The Joy of CHOLESTEROL!

I'm generally healthy. I've been playing fairly serious tennis a coupla times a week all summer, would like to lose 15 pounds, but at 6 feet 190, I'm in decent shape for a 50 y.o. So my GF has ben nagging me (she has permission), to get in and get my cholesterol checked again. SURPRISE! It's gone UP 40 points
from where it seemed impossibly high before. 313. Yup. THREEHUNDREDTHIRTEEN.

The nurse blamed 80 percent of it on my progenitors, so I have that
to fall back on.

So, I got Vytorin today. I'll start taking the fish oil and flax seed oil I've had for a while. No beer to speak of for a while (might help with the 15 pounds). Think I'll go on the Japanese diet. I didn't eat anything but seafood for about 8 years, and it wasn't torture. Rice is good.

Anybody else in this fix?


^
banana. good source of potassium. nature's perfect food. tm

i'm lucky i guess. i've always eaten whatever i want, whenever i want. my cholester has never been higher than 190.

doctorbongo yeah it would be a good idea to get yours down under 200 if possible.

i got mine tested last month during a physical.. and because i'm overweight and have high blood pressure.. my doctor thought my cholestrol would be high too. but it wasn't. it's at 134, but my blood pressure is boardline high, so i now take meds for that.

A few weeks ago, I went to the eye doctor, and she says that she saw a very slight ring around my irises that she says had a 50/50 chance of being deposits of cholesterol, and she suggested that I get mine checked by the family quack. Being a chicken$hit of the first order, I instead went to the drugstore and picked up a home cholesterol test that has a 95% accuracy rating. The test showed my cholesterol to be just 148. No way do I believe this, so I've started with the oatmeal for breakfast every day, more fruit and veg, less fats and carbs, lots of walking for exercise. I started at 219lb (I'm 6'0") and am down to 213, in four weeks. My goal is to get back down to my high school weight of 185.

I weighed a whopping 128lbs and rung in at a towering 5'6.5", could drink 5 gallon pails of moonshine and eat live rabid chupacabras that had been slathered in crisco, deep fried and stuffed with gobs of cheese.

Post accident, I'm probably only 5'%' or less, got no spleen, got no gall bladder, and can't have more than one Dr Funk or Headhunter at the polynesian restaraunt without getting drunk, and often vomit part of my dinner out of my nose in the middle of the night, due to acid reflux.

I'm also probably 135-140 pounds now, with a small belly.

Ugh.


I'll be dieting after the holidays. Too much goodness to eat during them, even if I "taste it twice".

You guys are pathetic. I don't even think you are TRYING.
So I'm taking this vytorin so that you have a chance.
I think I beat all of you, even with your scores combined.

Paul, I woke up everyone in the studios his morning
when I read your response.
Actually it was the laughing. I may read with my lips,
but I don't have to be real loud.

Think there's still enough warm weather left to install
my chupacabra spit in the back yard. Notice I'm not
up to eating them raw.

Finishing off my big ol' bowl of oatmeal, with raisins and bananas.

^
still the perfect food. tm

Vytorin 10/40 got my TOTAL cholesterol down to 66.

Want me to tell you what else it did?

I'm taking Crestor now. Had a blood test this morning. We'll see.

Cholesterol is not completely well understood. People try and tie it into everything from cardiovascualar disease to prostate cancer. I'd be more critical of this number if you have a history of cardiovascular disease in your family. High cholesterol itself is not a prognosticator of disease. Cholesterol is notoriously influenced by levels of thyroid hormone. Just ask my mother in law. High cholesterol, good cardio, low thyroid hormone. We wnet through over the winter. Found the answer in one of my old encylopedias of biochemistry. Also useful as isolation devices. BTW, how is your eyesight? Cholesterol strangely enough can affect night vision.

This post has been edited by xxxrv on September 14, 2007 06:34 pm

Yeah- you're leaving a McDougal's or Booger King, and put the car interior light on to see that last french fry that fell between the console and bench seat.

Next thing you know you're driving off the road and into an old ladie's peonies...

ladies dont have peonies ...

No, but they have tulips on my organ...

Yeah, i have a family history of cardio disease. I've always kind of figured I knew how I was going to check out, barring the stray bus or meteor termination. I started on Vytorin once before, but gave it up for some side effects, and fear of the unknown. I don't plan to stay on it. I want to get the cholesterol down, then do everything in my power to keep it down. I will check into that thyroid angle, xxx. Everything else checks out fine.

My night vision hasn't been that good, and has deteriorated, but I've been trying to get it dialed in for a while. Finally needed mild bifocals at age 50, which is beating the curve by about 10 years.

I've seen a million ads for Crestor...
have no idea what it does, right off the top.
I'll go check.

Oh, and
"Rosebud"

Honestly,

I am not an expert in this, but I do know that your liver has as much, if not more to do with your high cholesterol than your diet. As a leftover from thousands of years ago, when we ate primarily vegetables, your liver retained the genes to make cholesterol. It's a detergent of sorts to dissolve fat!!!! It also plays a role in cell signalling, hence your problems with night vision. Turning those synthetic genes off is supposed to be sensitive to cholesterol but genetics and epigenetics (factors outside of the DNA) have alot to do with that. I think the statin drugs are good for helping rectify this, in part. It's a big dollar enterprise as you are not alone and the metabolism of the liver is very well (but not completely) understood. One of the first metabolic pathways ever succesfully studied was glucose uptake by the liver/insulin (Martin Rodbell). His experimental setup was caveman like by today's standards. Hang in there. I think the next decade is going to see some serious revolutions in healthcare research. The bigger problem is of course the management (insurance). Don't be shocked , but I know of at least one disease where economic status, insurance status and race paly a large role in survival....yeesh.

Well, I doubt your last claim, because it's official that all men are created equal.
And if you disagree, you are clearly a commoniss.

As for the REAL stuff, it sounds like a literal case of Sh!t or go blind.
I'm legally blind without correction, but better than 20/20 with lenses,
so I am just thankful to be able to see.

I decided, with "encouragement" from my girlfriend, to bite the bullet
on the Vytorin. I want to get it under control, then manage it.
Could be psychosomatic, but I don't feel as mentally acute, and
some words that ar normally accessible seem to be hiding in the
recesses of my mind. Probably too early on in the regimen for anything like that...

I have no doubt my problem stems almost entirely from genetic predisposition. I have always been active, (sometimes incredibly active), and I don't have a notably great or terrible diet.

Thanks for the feedback, XXX.

dennis

p.s.--i thought crestor was for cholesterol, bt I got confused when It'll said he took a cholesterol fighter to counteract the effects of a cholesterol fighter.