I just got my cholesterol readings. Are these
readings good enough? Am I at risk? I don't
have any other risk factors like diabetes, overweight,
hereditary etc:

TC - 214
Triglycerides - 109
HDL - 47
LDL 145.20
VDL - 21.80
TC/HDL ratio - 4.60
LDL/HDL - 3.10
Blood sugar (fasting) - 84

While your numbers are not altogether bad, what you do need to work on is raising your HDL sufficiently to improve your ratio. Ideally, you want your ratio to be 4.0 or less. Exercise is one way to raise HDL. Low-fat, high-carb diets also often result in lower HDL readings. Now, in your case, I would suggest that you try inositol hexanicotinate, a flush-free form of niacin. Niacin is great at elevating HDL, and it also simultaneously lowers LDL as well. For starters,try taking a 500mg capsule twice daily, and see how that influences your next blood test. You should see an improvement.

I'll agree that your numbers aren't bad but I don't recommend taking over the counter medicines for cholesterol problems without the advice of a doctor (A real doctor not a Chiropractor). Too many of them will damage your liver. A bad liver will kill you faster than those cholesterol numbers. Try eating more fish if you want to raise your HDL numbers. The higher they are the better.

Jim5554, I appreciate your concern about the use of over the counter products, and I absolutely agree with you about increasing the amount of fish in the daily diet. Actually, there are quite a few things that a person can do to increase HDL, but it's just that niacin came immediately to mind in this particular case. Niacin has received an undeservedly bad rap over the years, mainly because doctors have previously prescribed it at excessively high doses, often at doses as high as 8,000-9,000mg per day. Now, at those dosages, it is understandable how a patient can experience potential problems on a liver function test. However, it was later determined that such high dosages are really not necessary in many cases, and that far lower dosages can result in beneficial effects. It is my understanding that supplementing with niacin at a daily dose of up to 1000mg is safe for most people, and that in the case of inositol hexanicotinate, which is considered to be safer and with fewer side effects, the dosage can be even higher, perhaps as high as 3,000mg. In any case, I do agree that patients should inform their physicians of all the dietary supplements that they are taking, although it is not necessarily imperative that they receive their physicians approval to try them.

I'm one of those people with elevated liver enzymes due to a fatty liver. Niacin is a no-no for me. I found out as the result of a blood test my doctor gave me. For most people there are no symptoms when they have a fatty liver thats why I recommend seeing your doctor first. What you do with his (or her) advice is your business.

P.S. My doctor did say that Niacin is an effective treatment. It's just that with elevated liver enzymes there is a potential for liver damage.

[This message has been edited by jim5554 (edited 09-17-2002).]

Jim5554:

Your point is well taken, and I apologize for not being more specific about receiving the approval of your physician. If there is a medical reason why you should not be taking something, then it is very important that you abide by your doctor's advice. The kind of non-approval that I had in mind is when a doctor arrogantly dismisses the notion that any dietary supplement can possibly be of benefit.

Yes, I'll definitely agree with that. You have to keep in mind that 50% of doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class.

Excellent point, and well worth remembering!! You should send that line out to Yogi Berra! That would rank right up there with that other remark he made about a very popular restaurant when he said, "That place is so crowded nobody ever goes there anymore."

I have results and I am wondering if I should start meds like the doctor is talking about. This is the second test, seperated by about a year, with same results. I believe she is correct, whats your opinions? In the test reply she talked about lopid. I am waiting a call-back to find more about what she wants.

TC - 194 (mine test lists this a just Cholecterol?)
Triglycerides - 338
HDL - 30
LDL-c - 96
VLDL - 3.2
TC/HDL ratio - 6.46
LDL/HDL - 3.2
Blood sugar (fasting) - 100




[This message has been edited by berg0449 (edited 09-18-2002).]

Originally posted by berg0449:
I have results and I am wondering if I should start meds like the doctor is talking about. This is the second test, seperated by about a year, with same results. I believe she is correct, whats your opinions? In the test reply she talked about lopid. I am waiting a call-back to find more about what she wants.

TC - 194 (mine test lists this a just Cholecterol?)
Triglycerides - 338
HDL - 30
LDL-c - 96
VLDL - 3.2
TC/HDL ratio - 6.46
LDL/HDL - 3.2
Blood sugar (fasting) - 100


TC = Total Cholesterol. You have high triglycerides, low HDL, high triglyceride/HDL ratio of 11.3 (normal is 5.0, optimum is < 2.0), and moderately high fasting bloodsugar (normal is 70-90 mg/dl). Are you overweight? Do you have high bloodpressure?

All of the above are the classic symptoms of Syndrome X. Metabolic Syndrome X is a cluster of symptoms that greatly increases your risk of heart disease. Syndrome X is associated with insulin resistance. These symptoms are usually associated with a seditary lifestyle and a diet that is relatively high in carbohydrates (sugars, breads, cakes, cereal, pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit, etc.) and low in protein and animal fats (meats, eggs, full fat dairy, etc.). Look at your diet and lifestyle and see if it fits this pattern. If it does and you want to improve those numbers, then change your lifestyle and diet to one that includes more activity, more whole natural foods including meat, eggs, full fat dairy, and non-starchy vegetables, and less of the processed and high carbohydrate foods so commonly available today.

For more information, do a search on Syndrome X and insulin resistance on any good search engine such as google.com.

Cholesterol lowering medications treat the symptom, not the cause. If you want to fix the root cause of the problem, then you will have to adjust your diet and lifestyle to one that is more natural and healthy.

Alan