Cholesterol 2024: Part 3

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I had a shock when I tested my cholesterol level: it went through the roof! Total cholesterol and LDL were significantly higher than 6 and 4 respectively, benchmarks that was set by the doctor, given my lifestyle and assessed low comorbidity risk. In fact, those were the highest so far. Yikes.

My immediate thought was to purchase artovastatin on the same day I got the results but later I thought maybe I didn't fast long enough (should be at least 10 hours) and therefore tainted by the two walnuts that I ate late at night. However, my sister pointed out that walnuts supposed to lower cholesterol, not increase it. The other possibility was what I had 4 days earlier during an outing with friends: had a sweet drink (forgot to ask for less sugar) and a slice of cake but I'm not sure.

Since this was a significant abberation, I retested 3 days later. The good news was that both total cholesterol and LDL dropped significantly (more than 10%) but they were still higher than the customised benchmarks, albeit only slightly. 

Given that I didn't do anything that would have affected my lifestyle or diet significantly during these 3 days, I decided to retest it in 7 days later i.e. 10 days after the first test but this time, there was hardly any difference.

Here are the results compared to 4 months ago in May 2024:

                                May 2024      Sep 2024      Sep +3 days      Sep +10 days          Ref
Total cholesterol           5.3                 7.1                6.3                      6.2                   <5.2
HDL ("good")              1.61               1.90              1.75                    1.53                  >1.04
LDL ("bad")                 3.2                 4.7                4.2                      4.3                   < 2.6
Triglycerides                 1.1                1.0                0.8                       0.9                   <1.7
Total/HDL ratio            3.3                 3.7                3.6                      4.1                   < 5.0                   
Non-HDL                     3.7                 5.2                4.6                      4.7                    <3.4 

I decided to consult the doctor who suggested the customised benchmarks to me. 

The doctor ignored the first Sep test result since it was clearly an outlier when compared to the latter two that had similar results. Hence, she just compared "Sep +3 days" with "May 2024". She asked many questions, such as:

  • What did I eat to cause the jump in LDL? I don't know. I didn't change my diet or my lifestyle.
  • Do I eat red meat? Pork but that's like 20-25% of the time. Beef: about 5% of the time. Chicken: about half the time and the remainder is fish. She asked me to cut down on pork, which was why I avoided it for lunch but I just came across a research article which states "Substantial evidence from recent studies shows that lean red meat trimmed of visible fat does not raise total blood cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels." That suits me since I go for lean pork and beef. Regardless, I'll still try to minimise eating red meat.
  • How many times do I cook at home? 4x a week, all cooked healthily. Chicken breast meat and fresh salmon. Fresh salad without dressing. Stir-fried vegetables. Used olive oil.
  • Do I exercise? Yes, 6x a week. 15 mins in the morning of light-to-moderate exercise and 30 mins of moderate-to-vigorous exercise in late afternoon or at night.

She said that it's quite likely it's genetic, which I readily agreed because my dad was the same case: eat healthily, exercise 3x a day and yet still need to take cholesterol medicine.

The doctor pointed out my high HDL, which partly contributed to the elevated total cholesterol. The  Total/HDL ratio is good. Also, there is now awareness of not having too low cholesterol. 

If I want, I can take medicine at the lowest dose, 3x a week. However, I chose the other option: just continue what I've been doing (the above) and retest in 3 months time, an option that the doctor said it very doable for me. Good luck to me!

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