High Cholesterol Support Group

Holla, Diet and exercise can have a profound effect on lipids in many people. I myself found I could alter my lipid profile thru diet and I have heard from many others who have reported the same experience.

Unusually high cholesterol can be a symptom of an underlying metabolic disorder.

You state that your cholesterol is "extremely high." Just how high is it that you are concerned?

Cholesterol also depends on your family history. Unfortunately, it runs very high in my family. When I first heard about my cholesterol problem, I lost 20 pounds and it even went up a little.

Obviously, diet and exercise is a great first step, but it may also be a little out of your hands.

im in canada so our scale is different than the US but in our scale your cholesterol ratio should be no higher than 5.2 and mine is 8.3 my good cholesterol is ok but my bad is high

Holla, total cholesterol in Canada of 8.3 converts to 321 in the United States.

You mentioned that the higher cholesterol levels were in the past six months. Had they been lower before, and then go up with no explaination?

thanks for the info Med, well i only found out about my levels 6 months ago after i had my baby so in the first 3 months i ost 20 lbs. then went back to have it re-checked and it was higher it went from 7.2 to 7.6, then i moved and got it re tested again with my new doc about one month later and it was in the 8's so i was like what the f. im starting back at the gym this week and im waiting to see a dietician so hopefully that will help but i dont know im scared to have a stroke or heart attack, my moms levels are fine and my dad wont go to the doc very often so im not really sure of my family history

I am trying fish oil but haven't had a blood test since I started so honestly don't know if it will work. Anybody have good results?

Holla, Ah! You had a baby six months ago? Following delivery of a baby there can be a condition known as Post Partum Thyroiditis. This is very common and can cause flucuations in thyroid hormone. Flucuations in thyroid hormone then cause flucuations in lipid profiles. Most of the time it resolves itself, but a few women have the condition remain. This is one possibility to consider.

Please don't live in fear of a heart attack or stroke because your cholesterol numbers are elevated. Fear itself will move a person closer to ill health than high lipids. Fear of cholesterol has been created by sales and marketing to sell drugs. Believe me, if there were no profit to be made from cholesterol lowering drugs, nobody would be advising you to lower your cholesterol.

Monnie, Fish oil has been shown in studies to be very effective at lowering triglycerides, and inceasing HDL. Mixed results on LDL, and not very effective at lowering total cholesterol. I take 3000 mg Wild Salmon oil per day. Not because of its effects on lipids, but for its overall health benefits.

i had my thyroid tested as well and all is normal with it so could it still be related to my baby?

MedLab1, do you have any medical qualifications to back up some of the very definitive statements you have put on this and other posts regarding statins? Finding a diet, without taking medication,to lower our cholesterol, would I'm sure be what most of us would like to achieve. And the negative and sometimes serious reactions that some members have to statins, highlight the need surely for careful monitoring. But I do not agree with your comment that "if there were not a profit to be made from producing statins, nobody would be advising us to take them". In the UK, every statin a doctor prescribes a patient within the national health service, has to be funded from their own budget. So not in their interests to prescribe a drug they do not think we would benefit from. But do agree that statins are not for everyone and need to be monitored very carefully. On a personal note, have been on statins 6 months now, early days I know, but no side effects to date, and having lost three grandparents to heart attacks in their 50's, well before cholesterol readings were undertaken, and having two fit healthy parents in their mid-eighties, both having taken statins for many years, my opinion on their effectiveness differs from yours.

Holla, Sounds like you have already ruled out thyroid. What is your diet like, and how active are you?

Janicecere, Thank-you for your post. I think you are correct most people here are interested in finding a diet, rather than take meds, which I think is the right thing to do.

I am glad you asked your question about how I come up with the information I am sharing. Its about time I share this with everybody.

All the information I base my comments on are data from Legitimate studies such as the Lyon Heart study, the Honolulu Heart study, The enhance study, just to name a few. Other information comes from medical journals, Yale, Harvard, PubMed, The World Health Organization (WHO), The UCSD Statin Study, FDA Medwatch, seven years of Monitoring reports from statin users as to the side effects they are experiencing. Physicians themselves coming forward with information. Biology studies into cholesterol and its bilogical fuctions. My computer is heavily bookmarked with medical publications supporting my new views.

I was once a cholesterol lowering Guru. My studies have shocked me. I did not expect to find what I found. I no longer view cholesterol itself as the culprit, and am convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that we have been barking up the wrong tree.

I will be happy to share this info with everyone. A little bit at a time. I know you don't want all my files dunped on you all at once.

As far as big pharma goes. They don't care if its an individual paying from their pocket, or an insurance company paying, or a national health system paying. As long as they get paid. A sale is a sale.