What Is Your Cholesterol Score?

Mine is pretty freakin bad :candle:

LDL - 192
HDL - 37

Apparently, when I cut myself, I don't "bleed"... I "cholesterol"

Post your scores and don't be shy:thumbsup:

I am too afraid to even check. Better to live in ignorance.

My father's was pretty bad, but he's working on it...:shakehead

Mayo

just had mine checked two days ago.

LDL=83
HDL=33

Goatee -

Is this a fairly new diet for you?

I eat mostly baked fish, fresh vegetables, fruit and salad. But I do have toasted bread with butter, some cheese. During the week I'm likely to get soups from a restaurant that aren't low in cholesterol. Once or twice a week I'll have a steak. Once or twice a week I'll have eggs with my breakfast. So, my diet isn't very rigid. It's mostly a life style change that I began 2 1/2 years ago.

C used to be 260. After 2 years it went to 230 then in a matter of a couple of months it dropped significantly. I found out after I had gone to the Dr. to surrender to meds. Luckily the beautiful red-headed nurse practitioner that saw me insisted on another test. The results surprised me. She explained that sometimes it takes a while for a diet to make a noticeable difference. I'm still working on changes to correct but the following results caused the nurse and doc to think I should continue my efforts without meds to see what I can accomplish with diet. I like cooking so that helps.

Tot 192
HDL 40
LDL 130

Chilean Sea Bass

etc said:

I am too afraid to even check. Better to live in ignorance.

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While that may seem true, I would suggest that ignorance is dangerous.

If you ignore the situation you may get to hear these words:

My favorite....
"We don't want to clear the blockage if it's under 70% because there is such a high risk that you will stroke out."

or my brother's favorite...
"We will be doing a quadruple bypass tonight. We can't wait till tomorrow. It was only a mild heart attack."

Cholesterol is easy to check and not that hard to control. The heart surgery, on the other hand, is a real pain.

Daniel

I recommend Cabernet Sauvignon.

Oatmeal's good too, but not as much fun.

gadget_lover said:

While that may seem true, I would suggest that ignorance is dangerous...

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Ditto. I had an MI in '85 when I was only 33. That was so far back that the life expectancy for MI patients was less than three years...that was almost thirty years ago...

After a great deal of research I hit on a solution which did not entail expensive drugs that had not been tested on millions of patients. For the last ten years I've kept my total chol level between 106 and 136 (no typo) and I eat what ever I want (I live in New Orleans and I my program allows me to have low chol numbers AND eat what I like here, if that means anything to you).

There is no mystery to this -- there are just no patents and therefore no money to be made from it. If you're interested in details, let me know -- I'll repost. This won't work for everyone (like Gadget Lover because of his particular situation) but it will work for most. If you're interested I'll repost my method.

Whether anyone believes me or not, this would be a good time to remind everyone that if you actually do get your total chol into what is described as a 'theraputically low level' (as I have) it will be so rare that your doctor will have forgotten how to deal with it.

He will also have forgotten that when total chol levels drop below a certain point, it not only skews HDL/LDL ratios -- it makes them irrelevant! Look up real medical studies on the Tarahumara indians of Mexico and REMIND your cardiologist what low total chol numbers have really been proven to mean. Those guys will kill you by playing their old tapes. Actually, they're like cats -- they don't kill anything -- they just play with it until it's dead.

I'm not going to go into the details but if you look into it you'll fing that all of the HDL/LDL ratio stuff is CRAP if your total chol is actually in what is scientifically accepted as the "low theraputic range" and it's only a way for them to cop out to people who have high chol (which they see way too much and causes a great deal of frustration for them.) It's a way to give praise to those who won't comply with their recommendations. It is totally phony. It is NOT a good enough reason for them to give advice to their most compliant patients that will kill them if followed...If your numbers are right and you slap 'em a couple of times many of them will come around and admit that in cases of low total chol numbers -- the HDL/LDL ratio doesn't mean crap. Been there, done that -- still alive -- though not from the stock advice.They're just playing old tapes. All of that sucks.

If you do the research for yourself you'll find that the advice that they give is pretty much based on what they see in their practice as opposed to what they have been taught. This is human but iromically, that kind of advice is only good for 85% of their patients and it will kill 5% of them. I can get crappy advice like that out of a book. I certainly don't need to go to someone who calls himself a specialist, only to have him recite the most general crap from memery without ever considering the actual facts of my case. It is the patients who try hardest -- the patients who are the most compliant -- who suffer most from this rampant mis-charactarization that happens so often with cardiologists.

They do very well in the Lazarus phase but they totally suck in the day-to-day maintainance phase.

total cholesterol: 140
triglyceride: 86
HDL: 62
LDL: 61
cholesterol/HDL ratio: 2.3

For the record, I'm 49 years old and in pretty good shape.
I'm 6' tall, and 155 pounds.
I do a lot of bike riding; about 7000 miles a year. Much of that is commuting, but there are a lot of recreational miles too.

I'm not doing a lot about diet, but try to use olive oil instead of saturated fats like butter. Also try to eat plenty of veggies and fruit. Usually eat a couple of slices of whole wheat bread a day, and normally have some whole grain cereal in the morning.

