Anybody know anything about high cholesterol?!
Question: Ok, I am 36, 5'6, and 125 pounds. I am also a vegetarian (except for occasional seafood). My co-workers convinced me to get my cholesterol checked, and it came out high! As in 214. And the bad cholesterol is 130. My doctor wants me to start on the drug Lipitor because of family history of heart disease. I am shocked that I even have high cholesterol and am wondering, could it just be that I recently started drinking alot more milk and eating alot of ice cream??? Maybe my system is in shock? I don't want to take a drug on a regular basis unless I have to. And I do exercise regularly. Anybody with some real knowledge, I would appreciate some information.
Answers: Ok, I am 36, 5'6, and 125 pounds. I am also a vegetarian (except for occasional seafood). My co-workers convinced me to get my cholesterol checked, and it came out high! As in 214. And the bad cholesterol is 130. My doctor wants me to start on the drug Lipitor because of family history of heart disease. I am shocked that I even have high cholesterol and am wondering, could it just be that I recently started drinking alot more milk and eating alot of ice cream??? Maybe my system is in shock? I don't want to take a drug on a regular basis unless I have to. And I do exercise regularly. Anybody with some real knowledge, I would appreciate some information.
First of all, why is your doctor in such a hurry to put you on drugs to lower your cholesterol? Drugs, such a Lipitor, have side affects that can affect your liver, your sex drive and even other medications? Why not let you try and lower it yourself with a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, maybe 2% or 1% milk instead of whole? I mean there are lots of things you can do to get it down. I just got mine done and the total cholesterol was 236 with my "bad" being 146. He said he'd like to see me get my weight down and start watching what I eat. Since I have always eaten exactly what I wanted, and never had a problem, and showed up for a re-test after the first blood draw tube was broken, after eating a large milk shake and two chili dogs. Uh....yeah it was high, but he felt maybe I should try to eat a little better next time, in addition to improving my idea of appropriate food. DUH! I guess I should have known at some time in my life it might come to this (I am 50 getting ready to be 51). My BP is perfect 120/76, my weight is, well, not so perfect, but I am ready to do better, hence the reason I had gone to see the doc to begin with. His main concern was the fact that my bad cholesterol was high and my good was low. I am scheduled to go back in 3 months and see what I can do to make this better. If I can get this down, he will re-check in another 3 months. So basically, if no improvement is seen in 3 months I can expect a stern lecture and medication, if I am making a positive improvement in the cholesterol beat down, we will come back in another 3 months. He thinks I should be able to make positive changes (first one is not drinking a HUGE strawberry milkshake with 2 chili dogs from Pals and showing up for a blood test). Ha ha ha...Since I have made positive improvements in other areas of my health, he thinks I can accomplish this fairly easy, but if not, I should be prepared to be eating some pills with my milk shakes in the future. Since you are so young, I think you should be able to affect some serious changes on your cholesterol count, if not, then consider going over to the medication. Unless you have some other health risks (have had a stroke, heart attack, blocked arteries, etc) then I think I might look for a doctor that isn't so quick to medicate. I am 50 going on 51, too fat and smart enough to know when to give up a bad habit that can affect my health. Since this is the first time I have showed up with elevated counts (my glucose was also elevated at 110 (next time...no shake!) ditto, not smart before a blood test! Sheesh.......but I am prepared to put in more salads (love them! Just gotten lazy......I don't HAVE to have fries......or chili dogs.......I can eat better and now I have good reason to pay attention and be more careful and to also add some exercise will help bring up my "good" cholesterol. Your doctor should not want to give medications for problems we can fix with some modifications to our food and lifestyles. Good luck!
First of all, elevated cholesterol or hypercholesterolemia occurs in families for a reason. You obviously have the genetic make up to produce alot of cholesterol. Your body can make the cholesterol it needs even if you don't eat any. I have had other vegetarians in my patients that thought that they would never have high cholesterol too by being a vegetarian. If your doc thinks you need it and you have a significant enough family history, you may need a low dose statin drug.
Did your doctor tell you that about 80% of the cholesterol we have is genetic and only about 20% is diet related!!
If one or both of your grandparents and/or parents have problems with heart disease and/or high cholesterol, quite likely it's a genetic concern and it's good that your doctor has taken steps to bring your levels down. You may or may not end up on the Lipitor permanently.....and I know you don't like to be taking drugs regularly.....but it beats having a heart attack or stroke or worse yet, death!