re: Very High Cholesterol May Not Be As Bad As Previously Thought

terpfan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:11:37 GMT

I have always had very high cholesterol, even when I was a small child, and thin. Now I'm 27 and overweight due to following a high-carb diet my whole life. My father had a heart attack in his 50's. That makes me think it might be a genetic condition. I've been following the low-carb diet for two weeks now, and so far its very effective for weight loss. If I have familial hypercholesterolemia and my cholesterol doesn't go down even after losing weight and strictly avoiding all sugar and starch, should I take a statin drug? I am concerned because my doctor said I am at risk for a cardiovascular event in my 30's.

re: Very High Cholesterol May Not Be As Bad As Previously Thought

meira750 — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:39:49 GMT

Hi Dr. M,

Well I may be another one of those rare people. I have always had high cholesterol even growing up in an Italian family that ate very healthy. I was very active and exercised vigorously until what seems to be CFS and not MS as originally thought, slowed me down about 10 years ago. I aappen to be a Sephardic Jew as well as Italian and now live in Israel. Since coming here in August, I have been eating even less sugar and grain and meat only on the Sabbath. Smaller leaner portions than in the US. I thought my LDL would plummet since I also have to ride buses and climb a big flight of stairs to my apt. That means more walking. WRONG! I just had it checked and it was over 200 by a bit. Of course the doctor wanted to give me drugs and I said no. I don't know whether to be worried or not but at 62.5 I'm at the point where I'd rather have something that gives me a stroke and finishes me off that way than to live long enough to get cancer. The CFS is weird because I am generally very healthy. What seems to have been asthma and made worse by the meds, has also gone away with some herbal and natural remedies. It was in this recent checkup that the doctor found a white cell pattern consistent with Mono??? That's weird, because in the last year I haven't had any sort of infection and I'd think if I'd had one earlier, the pattern would have shown up. Well, I'm the one in a million kid who got Koplik's spots AFTEr the measles rash, way after. LOL Nothing fits the textbooks in me.