shesgonepaleo Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 Hi there, I just wanted to have a bit of a vent and hopefully get some advice at the same time! I am 28 and have had high cholesterol readings for the last 6 years. Total cholesterol hovering around the 6.4 mark (I'm in Australia and my research shows that we read cholesterol differently to the US??). In 2012 I really cracked down on what I was eating, and increased my exercise even more and a few months ago I started eating Paleo. I had my check up the other day and the results came back at 7.3! The biggest increase since I have been having it checked. I should add it is hereditary from my mothers family and so with that in mind, along with my age and my healthy lifestyle, my Doctor freaked out (and me in the process!) and I have been put on Statin drugs for 3 months at which point I have another blood test and we will re-evaluate. A few people have since told me to cut out coconut oil all together amongst other things. What I would love to know from you wise souls is if there is anything in the Whole30 (which is basically how I live everyday, with the odd Paleo muffin or similar, thrown in on a weekend) that I should avoid to help decrease this genetic cholesterol issue! Many thanks in advance!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Tom Denham Posted December 5, 2013 Moderators Share Posted December 5, 2013 I have familial hypercholesterimia - a genetic defect - that makes me have high cholesterol. There is absolutely nothing you can eat or not eat that will make your cholesterol low if you have it. I have been on cholesterol lowering drugs for maybe 15 years. I got off statins 2 or 3 years ago when I started reading about problems they cause. My (former) doctor kept insisting on statins, so I found another doctor who would work with me. The new doctor recommended a fenofibrate that lowers my cholesterol to acceptable levels and is not a statin. That said, most concerns about cholesterol are overblown by greedy drug companies who have bought or brainwashed most of the medical establishment. And most of the world is nuts when it comes to cholesterol and food. The cholesterol in foods you eat have very little to do with your blood levels of cholesterol. And besides that, your body absolutely requires cholesterol. Here are links to a handful of sites I have found useful in my studies: http://paleononpaleo.com/paleo-high-cholesterol/ http://paleononpaleo.com/paleo-cholesterol-testing/ http://chriskresser.com/the-diet-heart-myth-cholesterol-and-saturated-fat-are-not-the-enemy http://chriskresser.com/the-diet-heart-myth-statins-dont-save-lives-in-people-without-heart-disease http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2013/05/sudden-cholesterol-increase-it-may-be.html http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/ http://www.drbriffa.com/blog/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shesgonepaleo Posted December 5, 2013 Author Share Posted December 5, 2013 Wow thanks Tom, will definitely check out those links! Hope you don't mind me asking but have you ever had a Coronary Calcium Scan done? I heard a great interview from a cardiologist who said he only puts people on statin drugs from the results of a CSC, as opposed to just blood tests, because you are right, cholesterol is needed and the CSC is more accurate. Apparently there were 16 million scripts written for Statins in Australia last year alone when research estimates only 500,000 of those scripts were actually warranted! Crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melbournegirl Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 I'm in oz too. I agree with Tom, your body makes cholesterol and cutting 'cholesterol' from your diet is not the answer. Btw coconut oil is plant based and doesn't contain any cholesterol.You need to consider the components that make up the number. The 7.3 is your total, what is your HDL, LDL and triglycerides. Research is showing that people with high total cholesterol but low triglycerides aren't likely to be unhealthy. It's the triglycerides caused by poor quality fats and excessive carbs/sugar that is an indicator of inflammation and therefore disease / risk. When you are inflamed/diseased your total cholesterol elevates but having a high level per se isn't sufficient to indicate disease and lowering the level through drugs is treating the symptom not the cause. Most paleo eaters have an increase in cholesterol as their good cholesterol increases... Can't remember if its the HDL or LDL... Triglycerides often also drop. So the perceived risk should lower. My triglycerides used to be 1.5 which is still good (<2) but after a whole30 it dropped to 0.7. My total cholesterol went to 5.5 from 4.0. But my vitamin d and b and iron levels also improved substantially. I attribute this to cutting out grains and dairy and increasing fat. I don't have a Medical degree so don't take what I say as medical advice, its just my opinion. (I'm a scientist who has read the recent research). I do recommend finding out more and the scan should show if any inflammation is present if your other numbers are still of concern. