Lowering My Cholesterol

I got these guideline figures for Lipid Levels from the BMJ. I think they are fairly up to date. I need to check with my GP what my HDL and LDL levels are. My total cholesterol was 5.8 about 6 weeks ago when I started taking Inegy. I am due to go back for another test in about 2 weeks.

Total cholesterol
Less than 5 mmol/l  is what you should aim for. It means you’re less likely to have a heart attack or a stroke. If you have heart disease or diabetes, you should aim for 4 mmol/l.
If you have more than 6.5 mmol/l This is high cholesterol. You may need treatment to lower your cholesterol.

LDL (bad) cholesterol
Less than 3.5 mmol/l  is what you should aim for. But if you have heart disease or diabetes you should aim for 3 mmol/l.
4 mmol/l or higher  is high. Your risk of getting heart disease is higher.

HDL (good) cholesterol Less than 1.1 mmol/l is low. Your risk of getting heart disease is higher.
1.3 mmol/l or higher is what you should aim for. This protects against heart disease.

Triglycerides More than 2 mmol/l is high. Your risk of getting heart disease may be higher.

I also found this useful bit of research about Cholesterol levels:

If you total cholesterol level lowers by 0.6 mmol/l, your risk of having a stroke is reduced by half. This fall in cholesterol also lowers the risk of having a heart attack by one-fifth.

 ( Law MR, Wald NJ, Thompson SG. By how much and how quickly does reduction in serum cholesterol concentration lower risk of ischaemic heart disease? BMJ. 1994; 308: 367-372.
 )

Another target to aim for?

I found this bit of research today :

For every 1 percent increase in good (HDL) cholesterol or 1 percent decrease in bad (LDL) cholesterol, your risk of having a heart attack or stroke drops by 2 percent.
So if I can drop my LDL level by just 20% - and raise my HDL by 20% - I will reduce my risk of heart attack or stroke by a massive 80% !

(  Muldoon MF, Manuck SB, Matthews KA. Lowering cholesterol concentrations and mortality: a quantitative review of primary prevention trials. BMJ. 1990; 301: 309-314. )

These are the risk factors for getting heart disease:

Someone in your family had heart disease early. Early means that your father or uncle had a heart attack or died suddenly from heart disease before they were 55 or your mother or another female relative had a heart attack before they were 65

YES - my father had a heart attack aged 42 - it didn’t kill him. His brother died from a heart attack aged about 52. So my risk level is hight on this one.

High blood pressure (sometimes called hypertension)

YES - it was noticed about 10 years ago and I have been taking Beta Blocker (atenolol) ever since. I am currently on 50mg a day.