I am a 72 yr old female and have had high cholesterol for as long as I can remember (20-25 yrs.). It's never been under 250 and sometimes 300. A few years ago I had a 64 slice CT angiogram which determined that I had no plaque buildup. Is anyone familiar with this? I think it is highly rated in it's ability to discover any problem. Anyway, my thinking is that since I've had high chol. for many years and no plaque, that chol. isn't a biggie for me. I've taken my results to my new doctor because I don't want to take statins. I've tried them before with the result being severe leg cramps and after reading so much about the negative effects of statins on muscles, I'm just very unsure that this is the thing to do. According to a lot of things I've read there seems to be a lot of folks with high chol. that never have problems and lot of them with low chol. that do. WHO THE HECK KNOWS!!!!! My doctor is not insisting that I take them, but I can tell he thinks I should. Any thoughts out there?
If you have no plaque build-up, then don't even think about taking statins. You don't need them. If possible, could you please post the rest of your number; LDL, HDL, and triglycerides? That would be interesting to know. And yes, I do believe that there is more to it than just cholesterol.
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"Men and nations will act rationally when all other possibilities have been exhausted."
Thanks for the response. My LDL was 241, HDL 45 and triglycerides 141. This is actually the first time I can remember that my tryglycerides have been in a good range. I just got results back from another test that I just had done that detects carotid artery disease, peripheral arterial disease and abdominal aortic aneurysmm and all were normal. So, I'm feeling good about the situation and just hope I'm doing the right thing by not taking the statins. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut feeling.
My cholesterol has also been in the 300 range since I was 18 (I am now 51). I've had heart scans and Nuclear stress test that show no plaque build up. My current numbers are:
LDL: 286
HDL: 61
Trigs: 40
I won't take meds. Most doctors don't know much about the "real" story of cholesterol. I realized many years ago that most Docs are ignorant and don't take time to do research of their own.
Thanks for the response. My LDL was 241, HDL 45 and triglycerides 141. This is actually the first time I can remember that my tryglycerides have been in a good range. I just got results back from another test that I just had done that detects carotid artery disease, peripheral arterial disease and abdominal aortic aneurysmm and all were normal. So, I'm feeling good about the situation and just hope I'm doing the right thing by not taking the statins. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut feeling.
Her numbers just prove that there's more to heart disease then high cholestrol. Her Triggs are normal, but not exactly low and her good cholestrol is barely above the minimum of 40. Yet this 70 year old has no plaque. Hmmmmmmmm. Makes one wonder.
Whatever shei is doing she shouldn't stop.
