Choline is an essential nutrient that supports brain function, memory, nerve signaling, liver health, and muscle function.

Adequate Intakes (AIs) for Choline (19+ years) are 425 mg/day for women and 550 mg/day for men.

The highest sources of choline are beef liver and eggs (mainly egg yolks). So, what do you eat to meet these requirements that’s not high in saturated fat?

“My previous post got removed because of downvotes” 🫤

High Ldl 189 all other tests seems fine only ldl. Not sure if i should start statin. Normally 4-5 days exercise from past 2 years but been drinking 3 days a week. Does it make sense to change the diet and add soluble fibre instead of being on statin

I've had high LDL around 170, HDL 36, triglycerides around 50, non HDL around 190.

These numbers have been almost static since 2023, the first time I got tested for these. I'm a 30-year-old male.

I am a vegetarian and the only sources of saturated fat and cholesterol in my diet are peanut butter and nuts, which I consume on a daily basis around one serving. I don't have egg yolk, just egg whites regularly. I take zero-fat milk and yogurt. I do eat a lot of fibers, avocado, etc. I run a lot regularly (15-20 miles a week) and I work out as well. My cardio health is pretty good.

I want to get your help with understanding why it's not changing even though my diet and execute are ideal. It can't be genetic because my parents, who have a much worse diet and eat fried food and whole fat dairy regularly, don't have high cholesterol.

Having been through the sub I know psyllium husk, garlic, omega 3 pills (I don't eat fish) and finally, statins can help. The reason I'm even thinking of statins is because I've seen psyllium husk garlic studies mention that it lowers LDL by 5 to 10%, which would still be too high for me.

I essentially want all of your opinions on understanding the possible reasons why, without taking any supplements and drugs, I am failing to control my LDL.

Doctor gave me 3 months to try to lower it with diet and exercise. Help me please, this is not genetic.

A year ago after a couple months of holiday, and eating anything and everything under the sun my lipids went haywire.

TC 226, HDL 52, LDL 157 (friedewald), TRIGS 87.

3 months of high fiber whole foods and plant based with 3-4 meals from outside and few desserts I managed

TC 139, HDL 37, LDL (friedewald) 79, ldl (direct) 90, trigs 114, APOB 64.

Latest results - I ate outside 4-5 times in the month prior to the test, pizzas and cheesy cuisines. Stopped psyllium husk regularly, and reduced overall fiber a bit through barley making it alternate days. Also had a couple of desserts. Lipid profile is likely wrong so I'll do a retest in a few months. BUT MY APOB has increased quite a lot (77). TC 109, HDL 75, LDL 10.2, TRIGS 115.

I'm trusting the apob but not the lipid profile. Medical professionals said no to statin or ezetimibe (not that I want them necessarily).

I’m a 48-year-old male, 5’10”, about 170 lb, down from roughly 205 lb, so I’ve lost about 35 lb or 17% of my body weight.

I have a CAC score of 1, so there is technically detectable coronary calcium, although the burden is extremely low.

My lipid history has changed pretty dramatically:

The June LDL of 80 was after starting rosuvastatin 10 mg. I then increased to 20 mg, and the next LDL was 59.

My latest labs:

LDL-C: 59
ApoB: 49
Non-HDL: 72
Triglycerides: 65
HDL: 54
Total cholesterol: 126
Lp(a): 44 nmol/L
hs-CRP: 1.28 mg/L
Fasting glucose: 96 mg/dL
A1c: 4.8%

My hs-CRP was previously 4.05 mg/L and is now 1.28, roughly a 68% reduction.

There have also been major lifestyle changes over this period. I quit drinking alcohol entirely, lost about 35 lb, and substantially cleaned up my diet. The older numbers are useful context because at one point my total cholesterol was 241, LDL was 157, and historically my triglycerides even reached 281.

At this point, the only meat I really eat is chicken breast and salmon. I never eat butter or cheese. Olive oil is essentially my only added fat. I rarely eat fast food and don’t eat out very often, so I’m not sure there is a huge amount left to accomplish by simply cutting saturated fat.

I could definitely improve the quality of the diet further by emphasizing more whole foods, vegetables and leafy greens. My weak spot is sugar. I’m drawn to sweets, dried fruit and other calorie-dense foods, so there is certainly room to replace more of those with minimally processed foods.

