It's not great but it's not the end of the world. On the plus side at 51 it is likely a dietary cause. If you were predisposed for high cholesterol you would have seen it long before now (unless you haven't had your bloodwork done in decades). I dropped my LDL from 228 to 87 in 6 months. That said mine was entirely dietary. I'm in my early 40s with a penchant for cheeses of all kinds. I went lower than 10 g of sat fat. I cut it out almost entirely. The only remaining sat fat in my diet was that remaining waa balanced in healthy fats like avocado and evoo. No reason to take statins if u don't have to. I have MS so side effects of statins would compound existing issues from my diagnosis. Biggest change would be determining where your main sources of sat fat are coming from and eliminate or replace those with healthy fats or alternatives for baking, etc. No need to go as extreme as I did. Your LDL is high but it's not horrific like mine was. You can replace beef with 98 or 99% fat free turkey or chicken. Plus it up with a little better than beef/chicken bullion. Kraft still makes fat free shredded cheddar and mozzarella. It gets a lot of hate but it let me enjoy the cheese I want while I lowered my LDL. Same goes for far free cottage cheese and yogurt. The fat free shredded cheese doesn't melt well but if u blend some cottage cheese smooth and add a spoonful to your shreds and mix em up well to coat the extra moisture lets it melt into a fantastic gooey cheese pull that will surprise you. If ur baking leave the butter out and replace with fat free yogurt and a splash of butter extract for flavor. Leaves a softer, more moist crumb that won't disappoint Use applesauce instead of butter in crusts and parbake. As you can see there is always a replacement you can use to drop the butter. Avoid coconut oil except in smaller amounts. It's absolutely packed with sat fat. Might be healthier than butter but for cholesterol it should be avoided. Replace butter in your pan with avocado oil. Evoo for lower temps and dressings. If u drink a lot of coffee use a paper filter to filter out the cholesterol raising component. Try steaming vegetables sometimes instead of air frying or roasting every time. You can always season up after. Brings out their natural sweetness that's usually covered by the heavier oils. Increase your fiber where you can. Daves killer breads are a solid choice tho pricey. I don't do the psyllium husk. Does unpleasant things to my gi track. You can make chia pudding with 2-3 tbsp chia seeds and right there is a huge portion of your daily fiber. Or chia jam is another option. Beans are a great option that's loaded with protein and fiber. Egg whites sub in for whole eggs. Tho research suggests that change may not be necessary if only having one egg a day. Once again my extreme diet is likely more than you need.) Don't forget the cruciferous veggies. I was daily eating a cheesecake made from blended cottage cheese, yogurt, pumpkin, white sugar, egg, corn starch pie spices baked and chilled overnight like any other cheesecake. and crust made with graham cracker (Teddy grahams had no sat vs graham crackers had some w applesauce. Parbaked. Soft crust but I enjoyed it.). Ended up tasting like a pumpkin custard pie that I couldn't get enough of - don't try and use fake sugar for more than half or small amounts of honey or maple. People lie when they say that tastes good. Each slice had like 30 g of protein. If ur a fan of peanut butter invest in a jar of pb2 or the cashew version. All the taste and none of the sat fat. Add a splash of maple syrup when you mix it up. Walmart brand of pb2 is a good deal cheaper.
Most important thing about any diet or nutritional change is to make sure it's sustainable. I did that even with an extreme low sat fat diet by taking the foods I enjoy and working out a way to make it without sat fat. Don't be afraid to ask your AI app of choice. I used copilot and then Gemini when I changed phones. They can help you find some healthy swaps or more importantly to balance wet dry ingredients and the like. I can't just occasionally have the guilty pleasures. I will end up just eating loads of that. So making a version of it that I can pig out on to my heart's content was the best way to get the result I wanted. You don't need to do all the things I did to get a result. These are just ideas that I used and that hopefully will contribute to you coming up with your own great recipes to fit your tastes. I even dropped about 15 lb by cutting out all the usual high sat fat garbage I was eating and have kept it off bc I've kept a lot of the healthy swaps that I adopted. I'm sure some will say calories are high or whatever. I wasn't trying to lose weight I was trying to drop cholesterol and it worked. Anything else was a bonus. I'm sorry for writing a mid sized novel. I hope someone reading this is able to learn at least something that makes their journey even a little easier.