OF HIGH CHOLESTEROL
I FEEL LIKE A TICKING TIME BOMB
kes, biscuits and hard eeses. Try swapping ese for foods that contain saturated fats, including y fish such as mackerel d salmon, nuts, nflower and pumpkin eds and avocados. Heart K lls these foods holesterol busters”. Grilling, poaching and eaming your foods instead roasting or frying can o help. Adults should also aim for least 30g of fibre a day, as gh-fibre foods such as holemeal bread, fruit and getables and potatoes th their skins on can help wer cholesterol. An active lifestyle can also lp. Doing just 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity every week can improve your cholesterol levels. Moderate aerobic activity means you’re working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break into a sweat. Another way to tell if you’re reaching this goal is if you can still talk but cannot sing the words to a song. If, however, diet and exercise will not improve cholesterol levels due to it being an inherited condition , statins will be prescribed by a GP. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is still encouraged but statins are offered to people who have been or who are likely to be diagnosed within 10 years, with coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease. Stopping smoking and reducing your alcohol intake can also help lower cholesterol levels. WELLNESS coach Emma Print, 39, from Essex, says people are shocked when she says she has life-threatening high cholesterol. T 5ft 6in and weighing just 7st 7lb, Emma says: “I see a look of confusion on people’s faces when I tell them about my cholesterol. I often say I’m a fat person trapped inside a skinny person’s body – that’s the best way for me to get it through to them.
“It’s because people often associate high cholesterol with obesity and a bad diet.
“But the truth is, as much as I eat healthily and exercise – I’m even a health and wellness transformation coach – the only way I can try to stay alive is by taking statins.”
Although Emma is just 39, having familial hypercholesterolemia – inherited high cholesterol – means she is at a constant risk of having a stroke or developing heart disease.
“I’ve been eating healthily and having a low-fat diet since I was 11, when my dad, Ron, was told he had high cholesterol. He was 63 then and 19 years older than my mum, Jean,” she says. “So after that, our diet was extremely healthy. I was always skinny and into sports too.”
But when Emma was 23, her then boyfriend’s dad, who was a GP, tested her cholesterol levels and found they were high.
“So I went to my own doctor and told him but he told me I had no need to worry, that I shouldn’t be concerned until I was in my 50s,” she remembers. “And as I knew, I led a healthy lifestyle, I didn’t.” UT then in 2013 Jean passed away suddenly. “My husband Gavin and I were on holiday in Canada when I got the call,” Emma remembers. “My mother had had a heart attack and died.”
Suddenly, high cholesterol was back at the forefront of her mind. “I had no idea if mum had it too but she was only 66 when she died, so it was possible,” Emma says.
She went for genetic testing and found she had familial hypercholesterolemia.
“My levels were three times the maximum they should be,” she says. She started taking statins straight away. “The fact I was thin and healthy didn’t matter. Only statins could try to control the high cholesterol.”
She began having regular ECGs and scans. “But essentially I’m a ticking time bomb,” Emma says. “I’m far more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than anyone else. Whenever I have any pains, it’s so scary.”
Emma’s dad passed away in 2016 from a pulmonary embolism, aged 89.
“I miss my parents dreadfully,” she says. “Having children would be something I’d consider, but my inherited cholesterol is one of the reasons Gavin and I haven’t had them.”
However Emma says she’s determined to live life to the full. “I can’t let it overshadow me,” she smiles.
“I’m a Heart UK ambassador and the work they do is vital. We’d like a simple test for babies.
“If they have very high cholesterol it would suggest they have the inherited gene but it could be managed from a younger age,” she says.
“I’m proof it doesn’t mean the end of a normal life – it just means adjusting it.”