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What do you know about cholesterol?

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Lizzzie

Lizzzie

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I've just had my blood results.....

Cholesterol 5.1. Reference info: Should be ideally less than 4, less than 5 acceptable.

Am very surprised and a bit sad. I have excellent blood pressure, am very active and as far as I can see, have a pretty healthy diet. (also am breast-feeding). Nobody has ever commented on my cholesterol being high before (have just changed to a new hospital where they send you a copy of the bloods or I wouldn't have seen this).

Does anyone have any comments?
 
Do you know what the ratio of good:bad (HDL:LDL) is? I believe this is more important than simply knowing your total level. Mine was 4.6 last time, with a 'good' ratio, so it's quite possible yours is OK too. Being 0.1 above 'acceptable' sounds OK to me, as I believe it can fluctuate anyway. Has it been suggested you take statins? I used to take them and my cholesterol dropped to 2.4 so I stopped them! Everything you say (good diet and lots of exercise) would suggest you have a good ratio as I believe exercise really helps with the good HDL levels 🙂 Might be worth finding out what your split is, if they have the information, also triglycerides 🙂
 
5.1 seems OK to me, but the risk factors taken into account also include blood pressure etc and being diabetic is another factor. Reducing cholesterol is flavour of the month.

This is what NHS Scotland says:
Total Cholesterol

Cholesterol is an important fat in the blood. The higher the cholesterol, the greater the risk of heart disease. Diet, exercise, keeping weight down and avoiding fatty food can help lower cholesterol. Cholesterol lowering medication may be advised in people with diabetes over the age of 40. Cholesterol used to be treated when it went above 5, but treatment may be beneficial even at lower levels.

Interestingly the access that patients in Scotland have to their on-line test results is changing this week to include the lower level details and I quote:Until now we have shown 'Total Cholesterol' results as most clinical guidelines are still based around this. From Tuesday, this will be extended to include Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) Cholesterol, High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) Cholesterol and Triglycerides.

You might find this article useful: http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Cholesterol.htm
 
Cholesterol is a very important part of your natural body chemistry. Unless you have very high LDL and triglycerides then I would not worry. Since you are breast feeding I presume you are of an age where you are fertile and may become pregnant. You MUST NOT be on statins if you are in the least bit likely to become pregnant as Statins can and will cause deformity in the fetus. Your Doctor should know this, but apparently some don't. Please look further into the issue before accepting any statin.
 
Very interesting Patti, I'd not heard that about statins before, though I know you and I have discussed Chol at length elsewhere.

M
 
Total cholesterol figure of 4 seems to be the figure that gp's are setting for us diabetics, as Northerner says the lipid breakdown is more important in determining if your cholesterol is healthy or not. My cholesterol level is 3.8 but I'm insisting on a fasting blood test at my next visit so I can see the lipid results to check if they are OK.
 
Pattidevans said:
Cholesterol is a very important part of your natural body chemistry. Unless you have very high LDL and triglycerides then I would not worry. Since you are breast feeding I presume you are of an age where you are fertile and may become pregnant. You MUST NOT be on statins if you are in the least bit likely to become pregnant as Statins can and will cause deformity in the fetus. Your Doctor should know this, but apparently some don't. Please look further into the issue before accepting any statin.
Click to expand...

Very true Patti. My doctor wanted to put me on statins, just for cholesterol of 5.2 and I refused. She did, thankfully, ask me if I intended on becoming pregnant in the next 3 years - so they must have some affect to be such a long time span!
 
Lizzzie said:
I've just had my blood results.....

Cholesterol 5.1. Reference info: Should be ideally less than 4, less than 5 acceptable.

Am very surprised and a bit sad. I have excellent blood pressure, am very active and as far as I can see, have a pretty healthy diet. (also am breast-feeding). Nobody has ever commented on my cholesterol being high before (have just changed to a new hospital where they send you a copy of the bloods or I wouldn't have seen this).

Does anyone have any comments?
Click to expand...
Everyone is different. The guide figures are healthy people averages, and unhealthy people with averages with different types of health problems that make up the tables and guidelines. I have highish blood pressure, and always have. 12 years ago when my second kid was born I made a promise to myself, and I gave up smoking, drinking, lost 4 stone, and now my diet is very good, and I get off my bum and into my trainers, but my blood pressure remains the same, as does my high end cholesterol, and as healthy as I was at the time, I was diagnosed diabetic 4 years ago. Everyone is different. But still see the doctor if your not in the very least a little bit unsure. But I will say this, using cholesterol products has made my cholesterol constant and not so unpredictable.
 
Thanks, guys. I think when I was first diagnosed (cholesterrol was high then, but apparently that was normal for a newly diagnosed person) the LDL/HDL split was dramatically in the favourable direction. Thanks, I'd forgotten about that and will ask them again.

Obviously breast-milk contains loads of fat so I was wandering if it might increase fat transport in the blood and therefore physiologically increase cholesterol levels.... but it may have been wishful thinking!!

Guess 0.1 isn't too much to get excited about though and will certainly avoid statins, thanks for the tip-off - I had no idea

Will let you know what the doctor says next time I#m there
 
Lizzzie said:
http://www.babygooroo.com/index.php...eding-cause-an-increase-in-serum-cholesterol/

Someone just pointed me to this website.... not sure it's very reliable, tho
Click to expand...

I think it has some basis as it links to another article with references, heres one I dug up (only an extract available and the original answers to the question are also behind a paywall)
Additional data are available to help answer a question asked recently in JAMA1 Are serum cholesterol levels elevated in lactating women? Mellies et al2 found mean ? SD levels of plasma cholesterol of 5.6 ? 0.42 mmol/L in 11 women who were breast-feeding 1 month post partum. The quantity had decreased to 4.8 ? 0.27 mmol/L in 6 women who were still breast-feeding after 7 months. There was no correlation between blood and milk cholesterol contents.
Click to expand...
http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/262/15/2092.4
 
Sorry to tag a question in about Cholesterol but how many eggs can you have a week without effecting it. I'm pretty good at 3.5 but that is with Statins. Don't get me started on high blood pressure. Lets just say at the clinic last week my top number was the same as my bottom number when I was rushed into A&E from the eye clinic.

But anyway how many eggs can I have.

Marc
 
Marc said:
Sorry to tag a question in about Cholesterol but how many eggs can you have a week without effecting it. I'm pretty good at 3.5 but that is with Statins. Don't get me started on high blood pressure. Lets just say at the clinic last week my top number was the same as my bottom number when I was rushed into A&E from the eye clinic.

But anyway how many eggs can I have.

Marc
Click to expand...

I believe it's now been shown to be a myth about eggs and cholesterol - most cholesterol is manufactured by the liver (about 80%) so dietary cholesterol hasn't got the impact once thought. Obviously there may be other health risks from eating too many egss, but I eat 6-8 a week some weeks.
 
Northerner you might turn out to be my hero. I was avoiding them...
 
Hi Marc - I have one egg a day, my GP recommended that it was ok because it was helping my blood sugars remain stable in the morning.

Hi Lizzie - my cholesterol is 4.9 and I am 24. My good cholesterol is very high and the doctor told me that he was pleased with the results because it is the ratio of good to bad cholesterol that is most important. Don't worry about it x
 
Not trying to suggest for one minute what is a safe consumption of eggs per week, but I'll often eat 10 eggs and my cholesterol is 3.8 which is below the safe limit of 4 for diabetics.
 
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