The UK has one of the highest average cholesterol concentrations in the world, with as many as 66% adults living with higher than recommended blood cholesterol levels. High cholesterol affects your heart and blood vessels and increases your risk of developing cardiovascular disease - the UK's biggest killer.
Read real stories of hypercholesterolemia suffers using help: cholesterol.
Mrs Donnelly, aged 64 from Preston has been taking help:
cholesterol for 6 weeks as part of the Works with Water help: cholesterol
consumer trial. Here is what she had to say:
“I checked my cholesterol at the end of the trial
and was delighted to see a significant reduction. When I first began my
reading was 5.11, having recently checked it now reads between 2.6 and 3.2,
this is after only 6 weeks. I also introduced more exercise and continued
with the prescribed medication from my doctor. A combination of all three
certainly shows good results.”
A healthy weight, slim, active and with no history of
high cholesterol in her family, Pauline had no idea that she was at risk
from heart disease – a risk which, according to the British Heart
Foundation, could make her more susceptible to joining the 103,000 UK
women who suffer heart attacks each year.
In 2004, Pauline, then in her 40s, was diagnosed with
high cholesterol – news that took her totally by surprise.
"My doctor suggested I have a blood test for my
cholesterol when I was having a routine test for my underactive thyroid.
When he told me my reading was 6.4 – much higher than it should
be – I was really surprised, especially as I always thought I was
pretty healthy.”
With a family history of heart disease, increased body
weight, lack of physical activity and poor diet all contributing factors
in developing high cholesterol, Pauline’s diagnosis came out of
the blue as she couldn’t easily apply any of these major risk factors
to her own life. Aware of the dangers however, Pauline set about making
some serious lifestyle changes, to do all she could to get her cholesterol
back down to a healthy level.
“I was already on medication for my underactive
thyroid, so I didn’t want to have to go down the route of statins
and decided to lower my cholesterol some other way.
click to expand
“Diet was the first to change and since my diagnosis
I have cut out cheese, cream, biscuits, crisps and cake in particular,
but I also made an effort to examine the fat content of most of the
food products I purchased. It was quite an eye opener to carefully read
the labels on many supermarket items, only to discover that they are
really quite unhealthy. Despite being relatively active anyway, I made
a more concerted effort to exercise and now swim every other day and
visit the gym once or twice a week – and I feel great for it.”
Through these positive lifestyle changes, Pauline not
only started to see a reduction in her cholesterol levels, but through
regular exercise she also minimised her stress levels, known to be associated
with improved mental and physical wellbeing, and more recently, has
even been linked to a decreased risk of heart attacks.
However, in February 2009 her father was diagnosed with
terminal cancer and Pauline was not able to maintain her healthy eating
regime and exercise programme. As a result her cholesterol levels began
to creep back up, from 4.9 all the way to 5.6.
“It was a really frustrating time for me as I’d been trying
so hard and I started to wonder whether I’d ever be able to maintain
my cholesterol at a healthy level. But, then my daughter mentioned a
product she’d heard of called help: cholesterol. She told me it
was natural supplement and made with barley beta-glucans, a ‘super-ingredient’
of sorts. I read up on the ingredient and discovered that various clinical
studies have shown it is effective in lowering blood cholesterol levels
among those suffering from mild hypercholesterolaemia – so of
course I wanted to give it a go.”
In just four weeks of taking help: cholesterol, Pauline’s
reading had gone down from 5.6 to 5.0 and she was thrilled.
“I was so impressed with help: cholesterol, especially
as I could see such a drop in my readings in such a short space of time.
My advice to others like me would be, get your hands on this product
and combine it with a low fat diet (where possible!) and exercise and
you’ll definitely be pleased with the outcome – I certainly
am!”
At 37, weighing only 72kg and active all of his adult
life, Steve Eastty was the last person you’d expect to have high
cholesterol.
“My father had raised cholesterol and my grandfather
had a heart attack but I wasn’t particularly worried about my own
health. But when my dad’s doctor suggested to him that I should
go and get my cholesterol readings checked about six months ago, that’s
exactly what I did. My reading was very high – at 7.3 I was suddenly
one of the 32 million adults with cholesterol levels above what the government
recommends as safe – which is much lower, at 5.0.”
