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27yr old female, very high cholesterol.. please help!
hi all, would love some help please!!
I'm a 27 yr old female, dont smoke or drink, work out almost every day, eat fairly well (although do have a sweet tooth which i give into a little too often! but make choices like dark choc as its healthier), i eat plenty of veges, not much red meat, eat raw nuts, oatmeal for breakfast, and also take krill oil, i am a little overweight but just had a baby so working on getting it off! my blood pressure is also good (100/60) .. but i have very high cholesterol and i dont know why!!
my numbers are: (i was fasting for this)
total: 282
ldl: 174
hdl: 89
trig: 97
total/hdl ratio: 3.2
my dr was very concerned about my total number but also said i had a very good ratio. she said i had to get my ldl down (which i am trying!) or id have to go on meds which i dont want to do at my age. i dont know how its so high when i lead a fairly healthy lifestyle?? and if im already being healthy how the heck do i get it down??
my real question was, is the total more important or the ratio? as i have heard different things. are my numbers as they stand now a big concern? i suffer from a little health anxiety, especially heart related, and now im so scared my arteries are clogging up and ill have a heart attack or something.. its really worrying me as my dr seemed very concerned about it.
please help me understand my numbers and if i should be worried!! thank you so much in advance :)
I'm a 27 yr old female, dont smoke or drink, work out almost every day, eat fairly well (although do have a sweet tooth which i give into a little too often! but make choices like dark choc as its healthier), i eat plenty of veges, not much red meat, eat raw nuts, oatmeal for breakfast, and also take krill oil, i am a little overweight but just had a baby so working on getting it off! my blood pressure is also good (100/60) .. but i have very high cholesterol and i dont know why!!
my numbers are: (i was fasting for this)
total: 282
ldl: 174
hdl: 89
trig: 97
total/hdl ratio: 3.2
my dr was very concerned about my total number but also said i had a very good ratio. she said i had to get my ldl down (which i am trying!) or id have to go on meds which i dont want to do at my age. i dont know how its so high when i lead a fairly healthy lifestyle?? and if im already being healthy how the heck do i get it down??
my real question was, is the total more important or the ratio? as i have heard different things. are my numbers as they stand now a big concern? i suffer from a little health anxiety, especially heart related, and now im so scared my arteries are clogging up and ill have a heart attack or something.. its really worrying me as my dr seemed very concerned about it.
please help me understand my numbers and if i should be worried!! thank you so much in advance :)
I would look at low thyroid function which is a cause of high cholesterol levels. My diet is high in saturated fat and i have optimal HDL and LDL. I avoid vegetable oils and transfats.
Excerpts from "Enjoy Saturated Fats, They’re Good for You!" by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD
"A hundred years ago less than one in one hundred Americans were obese and coronary heart disease was unknown. Pneumonia, diarrhea and enteritis, and tuberculosis were the most common causes of death. Now, a century later, the two most common causes of death are coronary heart disease and cancer, which account for 75 percent of all deaths in this country. There were 500 cardiologists practicing in the U.S. in 1950. There are 30,000 of them now – a 60-fold increase for a population that has only doubled since 1950.
In 1911, Procter and Gamble started marketing Crisco as a new kind of food. The name Crisco is derived from CRYStalized Cottonseed Oil. It was the first commercially marketed trans fat. Crisco was used to make candles and soap, but with electrification causing a decline in candle sales, Procter and Gamble decided to promote this new type of fat as an all-vegetable-derived shortening, which the company marketed as a "healthier alternative to cooking with animal fats."
At the time Americans cooked and baked food with lard (pork fat), tallow (beef and lamb fat), and butter. Procter and Gamble published a free cookbook with 615 recipes, from pound cake to lobster bisque, all of which required Crisco. The company succeeded in demonizing lard, and during the 20th century Crisco and other trans fat vegetable oils gradually replaced saturated animal fats and tropical oils in the American diet."
"Diets in People with the Lowest Risk of Heart Disease – Masai, Inuit, Rendille, Todelau
The diet of the Maasai tribe in Kenya and northern Tanzania consists of meat, milk, and blood from cattle. It is 66 percent saturated fat.
The diet of Inuit Eskimos in the Artic, consisting largely of whale meat and blubber, is 75 percent saturated fat; and they live long healthy lives free of heart disease and cancer.
The Rendille tribe in the Kaisut Desert in NE Kenya subsist on camel milk and meat, and a mixture of camel milk and blood, known as "Banjo." Their diet is 63 percent saturated fat.
The Tokelau live well, without cardiologists, on three atoll islands that are now a territory of New Zealand. Their diet consists of fish and coconuts, which is 60 percent saturated fat.
Like these groups of people around the world, breast-fed infants in developed first-world countries also have a diet that is high in saturated fats. The fat in human mother’s milk is 54 percent saturated fat."
