Visiting your doctor is bad for your health...

[rich p]

...I went in last week for an NHS health check as fit and healthy as a 57 year old with a replacement hip can be with no obvious problems, and now have a high cholesterol level which apparently needs reducing.
The number was 7.5 which according to the stats gives me a 15% chance of heart problems in the future.
The trouble is that I eat pretty healthily as it is so the wiggle room for dieting the number down is less than a fat, fast-food noshing cheese lover.
I could cut down on the cheese, butter, red meat etc to an extent but would that be enough?
The doc offered me statins but I opted to give the diet adjustments a go for 6 months and take another look then.
Anyone had similar problems?

 

[mangaman]

I would argue - if it were me - that the numbers are not as clear cut as you've been told.

Exercise and healthy eating will reduce your risk independently of cholesterol - so your risk of getting heart problems is probably below average. (Although there are no accurate figures available that take everything into account).

Diet has, as you say, a limited effect - especially if you eat healthily anyway.

Cholesterol has a mean of 5 ish in the UK I believe, and is normally distributed.

That means if you wait a bit and have it rechecked it is statistically likely to have fallen due to regression towards the mean.

Also there are complexities alround lipid metabolism - your cholesterol level alone is pretty meaningless.

If you wanted it followed up I would have a fasting full lipid profile.

Having said that - I wouldn't check my own cholesterol at all (unless I'd had a stroke or heart attack) as I'd be in your position of weighing up decisions about healthcare based on not great stats, while feeling well and having a great life.

I'd rather not know a rough estimate of the chances of getting ill in the future - I'd rather live on in blissful ignorance doing what I enjoy (given I'm overall pretty healthy like you)

I certainly wouldn't want to take a statin from aged 57 for ever.

(All my own opinion - not NHS policy or anything)

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

Having seen four people affected so badly by statins that they now refuse to take them I'd advise anyone being given them to ask for another option.
My mother has just had to be tested for liver problems and hepatitis, and has gall bladder problems. All of which are know side effects of taking statins.

At 73 she's got all her wits about her, but the pills made her drowsy and unable to concentrate, with no drive to do anything. 2 Weeks after stopping she's back to her former self.

 

[rich p]

Hmmm, thanks men. Food for thought - I hope that's low in fat content!

Blisful ignorance is a state I'd rather be in to be honest Mangaman! Taking pills for life is not an option I want really.

 

[numbnuts]

I have high cholesterol and on simvastatin, mainly due to heart problem in the family history, I do watch what I eat I very rarely eat red meat, in fact I took the diet a bit too seriously and to my shock I became very anaemic, so I have to be very careful with my diet now.

 

[mangaman]

Blisful ignorance is a state I'd rather be in to be honest Mangaman! Taking pills for life is not an option I want really.

I agree rich - it's not necessarily commonly admitted in the health / pharma professions, but lots of screening / overmedicalising of life has very little evidence (except in certain specific conditions like cervical cancer etc).

Generic medical "MOTs" - much beloved and encouraged by US medics - just throw up more questions than answers and create illness by causing unnecessary stress and an obsession with relatively meaningless things - and drugs prescribed for long periods on evidence based on short-term trials.

(eg if you live to 80 and go on a statin, you will have taken one for 23 years : there is no trial data about the effects of taking statins for that length of time as they haven't been around that long)

ie you could end up worrying about a fairly arbitary random cholesterol and forget you eat well and do more exercise than God knows what % of the population, giving you a very low risk of disease

 

[Crackle]

Any family history of heart thingimajigs Rich or are the relly's still supping red and eating cheese?

 

[Andrew_P]

We all have to die sometime, what real world evidence is there that cholesterol level of 7 over the next 20 years will shorten your life expectency?

I defintely think that alot of this is driven by the Pharm compaines lobbying for suggested levels to be lowered and lowered to increase the prescribing of their meds. 30 Years ago BP was you age 100 should be Systolic. Now in America they could medicate you at 125/80+ here it would be 140's so who is right?

 

[rich p]

Crax, the only heart disease that I know of in my family is an uncle who had a heart attack aged 65 and he was a heavy smoker. The hereditary aspect is the dominant factor here I suppose but Mangman's reassurance and healthy scepticism is encouraging. I'm by no means a hypochondriac but I'd rather live forever longer if I can influence that harmlessly.

I'm inclined to eat slightly more healthily (as much as is possible without buggering up my life) and see what's what in the autumn.

 

[Camrider]

Just cut down on the cheese and red meat, and replace butter with something that is not packed with saturated fats.

 

[theclaud]

Don't give up butter - life is too short. Stop worrying about it, as Mangaman says. Have proper porridge made with oatmeal for breakfast, carry on drinking the red booze,and eat even more garlic.

 

[rich p]

I'm sure you don't need telling to take TC's and TMN's advice. That aside, do you have any great love of shellfish?

I like clams - hirsute or otherwise
I do like shellfish (and fish in general) though. Are they good for the blood?
I eat red meat and fish largely as my dinner protein so the obvious things to reduce, if I were to try, is red meat, cheese and butter (if TC and TMN will allow me)!

 

[mangaman]

I like clams - hirsute or otherwise
I do like shellfish (and fish in general) though. Are they good for the blood?
I eat red meat and fish largely as my dinner protein so the obvious things to reduce, if I were to try, is red meat, cheese and butter (if TC and TMN will allow me)!

Surely the answer is to combine TMN, TC and Adrian's suggestions.

Butter, garlic, lots of red wine, sea food and veg and you're getting a lovely fish stew together and increasing your life expectancy by 37 minutes per portion (probably)

 

[mangaman]

Prawns have a reputation for increasing cholesterol but, as with all these things, it could well be bollocks.

No, I think it is prawns. (Sorry)

 

[Crackle]

Just cut the prawn bollocks off before you eat them.