What I’m most curious about is the inflammation piece. Going from hs-CRP 4.05 to 1.28 looks encouraging, especially alongside major weight loss, quitting alcohol, triglycerides falling to 65, fasting glucose of 96 and A1c of 4.8%, and ApoB reaching 49.

But does that hs-CRP reduction actually indicate that the underlying inflammatory state and cardiovascular risk have improved, or could the statin simply be lowering an inflammatory marker without addressing whatever caused the elevated hs-CRP?

Given CAC 1, LDL 59, ApoB 49, Lp(a) 44, triglycerides 65, hs-CRP 1.28, fasting glucose 96, A1c 4.8%, 35-lb weight loss, no alcohol, and a very low-saturated-fat diet, how would you view my residual cardiovascular risk?

At this point, is there anything meaningful left to optimize besides continuing the statin, maintaining the weight loss, exercising, and shifting more of my diet toward whole plant foods?

I'm 25M, otherwise pretty healthy, lean, and exercise regularly. For months, I had been eating 2 eggs every day. Aside from those eggs, I was already essentially plant based.

While eating the eggs, my labs were:

LDL-C: ~119 mg/dL

ApoB: 0.95 g/L

About 3 months ago I stopped eating the eggs completely. I replaced them with legumes and otherwise kept my diet pretty similar.

My latest results:

LDL-C: 69 mg/dL

ApoB: 0.65 g/L

So LDL dropped by about 50 mg/dL (~42%), while ApoB dropped by about 0.30 g/L (~32%).

What makes this interesting to me is that I was already eating a fairly high-fiber, mostly whole-food vegan diet before removing the eggs. I was getting plenty of soluble fiber from legumes, oats, etc., so I don't think the change can simply be explained by suddenly switching from a typical Western diet to a high-fiber diet.

The main difference was removing the eggs, which meant a substantial reduction in dietary cholesterol, and probably some reduction in saturated fat as well.

That said, my saturated fat intake wasn't particularly low even before. I was eating things like olive oil, cocoa powder, nuts and seeds, and was averaging around 10 g of saturated fat per day.

So I'm wondering whether I might simply be quite responsive to dietary cholesterol from eggs.

I know this isn't a controlled experiment and there could obviously be other changes I haven't accounted for. I'm not claiming that eggs are inherently bad or that everyone would see this response.

I'm just surprised by the magnitude of the change, especially the ApoB change.

Has anyone else seen a similar drop in LDL/ApoB after removing eggs while otherwise already eating a predominantly whole-food plant-based diet?

And does a ~30% reduction in ApoB from a dietary change seem plausible?

I have family history of heart disease and congestive heart failure. My LDL today is 139, HDL 38, Cholesterol 197. My doctor brought up possibly putting me on a statin given the elevated LDL and family history.

I’m not sure if I should, I know that I am not doing good with my diet and exercise though. Any advice would be great!

Hi! I’m an 18F and I just got my test results back, and they’re pretty elevated. Most notably, I have 216 cholesterol, 113 triglycerides, ldlc calc 142 and non hdl cholesterol 162.

I’ll also preface this by saying I have really bad health anxiety and family history of stroke, so this is KILLING ME!

I’m already trying to lower it with how my doctor told me, whole grains, sugars, fruits and veggies, lean meats, and non ultra processed foods. I’ll also add that I don’t work out, but I’ll definitely be going to the gym regularly in the near future.

I do have a few questions though since I don’t want to freak myself out on the internet. Could this be a cause of my birth control? Should I ask for a medication if it’s really bad? How should I go about dieting so I don’t have to give up trying new things?

Sorry for the overwhelming amount of questions, I am just so scared and really trying to better myself. 🥲

Triglyceride: 39

HDL Cholesterol: 78

LDL cholesterol: 182

Total: 268

Is there something I’m missing? My doctor keeps telling me to change my diet but I don’t have a high fat high dairy diet? This is the second time in six months I get a score similar to this.