Excerpts from "Enjoy Saturated Fats, They’re Good for You!" by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD
"A hundred years ago less than one in one hundred Americans were obese and coronary heart disease was unknown. Pneumonia, diarrhea and enteritis, and tuberculosis were the most common causes of death. Now, a century later, the two most common causes of death are coronary heart disease and cancer, which account for 75 percent of all deaths in this country. There were 500 cardiologists practicing in the U.S. in 1950. There are 30,000 of them now – a 60-fold increase for a population that has only doubled since 1950.
In 1911, Procter and Gamble started marketing Crisco as a new kind of food. The name Crisco is derived from CRYStalized Cottonseed Oil. It was the first commercially marketed trans fat. Crisco was used to make candles and soap, but with electrification causing a decline in candle sales, Procter and Gamble decided to promote this new type of fat as an all-vegetable-derived shortening, which the company marketed as a "healthier alternative to cooking with animal fats."
At the time Americans cooked and baked food with lard (pork fat), tallow (beef and lamb fat), and butter. Procter and Gamble published a free cookbook with 615 recipes, from pound cake to lobster bisque, all of which required Crisco. The company succeeded in demonizing lard, and during the 20th century Crisco and other trans fat vegetable oils gradually replaced saturated animal fats and tropical oils in the American diet."
"Diets in People with the Lowest Risk of Heart Disease – Masai, Inuit, Rendille, Todelau
The diet of the Maasai tribe in Kenya and northern Tanzania consists of meat, milk, and blood from cattle. It is 66 percent saturated fat.
The diet of Inuit Eskimos in the Artic, consisting largely of whale meat and blubber, is 75 percent saturated fat; and they live long healthy lives free of heart disease and cancer.
The Rendille tribe in the Kaisut Desert in NE Kenya subsist on camel milk and meat, and a mixture of camel milk and blood, known as "Banjo." Their diet is 63 percent saturated fat.
The Tokelau live well, without cardiologists, on three atoll islands that are now a territory of New Zealand. Their diet consists of fish and coconuts, which is 60 percent saturated fat.
Like these groups of people around the world, breast-fed infants in developed first-world countries also have a diet that is high in saturated fats. The fat in human mother’s milk is 54 percent saturated fat."
COMMUNITY LEADER
Most doctors I work with are more concerned about the ratio and yours is very good, congrats. Your LDL is very high but so is your HDL. Remember what HDL does, it binds with LDL or bad cholesterol and takes it back to your liver to be recycled or removed. If you have both a high LDL and high HDL, they tend to cancel each other out. Likewise, if you have a low HDL and a low LDL, the same is true.
In your case, your LDL may be high enough to require action. Exercise and a low fat diet will do that. Don't be afraid of meds, the statins are very safe and very effective and can reduce you LDL by up to 42%.
Jon
In your case, your LDL may be high enough to require action. Exercise and a low fat diet will do that. Don't be afraid of meds, the statins are very safe and very effective and can reduce you LDL by up to 42%.
Jon
Side Effects of Cholesterol-Lowering Treatments
http://www.everydayhealth.com/heart-disease/cholesterol/cholesterol-lowering-medications.aspx?xid=nl_EverydayHealthHealthyAging_20120719
http://www.everydayhealth.com/heart-disease/cholesterol/cholesterol-lowering-medications.aspx?xid=nl_EverydayHealthHealthyAging_20120719
Hi,
You don't have "very high" cholesterol. It's a bit high, but as Jon said, you have a high and good HDL, which is protective against heart disease. Your blood pressure is excellent, couldn't have been better.
You already exercise and live fairly healthy, but one piece of advice, if you want to reduce LDL, cutting down on sugar is far more effective than avoiding fat. By reducing sugar (and white bread, potatoes, everything that's easily convertible to sugar by your body) you do the same as the statins (cholesterol meds) do. Insuline (which is needed by the body for the muscles to use sugar as "fuel") increases the production of a hormone that makes the liver produce cholesterol.
I had the same LDL as you do, and I've reduced it 50 points just by cutting down on sugar, potatoes and white bread. I'm eating oats, vegetables, fish, meat (natural, not bacon, burgers, etc.), chicken and nuts. It really helps.
And if you can't reach the goal by doing lifestyle changes, the meds are very safe.
You don't have "very high" cholesterol. It's a bit high, but as Jon said, you have a high and good HDL, which is protective against heart disease. Your blood pressure is excellent, couldn't have been better.
You already exercise and live fairly healthy, but one piece of advice, if you want to reduce LDL, cutting down on sugar is far more effective than avoiding fat. By reducing sugar (and white bread, potatoes, everything that's easily convertible to sugar by your body) you do the same as the statins (cholesterol meds) do. Insuline (which is needed by the body for the muscles to use sugar as "fuel") increases the production of a hormone that makes the liver produce cholesterol.
I had the same LDL as you do, and I've reduced it 50 points just by cutting down on sugar, potatoes and white bread. I'm eating oats, vegetables, fish, meat (natural, not bacon, burgers, etc.), chicken and nuts. It really helps.
And if you can't reach the goal by doing lifestyle changes, the meds are very safe.
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