What's your cholesterol level?

Bondy said:
I guess my last score of 7.8 is a little high then:( The doc put me on statin but these gave me muscle pains and when I mentioned it she said you'll have to live with it, well sod that.
She also said I was obese, I'm 6ft 2" and weigh 13.5 stone:shrug:
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Regular exercise and eating a balanced diet can reduce cholesterol without statins - a few years ago my levels were under 4 because I exercised daily to reduce weight - unfortunately the heavy exercise also showed another problem - an unpleasant ache in my mid chest which was finally diagnosed as blocked arteries (heart) and I was put on a variety of pills including statins.

I was on these until recently when I stopped eating and sleeping due to a severe illness and my blood tests showed that my Cholesterol levels had become abnormally high so I was taken off them.

.
 
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All this talk about being obese due to your BMI rating is on the whole a load of crap!

The standard BMI calculation doesn't take into account lean mass i.e. muscle or the fact that someone might have larger/heavier bones.

I'm a shade under 6ft tall and hovering around the 15st mark, I'm by no means a muscle-bound hulk but I do train a fair bit and am on the heavier side of what most people would call medium build.

According to BMI I nearly in the obese category, even if I may say so myself, there's no way you'd say I was obese, carrying a few extra pounds with a little bit of a belly, yes but obese definitely not.

If you take those figures literally, I'd have to be 12st 12lb to be at the upper end of "normal", I dropped to this weight after my wife left me and everyone was telling me I looked really ill and I needed to eat more :lol:

As I said in my first post in this thread, my Granddad was 5ft 3in tall and weighed 24st..... his cholesterol was normal.
 
Do you get your cholesterol checked? Yes being diabetic its part and parcel ~sigh~

Has the doctor put you on any meds to control cholesterol ... statins? Yes but to be honest I am very bad at remebering to take them.

Any side efffects? No

What is your cholesterol level? Think last year it was 5.2 or 4.2, I forget, but bound to find out in a couple of weeks.

I have used statins on and off but I have also changed my diet (well gf has) and now don't eat half as much dairy produce as I used to. No real reason, no I am on a diet, just have.
 
Nope, no, N/A

I'm about to turn 28 and aren't in too bad shape tbh. I'm 6 foot 4 and weigh 15 1/2 stone, which judging from BMI charts makes me obese! I don't look obese or feel it though, so thats strange.
 
Bit of a thread revival, but I have just had mine tested.
I am 55, fairly fit, work out hard at the gym 3-4 times a week and am 6ft tall, weighing in at 86 kilos. Diet is fairly good, with not enough fruit, but little fried food, of plenty veggies and red and white meat in small-ish quantities. However, I do drink more than I should...

My level is 7.4, and I am now on a bit of a strict diet with statins as a next stage if there is no real change.
A bit of a surprise as I had expected it to be fairly low!
 
joxby said:
I dunno what my cholesterol level is but the last time I was at the docs he said my blood pressure was up a shade and to keep an eye on it.
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That has always been the case with me. One doctor told me that the worry about having your blood pressure tested and just being in the doctor's room raises it a bit!


Steve.
 
Russ77 said:
All this talk about being obese due to your BMI rating is on the whole a load of crap!.
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True.

Myself and a colleague at work are about the same height and surprisingly, it turns out that we are the same weight.

I would have put him about 20 pounds lighter than me. He is more active as he cycles a lot and plays rugby. All I do is a fair amount of walking.

If BMI was used to judge us, we would both be in the high area of o.k. That is true of me and I could lose a few pounds but I don't think he should despite us being the same weight.


Steve.
 
Yes
Yes
No
3.1

Remember the score is a balance of bad and good cholesterol. Overall <5 score ois the way to go

My GP is pushing to get people to <4
 
Steve Smith said:
True.

Myself and a colleague at work are about the same height and surprisingly, it turns out that we are the same weight.

I would have put him about 20 pounds lighter than me. He is more active as he cycles a lot and plays rugby. All I do is a fair amount of walking.

If BMI was used to judge us, we would both be in the high area of o.k. That is true of me and I could lose a few pounds but I don't think he should despite us being the same weight.


Steve.
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Exacly!

One of my mates is a little taller than me but is 2st lighter so does fit in with the BMI scale although he looks after himself and trains a fair bit.

We were chatting about BMI and training once and he said "But just look at the difference in the size of our wrists!!!" Now I may have "insulation" elsewhere but there's none on my wrists and it was very easy to see mine were a lot thicker than his (I think they're around 9" which proved a PITA for my missus when she wanted to surprise me with a watch for Xmas :lol:) add to that I have freakishly large hands and feet (size 13) for my height and it stands to reason my skeleton must weigh more than my mate's to start with?

Dunno when BMI came in and I know they were talking about changing it a little but looking at the size of the "kids" playing under 17s Rugby on Sunday there are going to be loads of BMI-obese people :lol:
 
I think I must be writing this from the grave!

