Cholesterol - any tips for reducing it?

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zippyjojo

zippyjojo

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 3c
My cholesterol is a bit high apparently I've got quite a high level of HDL. I was just wondering whether any of you have any good tips for lowering it? My Mum (82½) was told her cholesterol was a bit up a few years ago and has a Benecol yogurty drink every day. Do any of you have those and does it actually do anything? Any tips very gratefully received as I really don't want to be shoved on yet another medication ...
 
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An interesting question and relevant to me right now.

I have started a new cholesterol reduction strategy. No idea if it will work until next month when they should do another lot of blood tests.

So what is my unscientific, home grown, strategy?

1. I now take plant sterols with each meal (I do not like statins as Drs often prescribe)
2. I now take Allicin capsules (the active ingredient in garlic) with every meal
3. Almost completely stopped using any butter and now use an olive spread instead
4. I now take psyllium capsules with every meal
5. I now take coenzyme Q10 once a day
6. I have reduced my alcohol intake to almost zero
7. I have increased my daily exercise level to at least 60 minute walking a day
8. I limit my cholesterol intake from food to less than 75mg a day

As I say, no idea if it will work but it's worth a try. I will let you know the results when they are in, no matter what they show. Worst case would be no change or a surprising increase (quite unlikely I feel).

Today, for example, my food cholesterol intake is 48.7mg. The recommended limit is no more than 300mg a day, so I am well below that.

Of course, if it works, the question then will, be, which bit of the strategy was effective and which was redundant and I will not really know.

I will be interested in other replies in this thread
 
Oh yes, I forgot, I also have reduced my saturated fat intake to less than 30g a day. Today, for example it is 19.4g

I wonder what else I have forgotten to mention. Thanks for the reminder @travellor
 
The standard recs, which work for me:

- Sharply limit saturated fat and refined carbs.
- Eat lots of fibre.
- Exercise.
- Manage weight.

But the biggest impact comes from statins.
 
I just looked on My Fitness Pal to see what cholesterol levels were in foods I often eat. Why does cheese show as being zero cholesterol??????? I know this isn't the case but it seems strange when the other nutritional values are there. I do have 1 or 2 eggs every day but I remember once hearing on the radio that even though eggs contain cholesterol they don't effect our body's cholesterol - is this an untruth that I've been holding on to for all these years?
 
zippyjojo said:
I just looked on My Fitness Pal to see what cholesterol levels were in foods I often eat. Why does cheese show as being zero cholesterol??????? I know this isn't the case but it seems strange when the other nutritional values are there. I do have 1 or 2 eggs every day but I remember once hearing on the radio that even though eggs contain cholesterol they don't effect our body's cholesterol - is this an untruth that I've been holding on to for all these years?
Click to expand...
Cholesterol in food doesn't have much effect on cholesterol in your bod. Your body makes it.
 
zippyjojo said:
My cholesterol is a bit high apparently I've got quite a high level of HDL. I was just wondering whether any of you have any good tips for lowering it? My Mum (82½) was told her cholesterol was a bit up a few years ago and has a Benecol yogurty drink every day. Do any of you have those and does it actually do anything? Any tips very gratefully received as I really don't want to be shoved on yet another medication ...
Click to expand...
My diabetes consultant reccomended not trying statins but to instead first try to reduce cholesterol by switching to the benecol / flora pro activ margarines and having either a cholesterol targeting yoghurt or yoghurt drink each day, start eating fish twice a week, reduce saturated fat, eat plenty of veg and increase exercise. The HDL is okay to be high, it’s the LDL and triglycerides you don’t want to be high.
 
If you eat cholesterol in food, the body doesn't produce as much - it only produces what it needs. Hence why eggs, which contain cholesterol, are OK to eat for most people (There's a genetic condition that some people have that means they create too much.)

According to some research I recently read, foods that contain poly fats are OK as the LDL produced from the Sat. Fat. spikes, but is reduced quickly by HDL, hence why nuts and things like olive oil are 'healthy' fats.
 
Lucyr said:
The HDL is okay to be high, it’s the LDL and triglycerides you don’t want to be high.
Click to expand...

I thought having high HDL was a good thing too
 
travellor said:
Dietary cholesterol does not break your heart but kills your liver

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Dietary cholesterol does not break your heart but kills your liver

It is increasingly accepted that dietary cholesterol has a much lower impact on the progression of cardiovascular disease than previously assumed. However, both animal experiments and human studies seem to support the view that dietary cholesterol may ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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My favourite is the latest AHA science advisory on dietary cholesterol: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000743

As always with these,a painstaking evidence review leading to recommendations which are about as hard-assed as the evidence might support, or even more so.

Some studies say dietary chol associated with some types of CVD, others that it isn't associated at all. But studies generally confounded by the fact that high chol foods are generally also high satfat foods. For eggs in partcular, how to account robustly for the fact that they often get eaten as part of high satfat meals.

Running a new metastudy selecting only studies which control for satfats, they find no significant association between dietary chol and serum LDL.

Nevertheless, being the hard-ass AHA, they conclude that it is prudent to limit dietary chol by sticking to a Mediterranean/DASH/etc diet, and for most people, no more than an average of one egg per day, or 3 ounces of shrimp. Or if you're older & with good serum cholesterol levels, you can have two eggs. And vegetarians can have more also.