Despite his alarmingly high readings, Steve didn’t
feel too worried because he was so young, but knowing that cholesterol
levels rise with age and told that doctors would not intervene until he
was at least 40, he decided to work out what had caused his high cholesterol
and do something about it.
"I was very aware of the dangers of high cholesterol
but not about the causes, and although I knew that high saturated food
was a cause I didn’t know which kinds of foods had high saturate
levels – I’d never needed to know this before!”
click to expand
Although Steve smoked heavily in his twenties and had
cut down in recent years, smoking was also one of the other big changes,
and he finally gave up for good at the beginning of 2010.
“A combination of not smoking and paying particular
attention to my diet, helped to stabilise my cholesterol readings. Now
I don’t eat pastry, butter, biscuits, or cake – except on
birthdays, of course! I eat less lamb and beef and have introduced more
oily fish and cashew nuts into my diet – to increase my intake
of good omega-3 and polyunsaturated fats.”
Steve’s physical activity increased too, and he
recently completed the Brighton marathon, but he was always on the lookout
for non-medical solutions to his cholesterol lowering ambitions.
“I heard about a product called help: cholesterol
and decided to give it a go. As I’m not sure about the side effects
of statins, and not able to take them yet anyway, this seemed the ideal
solution. It’s natural and I checked the active ingredients online
before trying it, so I knew it was safe.
“I discovered that help: cholesterol incorporates
barley beta-glucans which, along with dairy peptides, are hailed as
one of the new ‘heart health heroes’, with various clinical
studies showing them to be effective in lowering blood cholesterol levels.”
In a really short amount of time, just four weeks, Steve’s readings
had gone down to 6.4 – a really significant drop – something
which he feels really positive about.
“Combined with a good diet, more exercise, no
smoking and reduced alcohol, I’ll potentially get my readings
right down so I won’t even have to consider statins when I’m
40 – and that’s one thing less to worry about.”
With
high blood pressure and a history of heart disease on her father’s
side of the family, Elaine Bradley was not particularly surprised when a
routine thyroid check at her doctor’s revealed she was also suffering
from raised cholesterol.
"I’ve always been aware of the dangers of high cholesterol, but
when my doctor told me my LDL cholesterol – the ‘bad’
one - was 5.4, I was determined to deal with it without any fuss.”
Although experts differ on exactly what constitutes a
normal LDL cholesterol level, Elaine’s reading was well over the
2.0 to 3.00mmol/l recommended as safe. Already on ACE inhibitors for hypertension,
Elaine was reluctant to take additional medication and wanted to tackle
her cholesterol naturally.
"I won’t even take an aspirin for a headache
if I can help it, and would much rather let nature run its course than
rely on a tablet. My doctor told me that statins were available to me,
but I wanted to see what I could do without medication first. Even though
I’m retired I’m always busy and relatively active so I didn’t
want to make drastic changes to my diet or exercise regime either –
so I started to look out for natural alternatives to lowering my cholesterol
instead.”
click to expand
It was shortly after her initial reading that Elaine
read an article in her regional paper, about a local company producing
natural supplements to treat, amongst other conditions, high cholesterol.
“The product, called help: cholesterol sounded
really interesting, and there was lots of research supporting its main
ingredient, barley beta-glucans, for helping to lower cholesterol, in
particular LDL cholesterol, so I decided to give it a go.
“It’s easy to take – I just mix the soluble powder
with fresh orange juice and have it with my breakfast each morning,
so it’s just part of my normal routine.”
After only a month of taking help: cholesterol, Elaine
returned to her doctor to discover that her LDL cholesterol was down
to 4.5.
“I was really happy to see such a drop in my
reading and without making any other changes to my lifestyle at all.
To see something work totally independently and show results after such
a short time is great. I would definitely recommend to other people
with high cholesterol and am continuing to take it to get my readings
down even more – and all without statins.”
Back to top