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27yr old female, high cholesterol, help please!!

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kristenjm85

July 16th, 2012

hi all, would love some help please!!

I'm a 27 yr old female, dont smoke or drink, work out almost every day, eat fairly well (although do have a sweet tooth which i give into a little too often! but make choices like dark choc as its healthier), i eat plenty of veges, not much red meat, eat raw nuts, oatmeal for breakfast, and also take krill oil, i am a little overweight but just had a baby so working on getting it off! my blood pressure is also good (100/60) .. but i have very high cholesterol and i dont know why!!

my numbers are: (i was fasting for this)
total: 282
ldl: 174
hdl: 89
trig: 97

total/hdl ratio: 3.2

my dr was very concerned about my total number but also said i had a very good ratio. she said i had to get my ldl down (which i am trying!) or id have to go on meds which i dont want to do at my age. i dont know how its so high when i lead a fairly healthy lifestyle?? and if im already being healthy how the heck do i get it down??

my real question was, is the total more important or the ratio? as i have heard different things. are my numbers as they stand now a big concern? i suffer from a little health anxiety, especially heart related, and now im so scared my arteries are clogging up and ill have a heart attack or something.. its really worrying me as my dr seemed very concerned about it.

please help me understand my numbers and if i should be worried!! thank you so much in advance Smile

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Striker

replied July 17th, 2012

Experienced User

Perhaps the best thing you can do for starters is to relax and not let worry consume you. That in itself will do more harm to a person's health.

Cholesterol levels are a very poor predictor of arteries plugging up. Half the heart attacks happen to people with high cholesterol, and the other half happen to people with low cholesterol.

Cholesterol has been demonized from a marketing standpoint. Lowering cholesterol is big business. The push to get it down comes from sales and marketing.

If it makes you feel any better, the one population with the lowest amount of heart disease had LDL cholesterol of 170. Just like you.

Since you just had a baby, wait for things to settle out and your hormones to return to pre baby levels. Hormone levels impact cholesterol levels.

If you are scared your arteries are clogging up, you could always have ultrasound of your neck arteries. This bears zero risk, and will show if any plaque build up has begun in areas visible by ultra sound.

Last but not least, remember cholesterol is a vital part to healthy lives. Cholesterol played an important role in the development of your baby. Without cholesterol, the miracle of birth would never happen.

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GetYourBodyinBalance

replied July 21st, 2012

I have preached for years that a Total Cholesterol number is the WORST stat you could possibly look at. It's a worthless, meaningless number - despite what the cholesterol drug companies want us to think.

Your HDL to LDL ratio is over .5 - which is really good! Your HDL to Trigl. is almost 1:1.

Your cholesterol profile is VERY healthy. If it were me, I wouldn't change a thing.

It's tough to do though if/when your doctor keeps hassling you about it. My advice is to do what I did and find a doctor who "gets it" and realizes that drugs have their place but shouldn't be shoved down our throats just because a certain number doesn't meet some arbitrary cut-off.

Your HDL is over 80, which is GREAT. Did you know that HDL level has one of the strongest ties to longevity ever observed in any health statistic? Higher HDL has been linked to longer longevity, and vice versa. It's not really been explained yet, but it's some pretty strong circumstantial evidence.

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	Tags: female, Cholesterol, Heart Attack, Anxiety, tooth, heart, smoke, meds, about blood pressure, anxiety heart attack

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