cholesterol changes during surgey

[RadioAstronomyObserver]

Curious is anyone knows if Cholesterol numbers change from before to after bypass surgery?  I can see if there is new blood introduced but since there is nothing mentioned in the surgery reports I have to wonder if something there does change?

[ed34]

You've got me really thinking on this now and I have some interesting questions.
You can obviously increase your production of cholesterol by a bad diet, this is seen in blood tests. However, does this mean there is no supply and demand system built into the body? we simply produce a steady amount depending on what we eat? If we have a serious injury, is the Liver signaled to produce more cholesterol? or are we supposed to eat lots of fat to increase the levels? interesting.
Maybe cardiologists should run a cholesterol test before surgery and then a few days after to see if there is a change. The patient would have to eat the usual foods tho.

[ed34]

I would have thought that a few months after surgery the cholesterol should rebalance itself to what it was before the surgery. It's surprising how many people have heart attacks with normal or low cholesterol. That, in my opinion, is why it isn't the single blame, the risk factor list is growing so more people can be assigned to a reason.

[RadioAstronomyObserver]

Hadn't thought about that aspect, the need for cholesterol to repair tissue after surgery.  Don't know what the numbers were before but two weeks after they were nearly perfect which makes me wonder what they were before. And the cause for the heart attack.

[ed34]

I wouldn't have thought so. I know appetite changes for the first few weeks in most people and so they tend to eat less. I'm talking on the average here, I know some still eat like a horse the following day. Cholesterol production is not anything to do with the heart so I can't imagine any kind of link. There is another possibility of course. With such major surgery, there's a lot of healing to be done by the body. What is used to make new cells and repair damaged ones? cholesterol.