high cholesterol help/advice required!

[tweenyb]

hiya i have a dilemma as i have ridiculously high cholesterol... i have been on a diet for the past 19 years and donot enjoy the taste of greesy fatty foods besides by weekly treat of 1 small peice of cake the majority of my diet is salad, vegetable, white meats and fish, very occaisionally pork, and the odd jacket spud or pasta. i work out for a minimum of 1 hour a day and drink a few glasses of vino on a fri and sat (3 max). and i only use extra low fat cream cheese. i dont use butter or margerine, i use skimmed milk on the rare occaision i drink it Can any one explain this? are there any other things i should do to lower my cholesterol level? help needed asap. many thanks

[fran2]

Hi tweenyb, High cholestral is not entirely down to a bad diet. My cholestral fluctuates from 4mml. to 6.2mml. Admittedly I do go a bit mad with the choccies at times. I use Plant Sterol Capsules,2 daily from Healthspan Uk. You can buy them online and they work out cheaper than the sterol drinks. Oats help to keep cholestral down too. My neighbour is just over 9 stone with a chol level of 5.8mm at the mo, yet her brother who eats all the mucky greasy food,chocs,ice cream, you name it has a normal level of aorund 4.2mml. Hope this has helped.

[Ethel]

I don't believe it is down to diet. I have been at least 5 stone overweight all my adult life, eat and drink as much as I like - lots of cheese, butter, red meats and so on - my cholesterol is never above 4.5

You may need to think about medication.

[fran2]

I agree with you Ethel, How can one person who stuffs himself silly have a low chol level when his sister who eats a healthy diet have a high chol level? Dont make sense eh?

[smudge]

Yes, it's very frustrating isn't it tweeny?!

Both myself & one of my sisters is & always has been very slim, along with our other siblings. However, in the past few months, we've both had cholesterol tests - the results showed that my sister was 6.5 & I was 7.4! This really shocked us as we both eat quite sensibly.

My sister was put on Simvastatin straight away, but my GP doesn't want to give me drugs yet & has asked me to try a 'no fat', 'low fat' diet for the next three months.

I wouldn't mind, but I only like skimmed milk, no sugar, in my one cup of tea a day!

The doc says that I still have lots of 'good' cholesterol, so I hope the next test shows an improvement, as I don't fancy taking statins!

[smudge]

P.S. I may have joked about loving Fondant Fancies on another thread, but I haven't had one for years! Well maybe the odd one at the grandchildren's birthday parties. ;o}

[tweenyb]

arghhhh soo confusing... my cholesterol is over 10 but didnt say i its high or low.
maybe its stress - but im now convinced that its not food or execise related. x

[willowbee]

it can be naturally high m8 despite doing everything right. see your doc as high cholestrol can cause heart probs in later life.You can also take a good quality high strength garlic oil capsule from chemists and herbalists. xx

[tweenyb]

thank you all for your words of wisdom x