But: Patients with dyslipidemia, particularly those with diabetes mellitus or at risk for heart failure, should be cautious in consuming foods rich in cholesterol.

I love the AHA guidance - the evidence evaluations are always clear and comprehensive, and I can easily fit within their hard-ass guidance, so why not? I hate eggs and my diet includes almost zero cholesterol, so no worries!

However, if I actually liked eggs I doubt I'd see this guidance as a reason not to eat them, in moderation.
 
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Eddy Edson said:
My favourite is the latest AHA science advisory on dietary cholesterol: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000743

As always with these,a painstaking evidence review leading to recommendations which are about as hard-assed as the evidence might support, or even more so.

Some studies say dietary chol associated with some types of CVD, others that it isn't associated at all. But studies generally confounded by the fact that high chol foods are generally also high satfat foods. For eggs in partcular, how to account robustly for the fact that they often get eaten as part of high satfat meals.

Running a new metastudy selecting only studies which control for satfats, they find no significant association between dietary chol and serum LDL.

Nevertheless, being the hard-ass AHA, they conclude that it is prudent to limit dietary chol by sticking to a Mediterranean/DASH/etc diet, and for most people, no more than an average of one egg per day, or 3 ounces of shrimp. Or if you're older & with good serum cholesterol levels, you can have two eggs. And vegetarians can have more also.

But: Patients with dyslipidemia, particularly those with diabetes mellitus or at risk for heart failure, should be cautious in consuming foods rich in cholesterol.

I love the AHA guidance - the evidence evaluations are always clear and comprehensive, and I can easily fit within their hard-ass guidance, so why not? I hate eggs and my diet includes almost zero cholesterol, so no worries!

However, if I actually liked eggs I doubt I'd see this guidance as a reason not to eat them, in moderation.
Click to expand...

It's more the fact dietary cholesterol destroys your liver, so your body's control of produced cholesterol goes out of the window.
And I've read other articles that suggest even up to that stage, dietary cholesterol cause the liver to raise its base level for produced cholesterol.
Then again, if your liver fails, you may as well enjoy those eggs while you can.
( I wonder what beer and eggs will do for you?)
 
travellor said:
Dietary cholesterol does not break your heart but kills your liver

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Dietary cholesterol does not break your heart but kills your liver

It is increasingly accepted that dietary cholesterol has a much lower impact on the progression of cardiovascular disease than previously assumed. However, both animal experiments and human studies seem to support the view that dietary cholesterol may ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Click to expand...
Headline says kills, but just reading the first few lines of the article we have "seems to" and "may".
 
travellor said:
It's more the fact dietary cholesterol destroys your liver, so your body's control of produced cholesterol goes out of the window.
And I've read other articles that suggest even up to that stage, dietary cholesterol cause the liver to raise its base level for produced cholesterol.
Then again, if your liver fails, you may as well enjoy those eggs while you can.
( I wonder what beer and eggs will do for you?)
Click to expand...
Luckily I stropped drinking alcohol over 2 years ago so my liver is benefiting from that and to be honest, life without eggs is no life IMHO 😉
 
This one for me is very apt...

My Dr wants me to go back onto Statins (20mg) - I came off them in June 2020 as I was doing the NHS Type 2 Remission programme - My levels dropped while I was on the shakes, but came back up to the generally to the levels I was at while taking the Statins - My Triglicerides have improved but only to 2.0 - having Diabetes (even though fully 'In Remission) makes me at increased risk, so the overall guideline of 2.3 doesn't apply - it's below 1.7 for us...

FYI - If I was completely 'normal' my Cholesterol levels would be 'Normal' too if that makes sense - all figures are within 'normal' range' - it's just the Triglycerides that are above the 1.7 target...for a Diabetic...

I'm not sure either way really, but will ponder it for a while - I know Statins are a supposedly good thing, but I don't want to start increasing my Blood Sugar levels (potential side effect of Statin?) - to risk myself going into Diabetic ranges again...

My Doctor also said that food at this stage will have limited efect as only 20% comes from food - seems to tie in somewhat with what @travellor said above in terms of your body Liver not being able to have it under control due to the hammering it has had over the years!

I'm in such a rhythm with my food now which works for me, I don't want to tinker with it too much!

Interesting subject though!
 
It's a balance.
I doubt many people achieve everything across the board in every test, and age makes it all worse.
But with such a good hba1c you have both options open to you.
Treat it as a non diabetic, and take the upper limit for the trig's.
Take the statins, and accept that even if you do see an increase in BG ( which is still only a possibility, not a certainty) you have good head room.
The only thing is you really need to give that option at least 3 months, if not six to let everything stabilise.
 
travellor said:
It's a balance.
I doubt many people achieve everything across the board in every test, and age makes it all worse.
But with such a good hba1c you have both options open to you.
Treat it as a non diabetic, and take the upper limit for the trig's.
Take the statins, and accept that even if you do see an increase in BG ( which is still only a possibility, not a certainty) you have good head room.
The only thing is you really need to give that option at least 3 months, if not six to let everything stabilise.
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It's almost like you can read my mind @travellor 🙂

I said to the Dr I'd like to see what happens in 3 months and go from there - I'm not opposed to going back on them, just wasn't expecting it....

And if I'm honest - I was hoping for that perfect score and didn't quite appreciate that life sometimes isn't quite like that!

Again, thank you!

Apologies for hijacking your thread @zippyjojo - the thread came along at the right time for me...
😉
 
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