OT: Got cholesterol?

Oct 13, 2010 41 Replies

Well, finally got in for that eye check thingis - the doc says there's no chance I had a stroke with a BP of 126/88; I apparently have no cataracts, and just for S&G I asked them for my lab results, especially cholesterol, the boogeyman du jour; here's my results, tabulated:



Total Cholesterol: Best: Less then 150: Mine: 212



But the doctor says, that's misleading, because that's the _total_.



My numbers were skewed by my LDL, or "Good Cholesterol": Best: More than 60; Mine: 119



HDL, or "Bad Cholesterol": Best: Less than 100; Mine: 84



Triglicerides: Best: Less than 150; Mine: 47



Apparently, I'm healthier than a horse! I wonder if riding my bike a couple of miles a day has anything to do with that, or if it's just my positive attitude about self-care!



How'd youse guys do on yours?



Cheers! Rich



I'm gonna vote for the bike... :-)

No: best is < 100, not more than 60 for LDL

No: best is > 60, not less than 100.

If you have a heart condition, you should try to get your LDL below

100... That's not easy, but it can help in some people.

Your HDL of 84 is fantastic, wish I had half that. I occasionally get in to the mid-30s, I may have broken into 40 once or twice, not often!

A foolish statement! Blood pressure is only one of the risk factors associated with stroke.

I apparently have no

Slightly above average.

No! LDL is the *bad* cholesterol! Ideally less than 100 is what you want but

119 is not bad *but has to be interpreted with other factors*.

No! HDL is the "good" cholesterol! Ideally more than 40. If yours is truly

84 you will probably live forever :-)

That would go with the high HDL. You are indeed fortunate.

No. You are just lucky with your genetics.

However, to assess the risk of developing vascular disease you need to consider other factors including age, smoking, family history and diabetes. There are calculators available, many on the net, where you can plug all these figures in and get the 10-year probability of developing manifestations of vascular disease.

Often the 'desirable' cholesterol levels are determined by the risk strata you are in, i.e. someone with a 10-year risk of less than 5% is going to be treated less aggressively than someone with a 10-year risk of over 20%.

To make things even more complicated there are many "new" risk factors. For instance some physicians will now treat people with "normal' cholesterol if they have biochemical evidence of propensity to inflammation.

Time to get on the bike and go out and get you a nice jumbo bacon cheese burger and a nice chocolate malt!

The 88 number in your bp is above normal, not by much but iirc, 135/85 is the upper limit now. I seem to remember a time when 140/90 was good to go but not anymore.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

upper limit

Below 155/95 is still OK with the FAA, even for airline pilots. Go figure...

Didn't ask for a copy. Said it was pretty good. And then said I had a

10% chance of dropping dead within ten years. I guess I didn't have the right reaction and then she said that's 1 person within 10... Hey, I was surprised it wasn't something like 85% and just sat there.

10 % ! Yoo Hoo

I'll do better soon enough, but she gave me some pills and within 5 hours I didn't feel well at all and stopped. Much better chances not taking what I was told to do.

Anyone know if simvastatin @ 40 MG produces bad side effects?

The only way doctors scare me is how much they don't know, but think they do.

SW

You have that backward. HDL is the good cholesterol, LDL is the bad. HDL and LDL stand for High Density Lipoprotein and Low Density Lipoprotein, respectively. Easy way to remember which is the good and which is the bad: you want to have High levels of High Density, and Low levels of Low Density.

If your triglycerides are that low, I'm guessing you simply stated the HDL and LDL backward...

I'm betting on the bike.

Don't know the numbers, they just say it looks good. I take Simvastatin for cholesterol, Metoprolol for a lower heart rate, and Asprin to thin my blood. BP averages around 125. I walk a couple miles a day.

-Bill

You can remember the "good' / "bad" cholesterol by remembering:

L is for LOUSY

It's the low density (fluffy) stuff that makes the buildup. ...lew...

I've been on those for a couple years and no effect that I can notice.

Now Plavix does make every little bump produce a big (is it called a "sub dermal hemotoba" ) anyway a big ugly blood patch under the skin. Takes about a week to disappear. :-( ...lew...

None of that. You just chose the right parents.

Are you sure? Is your doctor joking?

LDL (Bad) Cholesterol When too much LDL (bad) cholesterol circulates in the blood, it can slowly build up in the inner walls of the arteries that feed the heart and brain. Together with other substances, it can form plaque, a thick, hard deposit that can narrow the arteries and make them less flexible. This condition is known as atherosclerosis. If a clot forms and blocks a narrowed artery, heart attack or stroke can result.

HDL (Good) Cholesterol About one-fourth to one-third of blood cholesterol is carried by high- density lipoprotein (HDL). HDL cholesterol is known as "good" cholesterol, because high levels of HDL seem to protect against heart attack. Low levels of HDL (less than 40 mg/dL) also increase the risk of heart disease. Medical experts think that HDL tends to carry cholesterol away from the arteries and back to the liver, where it's passed from the body. Some experts believe that HDL removes excess cholesterol from arterial plaque, slowing its buildup.

Off topic here, but read

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on the benefits of certain oils and the disadvantages of others.

Apparently the impoortant thing is not quite as simple as LDL/HDL, but is the particle size of the LDL cholesterol carriers. That is down to the correct oils in your diet.

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be of interest though I've not written up my cholesterol experiences.

snipped-for-privacy@milmac.com (Doug Miller) wrote in news:i95mnj$7u8$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

Are you trying to be insulting?

Because what your implying isnt really an insult.Quite flattering actually.

Think about it.

It can. If you tell your Dr. they can change statins. Different ones affect different people differently. Karl

H is for healthy, HDL is the good stuff, Mine is always low, in the high 30's

Cholestrol is mostly heridtary. Even though my father tended to go above 200, mine's about 160. I tend to be borderline HT 140/80 is norm. 150/90 high, 130/70 low.

I could probably do better, stop tobacco, alcohol, caffene intake.

greg

Caffeine does a better job of reducing the swelling in my legs than the prescribed HCTZ. :(

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