Last check was 8.2
Very high blood pressure
Smoking 30 a day
Eating anything as long as it had fat in it
little exercise
Drinking daily 2 pints of beer


10 years on, I am down to 20 a day on the smokes ;)
No other changes recorded or wanted
 
Stuff about cholesterol

There have been some references to Mercola upthread, so here's some stuff about him. Briefly, he is an anti-vaxxer (popular is south Wales just now, I should think!), pro-homoeopathy, and has made millions selling medically useless snake-oil 'supplements'. He has repeatedly fallen foul of the Food & Drugs Administration and Better Business Bureau. In short, he is a quack out to take advantage of people in poor health, or convince healthy people that they are not healthy. Despicable in any case.

See a real health-care professional - your GP for a start - to get checked. Don't fall for these charlatans (or make them even richer).
 
I avoid doctors like the plague, if you go to one they are bound to find something wrong and send you to hospital, the next thing is the undertaker is measuring you up. No thanks. Only heard yesterday a great pal of mine passed away last Wednesday who was under a lot of medical care.

AS long as I can walk-talk-eat-drink -and pass wind I am happy:wave:


Realspeed
 
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jon ryan said:
Have you made a will?
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Yep many years ago.
One can get paranoid over trival things . One minute DRs say you shouldn't eat too much red meat, next too much chocolate, next too much salt, next too much alcohol, too much butter or fatty foods too much of anything in fact . Buy the time they have finished you end up eating and drinking nothing.
You are either too heavy too tall too short overweight/underweight you have a poor skin condition don't go to the loo regularly or too often , oh I could go on and on

But this is their cunning plan to get you into their surgery so they can add you as a client and claim more fees off the state.
So you go in having eaten nothing then they say your anorexic and should eat a healthy diet prescribed by them so they get a rake off on the cost of the diet then the the whole cycle again.

Oh yes I can see how crafty doctors are

Realspeed
 
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Yep many years ago
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Good. Because I assume you never bother to check your car tyre pressure or brakes.
 
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I pay a Land Rover garage annual service for that but do check tyre pressure, if its flat at the bottom no problems the top is ok. Never mind i use my wifes car instead.

Realspeed
 
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So you have more concern for the health of your car than your body?

Yeah, I can see the sense in that...:eek:
 
Homer: I keep hearing this horrible irregular thumping noise.

Attendant: It's your heart. And I think it's on it's last thump.

Homer: Oh, I thought it was my transmission. [drives away happily]


Steve.
 
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Nod said:
:|

Having lost a considerable amount of weight, I was a little distressed to find that my moobs now fail the pencil test! Might have to attend a few of my wife's classes to tone my tits up!
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Reminds me of my sister when I was a Kid - as she put both hands together in front of her clasped fingers and flexed arm muscles and chanted -

I must, I must, I must improve my bust:lol:

Away you go then........:thumbs:







My cholesterol was 2.8 last time it was checked - before that 3.4


Gary - as I said last time we met - HARCOMBE DIET.....do it for 7 days - IF YOU CAN and watch the lbs melt away:thumbs:


Its fun putting some weight back on though....:naughty:
 
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Bill

you need weigh for ballast, which would get blown over first in a hurricane? a light or heavy guy. Say no more.


Realspeed
 
Reviving this thread again with an update on my levels, which 3 months ago were high - I mistakenly said I was at 7.4, but it was actually 7.9, with my bad cholesterol at 3.9. Age is 55, weight was 86 kilos.

I did a little googling, found out what foods actually helped lower cholesterol and bought them - oranges, asparagus, wholemeal bread, pro-active spread, blueberries, oats in the form of meusli etc and cut out processed meat and cheese, eating salads, fish and fruit like never before.

I really enjoyed it and only missed cheese and the odd steak.

After 3 months I had another blood test and this time my overall cholesterol is down to 5.5, bad cholesterol is 1.5, weight is down to 78.

I am now eating a little cheese, enjoyed a BBQ full of sausages, but still making sure I get plenty of fruit and oats into my daily diet and not finding it a struggle at all.
Got to be worth trying before statins if anyone else is threatened with them !
 
Russ77 said:
Had mine checked last year as a fitness & lifestyle assessement, came out at 3.8 so in the "normal" range.

The problem with cholesterol, you can be slim, fit and healthy and still have high reading.

On the flipside, my late Granddad was morbidly obese (24st and 5ft3in tall) had diabetes and lots of other conditions related to his obesity but his cholesterol levels were lower than mine!!!

Personally I think it should be something that's tested routinely after say the age of 30.
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Yes - saw an example of that once. We all got checked at work. Guy the size of Billy Bunter was 4, but another guy was a slim and very fit fell runner. His was so high he was hospitalised.
 
