High Cholesterol
 

Had my blood work done Monday, get a call from the doctors office at 5:30 stating they need to talk to me ASAP, but would not tell me what about. SOB's had me thinking the worst all night, BS to say the least.

Ended up being high cholesterol, and when I say high I mean like 740's. I am 32, seems like something could be off, but they are giving me meds and told me to diet for 3 months and would check again.

Anyone dealt with this shit before? I know I need to get back in shape. Don't like salads, or much fruit. Any advise would be great.

I had high cholosterol 2 years ago and started on the Centrum Cardio, which has something in it to reduce cholsterol. It worked pretty well. I'm not the most active in the world, but I do work out.

740? I didn't know it went that high.

Dude, let's forget the ribs and brisket for a while and get you some smoked chicken recipes!

Stay away from fried foods and lose weight, also the night before they re-check you blood work drink a beer or two it helps to lower your readings.

Mine was at 300'something and I thought it was through the roof.

700?!?! Are you on the all-fast-food diet all the time or what?!?

really? never heard this before.

i've been taking lipitor for about 8-10 years.
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:evil: I am a meat and taters kind of guy

Is Milk bad? I drink at least a gallon a day (skim-1%)

I'm not sure this is something you'd want to cheat on :shrug:

Also...740?! I'd double-check that. I was told mine was slightly elevated at 210. Maybe CP needs to have a 'Biggest Loser' thread, Cholesterol edition.

Ask your doctor if Beer is right for you.

Yeah I know, I mean I know I don't eat the healthiest but not THAT bad. I didn't realize how high it actually was until I started talking to other people.

Say hello to Crestor........

Hint, drop the french dries and fast foods, all fatty foods.

ROFL:clap:

Yeah that's what it was, she said it was crazy high for anyone especially someone of my age. She said she wanted around 150-200

If your cholesterol is 740, you are the freaking king of meat and taters.....with extra butter on the taters!

Seriously, that 740 can't be right.....can it? Supposedly, 220 or higher is too high.


Edit: Ok, I just read the previous post. If my doc says anything about my cholesterol, I'm showing him this thread.

No thats what it is

i'd think they'd at least re-test before 3 months w/those numbers.
hey smitty...are you going to the laplata veterinarian clinic?

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I'd say your gravy intake might be a bit too high.

:D no

I have heard it from a few people and I also heard it on one of the medical programs on the radio.

But why would you want it to show less? Wouldn't that be defeating the purpose of being tested in the first place?

Exactly. Take out the IV.

well shit...i almost always drink 2-3 beers a night. i fast from around 7pm the night before blood work, but that's after the beer.

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As long as the taters are not fried you are fine, and the meat is lean.

they tried to find a good vien, but came out with a LJS chicken plank

Saves from having to pay for those expensive drugs that doctors start you out on since they have help pay for those freebies from the drug companies.

Are you sure it was cholesterol and not TRIGLYCERIDES?

That's a good question. With a cholesterol level of 740, he may be officially categorized as beef.

smitty, you might consider hanging a bell around your neck until you get this cleared up. Meanwhile, I'm posting smoked chicken and salad recipes in the bbq threads.

I have never heard of 740. You should take this serious though, it will not go away on it's own.

Take it from a guy that had 5 heart "incidents" in the same week, and had to have four heart stints installed.

My highest cholesterol to my knowledge, was just under 200. It was less than 50 last time I had a test.

You need to learn to love veggies, fruit, fish and stay away from eating anything white. (bread, pasta etc.)

The National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines for triglycerides are:

Normal Less than 150 mg/dL
Borderline-high 150 to 199 mg/dL
High 200 to 499 mg/dL
Very high 500 mg/dL or higher
These are based on fasting plasma triglyceride levels.

Stay away from eggs, dairy and meat my friend. I didn't know this was possible. You need some salads in your diet for sure, wow.

That's an insane number.

Dude, you got to change your diet NOW ! Not tomorrow! Just google up a cholesterol chart and go from there. Stay away from ****ing McDonalds.

