Posted: 7/5/2017 11:42:18 AM EDT
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Just got blood work results back and my total cholesterol is 230, HDL at 48 and LDL at 160. My doctor immediately wanted to get me on a statin prescription for the rest of my life. Has anyone significantly lowered their cholesterol without dependency on pills?
My demographics: 45 years old Male 170 pounds 5"'10" O positive blood somewhat athletic, exercise semi-regularly I don't eat much junk or processed food thanks! |
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It's primarily genetic. If you're not overweight and you do exercise regularly there's not much else you can do. Oatmeal, garlic, fish and/or krill oil. Avoid red meat. Do all that and you may still have problems. <----above, niacin is falling out of favor. Some negative test data shows high levels may actually hurt. |
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It carbs to a minimum. Your cholesterol is borderline. Unless you have a serious history of heart disease in your family there is no way one go on statins. They are frickin poison.
My cholesterol in similar- slightly lower us usually in the 200- 210 range but my ldl is higher. I am also pretty overweight. I dropped my cholesterol below 200 by changing my diet, avoiding most carbs. I also exercise. My doctor did not recommend statins, but many others would. |
| 5-10 170 so you obviously arent eating horribly. i am guessing you are just hosed by bad genes. Diet may help some. I would try adding Krill Oil to your daily vitamins. It isnt cheap but it does work. I take Krill, Fish, and Flax oil tables every day. I want to avoid going back on Niaspan (SP?) to lower my cholesterol. If your diet isnt bad, taking a few pills each day is a lot easier than modifying an already pretty health diet to be even more healthy. |
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I was total 212, ldl 138, hdl 69. I am 52 and already eat pretty good, paleo-ish, no red meat. I was eating 1 egg yolk per day and cut that out (although the research doesn't support that eggs increase your cholesterol). Main thing is I added fiber ie: oatmeal, moral fiber muffins, benefiber, flaxmeal, etc
In 3 months I was total 189, 109 ldl, 68 hdl. I have noticed my hdl's are higher when I do more aerobics and eat more good fats (olive oil, natural peanut or almond butter). Not real scientific but works for me. Research does show that increasing fiber helps. Good Luck. |
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I have been there, you have two options, change your diet, really life style, I did that have been on a Vegan diet for years, no animal products. But I have a genetic component where even tho I have zero Cholesterol in my diet my numbers are high so I have been on Crestor for years, works for me. If you have a genetic issue with Cholesterol not much you can do. You may try the diet and exercise first. Go to Netflix and watch Forks over Knives. But if you change to the Vegan program you will need vitamin supplements like D and B-12. Also a protein supplement probably, I have an Almond shake Protein drink almost daily. On the positive side I lost 30lbs and my BP numbers came down.
Good luck |
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Fish oil. Fiber. Avoiding high saturated fat (red) meats. Low sugars and low carbs.
Statins are fucking poison, they completely suppress the ability for your body to produce coenzyme Q10 which you absolutely need. You can take supplements but it will never replace the real thing. I wouldn't touch statins unless I had already had an MI. Even then I'd be very leery. |
| If you are going to take a pill, take a better one. I've been taking a curcumin supplement, among many things it supposedly helps to maintain a healthy liver which is crucial to controlling cholesterol. Look for one with BCM 95 as the source for the curcumin, it is a more bioavailable formulation. |
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I have the same issue, and my new diet is if I can hunt it, fish it or grow it... I eat it. Eat the food the way Nature has given it to us, and don't eat man-made. Eat like a caveman  |
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I had a similar result.
My doctor told me to eat a cup of regular cheerios for breakfast each day. I did that for 90 days and repeated the test and my cholesterol dropped 30 points. He says he sees this same result all the time, it's a combination of NOT eating high cholesterol breakfast food, and the whole grains and fiber in the cereal. He told me that General Mills has had some FDA trouble for implying that the cereal works as well as it does, because it yields drug like results. I still eat a bowl every stinking day. |
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My father lowered his Cholesterol level without medication.
Doctor wanted him to start taking pills to lower the level but my dad said he was going to try by changing his diet. He (my mom actually) cut out all beef and pork and ate only certain lean fish and skinless chicken breast and only 3 times a week. They eat mostly oatmeal, vegetables, fruit, etc. They also exercise a lot...2 mile walk in the morning and long 10+ miles bike rides in the afternoon-evenings. It took about 8 months but his level went down to acceptable range. That was 17 years ago and he's still okay. |
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People should stop recommending fish oils and realize that they decrease TG (at doses most people don't take) and while this can affect your TOTAL cholesterol, it does fuck all for your LDL and can even increase it.
If you have familial dyslipidemia, your diet/exercise pattern influence is minimal. If you don't want to take a pill, there are the injections now which can be once monthly. Any issues with BP, smoking, the beetus, or family who had any stroke/MI at early age? Plugging your info into and ASCVD calculator has you at 2.6% which doesn't really warrant statins at this time unless any of the above factors apply |
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Salmon, trout, tuna and mackerel. Eat these fish 3 times a week and you should see a difference in your #'s.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/cholesterol/art-20045192 |
| I take Colestyramine daily. They use to prescribe it for high cholesterol but it fell out of favor when statins came on the market. While I take it for other issues it has lowered my cholesterol count quite a bit. If you're worried about the side effects of statins you might want to ask your doctor about it. |
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i am almost the same height/ weight and age as you. when i was in a my 20's the doctor tested me at 300 . put me on statin drugs for a about a years which made me feel like crap most of the time . i just said F it and stopped taking them. some people say statin drugs are gods gift and some think they are poison. Reading up on them i am of the latter opinion.
