Cholesterol

31 watchers

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geordiegirl Feb 2013 11:25pm, 15 Feb 2013 6,275 posts	0 geordiegirl And why ignorance is bliss. What a horrid story JO! I only went to see if I my iron was low again as staying awake is a challenge some days! I am very anti medicine sometimes to my detriment as I live with pain I could probably quite easily get rid of, but my head says pain masked doesn't get rid of the pain! I just feel (apols docs) that its easy to send someone out with pills and send them on their way.
abbi1966 Feb 2013 6:10am, 16 Feb 2013 44 posts	0 abbi1966 Velociraptor, thanks for your advice, I do get a bit hung up on numbers at times, but will leave it be for now
plodding hippo Feb 2013 7:39am, 16 Feb 2013 47,121 posts	0 plodding hippo GG pain is there for a reason
touche turtle Feb 2013 9:01am, 16 Feb 2013 324 posts	0 touche turtle Is it possible to reduce your Cholesterol level from 6.1 to 2.9 in the space of 3 months by just easting a healthier diet ? This happen to me a few years ago and I have always just assumed they got one of the test results wrong, which one I dont know! and have never gone back to find out.
The_Saint Feb 2013 10:16am, 16 Feb 2013 5,533 posts	0 The_Saint Is it just me who finds it a long stretch from "eat less saturated fat" to tragic tales of misfortune? Even though my cholesterol just happens to be lowish, I will still avoid saturated fat to a large extent, this isn't that hard, my personal thing is "I'll have to carry that around on my next run".
Debart Feb 2013 1:07pm, 16 Feb 2013 57 posts	0 Debart Work have sent me for a medical and just got the results in a letter from work Dr. He said my cholesterol is raised at 5.5, HDL is 1.3 and LDL is 2.9. Which one is the bad cholesterol?? I love cheese and chocolate, I'm not overweight so should I cut these out???? My Bp was 112/65 and heart rate 63 despite just having blood test and don't like needles. I really don't like going for tests and now I am worried.
plodding hippo Feb 2013 1:43pm, 16 Feb 2013 47,128 posts	0 plodding hippo TT it depends how shite your diet was to start with Debart the bad one is the LDL I would not worry one iota about your results
JohnnyO Feb 2013 2:02pm, 16 Feb 2013 15,058 posts	0 JohnnyO This is the unmeasured cost of these tests, the fear they produce when somebody just announces that you have an abnormal result. Realistically, if your GP had wanted you to have the test, they would probably have done it themselves. Your employer is probably well meaning, but the people that have been contracted to do the health check are probably paid per item in terms of doing tests etc, and so you get more than you need. Don't worry and have a chat with your GP if you are really concerned.
Caterpillar Feb 2013 4:24pm, 18 Feb 2013 7,476 posts	0 Caterpillar Simple bit of biochemistry for anyone interested - Your liver gets all the cholesterol and triglyceride you eat first. It packages up the triglyceride into Very Low Density Lipoproteins (VLDL) and sends them off to the rest of your body. If you are very lucky these will drop off all the triglyceride at your hard-working muscles where they are immediately incinerated to get you round the rest of your marathon. If you are unlucky the VLDL's will drop off all the triglyceride at your fat storage cells and you'll have a fat arse. Or a mixture of the two. What is left from the VLDL particles is Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL). It is much richer in cholesterol, relatively, because it's lost the fat. LDL particles are swept out of the blood by the liver, and it recycles the lipoproteins into more VLDL. Some people don't have quite so many LDL receptors on their liver so it takes them longer to sweep out the LDL from the blood and their blood LDL levels are a bit higher. This is not A Good Thing. LDL is "atherogenic" in high enough levels for long enough. The consequences of this are: 1) The number of LDL receptors you have in your liver is pretty genetic. Family history - very significant. You can't change your genes. No family history of coronary disease = don't run round like a headless chicken worrying if you are above or below 5.2783676 or whatever random number someone has quoted. 2) The amount of circulating LDL cholesterol is much more strongly related to your dietary triglyceride intake than it is to your dietary cholesterol intake. About 90% of blood cholesterol is made by your liver to help transport triglyceride. Hence cholesterol-rich eggs don't raise your blood cholesterol. Cholesterol-free "This Bloody-Well IS Butter (Substitute)" triglyceride does. 3) People cannot simply "burn it all off" by running. Hence Jim Fixx and other allegedly fit people who have early heart attacks. So where does HDL come in? Oh - that is also made by your liver, and it is a scavenger that collects up garbage cholesterol. This is A Good Thing. Genetic again. Allegedly red wine elevates HDL levels, but I frankly doubt it makes enough difference to be recommended by NICE.
Autumnleaves Feb 2013 4:28pm, 18 Feb 2013 1,772 posts	0 Autumnleaves Thanks Caterpillar - that was genuinely really informative and helpful