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 My cholesterol has been high since I was 22. I had a doctor that wanted to put me on statins when I was 30, despite having no other risk factors for heart issues, so I refused! Come to find out, cholesterol is so important in the body, that there are 2 ways to get it - your body will produce it, and you get it from your diet. Cholesterol is used in the body to repair cells, so high cholesterol means it may be making more repairs (think higher levels of inflammation). It's more of a symptom of an issue than the actual problem. Stains work by lowering inflammation, thus lowering the body's response to make cholesterol. In addition, cholesterol is a building block for your hormones, though most doctors won't tell you that! Get this - if your hormone levels are off, your body will produce more cholesterol in an attempt to jump start the production of those hormones. If there's something preventing the cholesterol from being converted to hormones (like low thyroid hormones), well, the body can't keep up converting cholesterol to hormones, so you have an excess. When I first went paleo, my cholesterol levels jumped and I got nervous. The last time I got it checked, though, they were down to a low-high, which is quite an improvement! Just getting my thyroid treated properly, my levels dropped by 50 points! Read up on it all. You'll find that eating in a way that reduces inflammation and balancing hormones may do more to naturally lower your levels in the long run. You likely have high cholesterol because your body needs it right now, so address those needs. And get your thyroid checked - even normal/low results can make an impact. I did some research and found that's how they used to treat high cholesterol in the past - with thyroid hormones! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PamH Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Hi there, I just wanted to have a bit of a vent and hopefully get some advice at the same time! I am 28 and have had high cholesterol readings for the last 6 years. Total cholesterol hovering around the 6.4 mark (I'm in Australia and my research shows that we read cholesterol differently to the US??). In 2012 I really cracked down on what I was eating, and increased my exercise even more and a few months ago I started eating Paleo. I had my check up the other day and the results came back at 7.3! The biggest increase since I have been having it checked. I should add it is hereditary from my mothers family and so with that in mind, along with my age and my healthy lifestyle, my Doctor freaked out (and me in the process!) and I have been put on Statin drugs for 3 months at which point I have another blood test and we will re-evaluate. A few people have since told me to cut out coconut oil all together amongst other things. What I would love to know from you wise souls is if there is anything in the Whole30 (which is basically how I live everyday, with the odd Paleo muffin or similar, thrown in on a weekend) that I should avoid to help decrease this genetic cholesterol issue! Many thanks in advance!! I'm curious: people always worry when they have these familial elevated cholesterols but don't say if there is familial heart disease. Does your mother's family have early/chronic heart disease? I don't know how the numbers compare to how it is measured here in the US, but total cholesterol means very little as far as predicting who will have a heart attack and who will not have a heart attack. More testing needs to be done to investigate what types of HDL and LDL you have (some more protective than others), their ratios and other inflammatory markers before you go off the deep end with your MD prescribing you meds that have known negative consequences. So, in the meantime, I say take co-Q10 or Ubiquinol to minimize any chance of muscle pains from the statins. Statins deplete Co-Q10. Sorry you have to deal with a topic full of misinformation and experimentation. It can be frustrating to not truly know how to best tackle a medical issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PamH Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Wow thanks Tom, will definitely check out those links! Hope you don't mind me asking but have you ever had a Coronary Calcium Scan done? I heard a great interview from a cardiologist who said he only puts people on statin drugs from the results of a CSC, as opposed to just blood tests, because you are right, cholesterol is needed and the CSC is more accurate. Apparently there were 16 million scripts written for Statins in Australia last year alone when research estimates only 500,000 of those scripts were actually warranted! Crazy. My husband had this test because he did not want to go on statins BUT he has a pretty strong history of heart disease in his family unrelated to diet/lifestyle. I was amazed that they wanted to put him on statins with only and LDL of 110 and a piss-poor low HDL but the calcium scan did show concerning build up for his age so he is now taking low doses of statin. His total cholesterol has always been under 200. I no longer lecture him about the dangers of statins because 1. he is an MD and 2. that scan showed early heart disease at 43 years of age. His dad had his first heart attack at 50, and his primary care doc said they are looking to keep