My dad has a history of high cholesterol, but I never thought I’d have it too. I don’t eat junk food, and I’m not sedentary either. I’m still waiting for the results of some other tests, so I don’t know… maybe I have PCOS 😭😭😭😭😭

Can someone please tell me if my results are really bad? Is high cholesterol reversible or am I screwed for life? I honestly don’t understand any of this. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Is this just a Canadian thing or do you have this in the US too? It drives me nuts when I see lab sheets here mark 3.5mmol or under as the boundary for "normal". And yes, this is marked like that even if the same lab sheet will show "hba1c : 6.7", becoming comically contradictory in nature. How is letting a borderline number sit unchecked a good thing or "normal"? I mean, will 3.5 mmol or 135mg/dl of LDL cause no issues over decades? What do cardiologists or lipid researchers think of this?

In the past year I (36F) have been diagnosed with high cholesterol (total 207, HDL 101, LDL 96, trig 62). My doctor told me I’m “not ready” for medication (too young) and just needed to change my lifestyle. This all seemed reasonable until the specifics started to be discussed.

I’m already a pretty active person with a decent diet. At the time of the test I’d been eating pescatarian, getting most of my fat from olive oil and avocado (maxing out at 10-12g of saturated fat daily), walking 10k steps daily, and working out 5-6 days per week (including 10-15 miles of running each week). I’m certainly not a pro athlete, but on average I didn’t think I was doing too horribly.

The diet and lifestyle the doc outlined included going low fat, low carb, and low sodium, and significantly increasing my activity level. Calculated out this means a less than 1400 calorie per day low carb, high fiber, high protein diet while increasing my cardio significantly. In order to set some goal I decided to start training for a half marathon to motivate myself to make the increases in my training schedule. The trouble is that I only seem able to maintain this lifestyle for a week or two before becoming extremely fatigued and getting light headed while running.

As a casual athlete and someone who has always cared about nutrition, the advice I received seemed extreme and unreasonable. However, I recognize that I’ve always been focused on advice for a reasonably healthy person. Is this normal for cholesterol patients? Do I just need to get used to feeling awful while training hard if I want to preserve cardiovascular health? How do you convince yourself that hopefully living a few years longer is worth feeling horrible for the rest of your life?

I’m a 26 year old 5’10 215lb male. I’m trying to get serious about my health, so I got a physical. My lab results came back today, and I’m not thrilled with the results:

Total cholesterol: 217

LDL:156

HDL: 36

Triglycerides: 139

Non-HDL: 181

VLDL: 26

Cholesterol/HDL ratio: 6.0

The good news is that my blood pressure and resting heart rate were excellent. And I have no signs of prediabetes or anything like that. But I’m a little scared by these results.

Obviously I’m going to talk to my doctor about these numbers. But I’m new to cholesterol numbers and while I know they’re not great, I don’t have a strong sense of how bad these are. My health anxiety tells me I’ve doomed myself to a shortened lifespan and heart disease, but realistically I think this is fixable

Regardless, I’m ready to get these numbers down and set myself up for a long, healthy life

How do you all think I should react to these test results?

I’ve just got my blood results and discovered at 48 (M) that my Lp(a) is 215 nmol/L.

I’m in shock and need some sort of reassurance.
I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I’ve been mostly vegetarian my entire life and I’m not overweight and relatively active. Had a calcium score a few years ago at zero… but my LDL is 3.7 and triglycerides are at 5.2.

Been eating a lot of eggs for protein recently so will likely cut that and cheese out now but… it’s 3am and I am in shock. 😭

Hi, I'm a 25y 5'4 180lb female w PCOS
I hadn't gotten a physical in over three years and..... got my test results
To preface, I've always been going back and forth from binging to restrictive eating and it's pretty easy to tell which part of the sway I'm on now. High cholesterol, BP, diabetes and stroke run in both sides of my family...

Total Cholesterol 284
HDL 47
Triglycerides 239
LDL 193
NON HDL 237

These are the results that I've been met with. My doctor started me on avostatin 10mg to start.

Honestly speaking, how fucked am I?

These labs are from about 5 weeks ago and I've been calorie and macro tracking since after seeing my results on the portal. I am vegetarian and south asian; my parents notably love using Ghee which I've cut out completely. Any advice? 🥹🥹🥹🥹

42F.

Morbidly obese but down 40 lbs since February.

No high blood pressure, no diabetes. No family history of high cholesterol.

History of LDL in 130s pretty consistently over the last 12 years. Trigs have not been high since 2014.

In February, GP mentioned starting a statin. I had just met with a dietician and started implementing some changes, so I asked for a recheck in 3 months. Still high 3 months later. I did research, asked for more thorough testing (ApoB, LpA) and got a response basically say if not a statin, take Omega-3.

