Can stress increase cholesterol levels? Any natural ways to reduce cholesterol?
Posted , 11 users are following.
Hi - I was told my cholesterol was too high at the beginning of the year. The total cholesterol was 6.4, Trig 1.1, HDL 2.1 and LDL 3.7. I followed advice given to me by the nurse and improved my diet by drastically cutting back on cheese and sweet treats, have eaten porridge for breakfast most mornings with linseeds and flaxseeds, have increased pulses eating more beans, peas and lentils and stopped smoking 5 months ago. I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables and things like wholemeal bread, pasta and brown rice normally too. I don't drink any alcohol, I'm not overweight and I walk for about 45 minutes every day.
Today I was told my cholesterol levels have gone up!!! They are now total cholesterol 6.5, trig 0.9, HDL 2.2 and LDL 3.9. I really thought the improvements in diet and stopping smoking would reduce it. I have been more stressed since stopping smoking and wondered if the higher stress levels could have anything to do with it going up again. Has high stress levels been mentioned to anyone else as a cause of high cholesterol. I'm really not keen to take statins as I know they have side effects. Does anyone have any suggestions for reducing the cholesterol naturally?
Any advice would be really appreciated.
0 likes, 34 replies
romenica58728 elaine62759
Posted
Same situation for me, my only advise: Statins i am on Rosuvastatin 10 mg and is the only effective method for me
susan40017 elaine62759
Posted
Your lipids have hardly changed. Your triglycerides have gone down, thats good, Don't eat trans fats but have lots of extra vurgin olive oil.
Your HDL has gone up, thats good.
Your LDL has risen marginally but thats not a real issue. About half of our LDL is good and is necessary, so a minor change in your LDL is neither here nor there.
The two lipids that matter are triglycerides that need to stay below 1.5 and HDL needs to remain high so eat lots of eggs. They're a high source of HDL.
elaine62759 susan40017
Posted
I wasn't sure if it was OK to eat eggs or not as I thought they had a natural cholesterol in them which I wasn't sure was good or bad for you. I've read so many mixed reports about them I've only been eating a couple a week so I could maybe eat them more often. Increasing the olive oil is a good idea too. Thanks!!!
susan40017 elaine62759
Posted
Read The Pioppi Diet by Dr Aseem Malhotra, Cardiologist. Its not just about diet, its about a healthy lifestyle. It gives all the research and medical findings to back it up. I'm a nurse so I understand it all but its easy enough for anybody to read and understand. Follow the diet and all the other advice in it. It explains how the original research data was manipulated by the pharmaceutical companies to get us all taking statins. theres enough evidence to suggest that statins can cause cardiovascular disease, which i started with after taking statins for 5 years. Instead of preventing it, statins can cause it. I now eat all the types of food that we've been told not to eat for years. instead of avoiding eggs, i now eat at least 10 eggs per week andim doing ok so far. My GP has agreed to monitor my lipids but ive said that im only interested in the triglycerides and HDL, not the cholesterol.
jen86183 elaine62759
Posted
Oh Elaine, eggs are so good for you, the only food you should avoid is anything pre-packed. Anything with a sell by/use by date has chemicals added. We can cook and freeze anything that is in a packet, jar, tin or frozen. It is going back to the healthy days pre chemically laden foods. It is easier these days with slow cookers, timers on ovens etc.,
Forget your cholesterol, it is not an issue, we need to retrain our brains after nearly 40 years of brainwashing.
elaine62759 susan40017
Posted
I haven't heard of that before so will definitely give it a read. I noticed a bit in a book last night about cholesterol which said that about 20% of the body's total cholesterol is obtained through diet and the body manufactures the rest. It also said that one person in 100 has a genetic predisposition to high cholesterol and that your cholesterol goes up naturally with getting older. It recommends a healthy balanced diet, reducing stress, walking for 30 minutes a day and doing some sort of aerobic exercise 3 times a week. Good for you for doing what you want rather than being forced into taking things you don't want. That's how I want to be!
elaine62759 jen86183
Posted
I'm definitely going to start eating more eggs instead of being silly and restricting myself. I think I've seen so many articles in papers and on TV about different foods being good or bad for you it ends up you don't know what's healthy to eat and what's not. The ' is butter or margarine better for you' another one. My mum has eaten butter all her life and is nearly 80! She eats eggs to but has never had her cholesterol checked. I had mine checked getting a standard full blood count at the doctors and they keep wanting to review it ever since it was a bit high the first time!
jen86183 elaine62759
Posted
Margarine is an artificially made spread therefore not good to eat. Since I have been back using butter, you can taste the chemicals in the spreads. Maybe you should follow your mom's lead, if you stress about eating all the time you will become ill.
Due to the research I have done over the last 3/4 years I cook my own food from scratch and freeze, by doing this there is always something to heat up quickly.
Look at pictures of people from the 1970's back, they were slim and healthy and guess what, the staple diet was bread and potatoes. The poor potato has been much maligned in recent years but, it is an incredible healthy food, full of vitamins and minerals.
A good book to read is Swallow This by Joanne Blythman, she is passionate about food and the chemicals it contains, it opens your eyes.
elaine62759 jen86183
Posted
I make a lot of big pots of soup and freeze them but will try and batch cook and freeze some meals too so I don't have to resort to shop bought things when I'm tired or don't have time to cook. The book sounds really interesting - will have a look at that. Thanks!!!
susan40017 elaine62759
Posted
Weve been told for years that fat makes us fat and all the latest research is telling us that saturated fat is not bad. You need to eat high fat, mostly extra virgin olive oil and oily fish plus saturated fats in moderation but absolutely no vegetable oil or margarine. Lots of veg, some fruit and lots of pulses. But low carbohydrates because it all turns to sugar and is stored in the liver as glycogen, which turns into fat. Its basically a high fat Mediterranean diet. Good luck.
jen86183 susan40017
Posted
Susan,
I am going against government 'advice' because the government only tell you what someone who has a vested interest tells them. Carbohydrates in food have never hurt anyone because they are natural. The problem with today's diets are anything with a sell by/use by date because they are made with chemically made sugars, not naturally occurring sugars. We need sugar, our bodies need sugar but not artificially made sugars. Forget the 'modern' thinking about carbohydrates it is rubbish. This is the problem with brainwashing, it really works. Everyone today is brainwashed about real food hence the problems with the health of our country. Real food is good, processed food is bad.