Having recently had for blood tests to check on my progress for colitis, ive discovered that my cholesterol levels are nearly 3 times what they should be Im 37, only slightly over-weight, very active and thought I ate a good balanced diet. My Doctor has given me tablets (Crestor - Rosuvastatine) to take for the next 3 months and I will go back for bloods again in 2 months. He hasnt even given me the chance to change my diet first and see if that helps. I asked if it was from drinking (we do socialise a lot here ) but he said from the other results, its not that. High cholestrerol does run in my family too.
I know theres tons of stuff on the net about high cholesterol and what should be eaten etc but wanted to ask if anyone here has suffered/suffers from this, how they deal with it, what they can eat, whether 'nice' foods have to be cut out forever or whether moderation is the key, if they have these or similar tablets and if theres any ill effects - basically, anything that can advise me please.
My other half has very high cholesterol, also hereditary. He was given a chance to see if a change of diet would help, it came down one point in 3 months so he is on the tablets too. He has to go back soon to see if the meds have made any difference. So a change of diet helped slightly, but not enough for him to drastically change it.
And then there's my father who's levels are/were quite high but not in comparison to my husbands. Also hereditary but he hasn't been given medication. My father is now obsessively strict with his diet. I don't know if his strict diet & exercise has lowered his cholesterol level yet, he's also waiting for bloods. I'll let you know if I find out soon.
This probably hasn't helped you at all but I thought I'd give you both examples that I know of.
"It's breaking the circle.
Going to work, to get money, to translate into things, which you use up, which means you go to work again, etc, etc.
The Norm.
What we should be doing is working at the job of life itself."
- Tom Good, The Good Life.
I suffer from high cholesterol and it also runs in the family on my mothers side. My brother and sister however do not. I was given the opportunity to change my diet over a period of about a year, which again, no major changes needed to be made, but then was put on tablets as this didn't make a differance. I have to admit i don't like taking mainstream medicines and will occasionally stop taking them for a month at a time. I'm 51 and consider myself to be reasonably fit. My confusion is however when i have 6 monthly blood tests they test for liver functions as well. Apparently the medication if not checked can have side effects concerning the liver. This is the main reason i come off them occasionally, i will also stay off the booze to give the liver some rest. Wether i'm right or not i don't know. My doctor say's there is no reason too, but it gives me piece of mind.
I would have liked the option of trying the diet first to be honest. I dont like taking meds very much either especially as renal failure has been a side effect of these tablets
How much difference has it made to the food you eat? Having researched lots of sites now, it seems the main things to cut out are cream, butter, eggs all the yummy things lol. I do tend to eat a lot of roast dinners with gravy granules - mmmm am betting thats not good eh? Have you/they bought special cookbooks or have you/they just used common sense and changed things slightly?
Can I still indulge in 'nice' things every now and again or will I have to not eat things like cheesecake ever again?
Also, havent been able to find what the daily intake for fats should be - do u know please?
How about proactive foods....oats spring to mind but there are others.
More here , here and hereOf course there is nothing to stop you combining both the medicine and the diet, though you won't know which is having the effect until you cut one or the other out. I would also expect to have to try both for much longer than a month to have an effect, think how long it took to get in this state in the first place!
baby-loving, earth-digging, bread-baking, jam-making, off-grid, off-road 21st century domestic goddess....
PM me and I'll send you info I've got on ways of reducing cholesterol.
Also remember that it's your choice when you start taking the statins and I would do some research before starting - many Drs are now coming to the conclusion that they're not as good as advertised!
Maggie
Never doubt that you can change history. You already have. Marge Piercy
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. Anais Nin
These statins are being prescribed for blooming everything, they were prescribed to my Dad for Diabetes and they made him very sick indeed on further investigation he was sufficiently convinced to take them back to the Doctors and tell them to stick them 'where the sun don't shine'.
I had Statins prescribed for period pains... guess where said tablets went when I realised what they were... it seemed to me like they were scatterbomb testing to see exactly what it would fix and what it wouldn't.
In my Dads case they actually told him they were using him as part of a test group... without his permission!!!!
My OH suffers from a slightly high cholesterol level and he has a bowl of porridge every morning and his Mom did the same for the same reason and his Moms went down to normal, don't know about OH yet as he hasn't had any blood tests.
Cutting out stress is also something people overlook as believe it or not that can raise your cholesterol levels too!
I have also come to the conclusion that weight isn't so much of an issue with cholesterol as I am very overweight at the moment and you'd think my cholesterol would be high but it's actually just lower than the accepted level
Anyway... as for diet, yes you have to change your diet but there's no harm in a treat once in a while.
Thanks again for your replies. Ive decided I am going to see the Doc again and tell him I want 2 months of diet change before taking the tablets. I also want to see my previous blood results last Oct - they obviously didnt flag up as being a problem then so perhaps its the tablets Im having for my colitis altho Doc did say that shouldnt have any effect but I want to check again................
