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Nope I don't lal. My cholesterol count was 2.8 when I was last tested about 3 months back - and that's despite me being really large and overweight (thyroid and other health problems to blame for the fatness)

But I am vegan and so eat really healthily.

If you have a high level it might be worth asking your GP if they can refer you to a dietician to see if you can get some ideas there about diet and lifestyle changes that might help
Good Luck
FM
My dad has an issue with his cholesterol.  Although it wasn't 'high' by a normal person's standard (about 4. something), it was still too high for him.  Given that he has heart disease it was still clogging up his arteries.

So about four years ago he had to have a stent put in to unblock one of the arteries and then they put him on Lipotor to reduce his cholesterol, a blood thinner and a few other heart regulating medications. 

The lipotor, however, he had a reaction to which effected his feet would you believe!  So they changed that to another (can't remember the name) and he was fine on that.  Having said that he had a cholesterol check last week it's now up to 6.8, which is high for a normal person, but for him is even worse especially given that he's on double the normal dose of tablets.  So he'll have to go back and have that checked.  He had another stent put in in January so this continuous rise of cholesterol is particularly worrying.

My dad is not over weight, has a healthy enough diet but still for some reason his cholesterol is still a bugger. 

To control it himself he:-

- stopped smoking five years ago
- bought a george forman grill and cooks all his meat on that to take away all the fat
- reduced his intake of stuarated fats (ie butter, lard, dairy (he drinks that awful watery milk now )
- reduced his intake of trans fats, which is in some margarines, low fat spreads, biscuits and cakes.  This is hardened fat so it's particularly bad if you have high cholesterol.
- Walks for an hour every day.
-  You could also try those cholesterol reducing drinks like Benecol I think it is?  Or is that a cough bottle?

Obviously your doctor will prescribe medication for you and will guide you on all the best steps to take for you.  Good luck
FM
I find the various cholestrol readings rather confusing. I have never been overweight, eat heathily, never smoked, drink moderately, but in recent years have had high cholestrol. A year ago my readings were 7.9 total made up of 5.9 bad cholestrol and 2.0 good giving a result of about 4 (7.9 divided by 2.0). The bad was far too high, the good was higher than normal but this helped to reduce the effect of the bad). So I went on an even healthier diet. My recent result was 5.6 made up of 3.9 bad and 1.7 good giving a result of 3.3, which is OK.

But which reading are people quoting - is it the total/good, the total or the bad?

I know that my doctor considers other factors such as blood pressure. I was assessed as having a 10% chance of a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years (I'm now 57 and I suspect that even if I had perfect heatth there would still be x% chance - no doctor would dare say 0%). Statins are only given where the chance is 20% or more.
El Loro
I've just been to a Lipid and Metabolic clinic because my cholesterol is abnormally high.  My diet is fine and there is no family history, so it has been put down to the fact that I have "sticky" blood and my cholesterol could be "sticky" too.

I've been told to increase my veg portion sizes and reduce the meat ones, include more oats and nuts and oily fish in my diet and now take simvistatin.  Apparently oats are very good for reducing it so I've stocked up on oat type breakfast cereals, crackers (scottish oat cakes) and cereal bars.  Oh just edited to say you can get oat based bread which is LUSH
pepsi
I was prescibed Lipitor for my cholesterol and have been on it for around 6 years now.
I started off at 10mg daily but the levels kept on creeping up so the doctor upped the dose to 20mg daily and I seem to be doing ok on that dose.
I have my cholesterol levels checked every 6 months and it never gets any lower than 5.

Low fat diet helps
nanalou

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