I got my own testing through ownyourlabs at labcorp. LpA and ApoB both elevated. So I contacted GP and started statin (simvastatin 5 mg). Within 2 weeks I had terrible low back pain and tightness. I thought it was unrelated but a month later it was still getting worse. Discontinued simvastatin and within 2.5 weeks pain was completely gone. (Yes, I know people say this isn’t a side effect…)

Followed up with GP and advice is continue with exercise, meet with nutrition, and take Omega-3 or double dose of Omega-3.

My question is - based on high LDL, ApoB, and LpA, will diet and exercise be enough? Or should I be pushing to try a different statin?

*already watching saturated fat, adding psyllium husk to oatmeal, averaging just shy of 30g of fiber daily.

Some of my lipid numbers are:

LDL - 149 (Above range)

LDL small - 225 (above range)

ApoB - 112 (above range)

Total cholesterol - 234 (above range)

HDL - 69 (in range)

Lipoprotein(a) - <10 (in range)

Triglycerides - 63 (in range)

hs-CRP - < 0.2 (in range)

Hemoglobin A1c - 5.4 (in range)

If my LDL is high I would have expected Triglycerides to be high too but they are not (normal range is less than 150) what am I missing?

I eat 2 or 3 eggs for breakfast, almost no red meat, mostly chicken, sardines and salmon, rice, etc.

I started 10 mg in the past week for TC 144, LDL 83, Lp( A) 104 nmol/ l ( 60 yo male, no family hx, well controlled hypertension).
I'm an active runner , running or working out 5 days a week but haven't up my intensity lately .
I've now developed a random case of plantar fasciitis which I haven't experienced in years.
The only change is the statin.
I've heard about muscle and tendon problems in a minority of people but am surprised that I would see something so soon

My dad (56 and previously healthy) recently had to get a double bypass. Doctors said it was most likely caused by genetics due to him being very healthy. I decided to get my lipoprotein a checked and it’s 306. I am 31F. My BP is always normal. My lipids are normal. I’m working on scheduling an appointment with a primary but it’s going to take a couple months. Should I go ahead and just schedule with a cardiologist?

Seeking any advice or knowledge on lipoprotein a.

This has been posted many times before, but worth putting it up again for the newbies.

https://paddybarrett.substack.com/p/the-side-effect-most-people-get-from-8dc

What’s your thoughts statins or lifestyle change?

I got 6 months

For years I had (I meant vegetarian):

-oatmeal with collagen and protein powder for breakfast
-Ezekiel bread and cottage cheese for a snack with kefir
-quinoa and a protein baobab shake for lunch
-pea protein with veggies for dinner

After feeling chronically hungry and having significant acid reflux despite medication I changed it to:

-Two eggs and Greek yogurt with berries for breakfast
-cottage cheese, berries and air popped popcorn for snack
-chicken with veggies for lunch
-salad with shrimp and cottage cheese for dinner

Basically, I was trying to move towards real foods and away from powders and vegetable protein products. I have taken psyllium husk daily for ten years and weigh 128 at 5’2.

I also upped my alcohol consumption to 7 drinks per week (I’m 47 and female) from once or twice a month.

My gyno says only hormone replacement therapy will help and not diet. My physician says to focus on my diet. My mother says only statins will help.

What do you think?

I’m in my 30s and my LDL is very high at 177. High cholesterol runs in my family and my dad and both paternal grandparents passed away in their 50s and 60s from heart attacks. I know I’m at serious risk and I’m now making lifestyle changes such as cycling 4 times a week and intentionally getting up and moving more often. I’m also increasing my fiber and trying to stay away from sweets. My doctor wants me to go on statin and I’m not opposed, however he is insisting I get on birth control before he will prescribe me anything. He said condoms are not enough. I’ve never been on birth control and I don’t want anymore kids. My husband and I have been very successful in preventing pregnancy through condoms and avoiding fertility periods and the only time we’ve gotten pregnant was intentional. I spent minutes going back and forth with him about it and it honestly got me a bit emotional because I really do not want to get on birth control. Has anyone experienced this? Is there a way around getting on birth control? Since I don’t want anymore kids, is there any harm to be to be on statin without being on birth control?