I'm now the ideal weight - just 18 inches too short !
 
gramps said:
Do you get your cholesterol checked? no
Has the doctor put you on any meds to control cholesterol ... statins? no
Any side efffects? I hear they can shrink your testicles
What is your cholesterol level? HDL or LDL :lol:
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Well I missed this one Gramps :D Just come out of the Doc`s now after sorting out my sicky note and repeat prescription. I asked him what was my cholesterol level when they admitted me and done the checks. He said 5.8, I am on simvastatin at the moment. Voicing my concerns once again re my diet with him, he said doing what I am doing is fine. Cutting down or out on things like the meat with fat, and not going mad with Salt and Suagar. His words were it was over exagerrated about the diet and cholesterol, the liver produces cholesterol naturaly out of basicly anything you eat, the statin will supress that. I was told that they like the levels to be around 4 just while the stents are healing, which can take up to a year. What exactly were your side effects Gramps, did you get them straight away?
 
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u8myufo said:
Well I missed this one Gramps :D Just come out of the Doc`s now after sorting out my sicky note and repeat prescription. I asked him what was my cholesterol level when the admitted me and done the checks. He said 5.8, I am on simvastatin at the moment. Voicing my concerns once again re my diet with him, he said doing what I am doing is fine. Cutting down or out on things like the meat with fat, and not going mad with Salt and Suagar. His words were it was over exagerrated about the diet and cholesterol, the liver produces cholesterol naturaly out of basicly anything you eat, the statin will supress that. I was told that they like the levels to be around 4 just while the stents are healing, which can take up to a year. What exactly were your side effects Gramps, did you get them straight away?
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Rich

If you find, as I did, that you react yo Simvastatin, with muscular pain, and in my case, swollen fingers and tingling hands, then see your GP about changing your statin. I had 3 other types before going on Rosuvaststin. Which I am on mow and have been for quite some time.

As mentioned in my post above my overall score is 3.1 and was 4.9 when I had my heart attacks in
2006. My GP, like many, originally wanted patients under 5, now 4 and under is the targrt.

I have been told that Simvastatins are the cheaper of the ststins and are the first to be given to patients. That said, if they help in the battle to reduce all types of heary surgery (which sre very expensive operations) then they are a cost saver in the long term), as is angioplasty which is now being done 24/7 in the Cardiac centre at the Bristol Royal Infirmary for chest pain attendees rather than observation and remedial care on tge wards. Angiogram primarily to see if damage to the heart is severe enough to require angioplasty (stenting) or, as in my case, by-pass surgrry where it is more difficult or impossible to stent.

The big push is also to reduce thr risk of stroke , especially for those with blocked heart artrries and valves. The statins help to stop the plaque in the cardial arteries and valves from breaking off and bring trsnsported to the brain and causing strokes and TIAs.

http://mobile.bupa.co.uk/personal/health-information/directory/s/statins
 
Who cares.... This world has become obsessed with what's good and bad
 
mxfun said:
Who cares.... This world has become obsessed with what's good and bad
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I for one didnt untill just over a week ago ;)
 
I take the cholesterol readings with a pinch of salt and would advise people to use qriskintervention instead. What matters is not total cholesterol but the proportion of it that is HDL.

Medical science has studied the cholesterol pathway - it was one of the first to be studied IIRC but is still poorly understood. At one point, drug companies made a drug that raised your HDL and people were dropping like flies.

Not sure why people are being prescribed simvastatin since atorvastatin came off patent last year and hence costs the same but is more effective and has fewer side effects.

Ignore the crap that comes out of the likes of the Daily Wail eg apples are bad for you. A lot of the studies are too crap to be reliable.
 
omens said:
I take the cholesterol readings with a pinch of salt and would advise people to use qriskintervention instead. What matters is not total cholesterol but the proportion of it that is HDL.

Medical science has studied the cholesterol pathway - it was one of the first to be studied IIRC but is still poorly understood. At one point, drug companies made a drug that raised your HDL and people were dropping like flies.

Not sure why people are being prescribed simvastatin since atorvastatin came off patent last year and hence costs the same but is more effective and has fewer side effects.

Ignore the crap that comes out of the likes of the Daily Wail eg apples are bad for you. A lot of the studiesstatin. Simvastatin has too many side effects are too crap to be reliable.
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Agree about Atorvastatin. It still has side effects (dizziness affecting my balance meannt it was not good for me).

Overall a lot of medical studies are pro, neutral or negative about statins general use but they do have a use for many but not all people.

My cholesterol has always been low and a constant 3.1 reflects my sub 5 levels for as long as I have been having it tested.

I do, however, recognise its contribution to protrct against strokes.

A friend of mine had a massive stroke last October in his early 60s. He is confined to bed, cannot spesk or make contact in any way. He is at home now and has 24/7 care from family and healthcare workrrs. Never had statins but IF people were to see what strokes that don't kill but do lock in its victims can do, maybe the anti-statin rhetoric may cease.

S
 
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