Dietary cholesterol

I don't think it's true that what we eat doesn't affect our cholesterol levels at all. Fatty foods and too much alcohol can cause high cholesterol and a high carbohydrate diet can cause high triglycerides. However, he seems to be right about dietary cholesterol. The advice for quite a long time has been that it's OK to eat eggs.

In the sense that if we eat the right foods, no diet doesn’t really affect cholesterol levels. Of course, overloading with carbs, alcohol, fatty foods, etc., naturally affects us.
Also the 5.0 cholesterol level is a number plucked out of th3 air - apparently up to 7.0 is normal!

They are really into low cholesterol levels here and I even got told off when mine was 4.5 because there was too much ‘bad’ cholesterol. Large doses of statins give me backache so I take a low dose that I can cope with, against doc’s advice. Quality of life is important and I can’t stand having chronic backache. They don’t seem to get this.

I’m sure that the old adage “everything in moderation” is the way to go, but I’m no good at following that advise, especially where food is concerned.

Interested in the advise about gluten free. I am gluten intolerant and cut it out of my diet because my gut and indeed my whole digestion system including ulcers in my mouth, complains loudly and severely if I don’t. Not sure how to react to that suggestion? Did the consultant say what happens if you cut it out?

If the effect of eating something causes more problems than not eating it, don't eat it.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I agree AussieGran. A close friend of ours had a heart attack ( thankfully he survived) and his cholesterol was low, around 3, much lower than mine has ever been. My granddaughter has high cholesterol, around 7.5 , and she is skinny as a rake and doesn’t eat junk food. She is also very active in sporting activities. Thems the breaks I guess.

grandMattie
How true. 13 years ago my cholesterol was 9.6. I was against taking statins but promised my Dr that I would stick to the recommended fats per day for 6 months.
I stuck to it. My levels came down to 9.4. Whoopee!!!

Statins are a big money earner and doctors were (are?) paid to prescribe them.

I’d be interested in any independent research that shows whether levels of heart attacks have fallen as a result of their mass prescription.

Cynical. Moi?

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lathyrus
I go further than that. It’s the biggest scam ever perpetrated by drug companies.

I was prescribed them and took them for a couple of weeks.

Now I’m someone who doesn’t have any aches and pains at all (lucky I know) but after a week on statins I could barely get out of bed in the morning and it took till lunchtime for my hands to stop hurting enough for me to do ordinary things.

I stopped and was back to my normal in a few days.

Now I think that was fortunate. If they’d suited me I’d probably be on them for the rest of my life. I have got a genetic heart problem but the specialist said statins won’t help with that.

So are you all saying neither statins nor diet are helpful against heart disease?

How do you all manage to be so closely monitored by doctors?? Here in Wales there are no health checks offered on the NHS - you only make an appointment if Ill - and even then you would be very lucky to get a face to face appointment. 😡

You can check out your relative risk of a heart attack or stroke, with different cholesterol levels, using the QRisk score which is build into every GP's clinical system, and is the one they use.

www.qrisk.org/three/index.php

There are so many other factors to risk, and in fact if you read Dr Ben Goldacre's book 'Bad Pharma' I don't think you would touch statins unless you have had a previous cardiac event.

Glad you have a sensible cardiologist! Food guidelines given to the population 40 years ago were so wrong and have lead to the obesity and related health problems we are now seeing putting a huge burden on our hardworking NHS and taking money that could be used elsewhere for illnesses that are not self inflicted. Cholesterol has been labelled good and bad, there is no such thing. Our bodies need cholesterol, every cell relies on it and the body is perfectly capable of controlling levels itself. The problem is sugar, processed foods and carbohydrates, get these down to sensible levels in our diet (or eliminated altogether) and we will all enjoy better health.

the body is perfectly capable of controlling levels itself
Exactly what a dietitian friend told me all those years ago.

Shropshirelass

Glad you have a sensible cardiologist! Food guidelines given to the population 40 years ago were so wrong and have lead to the obesity and related health problems we are now seeing putting a huge burden on our hardworking NHS and taking money that could be used elsewhere for illnesses that are not self inflicted. Cholesterol has been labelled good and bad, there is no such thing. Our bodies need cholesterol, every cell relies on it and the body is perfectly capable of controlling levels itself. The problem is sugar, processed foods and carbohydrates, get these down to sensible levels in our diet (or eliminated altogether) and we will all enjoy better health.

👍🙂

So am I taking statins for no good reason then? This is puzzling.

Is there something in wheat that you can't get from any other food, would love to know as I am gluten free although never officially tested it has worked for me.

B9exchange

You can check out your relative risk of a heart attack or stroke, with different cholesterol levels, using the QRisk score which is build into every GP's clinical system, and is the one they use.

www.qrisk.org/three/index.php

There are so many other factors to risk, and in fact if you read Dr Ben Goldacre's book 'Bad Pharma' I don't think you would touch statins unless you have had a previous cardiac event.

I’m sure this works well ordinarily however my GP had me down as a heavy smoker (I am a non smoker) so I’ve been on 4 different statins unnecessarily.
Being down as a smoker put my stroke risk as high, my bad cholesterol was low and my good cholesterol was only just below so even without the smoking I didn’t need statins!

My husband was told similar about diet by his cardiologist -specifically he was told that diet alone could not bring his cholesterol levels low enough to reduce the risk of a further cardiac event. However we do have a young friend with inherited high cholesterol who has managed to lower his cholesterol significantly with the portfolio diet and no medication.
Shropshire lass-diet advice over the last century has certainly had its wobbles- pregnant mothers advised to drink milk stout for iron in the 50s -(presumably before FAS was discovered) and creamy ( higher fat) jersey milk a few decades later.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.