My cholestrol is high and bad cholestrol is very bad. The Doctor put me on Me****r and I was on it for a few days and get a really bad pain in my back. I called and told him and he told me to stop taking it. I don't know where to go from here. I am afraid to try something else but I am also worried over how high it is. I have to see him in a few weeks. Any suggestions? Molly Mc

It certainly won't hurt to make whatever applicable lifestyle changes that might lower your cholesterol. They include (but aren't limited to) quitting smoking, getting regular daily vigorous exercise, losing weight, cutting out white flour and sugar, cutting way way back on saturated and trans fats and substituting unsaturated, cutting back on the total fat your diet, even drinking a glass of red wine a day. Eat lots of fruits and vegetable and leave all pastries in the store. Choose fish and chicken over red meat and dont' eat fried food. Investigate possible nutritional supplements such as those with plant sterols and stanols in them. There are otherthings you might do. Choose links from the "patients" section of this website from National Institutes of Health to get specifics.
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/cholesterol/

Good luck.

Molly --

What are your actual cholesterol numbers? My total chol. is "high" too at 257 and LDL is high at 161. But...my trigs are quite low and HDL is generally in the 90's.

I got sick of hearing from my internist year after year about how I should take a statin because of the total chol. and the LDL, so I asked my cardiologist, who disagreed with my internist and said I probably DIDN'T need a statin. Cardiologist said "go get a calcium scan of the heart" if you want to know what's going on with you. He said "If you find out you DO have calcium in those arteries, THEN you can take the statin. Otherwise, why subject yourself to it unnecessarily?"

Well, my EBCT scan result revealed ZERO calcium in heart arteries so no statin for me at this time. I am female, age 55.

I recommend the following "diet": "everything in moderation!"

Also, I do eat a very high fiber cereal every single morning (with small amount of non-fat or soy milk). I allow myself a few cookies a day and I LOVE dark chocolate, which everyone says is a good thing for us. Too much puts on the pounds, which is not so good, but it doesn't wreck the arteries.

Make sure to get enough exercise; in my case that just means a brisk 30 minute walk nearly every day because I have a bad back and can't do other exercises.

I also drink a lot of decaf green tea and chamomile tea and some plain old decaf black tea; take a multiple vitamin, take just 200 mg extra niacin per day; an aspirin a day; and milk thistle and soy lecithin capsules to protect the liver from various toxins.

Oh... and I drink a very small amount of red wine (preferably pinot noir) several nights per week with my meal. Red wine (or most alcohol for that matter but red wine is best) raises the good chol., the HDL.

Try to stay away from too much red meat (I like tuna and salmon, and mostly just eat the packaged variety), stay away from too many fried foods, and go easy on the carbs as found in white flour pasta, potatoes, etc. A little is fine -- just don't go crazy. Try to use wheat flour as opposed to white flour products for the most part.

Try to eat more veggies and some fruits. I love green salad and toss in carrots and tuna or salmon and green beans. I can't stand low or non-fat salad dressings so use the real thing, sparingly! Interestingly, many experts have figured out that the full-fat salad dressings mix very well with the veggies in a salad and the body gets more nutrients as a result. Again, moderation is key.

As for cheese; I recommend very tiny amounts of cheese if you absolutely must have it. I am not a big dairy fan so never eat ice cream, cheese or drink whole milk.

For lunch I eat a whole wheat English muffin with about a teaspoon of low-fat peanut butter on it. Peanut butter and avocado are excellent in moderation, too, because they contain the "good cholesterol" our bodies need.

Above all, DON'T SMOKE.

That's it! Portion size is VERY important as well. As indicated above, I'm curious about your breakdown of chol. numbers. I think we all have to be in charge of our own health and while I KNOW statins are good drugs for those who really need them, for those of us who don't currently need them, it's well worthwhile to know that.