Anyone been advised to reduce their cholesterol?

Have a look at Ivor Cummings stuff on YouTube. Very interesting. Our body needs cholesterol, there is really no such thing as good or bad. I think statins are bad, no proven link but there is a suggestion lack of cholesterol can cause Parkinsons , our brain is largely fat, it’s needs cholesterol. My dad has been on statins for years, now he had Parkinsons. Association , causation etc I know. But I think cholesterol has been misunderstood for a long time. What’s important is your calcification in your arteries.have a look at vitamin K2 and what it does, very interesting.
Do your own research and decide what you want to do. I won’t ever want to take statins.

Best speak to your GP. They will use this to estimate your risk https://qrisk.org. Have a play first, just tap in your details and results and it gives your risk of having a stroke or heart attack in the next 10 years and here’s a nice summary of the guidance on when to treat and lifestyle modification https://www.gponline.com/lipid-modification-nice-guideline/cardiovascular-system/article/1380713 depending on your QRISK score.

a calcium scoring test and angiogram scan recently and got a score of zero and told no signs of CAD at all.

How do you arrange one of these? I’m 43, and probably have arteries like cement through years of bad living, although I’ve recently made some fairly substantial lifestyle changes.

I won’t ever want to take statins.
So, you find out you’re heartbeat is in A.F and you’re at risk of a stroke, you’d go against the medical advice of a specialist because of some bloke on Youtube? Interesting.
My dad wasn’t on statins and got Parkinsons and had a stroke.

I won’t ever want to take statins.

Me neither. However given the level of evidence available if my risk was highish or any cardiovascular disease evident I would take themlike a shot because its well proven they are life savers in people at high risk of cardiovascular disease/ stroke. Massive reductions in morbidity / mortality

What about people with low cholesterol who have had a stroke. Should they be on statins? Seems to be a standard thing regardless of whether it will prevent another stroke.

Just donate some plasma or platelets every 6 months to get rid of the bad cholestrol … try it out and check later.

Not sure if these research are reliable but no harm trying and you are doing a good thing. Just spend 2 hour donating and relax. I did.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3813983/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3663474/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4302974/
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/grifols-study-suggests-repeated-plasmapheresis-may-reduce-bad-ldl-cholesterol-levels-while-increasing-good-hdl-cholesterol-levels-in-some-individuals-142630836.html

As my Russian doctor friend used to tell me donating platelets also clean your blood …

Had an ‘MOT’ test at my surgery a short while ago, my cholesterol is 7.7, cholesterol ratio 5.8, so slightly high.
Thanks to my g/f I have a much healthier diet than I used to have, I eat a lot less cheese than I used to, and the milk I have is on my cornflakes in the morning, and a couple of mugs of tea a day, I take a travel flask of green tea to work.

Also, walking isn’t exercise.

I beg to differ, I walk between 4 and six miles a day, and the only time I sit down is for my two ten minute breaks and half hour lunch. Oh, and the few minutes each time I move a car around, although I might move thirty or so a day, maybe more; I’ve never had time to count them.
By the time I get home I’m usually feeling pretty knackered!
Difficult to see what else I could do to alter my cholesterol level, I’m not overweight, my BMI is 24.8, so in the healthy range.
Maybe I should take bags of nuts to work to munch on during the day, the arthritis in my left knee prevents me from being much more active, without taking more painkillers.
🙁

Maybe I should take bags of nuts to work …

I ate 7 Brazilian nuts a day for 6 months but have not checked my cholesterol level yet.

The cheapest Brazilian nuts you can buy is from Wilkinson if they have stock otherwise try PoundLand. Tesco also stock them but expensive.

Tpbiker I you can pay to have a calcium scoring test done private, but mine was done as part of a number of investigations for ventricular ectopic beats that get worse with exertion which can signal narrowed arteries.

My consultant had essentially decided in had CAD due to family history (but they smoked, drank and didn’t exercise) and cholesterol 5.4 (I think) so was getting me checked out on that front and put me on statins, beta blockers and aspirin which made life and work unbearable for 5 months. Turns out he was wrong, but there is something wrong and I’m still waiting for a cardiac MRI to see what’s what. Was fantastic to get the all clear on CAD though.

Into my 5th week of daily statins and aspirin and not aware of any side effects so far !

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/30/individual-nhs-doctors-receiving-100000-per-year-from-drugs-firm/amp/

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/555471/Medical-experts-furious-that-doctors-will-be-paid-to-dole-out-risky-statins

yes drug promotion like that is a disgrace – however the evidence on statins for high risk groups is very good indeed – reduction in morbitity and mortality so high and obvious. Its incontrovertible.

Paton – the express? Really? Its record on health scares is so poor that basically you take the opposite of its headlines and that is the truth. How about some peer reviewed stuff?

https://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h2308

I won’t ever want to take statins.

Re-reading what I quoted there… I don’t want to take any of the meds I’m on!

That Expresss article is a fantastic example of a selective interpretation of the facts. No wonder health scares are so easy to spread.

Paton – “first do no harm” is a basic principle of medicine and any decent doctor should have been working to reduce patients intake of medication.

for example its been well know for a long time that if you take more than 4 meds one is almost certainly for side effects of one of the others. this is why regular medication reviews are built in to procedures.

Mine has just come in at 7.5. Doc thinks it’s genetic so I asked my parents and they are both on them in their mid 70’s.

Better be safe than sorry as my diet is good, I exercise a lot, low risk according to all checks. I did drink too much, and that’s been cut, as has my dairy.

My mate dropped dead at 52 a couple of months back, he was a cyclist riding every day. Heart attack on bike, hospital, stent fitted, out next day, then dropped dead a week later.

Paton – the express? Really? Its record on health scares is so poor that basically you take the opposite of its headlines and that is the truth.

+1

The only time they’ve reported the truth is when someone made a mistake.

I ate 7 Brazilian nuts a day for 6 months but have not checked my cholesterol level yet.

Get it checked then.

I had amazing initial results then no more. I guess like the Doc says, you can only adjust diet by 15% or so.

I had 2/3 a day.