Hi
I got results of my test.
Ldl 126
Hdl 46
Triglycerides 104
Doctor wants me to start on statins which I don’t want to.
I have gotten better than before as my Hdl used to be 32. How can I still make it better. I am on gluten / dairy free diet. I watch my carbs and my last a1c was 4.9 . I also excercise almost daily with walking and weights. I do eat eggs( 4 egg white one yellow) and some nuts per day. Other than that not much of any other snacks or fried foods.
So what else can I do more to improve cholosterol?
With cholesterol numbers like that I wouldn’t start on statins. Mine aren’t that good and I’ve been on Lipitor for years.
Your experience seems similar to what I’ve heard from my endo. The insurance company wants her to ask me about starting on blood pressure meds even though my numbers are almost always lower than the average (105/60 is typical). My response is always “You can prescribe them for me but I won’t fill the prescription or take the medicine”. She just smiles and says she agrees but asks because the insurance mandates it.
Thanks !!
Does numbers get better with better diet and excercise. Just trying to avoid any pills.
yes, both can affect your numbers.
People out there would like to shed more light on their experiences as to what works and what doesn’t.
Forum looks pretty quiet 
About 6 moths ago I was having some issues with mine. My Dr at the time sugested Fish Oil. I started taking that and she said the numbers were back to normal. I stopped like a dork and got blood work again last month and they were high again. Started taking the fish oil again along with running every other day and my numbers as of last week have dropped by half. This time I’m going to keep taking them 
Thanks !. I have been taking fish oil (Omega 3s) every day. I have stopped doing aerobics ( elliptical) and started walking and weight training. Maybe aerobics exercises like running / elliptical are better at reducing LDL. I need to read more on it.
Wish my #'rs were as low as yours, lol. We have determined that my diet has little effect on my Cholesterol # and have tried all the Statins, which get the reading down but the side affects are such that I feel like I aged 15 years, ache’s, pains and overall muscular weakness that I stopped taking them. Tried another drug called welchol which supposedly sits in your lower intestines and absorbs cholesterol before you do but this had a whole different set of side affects. Did not even get through taking that for a month let alone long enough to see if it worked. Told the doctor I’ll gladly give up 5-10 years at end of life rather than feeling like I’m in my 70’s at 50 LOL.
This is not my area of expertise (ask me anything about celiac disease) but I think your cholesterol results are fine. Did they test for LDL particle size? Larger particles are soft and thought not to cause damage.
Prior to my going LCHF on 1/2014, my panel results were (second number on 9/2014 after being on LCHF diet since 1/2014):
Tri: 75 / 42
HDL: 37/ 61
LDL: 84/ 105
Total: 136/ 174
Chol/HDL Ratio: 3.7 (calculated) / 2.9
You can see that my “risk” for heart disease is actually lower than before. With celiac disease my cholesterol numbers were extremely low and I received praise from my doctors. But low HDL is not good either. I am glad to see higher numbers now. I eat two eggs a day and do not worry about my cholesterol. My research indicates that it is not as important as we have been led to believe. I will never take statins. The side effects are too great.
When I fractured my back two years ago resulting from osteoporosis from complications of celiac disease, doctors though my back pain was a heart attack. I got the full work up. My heart is good to go for another 50 years!
Do the research. There is an army doctor who specializes in Sports Medicine. He recently wrote an article about statins. He took them and prescribed them as a preventative. He was in shape and his diet was excellent. Now he has prediabetes which he attributes to statins. This is just his opinion, but unless the risks for heart disease are very high, he will not prescribe statins. Google it! Just some food for thought.
Oh, I swim, ride, and run. I do some weight training but just for my bones. Pick the exercise you like best! One that you will do for the rest of your life and have fun while doing it.
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My take is that your numbers aren’t really all that bad.
For me, about 10 years ago my doctor wanted to put me on statins. Why? For no other reason than the fact that I was a T1D and the “best practices” said I should be on one. (Can you say “defensive medicine”, aka the doctor doesn’t want a malpractice headache?)
During that meeting, I asked the doctor if I were a non-T1D, with otherwise pretty good numbers across the board, would he prescribe statins for me? After giving my numbers a second look, he sighed and said, “No, you don’t need a statin.”
So, your situation is different than mine, but can the doctor give you reasons beyond T1D for recommending statins?
My liver numbers went bad a few years ago because of the statin my endo had me on. It was easily provable that it was the statin as I went OFF, then ON, then OFF, then ON, and OFF, each time getting blood tests within 3 weeks of each cycle. Next time I saw him he said he wanted me on a statin and thats when I said NO WAY. He said there was a different statin that hopefully wouldn’t screw up my liver numbers. I reluctantly agreed, got a blood test 3 weeks after starting Simvistatin and no more screwy liver numbers. It’s been over 3 years and all is well with the statin and my liver. I almost forgot–my legs were weaker than normal the whole time I was on pravastin, which was for about 5 years and I had no idea that’s what it was until getting off pravastin for good.
I got the same “weak legs” when on pravastin. Stopped taking it and legs felt fine within days. Others, like lipitor and crestor both made my shoulders feel arthritic. Went from being able to get on the ground and doing 50 pushups to not being able to get off the ground! The pain initially got better a few days after stopping said statin. Last try was going back to a low dose of lipitor as the pain was not present until they “decided” to up me to the maximum dose many years ago. I think I stayed on the low dose too long as the pain was less but I have been off of it for over a year and right shoulder still has issues.
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I’ve been on Lipitor for almost 14 years and haven’t “noticed” any direct side effects. At one point my cardiologist wanted me to try Crestor due to my HDL number always being low. I lasted about a month before before I told him I wasn’t going to take it anymore as I continuously felt like I’d been beaten up.
He put me back on Lipitor but now that you guys are mentioning some side effects from it I’m going to try going off of it for a few days to see if my chronic lower back pain will subside.
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Update : The nurse called me yesterday after I initially refused to take statins. She said that doctor still wants me on it as she thinks I should lower my ldl by 20 %. I am not taking it, no way. I will try to reduce about 10 lbs weight by exercising , eating more fruits and vegetables and being cognizant of bad fats in my diet.
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Good for you for making your own decisions on treatment, instead of following doctors orders. lt drives me a bit batty when I hear people talk as if they MUST do what a doctor says, as if they will be arrested if they don’t do as he/she says.