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I'm currently in recovery from a surprise heart attack. My lifestyle risk was estimated as under 5% and, as a fairly active vegan who doesn't drink or smoke, there aren't a huge amount of lifestyle/dietary changes I can make.
However, if I recall correctly, my cholesterol when measured in hospital was 4.4 (I don't recall my HDL/LDL breakdown) and whilst I was told that this would have been fine pre-attack, post-attack it ideally needs to drop to below 4 (my discharge letter gives a target level of 4/2).
Given that I'm going to be regularly monitored by my GP (I have another blood test booked for Friday) would there be any point to any of the home monitoring solutions? Clearly the manufacturers/service providers think so, but UK heart charities seem less impressed. I've seen testers available from £35 to several hundreds of pounds as well a lab services whereby you send of your home-taken samples from.
Does anyone use anything like this? I can't afford to throw money away so should I just leave to the NHS?
No. If you take a statin your cholesterol will be well below 4. I presume you’ve been prescribed a statin?
I'm on all sorts of tablets and yes, one of them is a statin. I seem to be fairly susceptible to side effects but the plan seems to be to increase all medication to as high a level as I can tolerate.
I'd be surprised if your total cholesterol didn't come down to < 3 with high intensity statin (I'm presuming you're on Atorva 80?) after an appropriate duration of treatment (> 4 weeks). Statin naive --> high dose Atorva has a massive effect.
I can't see any point in spending money on a test that your GP will offer for free.
It would be worthwhile keeping in touch with your GP and getting a review yearly, though. There are always things changing and the advice on lipid management may change. E.g. Recently-presented research about something called Eicosapent - although that probably doesn't (currently) apply to your exact situation.
I have regular blood tests with a gp, I probably would not try home testing as he is the expert at reading the results. For me its not just the hdl ldl levels, it's the other factors included. I once did some online research on the results, he just laughed at my pathetic attempt, so i rely on him now.