The Canadian Cardiovascular Society has updated Canada’s cholesterol guidelines, making them easier for patients to follow.
More than 20 experts came together to update the guidelines, led by a researcher from the University of Calgary. It starts with new rules for patients undergoing cholesterol testing.
“They don’t have to do that 14 hour fast. That was tough for patients, tough for the lab staff, etc,” said Dr. Todd Anderson, Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta. “The thing that changed is that we recognize based on literature over the last few years is that if you eat a reasonable sized meal in that time period is that the cholesterol level doesn’t change that much, so it’s still useful as a prediction tool.”
There are also changes to how diet is controlled that make it easier and more enjoyable for patients.
“We didn’t want people to count individual content with respect to how much fat or how much saturated fat or how much carbohydrates,” said Anderson. “A pattern of dietary intake is really what we advocated, and the best evidence comes from what we call the Mediterranean diet, a large study that showed that eating that diet actually reduced the chance of having a heart attack or stroke.”
The Mediterranean diet is characterized by high consumption of vegetables and olive oil with moderate consumption of protein. Patients who are working with the new guidelines say they are easier to follow and a lot more pleasant.
“It seems to constantly change, now you can eat eggs, portion size is the big thing now, reducing how much meat you are eating to a reasonable amount, eating three vegetables for supper,” said Don Kalancha, patient.
Not everything is changing in the guidelines, however. Patients are still encouraged to quit smoking and to use statin drugs when prescribed by their doctors.
According to the Libin Institute, one-third of Canadians have high cholesterol and at least half of individuals considered high-risk are not on medications.
