Cholesterol

Experiences
1

I have an heridatary condition that gives me freakishly high cholesterol levels. I was first tested 20 years ago when I was in my early 40’s and had levels in the high teens and the mix of good and bad cholesterol was the wrong way round. My triglycerides were measured at 50 compared with recommended levels of between 1-2. I briefly tried statins and similar but didn’t get on with them but found if I lived on the blandest of diets I could drive the levels down to around eight.

Eventually I gave up on that and figured that with my lifestyle (high levels of training and competitive sport combined with sensible diet, non-smoker and non-drinker) my body would naturally cope with higher than recommended levels of cholesterol.

A little over a year ago I started using Huel and and am now 90%+ Huel, topped up with limited amounts of other foodstuffs, bananas and peanut butter and a traditional meal maybe once a month.

I had my cholesterol tested last week for the first time in maybe ten years and assumed it would have drifted up. It was 4.9, the lowest I have ever had. I am going to have it tested again to get a split of HDL and LDL and a triglyceride reading, but on the face of it the reading looks good and apart from maintaining a healthy sports based lifestyle to the extent that diet has contributed, Huel must take credit for that.

Has anyone else had similar or conflicting experiences?

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2

Nothing surprising. Everyone who gets on a plant-based diet has a reduction in cholesterol levels towards physiologically healthy range, and we’ve known this for over 30 years. Blame your doctors for not telling you.

I would be interested in more detailed information about your cholesterol levels, and please include the units.

For reference, normal physiological levels of LDL-C for humans are around 50 mg/dL or 1.3 mmol/L or lower.

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Really glad to hear that @scorling! Hope it stays that way :slight_smile:

4

Three months on I have finally had a full set of blood tests. Cholesterol was even lower at 4.6 and triglycerides a very impressive 1.6. The breakdown of the cholesterol was HDL 1.1 mmol/L and non HDL 3.5 mmol/L, so all on the right side of recommended targets.

The only disappointing reading was iron, which was 9 umol/L against a recommended range of 10.6 - 28.3. Looks like I might need a supplement to add to the Huel.

My metabolic age came out at 48 which is flattering for someone of 63 but I deserve some reward for training 20 hours a week

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