Good/bad cholesterol, the plot thickens...

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Have you ever seen anything which explains why cholesterol increases? As I understand it every cell in the body produces cholesterol and you can't reduce it through diet by more than 20%. So what is the mechanism that makes it go wrong (is it wrong?).
 
I must admit that I'm getting more and more suspicious about any health claims made by anyone about anything!! 🙄

I'm just going to stick with eating what I like and deciding whether it is good for me based on how I feel after it!

Right, where did I put those jam donuts with fresh cream and icing sugar? .......

Andy 😉
 
Vicsetter said:
Have you ever seen anything which explains why cholesterol increases? As I understand it every cell in the body produces cholesterol and you can't reduce it through diet by more than 20%. So what is the mechanism that makes it go wrong (is it wrong?).
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It's needed by every cell in the body Vic, but most of it is produced by the liver. Statins work by interfering with this mechanism in the liver so less is produced. There's also evidence that the more dietary chol you take in, the less your liver produces, so it is regulated to some extent. However, eating the wrong things generally - saturated fats in particular - cause a rise, so this is what you need to avoid in your diet. It's worth reading one or other of the books on the subject - see Recommended Books section 🙂
 
Sorry meant to say is 'uses' not 'produces'. However about 20?25% of total daily cholesterol production occurs in the liver; other sites of high synthesis rates include the intestines, adrenal glands, and reproductive organs. People are usually put on statins because their levels are high.

Quoting from http://www.hepatitis.org.uk/s-crina/cholesterol.htm: 'Most people can absorb no more than 300-500 mg per day of cholesterol directly from foods. Radioactive tracer studies, which use special radioactive food molecules to trace their fate in the body, have shown that 60-70% of all blood cholesterol comes from production by the liver, not from pre-formed cholesterol in the foods.'
We were once advised not to eat eggs because they contain chol. but now it's OK.
 
Couldn't just stick with the Wikipedia quote. I'll let you know how bad my chol is when I get my results, probably next week. First blood test after stopping Crestor on 18th March.
 
Vicsetter said:
Couldn't just stick with the Wikipedia quote. I'll let you know how bad my chol is when I get my results, probably next week. First blood test after stopping Crestor on 18th March.
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I'm due one soon, first since I stopped simvastatin last October 😱
 
I've got to do another for my check up too. Only just had one a couple of months ago, it had gone down to 2.9 on simvastatin. After reading various horror stories about it recently, I dont know if I want to carry on with that, it's not as if my chol was high without it (4.7 I think).
 
LisaLQ said:
I've got to do another for my check up too. Only just had one a couple of months ago, it had gone down to 2.9 on simvastatin. After reading various horror stories about it recently, I dont know if I want to carry on with that, it's not as if my chol was high without it (4.7 I think).
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Mine was the same - about 4.1 when they put me on them and it went down to 2.4. No-one could tell me what might happen if it got down to zero! 😱
 
My diet's changed so much too, I doubt it'd be 4.7 now if they hadn't given me it.
 
It seems we have one health scare after another, and no one can make up their minds what is good and what is bad for us! I finfished my xpert course Monday and we were told HDL (apparently in things like olive oil and rape seed oil) were happy fats, and the more HDL we have the less LDL we have. I think I am happier in my ignorance.
 
And now the classic "if you don't clean your teeth you'll have a heart attack scare"! 😱

Whoop-de-doo! 🙄

Andy
 
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