I asked my GP what the difference was between fat and cholesterol .

He explained that you don't wake up in the morning with a cholesterol.

If put on medication for this problem, please first consider googling the product. Some have the most painful side affects, which I found out the hard way. Best to stick to exercise, fish oil, low fat diet, etc before the possibilty of getting into more trouble taking some of this :mad:.

We're basically talking risk and probability here. Having a high cholesterol (especially if the LDL cholesterol is high as well) increases your risk as does smoking, being fat, drinking too much, being older and having a family history of heart disease

None of this will stop the occasional racing snake from dropping down dead from a heart attack or the odd fat bastard lasting until their 100th birthday. It just changes your place on the list of people that are going to have one this year/decade etc.

Statistics and probability are dark arts to most people, hence the fact that certain news agencies think that '50% of all doctors are below average' is news. My father (who is a statistician) likes to say that the 'average' human being has one tit and one bollock. It's probably slightly less than one of each but you get the idea.

Reducing your cholesterol will probably reduce your cardiac risk. Cholesterol lowering drugs are generally well tolerated but a significant number of people have quite debilitating side effects.

There are no absolutes in medicine except that we will all die eventually of something and for about a third of us it will be heart disease

Enjoy the red wine!

BtD

Exercise is the best way to control cholesterol

Has anyone on here tried Niacin to lower cholesterol? My father, aged 73, had quadruple bypass about six years ago and has been on prescription cholesterol lowering meds, BP meds, etc. since then.
About two years ago he started taking 500-1000 mg of over-the-counter Niacin per day and during his quarterly check-ups he sees a noticeable increase of the "good" cholesterol and a drop in the "bad". Other meds are still the same, but some dosages have been cut.

Which is complete rubbish, as you might expect.
My FAA senior Aviation Medical Examiner in Arizona (who also is approved for EASA, UKCAA, DoT Canada, CASA, NZ, GACA...and several others) tells me that statistics generated by the UKCAA shows no difference re: cholesterol related problems with professional pilots (with class one medicals) are identical with the FAA ...3%.
This is not new data either...been this way for at least ten years.
So...cholesterol testing is just another way to extract money from your wallet.
Nooo surprise there....:ugh:

Interesting things Statins. Was prescribed a small dose of Simvastatin daily to help with chlorestorol. The only medication I've ever reacted to, but it took some months to surface and indentify. Symptoms were muscles and limbs (particularly legs) becoming heavy and a feeling of small stones rubbing the soles of my feet. Eventually I started to find it difficult to walk, I just didn't seem to have the strength in my legs. Once we (my GP and I) had identified the problem, it took just a couple of weeks to return to normality, but another brand of statin attempted a few weeks later returned similar symptoms. My advice if you have side effects is to read the slip of paper that comes with the medication and details the possible downsides.

Meantime, if you're reading this, on statins, and feeling perhaps 20 years older than you feel you should, you now know what to do.

Trouble is .... medical profession change their minds about every 5 years, it's OK for dark chocolate now, red wine, eggs again, even coffee, all just about banned for anyone who had some interest in their health and longevity a few years ago.

Of my early days flying colleagues who have keeled over, most were of the frenzied exercise freak persuasion.

One had his licence suspended for awhile due to a suspicious ECG, turned out he had an ECG trace abnormality that is only apparent in the top strata of super-fit athletes.

Not a lot of people know that ( Including aviation medical examiners ! )

Had a Flt Eng, once who said that when the med. prof. got around to deciding that lying on the coach, drinking beer and eating Smiths' Crisps were the way to go - he was way ahead of the game. He's stilll around.

Ask 2 people - get 4 answers.

Sensible eating, and moderation in all things without getting fanatical about anything, seems to work. I think a lot of it is genetic, so there's damn all you can do about it.

My mother at 86 has had high cholesterol for years and she eats very healthily and drinks virtually nothing. Unfortunately she cannot do much in the way of exercise these days so I guess what you inherit is what you have got.

A bit like blood pressure the previous thinking causing alarm now seems to be a little revised in terms of what is acceptable.

Viscount: I had exactly the same reaction and it took some months to surface and indentify and some weeks to really start clearing up after I stopped taking Statins. The Doc wasn't interested in my feedback or the recent article in the T.graph.

Really sore femoral muscle, painfull knee and numb foot all now much better after 2 months of no statins.

Just found out me'eld fella's cholesterol is 3.7, with an equally healthy hdl.

Guess I'll never get the kids to Florida:ooh:

Gordon Field - I think it's perhaps more common than the medics try to make out. My GP was quite philosophical about it - they'll do you good, but not at the price of your existing quality of life. It seems there isn't too much choice of a prescribed alternative - which begs the question of what is in those plant steroids and the like that Benecol advertises does you good when you pile 1/2" of butter on your toast (and reports that I have heard tends to suggest that the stuff does actually have a beneficial effect).