over a stone and and a half working on it!)and my bp was up a bit at the surgery but normal at home I left my appointment with a presc for statins! I suppose I could have put up a bit more of a fight about them when i was there but like many people I hate visiting the surgery...

I take loads of exercise and have a good diet with skimmed milk - flora - olive oils- etc etc.

I have taken them for 2 weeks now and have felt awful!

I am now thinking of stopping them and trying Benecol etc to help reduce it another way.

I have read this topic and its very helpful by the way but has anyone had any success with Benecol etc?

You might want to check the figures for your HDL/LDL ratio as I get that to be 2.64 which is very low risk. Might be worth a telephone appointment to check the figures http://www.fatfreekitchen.com/cholesterol/cholesterol-ldl-hdl-ratio.html

wilroda

Thanks for that. maybe i have my figures wrong! I do remember my HDL being 1.7 though which is good. I am sure my total cholesterol was 4.6. Maybe I have my LDL wrong. As I get stressed visiting the surgery I dont always take everything in!

I suppose I am concerned that I have been given statins when my cholesterol level is borderline and now feel a bit " miffed" that I accepted them without question when maybe some dietary help would be the answer.