What to do if you have high cholesterol
The one thing that everyone knows about heart disease is that it is linked with having high cholesterol. So if your GP has tested your cholesterol and it has shown up as being a bit on the high side, it would seem to make sense to do something to bring it down.
Your doctor will most likely recommend you take the cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, but before you agree, it is worth knowing something about cholesterol, something about statins and something about the alternatives. Taking the wrong course of action could end up doing you more harm than good.
What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a fatty substance found in the bloodstream. It is measured in ‘millimoles per litre’ (written mmol/l) which refers to the number of molecules of cholesterol in a litre of blood. It comes in two sorts – LDL (low density lipoprotein), often known as ‘bad’ cholesterol, and HDL (high density lipoprotein) which is the ‘good’ type. Ideally your LDL should be low – below 2.7mmol/l and your HDL should be high – above 1.5mmol/l.
There’s one more set of numbers in all this which is your total cholesterol made up of LDL and HDL combined. This shouldn’t be lower than 3.9mmol/l and not more than 5.2mol/l. Ideally you want half your total cholesterol as HDL.
These guidelines are important because your risk of death from heart disease doubles if your total cholesterol rises 1.3mmol/l above the upper limit of 5.2mol/l. You also double your risk every time your LDL goes up by 1.3mmol/l from a healthy level, or your HDL drops by 0.5mmol/l.
LDL down or HDL up?
So one of the first things to think about is whether it is more important to get your LDL down or keep you HDL up? All of your doctor’s attention will be focused on getting LDL down. That’s what statins do very effectively and your GP gets extra payments for putting people on statins as part of the government’s campaign to reduce heart disease.
There is another reason for the concentration on LDL – currently, there are no drugs that effectively and safely raise HDL. Although there is a vitamin, niacin, which does it very effectively. But because it can’t be patented it is not marketed heavily and GPs are unlikely to be given education seminars promoting its benefits (more on niacin later).
Are statins safe?
So you will almost certainly be told that statins are a safe and effective way of reducing cholesterol and so cutting your risk of dying from a heart attack.
In July 2007, the government heart disease supremo Professor Roger Boyle declared that statins are so safe and effective that ideally every man over 50 and every woman over 65 should be taking them. But a growing number of experts are raising doubts about the safety and effectiveness of statins. What’s more, there are a large number of drug-free ways to reduce your risk of having a heart attack – and, unlike statins, they will improve your general health as well.
While the mainstream view is that statins benefit virtually everyone, there is good reason to believe that if you are a man aged over 69, or a woman of any age, they are not going to do you much good. It’s worth making a distinction here between taking them to cut your chances of having another heart attack (secondary prevention) – when they do work – and taking them to lower your risk of a heart attack when you haven’t had one (primary prevention). About 75% of people on statins get them for primary prevention.
Answers to these questions & more are available to 100% Health Club Members
- Promise of longer life a myth
- The downside of statins
- Why cholesterol is a good thing
- CoQ10 reduces side effects
- Lifestyle changes bring benefits
- Fat offers protection
- Reduce your glycemic load
- Raising HDL with niacin
- Check your ‘H’ score
- Learn how to handle stress
- The magic of magnesium
