Question for Dr M- we have increased our olive oil intake but my husband takes a statin and wonders if that would cancel the benefits of the olive oil? Should he revisit his GP?

I’m not sure that’s how this site works.

My suggestion would be to see the GP as the answer would, I guess, depend on your husband’s medical history and the nature and dosage of his statins.

I would suggest you google statins and look at the do’s and don’ts, I take statins. I believe that oils have no effects on statins themselves but might help reduce cholesterol levels in which case your doctor might, eventually, be able to reduce the amount taken. I know most doctors in the UK swear by statins and my doctor there had me on 60mg. When I came to France my doctor told me that 40mg is the maximum dose allowed. Then I started to get really bad leg cramps, the kind that send you screaming around the bedroom in the middle of the night. My doctor stopped my statins immediately, when I said it is only muscle cramps he said, yes but the heart is a muscle too. After 6 months my cholesterol was back up to its old level of around 11. and doc put me back on a 20mg dose and I have been okay with that, cholesterol went back down to just under normal, then I started this diet and my cholesterol is down to 3.2. Doctor does not want to stop statins as he is worried that I eat butter and cheese now as well as the good oils and he is doing another test when I have my next HbA1c. Hopefully, all will be okay.

I have removed the part about not eating grapefruit, I was getting confused with my Blood Pressure medication.

My husband takes a Statin drug and it works well in bringing down his cholesterol level. Several years ago we tried a low carb diet for a short time – all meat with its fat and bone marrow, and vegetable slow-cooked casseroles with no potatoes, and his check-up saw the nurses delightedly exclaiming that whatever he was doing he should continue doing because his cholesterol had improved even more than they would have expected from just taking the Statin. But his cholesterol was low and I wondered whether it was necessary to get it even lower. We returned to eating ‘normal’ amounts of starchy carbs and carby treats and continued fattier cuts of meat, plus cream with raspberries (now and again), and his cholesterol went up – not very high but higher than it had been, so the Statin dose was increased… shock, horror!! So now I err on the side of caution in encouraging him to eat ‘more healthily’. I’m hedging my bets on a lowish but not non-existent carbs ‘diet’, favouring unrefined carbs, with not too much fat and protein, but enough, and using a little butter rather than cholesterol reducing spreads, plus extra-virgin olive oil, and avocados now and again. We’re not perfect, but I feel that a lower carb way of eating is more sustainable than oscillating between very low or no-carbs to carb fests, and back again, as we’re inclined to do. I hope that we can control our blood sugars and appetites better this way (as far as I know neither of us has diabetes). The difficult part is providing some packed lunches during the week. I’m not an early riser on the whole, and it feels like hard work. But I guess it will be worth it.

Michaelmas daisy, I have just been looking back over my results since starting this plan and they were Feb 2015 total/HDL chol 4.1, Aug 2016 total/HDL chol 3.7 – triglycerides Feb 2015 1.50, Aug 2016 1.21 – 1.50 is the top of normal and it had been higher at 1.87 in August 2015 with my cholesterol at 4.8. I normally get cholesterol checked yearly but my doctor is worried because I tell him I eat butter and full fat cheese etc so he is sending me for another test when I have my next HbA1c in March.

It is not the fat that causes the cholesterol problems it is the starchy carbs. I am doing a course of The Science of Nutrition and the carbs give the liver a heck of a lot of work (nearly as bad as alcohol) and that raises the triglycerides. I am hoping to learn more about eating good fats although it is still not recommended to eat fatty fat from meat or skin on chicken, just lean meats and good oils.

My doctor says the margarine with statins are just a good marketing ploy and the fact it is in margarine makes it high is chemicals and fats so is like trying to put a fire out by pouring petrol on it.

Hi Sunshine-girl, Thanks for your reply – I wonder why doctors are still worried about eating butter and cheese when the advice seems now to be that full-fat dairy products are okay. I now get Kerrygold butter because it’s made from the milk of grass-fed cows, and we try to always get good cheese rather than highly processed cheese such as cheese ‘strings’ and so on. I bought a book recently, Eat Fat Get Thin, by Dr Mark Hyman (an MD), who also goes with the idea that carbohydrates, especially refined ones, and sugar, are what drive increased cholesterol, or triglycerides. Sadly these are the carbohydrates that underpin our Western diet and make so much of eating pleasurable. On holiday in France I noted that bread from many bakeries, as opposed to supermarkets, seemed somehow of better quality, yet I visited a traditional flour mill, and the best flour was very finely ground white..! I think the French use a sourdough starter in some of their bread and perhaps a slower method of production, but don’t know for certain. While on holiday I ate their bread and butter (a little rather than a lot), the odd patisserie cake, plus whatever I fancied from salad vegetables, small new potatoes, yoghurt, smoked salmon, and cold meats, and wine, and came home with a much flatter abdomen just a week later. I was walking around a lot though.

Sunshine-girl – what an interesting course. It’s good to hear that your cholesterol is so good on this way of eating. Sometimes I do get a bit spooked by the eat saturated fat and get sky high cholesterol message so it is good to see your results.

Hi,
It’s great to find a group that are looking at cholesterol levels as well. I’ve just started the blood sugar diet but can’t do 800 cals daily due to medications I take. With my doctor’s permission I’ve reduced carbs right down and have heaps of veg and about 2 fruit serves a day along with a small amount of protein like nuts and some meat. I’m also gradually increasing my water intake as well. I’m averaging around 1300 cals per day at the moment.
With a cholesterol of 10 and a serious addiction to carbs I’m on a mission to get this under control. My dr will run another test in 3 months time.
sunshine-girl I’m very interested to read about your Science of Nutrition course and the effect of carbs on your liver and cholesterol levels.
I’m finding the diet very satisfying and think I could maintain this quite easily overly time.

Hi there, anyone can do the course just log onto http://www.Futurelearn.com and search through the courses. Any that have already started you can join at any time. All the courses are free. I have done The Diabetes Epidemic and now The Science of Nutrition. Today it was the ideal plate of food, i.e. the chart that shows you the proportion of carbs, proteins etc. They are still using the old one rather than the Australian model which has fruit and veg as the largest portion with cereals and other carbs further up the scale and eating less of. I just have to accept that not everyone would find BSD ideal.

Michaelmas daisy I think my doctor is worried about butter and cheese because he thinks maybe I am eating loads. Truth is, if a cant have bread or potatoes I have nothing to put the butter on but I do use a bit for cooking, but mainly prefer rapeseed oil. I can sometimes eat cheese too often (I brought 2kg of Cheddar back from UK but it is to last until May) so I have to watch myself. I think he is just being cautious. I am just glad he is taking this seriously and looking out for me. Lets hope my good results continue. I will be tested 1st week in March.

There’s a part of me says that if you are eating say 800-1000 calories a day then even if a larger proportion is fat, it is still a relatively small amount in absolute terms.

My experience is that, despite butter, cream and cheese, my cholesterol has consistently dropped on BSD, so there may be something in the theories that there is no automatic or direct link between dietary fat and blood cholesterol.

Just found these articles on cholesterol that were interesting:

http://cholesterolcode.com/a-simple-guide-to-cholesterol-on-low-carb-part-i/

http://cholesterolcode.com/a-simple-guide-to-cholesterol-on-low-carb-part-ii/
Linda

Hi everyone, I’m enjoying reading where everyone is at on this. sunshine-girl and LindaA I’ll get over to those sites and start reading. Thanks for the tips.