Cholesterol is important for brain health.

[Yvonne Smith]

Our body makes cholesterol, and it makes as much as we need; so being told not to eat foods with cholesterol does not make any difference. Even if you went completely Vegan, your body will still make cholesterol, and this is what your brain needs to function.
It is no coincidence that an increase in dementia started about the same time as people were told not to over eat foods containing cholesterol.
Advertising for this is ridiculous, too !
We are shown a bowl of oatmeal and almond milk and an add that says it is cholesterol free. Of course it is !
Cholesterol is made by animals, not plants. All animal foods will have cholesterol, and no plants foods will have it.

The important thing is the ratio between your HDL cholesterol and your triglycerides. Ideally, it should be a 1:1 ratio, but even a 2:1 is okay. So, when you have lab work done, divide the triglyceride value by the HDL value, and see what the ratio is. If you are close to the 2:1 ratio, then you are fine.

 

[Cpvr]

I see a doctor every three months to make sure my cholesterol levels are okay. I also take three medications for my cholesterol as I had high cholesterol in the past, but I’ve been managing it with the help of the medications and my diet.

 

[Krystal]

Does anyone take REPATHA for their cholesterol? If So, Any side effects? Know anything about this drug @Don Alaska?

My husband has had high cholesterol for at least 40 years that we know of. He said he was probably born with it. He is not over weight at all nor does he eat junk food. He is one of these people that diet will not lower his cholesterol. His doctor wants him to try Repatha since he cannot tolerate statins. It seems that is all his doctor talks about when he goes for his annual check up; choesterol, cholesterol, cholesterol.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

This seems to be a big thing for all doctors to focus on, and is probably why statins are one of the most prescribed drugs in America. Cholesterol is only found in animal foods, not produced by plants, so (theoretically) vegans should all have low cholesterol, but they don’t. Carnivores and omnivores should all have high cholesterol, but they don’t.
This is because our body makes whatever cholesterol it needs, regardless of what you do or do not eat. If there is too much, the body gets rid of what it does not need, so taking drugs to lower cholesterol does not really help anything.

As long as you do not have inflammation in your arteries, the cholesterol is not going to affect them, in any case. It is a bandage that your body puts on the arteries if they need one. Otherwise, we just use it in our brain, and other places that we need cholesterol for, and it helps prevent Alzheimer’s.
The doctors have lowered the amount of cholesterol that they think is okay, as well. It used to be over 300 was fine, and now they want it lower than 200, forcing more people to think they need statin drugs.

 

[Krystal]

My husband is very skeptical about taking it. Repatha is a shot that a person gives to themselves. Since he wasn't on any statins and his cholesterol levels were "supposedly" high, his doctor had him have a CT last year. His arteries were 40 and 50 percent blocked. His doctor said that was early heart disease His total cholesterol is 285. He has not been able to lower it with diet at all.

I agree about the numbers are always being lowered all the time. They have lowered them on cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose, that I know of. I think Doctors are employees of a larger group and have to do what the Medical Administration tells them to do now. They have to push drugs and tests. I don't think there is many private practice doctors anymore.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

When my Doc sent me to the lab and later told me I'm diabetic back in 2005, she said the lab tech called her and asked if I was still alive. She said of course I am, how did she think I walked into the lab for blood work? The lab tech said my Triglycerides were the highest she had ever seen.


7,611. I'll never forget that number.

After being put on Crestor, the next month they were 256. Still not normal, but miles closer to it.

Years later I was sitting in front of my computer, reading the website of Guinness Book of World Records. At the time (about 2012, if I recall) there was a guy in Minnesota who had the world's record for the highest Triglycerides, and mine were more than twice as high as his. Cindy said I should send them a copy of my lab report, and I said no. Having high Triglycerides is not something I want to brag to the world about.

Now, according to Guinness, "Stuart Blyth (Australia) was measured to have a triglyceride level of 13,292 mg/dl, as confirmed on 5 June 2021."