LDL under 100 for people with strong family history of heart disease based on some study. Hubby tried to lower LDL with diet and followed the Heart Associations plan to the letter. The number went UP 3 points over a 3 month span. One can argue that it means nothing for such a small jump or fall. Same with total cholesterol being pretty fluid on a daily basis. What worries me is that these statins are also lowering his HDL. I wish he would eat things like coconut oil, avocado and other healthy fats more often. I swear his father has dementia because of years of eating literally a fat free diet. My husband is just starting to believe fats are critical to brain function but still holds on to what his MD colleagues print in journals and what the Food Pyramid advocates. Blech I think part of the problem is that he is being hounded by a woman who has the opposite issue: cholesterol is too low. I have to work at keeping my total cholesterol over 150 and I've struggled with depression and low sex drive for most of my adult life. I know they are related. Good luck to you! I hope you find a supportive MD that is willing to keep up with research Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Tom Denham Posted December 5, 2013 Moderators Share Posted December 5, 2013 Wow thanks Tom, will definitely check out those links! Hope you don't mind me asking but have you ever had a Coronary Calcium Scan done? I heard a great interview from a cardiologist who said he only puts people on statin drugs from the results of a CSC, as opposed to just blood tests, because you are right, cholesterol is needed and the CSC is more accurate. Apparently there were 16 million scripts written for Statins in Australia last year alone when research estimates only 500,000 of those scripts were actually warranted! Crazy. My new doctor did have me get a calcium scan in about 2010/2011 and it showed some calcification. Not enough to threaten my health, but enough that I agreed to take medication. Curiously, due to a strange run of circumstances, I had a full cardiac workup involving a treadmill test and ultrasound studies by a cardiologist in 1997 that determined I was in perfect health with no signs of coronary artery disease. However, due to high blood levels of cholesterol, I began taking statins to lower it around that time. So, it seems that I developed some calcification during the 15 years I was supposedly protected by drugs. And while on statins, my total cholesterol levels were low. Comparing ultrasound tests and a calcium scan may be like comparing apples and oranges, but it is curious to me. By the way, after I read of the potential of vitamin K supplementation to reduce calcification, I started taking vitamin K daily in addition to eating lots of dark, leafy greens. My doctor thought it would not hurt: http://examine.com/supplements/Vitamin+K/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shesgonepaleo Posted December 6, 2013 Author Share Posted December 6, 2013 Wow, thanks for the response guys! I dont know how to quote so I'm just going to waffle as it comes to me! Regarding my family history, on my mothers side both my Grandfather and Great Grandfather 'dropped dead' at 50 and 51. I believe that back in those days they couldn't attribute it to cholesterol/heart disease as such but that's what Dr's say now. My mother had a heart 'episode' last year involving hospitalisation etc, my aunt also. After more in-depth tests they are now both on statins at 60yrs old and 50 respectively, despite having acceptable cholesterol levels in the standard blood test reports. I should add my mother and aunt are both fit and healthy women and from what I'm told my Grandfather and Great Grandfather also. My total cholesterol is 7.3 when it should be below 4 and my 'bad' cholesterol level jumped from 4.2 to 5.2 (when it should be below 2). My triglycerides were in the acceptable range level and certainly not highlighted as a problem which just adds to me not wanting to take the statins! So yes, I think I will try and arrange a scan. If I have to take some form of drug every day, I would much prefer I know for certain that it is necessary, as opposed to being thrown on them because it's the norm for people with these kind of numbers. Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praxisproject Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 I'm Aussie too. If you haven't seen the Catalyst shows (Aussie science show) on cholesterol, you might want to catch them on YouTube. It's worth knowing some of the other things which can spike cholesterol, even what you eat before a test can alter the results. Two factors many doctors don't factor into test results are weight loss and injury (both which can trigger inflammation and then higher cholesterol). There are some great podcasts from Chris Masterjohn Phd, Dr. Eric Westman and Dr. Thomas Dayspring which go into a lot of detail about the kinds of tests and what the numbers mean and how some other health conditions can muddy the detail in your test results. For anyone who has other health factors to take into account, the numbers can be very misleading/confusing, if misunderstood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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