a lot of docs say that high colosteral is 85% heriditary and 15 diet. my mom has it and is 77. grandma and grandpa live to 90's . |
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Thanks for all the replies.
members of my mom's family do seem to have genetically high LDL leading to blocked arteries currently: BP: 129/84 Pulse 79 I take a regular antihistamine that seems to push my pulse and diastolic numbers up a bit. Doctor wants me on 10mg Crestor. I decided to do 90 days of something else and then retest. |
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I got tons of traction with Phytosterols after the prescription statins caused dizzy spells. Linky
BTW, my doctor no longer bothers to even check my cholesterol except annually so it worked well for me. |
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Every time I hear "eat like a caveman" I remind myself that cavemen only lived to be 25-30 years old, how can the be good advice? I understand the concept but the analogy is weak.  there are many reasons why we live longer today... but adding preservatives to your food I don't think it's one of them
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It carbs to a minimum. Your cholesterol is borderline. Unless you have a serious history of heart disease in your family there is no way one go on statins. They are frickin poison. My cholesterol in similar- slightly lower us usually in the 200- 210 range but my ldl is higher. I am also pretty overweight. I dropped my cholesterol below 200 by changing my diet, avoiding most carbs. I also exercise. My doctor did not recommend statins, but many others would. |
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Every time I hear "eat like a caveman" I remind myself that cavemen only lived to be 25-30 years old, how can the be good advice? I understand the concept but the analogy is weak. Quoted:
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I have the same issue, and my new diet is if I can hunt it, fish it or grow it... I eat it. Eat the food the way Nature has given it to us, and don't eat man-made. Eat like a caveman Cavemen didn't die when they were 30. A ton of them died during birth or shortly after. If they made it past childhood and didn't catch any serious diseases, infections, etc., they could live to an age similar to the current norm. When you have 10 people and 30% of them die before they turn 2, 20% dies from disease/infection in their 20's-30's, and the other half live to be 70, you get an average of 40 or so. That doesn't mean everyone dropped dead at 40. More people are living to be 90 these days because modern medicine can keep them alive despite their terrible diets. |
| My numbers were very similar to yours and I've cut LDL in half and doubled my HDL with exercise and following the Primal/Paleo diet. That means I get on average 50+% of my daily calories from fat. Granted, I lost 90lbs in the process and that helped. It may help your numbers. It may not. |
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What are your LDP-P and triglyceride counts? A1C? CRP?
Family history of heart attacks? At 230 total I personally wouldn't go on a statin without 1) having a lot more detail about my cholesterol numbers and 2) trying a bunch of other stuff first. I had mine come in at 230 a while back, with an HDL of 72, triglycerides ~100, and LDL ~138. Cleaned up my diet - not hard core low carb, but focused on whole foods, cut sweets, cheese, dairy, and extra fatty cured meats way back and focused on getting in plenty of salmon, sardines, etc. A bit more exercise. Follow up was total of 208, HDL of 85 , triglycerides of 50, and LDL at 113. Still some murmuring from the doc because of my total, but I told him that I was comfortable with my numbers where they were. Your HDL number isn't very good though. Do you eat much fatty fish - salmon, sardines, herring? Vegetables - the green leafy kind, not fruits and roots? Total Cholesterol vs All Cause Mortality |
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There was a recent study indicating the so-called benefits of statins are overstated substantially and the hazards are understated by a factor of ~5. My doctor tells me every year I should have been on statins for years. Thanks, but I like my liver functioning just the way it is.
The group my PCP belongs to was having a "special" on something called a "Calcium scoring". It appeared to be an MRI-like thing that looks specifically for calcification in arteries, which would indicate heart disease and likelihood of a heart attack. If I read the statistics right, men over 50 have a ~56% chance of having a non-zero score, indicating some calcification and risk of heart disease. I just had mine done two weeks ago. Got a zero.  PCP had indicated that with my cholesterol as high as it was, I should be on statins, but that if I got a calcium score of zero, then he would stop worrying.
From what I've read, fish oil or fish, flax, borage oil combo can help lower bad cholesterol. Olive oil and one other I can't remember can help raise the good cholesterol in your system. I just recently started taking vitamin K2 because that supposedly has been shown to improve cholesterol readings. Supposedly, most men don't get enough K2 in their diets and their cholesterol numbers show that. The one article I read indicated that eating fatty red meats is one of the best sources of K2, which coincidentally would be what you would be doing on a keto diet. Co-Q-10 also is supposed to help lower bad chol and raise good chol and is recommended for those forced to/dumb enough to use statins as evidently using them lowers your Co-Q-10 considerably. Like anything else, what works for one person may not work for others. I take lots of supplements and feel pretty good. I really need to lose some weight, though, so I may jump into the keto thing. I did Atkins about a dozen years ago, lost 55lbs., and got my lipids (good/bad chol, triglycerides) all back within the normal range in 10 months. It was hard to maintain that over time, though. I think the 70% fats, 20% protein, 10% useful carbs would be about right for me. If I can find a way to do that consistently. (My wife just had her gall bladder out and she is supposed to consume low-fat foods. Exactly the opposite of what I need.  )
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A friend took metamucil (sp) once or twice a day and it lowered his number to an acceptable level. The are some probiotics out there than been shown to help.
Mine was 278 last year... I'm 165lbs and only eat red meat once a week, no fast food, it is genetic. I won't take the meds, too many horror stories from friends, and I dated a woman who used to work in a medical lab and she said they were bad news (not sure I believe or don't believe her.) Turns out shrip and crawfish are high in cholesterol, which I ate a lot of, not decrease in my numbers. I'm sure I'll stroke out someday. People say exercise drops it, but two of my friends had high numbers and they were exercise fiends. |