Will try oats, they keep cropping up as being very good - soya too is better than milk so will give that a go. Will seriously reduce my alcohol intake along with dairy which I do consume a lot of.
Yup, after a recent visit to the docs my cholesterol and triglycerides are a bit high.
I've modified the diet to reduce cheese, cut out coke (the black liquid not the white powder) cut out chocolate, cut down on capuccinos eat more fruit and get more exercise. I've got three months to get it sorted before I go back! Losing a bit of weight as well.
Yes, this is what I want the option to do before ramming tablets down my throat!
Have also sussed out that the measures in France arent the same as UK, so I was reading that 3.1 isnt that high but maybe it is in comparison. Also, read somewhere that the diet for reducing the Triglycerides is different from reducing cholesterol - the first being starchy foods, the second being fatty food. Je suis confusé!
I'd have one glass of red wine a day on 6 days of the week. If you have a party/friends around/aperos (as people do in france) try to keep it down to less than a bottle. Then the next day or so give the wine a miss.
Have oats for breakfast (a good unsweetened unsalted muesli - hard to find in france so you may have to make up your own).
Use olive oil always. If you like butter - and you cant cook in france without it - mix any butter you use 50/50 with olive oil.
As well as red stuff like Beetroot, eat green leafy veg. and take a walk most evenings.
Other things:
An odd one may be walnut: i've seen evidence which suggests that it is the Walnut - rather than the Olive etc.. - which really makes the med diet healthy. Myself I dont know if thats true. But it might worth giving it a try.
And what about the Cholestrol lowering margarine? Anyone here used that?
Can you still enjoy the good things? Hmmm.... lots of people in France eat like horses and yet the French are nowhere near as obese as the English (and Swedes). So there's obviously more to it all than just fat (and cholestrol) content. Maybe a relaxed attitude to life could also help? Or maybe the French don't drive as much as the English? In either case, diet in itself would not seem to be the whole answer.
I found this on google some time ago when both my OH and I were diagnosed hypertensive. We talked the GP out or treating us for a few months and we've followed it (more or less) ever since). Despite being very overweight and an on/off smokers, our GP hasn't managed to find anything sufficiently wrong with us to medicate (much against his natural urges!).
Here it is.
Polymeal Diet
The Polymeal Diet isn't as much of a weight loss diet as it is a healthy heart diet. However, you will probably lose weight on the Polymeal Diet because you will be replacing fattening, unhealthy foods with better choices. You can apply the principles
of the Polymeal to any diet plan, including Weight Watchers, South Beach, Sonoma Diet, and more.
In 2003, researchers found that a Polypill, which included a combination of drugs taken in one dose, reduced heart disease by more than 80 percent. However, they wanted something more natural than drug therapy, and sought out the healthiest foods and the influence of the heart healthy lifestyles of the Mediterranean. The result was the Polymeal, a diet that includes wine, chocolate, garlic, and other tasty foods and that can reduce heart disease by 76 percent, and add years to your life.
The diet consists of foods that have been individually shown to reduce one's risk of heart disease. These include dark chocolate, wine, fruits, vegetables, garlic, almonds, and fish.
fruit and vegetables - 14 ounces daily
fish - 4 ounces, four times a week;)
a garlic clove
a small dose of dark chocolate (no more than 100 grams per day; 1 oz = 28 g)
a small glass of wine daily, preferably red wine.
The diet, called a 'Polymeal', is most effective for men, adding an average of 6.6 years to life expectancy, compared with men not eating the meal. The scientists also said eating the Polymeal will ward off heart disease among men for nine years.
You can incorporate the recommended foods into almost any diet plan, including Weight Watchers, Sonoma Diet, and more. You'll still lose weight, while becoming as healthy as possible!
