How were you able to successfully maintain good cholesterol levels without statins?

For some people, having high cholesterol is genetic.

I have good cholesterol and I don’t eat a lot of meat.

I have friends that take medication for their cholesterol and they take that as an invitation to eat whatever they want, which can’t be good for you.

Not possible for me. Also my mix of cholesterol LDL and HDL was more of a problem then just high cholesterol, 190 for cholesterol but bad cholesterol was very high. Only statins can control that.

The other thing is to get your BMI under 22, controls both A1C and lipids, using a low carb and low fat diet .

Mediterranean diet like this https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/16037-mediterranean-diet. may help !

I am not a a doctor or dietitian!

Eating relatively healthily, and getting some (if not usually much) exercise, worked for about 50 years.

Note that eating rich food in the week before taking a blood test, can have a huge effect on the cholesterol levels the test will show.

I don’t eat out much, I never eat fast food, limited snacks, I only use quality oils such as real olive oil (the cheap stuff is fake*, and I take a lot of antioxidants. My cholesterol is fantastic.

For some people, having high cholesterol is genetic.

Some people like me! My apologies for not answering the question, but I was unable to maintain good cholesterol levels without statins. Statins are probably keeping me alive.

I have been watching my cholesterol for 30+ years. It was always very high, regardless of my eating and exercise habits. It’s genetic. My family tree is full of people who died relatively young of heart disease.

Four years ago I had a heart attack. Since then, statins have kept my cholesterol low. If I had started them 10 years earlier I would not have suffered the heart attack.

^^I’m sincerely grateful for statins now. It made it possible for you to post a great answer to my inquiry.

Outside of changing your genes it might not be possible. But eating smartly (all things in moderation), avoiding a lot of things like breads high fat items, and getting plenty of exercise and you should be able to control much of it.

I was blessed with good genes from my mom’s side. At 63 I take no medications (other than the occasional ibuprofen or Tums) and always have a good report card from my blood work. When something gets a little out of kilter, I can usually point to one of the aforementioned things that I am starting to do too much or too little of