Aa
Oh NO! My Cholesterol..what does this mean for me and my heart?!?
So I got something in the mail from The Mayo Clinic today. Its a 'Personalized Health Risk Profile' from the women's heart clinic there. Everything looks good except my cholesterol - holy MOLY - my LDL (bad) cholesterol is 144. Says it's supposed to be under 70! My total cholesterol is 225! Says it should be less than 180! AGH! The triglycerides and HDL (good cholesterol) are good.
Umm, could this be causing my palpitations? Or what? I'm so surprised at these numbers - I am a vegetarian and am only 34. I exercise a lot and eat a lot of soy.
One thing I'm wondering is...the lady that made the appt for me told me to not eat anything after midnight the night before I had my blood taken for these tests. I got to my hotel at 9 and didn't' eat dinner until 10 - and I had cheese pizza and french onion soup with cheese on top...
When I showed up to the lab the next morning, the directions said to start fasting at 7 PM or something, I said I had eaten at 10 and they said 'that's okay'...
Do you think my numbers are elevated because I ate late the night before? Or are these numbers for real? Man, I'm worried now. I made lasagna for dinner but ended up eating Cheerios after reading these numbers.
Thanks...
Umm, could this be causing my palpitations? Or what? I'm so surprised at these numbers - I am a vegetarian and am only 34. I exercise a lot and eat a lot of soy.
One thing I'm wondering is...the lady that made the appt for me told me to not eat anything after midnight the night before I had my blood taken for these tests. I got to my hotel at 9 and didn't' eat dinner until 10 - and I had cheese pizza and french onion soup with cheese on top...
When I showed up to the lab the next morning, the directions said to start fasting at 7 PM or something, I said I had eaten at 10 and they said 'that's okay'...
Do you think my numbers are elevated because I ate late the night before? Or are these numbers for real? Man, I'm worried now. I made lasagna for dinner but ended up eating Cheerios after reading these numbers.
Thanks...
Frenchie - I don't know what my ratio is. I know they consider me high risk/heart diseased because I have a history of stroke (even though I was 24 when i had the stroke and it wasn't due to high blood pressure or high cholesterol or anything like that). So I think the range numbers are lower than for someone with no stroke history, I suppose they want it lower than normal to compensate for health history. How do you figure out ratio?
Brooke - Thanks. My blood was drawn at 7:30 AM so there was not 12 hours in between. I'm hoping that is why the LDL and overall cholesterol is high. After all I ate super cheesy, greasy food late at night! I normally don't do that but we were starving by the time we got into town.
My triglicerides are 87 (good is under 150) and my HDL is 64 (over 50 is good). BP was 113/78 (which is high for me - always comes up high at dr's office because I HATE going to the dr's office - makes me nervous!). Body mass index 21 (under 25 is good). Maybe I will get it rechecked - it's never come up high before. I read in my packet that LDL generally goes up when pregnant, so if I want to get pregnant I'd better work on lowering that number. Yikes.
Man, this is a bummer - I *knew* yesterday was too good to be true, there had to be some bad news, LOL.
Brooke - Thanks. My blood was drawn at 7:30 AM so there was not 12 hours in between. I'm hoping that is why the LDL and overall cholesterol is high. After all I ate super cheesy, greasy food late at night! I normally don't do that but we were starving by the time we got into town.
My triglicerides are 87 (good is under 150) and my HDL is 64 (over 50 is good). BP was 113/78 (which is high for me - always comes up high at dr's office because I HATE going to the dr's office - makes me nervous!). Body mass index 21 (under 25 is good). Maybe I will get it rechecked - it's never come up high before. I read in my packet that LDL generally goes up when pregnant, so if I want to get pregnant I'd better work on lowering that number. Yikes.
Man, this is a bummer - I *knew* yesterday was too good to be true, there had to be some bad news, LOL.
Hello...
If I were you, I would have your levels rechecked. The rule before having a lipid panel is 12 hours fasting. Based on the meal you ate at 10pm the night before, which I imagine was not a full 12 hours before blood draw, this could definitely skew the accuaracy of the results.
I wouldn't worry too much about it until you have it rechecked....I, like you, eat heart healthy food, no drinking, no smoking and exercise when I have the time and energy...despite all of this my total cholesteral tipped the scale at 250, HDL 42 and LDL 172! Unfortunatley there was not much I could do about genetics. I am now on 20mg Zetia, after 80mg of Simvastatin did not help to decrease my numbers by much.
So give your primary care Dr a call and ask him if you could come in to have your lipid panel retested. Let us know how it goes:)
If I were you, I would have your levels rechecked. The rule before having a lipid panel is 12 hours fasting. Based on the meal you ate at 10pm the night before, which I imagine was not a full 12 hours before blood draw, this could definitely skew the accuaracy of the results.
I wouldn't worry too much about it until you have it rechecked....I, like you, eat heart healthy food, no drinking, no smoking and exercise when I have the time and energy...despite all of this my total cholesteral tipped the scale at 250, HDL 42 and LDL 172! Unfortunatley there was not much I could do about genetics. I am now on 20mg Zetia, after 80mg of Simvastatin did not help to decrease my numbers by much.
So give your primary care Dr a call and ask him if you could come in to have your lipid panel retested. Let us know how it goes:)
okay..don't worry. I'm in the same boat and my doctor isn't the least bit worried because my overall ratio is under 3
Plus all labs are different regarding reference ranges
My ldl is 116 - the reference range is 65-130
My cholesterol is 215 - reference range is 0 - 200
My hdl is 75 - reference range is 35-165
My triglycerides are 126 - reference range 0 - 250
I weigh 105 lbs and eat really healthy so I'm sure it is a genetic thing for me. My dad had high cholesterol. But remember, the doctors look at the overall picture. They care more about the ratio. At least mine does. Plus what you ate that night could have made a difference.
I don't think this is the cause of palps. What is your overall ratio?
You can e-mail me if you want
Frenchie
Plus all labs are different regarding reference ranges
My ldl is 116 - the reference range is 65-130
My cholesterol is 215 - reference range is 0 - 200
My hdl is 75 - reference range is 35-165
My triglycerides are 126 - reference range 0 - 250
I weigh 105 lbs and eat really healthy so I'm sure it is a genetic thing for me. My dad had high cholesterol. But remember, the doctors look at the overall picture. They care more about the ratio. At least mine does. Plus what you ate that night could have made a difference.
I don't think this is the cause of palps. What is your overall ratio?
You can e-mail me if you want
Frenchie
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