Effect of ingredients of Polymeal in reducing risk of cardiovascular disease
Ingredients Percentage reduction (95% CI) in risk of CVD
Wine Red White
Nutrient Units Value per Value per
100 grams 100 grams
Proximates
Water g 86.49 86.86
Energy kcal 85 (110) 83 (108)
Energy kj 355 345
Protein g 0.07
Total lipid g 0.00
Ash g 0.28 0.20
Carbohydrate g 2.61
Fiber g 0.0
Sugars, total g 0.62 0.96
Vitamins
Vitamin C mg 0.0
Thiamin mg 0.005
Riboflavin mg 0.031 0.015
Niacin mg 0.224 0.108
Pantothenic a. mg 0.030 0.045
Vitamin B-6 mg 0.057 0.05
Folate mcg 1
Folic acid mcg 0
Choline mg 5.7 4.7
Betaine mg 0.3 0.2
Vitamin B-12 mcg 0.00
Vitamin A, IU 0
Retinol mcg 0
Other
Alcohol, ethyl g 10.6 10.3
Almonds
Nutrient Units 1.00 X 1 oz
(23 whole kernels) 55 kernels = 68g
------- 28.35g
Proximates
Water g 1.49
Energy kcal 164 (393)
Protein g 6.03
Total lipid g 14.36
Ash g 0.88
Carbohydrate g 5.60
Fiber g 3.3
Sugars, total g 1.36
Starch g 0.21
Vitamins
Vitamin C mg 0.0
Thiamin mg 0.068
Riboflavin mg 0.230
Niacin mg 1.113
Pantothenic acid mg 0.099
Vitamin B-6 mg 0.037
Folate mcg 8
Folic acid mcg 0
Choline mg 14.8
Betaine mg 0.1
Vitamin B-12 mcg 0.00
Vitamin A, IU 1
Retinol mcg 0
Vitamin E mg 7.33
Vitamin K mcg 0.0
Lipids
Fatty acids,
total saturated g 1.100
Fatty acids,
total monounsaturated g 9.116
Fatty acids,
total polyunsaturated g 3.463
Cholesterol mg 0
Garlic
Nutrient Units 1.00 X 1 clove needed
------- 3g
Proximates
Water g 1.76
Energy kcal 4
Protein g 0.19
Total lipid g 0.01
Ash g 0.04
Carbohydrate g 0.99
Fiber g 0.1
Sugars g 0.03
0.9
Thiamin mg 0.006
Riboflavin mg 0.003
Niacin mg 0.021
Pantothenic a. mg 0.018
Vitamin B-6 mg 0.037
Folate mcg 0
Folic acid mcg 0
Vitamin B-12 mcg 0.00
Vitamin A, IU 0
Retinol mcg 0
Vitamin E mg 0.00
Vitamin K mcg 0.0
Lipids
Fatty acids,
total saturated g 0.003
Fatty acids,
total monounsat g 0.000
Fatty acids,
total polyunsat g 0.007
Cholesterol mg 0
Fish Haddock Salmon Tuna
Nutrient Units Value per Value per Value per
100 grams 100 grams 100 grams
Proximates
Water g 79.92 68.9 70.58
Energy kcal 87 (100) 183 (200) 103 (120)
Protein g 18.91 19.9 22
Total lipid g 0.72 10.85 1.01
Ash g 1.21 1.05 1.3
Carbohydrate g 0.00
Vitamins
Vitamin C mg 0.0 3.9 1
Thiamin mg 0.035 0.34 0.033
Riboflavin mg 0.037 0.12 0.1
Niacin mg 3.803 7.505 15.4
Pantothenic a. mg 0.127 1.38 0.42
Vitamin B-6 mg 0.300 0.637 0.85
Folate mcg 12 26 9
Folic acid mcg 0
Vitamin B-12 mcg 1.20 2.8 1.9
Vitamin A IU 57 50 52
Retinol mcg 17 15 16
Vitamin E mg 0.39 - -
Vitamin K mcg 0.1 - -
Lipids
Fatty acids,
total sat g 0.130 2.183 0.328
Fatty acids,
total monounsat g 0.118 3.868 0.19
Fatty acids,
total polyunsat g 0.241 3.931 0.315
Cholesterol mg 57 59 47
I added all the nutrient info.
We get the almonds in homemade muesli every morning, garlic in our evening meal usually and a glass of red wine, we try to eat fish at least 3x week - although sometimes it's a bit of an effort OH only really likes it in batter with chips! Fruit and veg no problem and a little dark chocolate as an after dinner snack? Bliss.
Maggie
Never doubt that you can change history. You already have. Marge Piercy
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. Anais Nin
Well that doesnt sound too bad especially with wine and chocolate thrown in lol.
I think the French eat in moderation and from what ive found hvaing them over for dinner and vice versa, the foods I serve up are not the usual stuff they would have - ours would be high cholesterol, yummy foods, full of mayo or butter, cream - theirs are very plain indeed - raclette with small amounts of melted cheese, ham & 1 boiled potato!
Thanks again for everyone thats given advice, very helpful.
Sorry to bring this up again but ive read that I should have had the blood test on not only an empty stomach but also having only drunk water. I was told the empty stomach bit but had cup of tea with 2 sugars in the morn couple of hours before the test. Would that have made a different to the reading does anyone know please?
Im 37, only slightly over-weight, very active and thought I ate a good balanced diet. My Doctor has given me tablets (Crestor - Rosuvastatine) to take for the next 3 months and I will go back for bloods again in 2 months. He hasnt even given me the chance to change my diet first and see if that helps. I asked if it was from drinking (we do socialise a lot here 
) but he said from the other results, its not that. High cholestrerol does run in my family too.