After 20 plus years of living on restaurant food, there's finally someone with a worse diet than mine...

Ok, back to breakfast...

 

[Don Alaska]

Does anyone take REPATHA for their cholesterol? If So, Any side effects? Know anything about this drug @Don Alaska?

My husband has had high cholesterol for at least 40 years that we know of. He said he was probably born with it. He is not over weight at all nor does he eat junk food. He is one of these people that diet will not lower his cholesterol. His doctor wants him to try Repatha since he cannot tolerate statins. It seems that is all his doctor talks about when he goes for his annual check up; choesterol, cholesterol, cholesterol.

I am sure you have looked up the drug for side effects, but if you haven't:

Repatha Side Effects: Common, Severe, Long Term

Learn about the side effects of Repatha (evolocumab), from common to rare, for consumers and healthcare professionals.

www.drugs.com

It all depends on how high your husband's cholesterol is. Before statins were invented, the "normal" cholesterol upper limit was 240 mg/dl or 6.2 mmol/L.

That was moved downward to 200 mg/dL or 5.2 mmol/L in order to sell more drugs. The justification was that cholesterol was bad and caused heart disease (atherosclerosis). There is really little clinical evidence to support this. As @Yvonne Smith noted above, there are lipoproteins that ARE linked to heart disease but those are related to triglycerides, not cholesterol. I can't give medical advice here, but if your husband's cholesterol is less than 240 mg/dL or 5.2 mmol/L (depending on where you live) I wouldn't worry about it much. If, however, the cholesterol is 600 mg/dL or 15.5 mmol/L, it is a definite genetic issues and something should be done about it.

You health and your husband's health decisions should be yours with the advice of your doctor. Doctors tend to be taken in be biased studies done financed by Big Pharma. There are many resources online, some credible and some not, that can give you information to use in making your decision.

 

[Don Alaska]

My husband is very skeptical about taking it. Repatha is a shot that a person gives to themselves. Since he wasn't on any statins and his cholesterol levels were "supposedly" high, his doctor had him have a CT last year. His arteries were 40 and 50 percent blocked. His doctor said that was early heart disease His total cholesterol is 285. He has not been able to lower it with diet at all.

I agree about the numbers are always being lowered all the time. They have lowered them on cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose, that I know of. I think Doctors are employees of a larger group and have to do what the Medical Administration tells them to do now. They have to push drugs and tests. I don't think there is many private practice doctors anymore.

Again, not medical advice, but you could try high doses of B vitamins. I don't find that it lowers cholesterol or triglycerides but it does seem to stop the build up of plaque in the arteries. It may take years to reverse what has already occurred however. Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) seems to be the most important and was linked to plaque reduction in studies done at Harvard in the 1960s but largely ignored since cholesterol even then was the item. If you have ever heard of homocysteine, that was shown to be the problem and vitamin B6 reduced homocysteine.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Here is how to check the ratio for triglycerides and cholesterol.

 

[Krystal]

@Don Alaska and @Yvonne Smith, thank you so much for your input. This is what was always so great about the senior forum, which I miss. We can ask questions and get honest answers from people who have experience or knowledge about something which gives us something to mull over to try and make good decisions for ourselves.

My husband has always balked on taking cholesterol pills. Yet, any doctor that he went to over the years, tells him he must take them because his cholesterol is too high, which his is 285. Out of respect, he always listens to what the doctor has to say because he wants to live and be healthy for as long as he can. I think we have done a pretty good job of staying healthy so far without any drugs. We eat the exact same foods, and my total cholesterol and other lipid numbers have always been very good, but his doesn’t seem to budge.

 

[Don Alaska]

While I don't necessarily agree with everything in this video, most of it is very true and good information for many. He makes no allowances for age or disability however, so if you have issues there, please read with an eye on that.

 

[Hedi M]

Sigh, once again, if you like it it will kill you- so they say. Moderation is key. However some people make too much on their own and that is a problem. I knew someone who weighed 400 lbs,, no cholesterol problem at all. People often think size is the issue but not so.