Sudden High Cholesterol?

Lady50

When you have hypothyroidism(like I have) cholesterol can go high if left untreated for awhile, that is what happened to me. Diabetes can cause you to have high cholesterol also.

Now I think they are saying that 70 is the limit for high cholesterol. Anything over that is considered high. Does that make sense to you. Is that just a way to sell more statins drugs?

My husband is very healthy and the only thing wrong is he has plaque buildup in his arteries. Also he takes Nexium because of a hernia. He doesn't hardly eat anything. Sometimes I wonder if the Nexium has something to do with it. He takes it everyday and it reduces the stomach acid. Seems like that would interfere with the breakdown of the food.

Lenin

Stacy,

Estrogen is EXTREMELY protective of the female heart. When it stops flowing, women quickly catch up with men.
Do you have her recent numbers?

JacquelineL

I stopped taking estrogen for six months and my HDL dropped a lot. It didn't seem to affect LDL or Trigs much, but I was taking Zocor. I am now using estrogen and my HDL is up again.

JJ

Stacy...It could be either one, or both, the lack of estrogen and the Thyroid. Seems since I stopped taking estrogen pills, my Thryoid numbers have gotten out of wack, as has my HDL and Trigs last testing. I have always been told I had a slightly underactive Thyroid, but since I stopped the pills, the numbers are worse and like I said, my last lipid panel showed my total cholesterol was the same, as was my LDL, but my HDL went down from 58 to 39 and my Trigs from 142 to 181.....

My next test is in late May, and if my numbers are still wacked out, I am going to ask the dr. about maybe putting me back on a small dose of estrogen, as I tolerated it just fine. Good luck to your mom....

LadyD392

I also am perimenopausal and today my dr. called me and said my cholesterol levels have increased dramatically. he wants me to go on lipitor, but i want to research a natural approach first. he did say once i start taking them you must always take them. I don't know what to do. any suggestions!

JJ

Can U post all your numbers, TC, LDL, HDL and Trigs? It is kind of hard to give any advice without knowing something about a person. What some drs. consider to be very high, may just be moderately high and dealt with thru diet and exercise. Do U have any health problems or risk factors, over weight, etc. etc.?

There are many folks here that will try to help, but a lil more info. is definitely needed. Good luck....

Sonflower1116

About 3 weeks ago I started taking a natural product called Cholesterol Care by Healthy Choice Nutritionals. I'm going to have my total cholesterol rechecked after 3 months to see if it does what they're saying it will do. It's main ingredients is gugul-lipid and red yeast rice extract, 2 things that I had been doing some web research on. While my numbers have greatly improved, I'm wanting to get my total cholesterol down to 200 or below. My doctor suggested going on Lipitor but knew I would say no thanks when she asked. I've heard that Lipitor is VERY EXPENSIVE and you do have to take it from now on. That just didn't appeal to me.

My best to you on finding answers to help you get your numbers down.

gardeninggal

Ladies: Yes cholesterol goes up when your thyroid is low. Have it checked and also be aware that the range numbers of the TSH has changed. Example: my clinic is behind and is using the old range which was .5 to 5 and the new numbers are .3 to 3. Now if your Tsh is say 4 then the doctor says your thyroid is in the range and normal when if fact according to the new range it is too high and that means you are really Hypothyroid and this can cause higher cholestrol. I am striving to have my numbers between 1 and 2, which is the range of a healthy thyroid. Another thought here is estrogen can be natural or synthetic (Permarin). Permarin can cause heart trouble and strokes and high blood pressure, weight gain normally is between 20 and 30 Lbs and some hair loss. I know been there done that!!!! There are natural estrogens that won't cause breast cancer and work closer to our own natural estrogen. You can be tested to see if you need any and if so how much. I can't stress this enough, know all about it before you start taking a synthetic estrogen. I myself have to take thyroid replacement and Synthroid was not working for me and I switched to a natural one called Armour and am doing so much better because it has the whole thyroid, t3 and t4 , not just t4 like Synthroid.