cholesterol

whats your cholesterol level? i had some blood tests and mines 5.2 ive been told to cut out the fatty foods dam thats everything i enjoy eating

3.6

4.2

Quite conscious of it as my dad died of a heart attack at 51 whilst on the heart op list.

7 point something
I eat healthily, am a vege & dont eat that much fat & am pretty trim (albeit rather heavy), even if I say so myself.
Apparently it can be hereditary

i dont know, and dont really want to know either.

Diet can make a huge difference with cholesterol (as can exercise), but some people will always have a high cholesterol, and some people will never be high. As kwak said, there's a major hereditary component.

Reduce other risk factors as well as looking after the diet (smoking , excess alcohol , exercise etc), and taking any meds recommended by your GP, and you stand in reasonable stead for something other than a heart attack killing you

[Bluepete]

So, how do you find out? Doctor reccomend the test or is there an over the counter thingumagig?

i had blood tests but you can buy something to do it yourself.

Beware the DIY tests, whilst they measure the cholesterol, they usually miss out the HDL:LDL ratio (two different types of fat). If the ratio is wrong, it's the same effect as having a raised cholesterol (works the other way round too).

If you have some reason to think you might be at risk (overweight, family history, diabetes, personal history) a routine visit to the GP is prob best.

There's all sorts of reasons why it's not routinely checked, the biggest of which is price.

My what? :P