why 7.4

It is often just an age thing like increased blood pressure and needing reading glasses.

Thank you everyone for taking the trouble to reply.

littleflo I had mine checked recently and it was 7. I am not overweight either and eat a low fat, quite healthy diet. This rise in my cholesterol has happened since I retired, it was always around 4 when I was working. Not sure why this is. A few people have told me that those cholesterol lowering drinks have reduced theirs so I am taking one of those a day now and hoping it will have come down when I get it checked again.

DH has Familial Hyperlipidaemia. We found this out in his 30s when someone did his cholesterol 'just to see what it was' and it was 13! Closer questioning revealed that his fathers heart attacks in his 50s may well have been due to this. DH told his brothers and his sons and sure enough both brothers have it but not his son. DH has always been at the correct weight, has always played lots of sport and taken exercise daily (12 walks, cricket, bowls etc etc) never eats dairy products, chips, chocolate, cake, biscuits or indeed anything I might regard as nice and still after doubling his statins he can still only get down to 5. One thing doctors often say when discuss health status is ' first choose your parents[

We have a family history of high cholesterol on the maternal side. My mother's was 8.9 when she was in her early 60's. Diet made no difference to her,and she lived an active lifestyle until a matter of weeks before her death at 87. My cholesterol has increased from 5.3 - 5.9 as my 60's move on. GP not concerned about this, and feels adding statins to my existing list of meds wouldn't be a Good Thing. I'm relieved, don't want to add any more chemicals

There is this! My sister in law has it as does my OH.

heartuk.org.uk/fh-familial-hypercholesterolemia

It might be helpful to you.

Sometimes it is genetic I believe. And the most important thing is the ratio between "good" and "bad" cholesterol. My cholesterol is 5.8, which is high for someone of my normal build, but the ratio is very favourable so I am not receiving treatment.

p.s. perhaps Galen may be able to answer your query?

littleflo I don't think your cholesterol levels have anything to do with your weight or height! It's to do with your lipids, both good and bad and could well be a familial problem. If it was on weight and height I would be registering about 90 !! Diet helps as does weight loss (not in your case) and exercise, but statins seem to be the answer to everything these days! Presumably your GP is unconcerned otherwise he would have advised you to go on medication, recommended an alternative diet or referred you to the lipid clinic?