Yeah, if my numbers came back and said 700, I'd probably become a vegetarian for life. Beans and Tofu aren't THAT bad.

Damn, forget the chicken, it's almost as bad as red meat. I'm posting grilled fish recipes in the bbq threads.

Hey HemiEd, aren't you big on turkey?

Go 30 days with eating healthy and exercising before you go on the pills.

This

Had 4 stints back in 8/07 then another in march 08, you need to really get on top of this quick.

Having said that, I'm horrible at keeping mine in check. But thanks for the reminder I just made appt to go get mine checked this week again.

They can also wreak havoc on your liver (the cholesterol meds that is).

I was put on a statin about 10 years ago and it ****ed my muscles up. Still have trouble to this day. Be very aware if you start having muscle problems like hand cramps or leg cramps get off that med pronto. Sometimes i can't even type correctly like when I send my Mom an E-mail I always end it with a "Love You" and sometimes it comes out "**** You". It's embarrassing!

don't tell me turkey's bad.....is it?
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Also focus on eating foods containing "GOOD" cholesterol. It helps to remove the "BAD" cholesterol from your system. Salmon.

Lay off this stuff.

Should have added to that - and see if it drops significantly enough where on say a 6 month plan you can get things down to acceptable.

I'm by no means an expert but I do know to avoid pills when possible.

did you get your bloodwork done on a regular checkup.. or were you having an issue with something?

No, I don't think so. That's why I was asking Ed, I know he eats a lot of smoked turkey. So I think you're good.

But seriously, all the exercise and diet advice is kind of silly at this point in time, I mean it can probably drop his levels by 30-50 points if he does really well, and where that would make a big difference to someone with 250, at 750 it would be like using a BB gun on a elephant. High doses of statins + a heavy diet are probably in order.

Yes, we eat lots of it. But animal products in general, are the cause of high cholesterol. You should eat fish twice a week, and that is pretty hard.

Learn to make sushi. It is actually pretty easy and can dramatically increase your fish intake.

This is terrible advice.

They put me on pills, but I haven't went out and picked them up yet. They messed up when they faxed them in yesterday. They also put me on some fish oil type stuff.

Going to try and get this under control, I am very surprised at all of this. Though I am a little over weight right now (mostly from my back and forth on smoking) I usually stay around my target weight. I do know that it runs in the family.

EDIT: As to your question, I had been feeling like shit (drained) all the time.

Dude, you have a 740 Cholestrol count and you're happy it wasn't "the worst?!"

Wow, the very first time I was warned about my high Cholestrol it was 305. I have never ever been higher than 260 since and don't forget my serious heart attack 2.5 years ago. frankly I have never heard of Ch. that high. I hope I have scared you enough to do something about this before you are really in trouble.

I was eating fish a few times a week but then I read that the mercury levels in a lot of fish are bad, especially for young children, so I cut back to once a week.

Apparently, eating can kill you.

I appreciate that, but I think death is more appealing than raw fish.

740? WTF!

You're practically a solid.

Yeah, probably. Or as my Dad calls it, "Better living through drugs".

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to HemiEd again.

Nah, you're thinking of sashimi. If you find a good sushi place, you'd like it. Spicy tuna roll...yum.

Wow Smitty, this is something you don't want to mess with, at all.

750? First, did your doctor tell you to fast for at least 8 hours before having your cholesterol level checked? That can make an enormous impact on your reading. If they didn't tell you to fast, you need to call back and have them re-test after you've fasted. They should also re-test at no charge if this is the case.

Secondly, diet and exercise will certainly help but there's no way that doing that alone will help your levels drop 500 points.

Cholesterol is created by the liver. Most likely, this is genetic. I had my blood work done two and half years ago and everything was perfect save for my cholesterol. It was 294 and I'm in perfect health and eat very healthy (lots of salads, sushi, chicken, fish, etc.). They told me come back and re-test in 5 days and during that time, I ate only organic berry smoothies and no cholesterol soup. I again tested at 291.

