I am a 41 year old female with cholesterol of 309. It has always been high (above 240 since I was in my 20s), but in the last year went up approx. 40 points. My hdl good cholesterol is 104, which is considered high and favorable, and my ldl bad cholesterol is 196, which is considered high and negative. My chol/hdl ratio is 3.0, which puts me in the "protection probable" class of ratio interpretations. My dr. said that this ratio meant that the good cholesterol provides probable protection for my heart. Both my mother and grandmother have histories of very high cholesterol. I am also a triathlete who trains between 5 - 10 hrs per week (depending on the season) and have run four marathons - basically, I'm very fit. I'm 5 ft 6 in. and weigh 140 lbs. My diet is healthy - I eat mostly fresh foods, fruit and vegetables, although I do admit to some ice cream and the like.

My dr. told me to modify my diet to lower my cholesterol. I really have limited opportunity to do so, because I don't eat fast food, fried food, a lot of red meat, etc etc.

My question is this - is anyone aware of studies being performed on people with this type of hereditary high cholesterol? I am not interested in taking medicine to reduce it, and I am curious if there have been any studies done on this type of scenario, and the impacts of not taking medicine? Does anyone know how you could sign up for a study that focused on this?

m4ine,

It sounds like you have an extremely healthy lifestyle. I wouldn't get too hung up about the cholesterol. Remember, cholesterol doesn't kill you, heart disease kills you. All the studies have shown is that many of the people who have had heart attacks also have high cholesterol. But it has never been proved that the presence of cholesterol in your bloodstream actually causes the heart disease. For all we know, whatever causes heart disease could also increase cholesterol (ala the inflamation hypothesis). In which case reducing cholesterol misses the point. And bear in mind that a third of people who have heart attacks actually have normal or low cholesterol.

One way to establish whether you have heart disease would be to have a heart scan done. If it shows that your arteries are clogging up in spite of your healthy lifestyle, you will need to consider what can be done about it. But if the heart scan shows that your arteries are clear, in spite of many years of high cholesterol, don't change anything.

Mark

m4,

Both my mother and grandmother have histories of very high cholesterol.

How are they faring with regards heart disease? Odds are you will follow a similar route.