Is it possible for the average person to get cholesterol below 100? i.e. w/o meds? I'm sure I could drop my level some by avoiding red meat, but is really a meaningful improvement?

Steve K.

It used to be 160 plus or minus ten. When I became a Vegetarian (non dairy, almost Vegan) it is now 100-125. Both scores while on high blood pressure meds only. Pre Vegetarian and pre meds was still 160-180 range. Genetics I am sure because my diet before then was not geared to low readings. :devil:

HDL runs 37, slightly bad. LDL runs 70.

Sub_Umbra -

It's difficult to follow this thread because the sequence of posts is fouled up.

What is therapeutically low? What range do you recommend?

Could you repost your technique. I don't remember the details. I think it was a spoonful of fiber with water in the morning and another dose later on. I don't remember the specific product.

"They are like cats..." Yep. I feel that. Even my old fashioned good GP, well, I gotta watch that guy. IOWs, I'm the one running my health maintenance. I make some mistakes but not nearly as dangerous as many GP's mistakes.

THX

Jeff

Most recent was pretty good:

HDL 41, LDL 111, total 170.

Without meds and diet, it runs around 500. It can be inherited, since my siblings and mom are all in the 400 + area.


Daniel

My good xdl is typically about 68 and the bad xdl is very low. Total is always about 155 to 165. Which is the good one?

Last month-
Total 200 (want under 200)
HDL (good) 56 (want over 40)
LDL (bad) 125 (want under 100)
Triglycerides 61 (want under 150)
No meds.

:)> said:

Mine is pretty freakin bad :candle:

LDL - 192
HDL - 37

Apparently, when I cut myself, I don't "bleed"... I "cholesterol"

Post your scores and don't be shy:thumbsup:

Click to expand...

Yep indeed pretty freakin bad but there are worse cases.

OK, I don't mean to sound like a paranoid health freak but you NEED to get that sorted if you are concerned with you're health.

LDL is too high - work to get it below 100 and sub 80 is even better. Without knowing you're diet and lifestyle I can say that you must start eating clean if you are not doing so already.

You should stop taking butter, most spreads, avoid cooking oils except extra virgin olive oil (which is great), anything solid at room temp and anything containing trans fats. Cut down on cheese and egg yolk as well and stay away from all fast food, do not over eat and dig into the fruit and veg! You may be able to get things back into order quite well with a good diet. Try to get regular exercise and avoid stess as much as possible.

Take niacin if you are not already doing so to raise HDL and make sure you're doc knows his stuff well and is looking out for you. The doc may put you on statins too. Everyday you're cholesterol is like that you are depositing plaque on the walls of you're arteries and be aware that this is NOT reversable damage so it should be sorted asap to prevent it getting worse.

Also, don't worry needlessly it won't help anything I hope I haven't frightened you too badly!

Good luck!

TONY M said:

Yep indeed pretty freakin bad but there are worse cases.

OK, I don't mean to sound like a paranoid health freak but you NEED to get that sorted if you are concerned with you're health.

LDL is too high - work to get it below 100 and sub 80 is even better. Without knowing you're diet and lifestyle I can say that you must start eating clean if you are not doing so already.

You should stop taking butter, most spreads, avoid cooking oils except extra virgin olive oil (which is great), anything solid at room temp and anything containing trans fats. Cut down on cheese and egg yolk as well and stay away from all fast food, do not over eat and dig into the fruit and veg! You may be able to get things back into order quite well with a good diet. Try to get regular exercise and avoid stess as much as possible.

Take niacin if you are not already doing so to raise HDL and make sure you're doc knows his stuff well and is looking out for you. The doc may put you on statins too. Everyday you're cholesterol is like that you are depositing plaque on the walls of you're arteries and be aware that this is NOT reversable damage so it should be sorted asap to prevent it getting worse.

Also, don't worry needlessly it won't help anything I hope I haven't frightened you too badly!

Good luck!

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:twothumbs

I have done everything that you have noted including the Niacin. I made a deal with my doctor that I would get it under control in the next 6 months.

I don't eat any meat besides chicken or fish (primarily salmon) cooked over a fire and I eat tons of veggies cooked on the grill using extra virgin olive oil and seasoning. For breakfast, I have a bowl of oatmeal and about 14 almonds. For lunch, I am eating fruits and nuts and a glass of soy milk. I have cut out dairy products altogether.

I have also added more excercise in my week and will consistently add more and more.

My doctor wanted to put me on statins, but I asked him to hold off until I could see what I could do with diet and excercise.

Maybe I should start regularly donating blood:thinking:

There are several kinds people who suffer hyper CHL.

In some cases, people absorb it from what they eat. Others manufacture it.

Exercise does a lot to lower it. So does moderate eating. I was aghast when I found that shell-fish is super high in dietary cholesterol.

My Dr says that if you can get your LDL consistently below 100 then some of the plaque will be re-absorbed. I will never hit 100, much less go below it.


Daniel

gadget_lover said:

My Dr says that if you can get your LDL consistently below 100 then some of the plaque will be re-absorbed. I will never hit 100, much less go below it.

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That is my goal. I want to try and reverse it if I can. There is a diet called the Ornish diet that can reportedly reverse the problem.