I called everyone in family and begged them to get tested because none of them, including parents ever go to the doctor. It turns out that everyone had numbers in the high 200's or 300's and now they're all on Simvastatin (that's what I'm taking as well). My numbers are now around 160 and it's all good. No side effects.

If you don't like this doctor's advice, go see another doc to confirm. All I can say is take the meds, clean up your diet and get it down.

Best of luck!

Good sushi is probably one of the tastiest things a human mouth can experience. Too bad that shit is so expensive.

I did not know that. I thought all sushi was raw. I'll be damned.

Thanks, I fasted for 12 hours before. They made me an appointment with a nutritionist, so I hope that will help as well.

Sorry HCChief, I have been told that before, keep getting them confused.

We had a spicy tuna last night with a tossed salad. Pretty good stuff. We have really been enjoying the salmon we pulled out of lake Michigan this summer, very tasty. I prefer it grilled, not smoked.

Mine was at 270 when I first got it checked, then I started exercising heavily, and after six months it was only down to 220. Had to go on medication. I'm tempted to try some kind of supplements and get rid of the medication, anybody had any luck with anything?

You are not going to believe what they tell you, it is probably going to be a real shocker. It is total reprogramming of the way we eat.

I was in a meeting with probably 30 people(part of our heart rehab program) when the nutritionist said 8 oz. of red meat a week.

I exclaimed rather loudly, I have at least that every day for lunch.
She said, "and that is why you are here."

fyp

You can try Red Wheat. They sell it at Costco. It's essentially Simvastatin, in its natural form.

It's been a staple of Chinese food for thousands of years and is one of the reasons why Chinese people generally don't have issues with cholesterol.

One of the owners of the company I worked for had crazy high readings, like 800. Supposedly on meds for it.
Didn't matter, we buried him when he was like 43. He left behind a very loving family.
The Doctors said the cholesterol plugged him up.

That shit's not to be taken lightly. I've never heard of someone having even close to his readings until now, wow.

I wish you luck in getting it under control.

If you are serious about lowering your cholesterol and keeping it low then consider a plant-based, whole foods diet.

Yep.

http://hallelujahdiet.ca/products/images/377.jpg

I am going to have to go by the nutritionist, because I evidently don't have a clue.

My biggest problem is going to be the fact that I don't like many of the foods they will suggest.

I used to use the low carb diet to control my weight, thinking that may have been a big contributor also.

But what is it?

I had never seen or heard of this type of rice before today

Without me getting into it if I were you I would do a significant amount of due diligence on this subject. Research cholesterol and how much it really does contribute to heart disease. I guarantee you will find some interesting information there. Also do a background on the drugs that they are giving you. Do not just do whatever your doctor says without questioning it. Get as much information from as many good sources as you can find. A nutritionist is a great place to start BTW. Good luck.

You're talking to a person who's cholesterol came back at 740. I don't think you understand what that entails.

change this man's name to gravyblood

You should buy a box of cheerios and tampax.

The Cheerios will fix your food problem and the tampax apparently take you kayaking, canoeing, mountain climbing and horse back riding for the exercise.


Solved.

That will be $300.

740? I don't want to worry you, but perhaps you shouldn't be starting any long books.

That's not a diet thing. That's a genetic thing. A guy at my high school reunion told me that his cholesterol level was at 900 at one point, but by then he'd already had two heart attacks before age 40. I think at that level it's all about medication, because I suspect it can't be controlled with diet. (I'm sure diet will be part of the solution too, though.)

Granted, I'm not a doctor. But I do know about that one guy at my reunion, which kind of counts as research.

I think you heard wrong. 740 is the equivalent of running a temp of 120. Cholesterol is a farce anyway. It was invented by the AMA to sell you drugs. Whatever you do, stay off the statins.

Solid advice. :rolleyes:

:doh!:

Smitty, once you start eating a more veggies, you should start liking them much better.

I am the guy that used to think a balanced meal, was a double cheeseburger in each hand, with fries in your lap.

It worked for me, I get cranky if we don't have at least two veggies with every meal.