"High" Cholesterol at 23

[Joffray Marcantel]

Like the title says. My total was 209 mg/dl, HDL was 65, LDL was 135 and Triglycerides were 43. The Mayo Clinic website (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cho...levels/CL00001 WFS) tells me that my total is barely high (need to get it below 200), HDL is great (keep above 60), and my LDL needs to come below 130. I'm kind of concerned about it because of (obviously) being so young, and also because I have a family history of heart issues on both sides.

I try to eat fairy clean, usually having a cheat meal for lunch of Friday/cheat day on Saturday. I'm Greyskull LP-ing M/W/F, and only weigh like 163 last I checked.

To start, I figure I'd add in some conditioning on maybe Tuesday and/or Thursday. I was going to do this anyways once it started getting warmer but I guess I have an excuse to start now. I'll post what I eat too to see if that's part of the problem.

Breakfast- Protein shake (8 oz cream, 8 oz whole milk, 2 scoops whey), 1 orange

Lunch- 3 cups spinach and a large chicken breast (I put garlic salt/black pepper on the chicken and cook it in a pan with olive oil, then use the stock and some more olive oil as dressing)

Snack- Turkey sandwich with real cheddar on wheat bread, baby carrots and almonds

PWO- 16 oz OJ mixed with creatine

Dinner (about 45 minutes post-workout)- usually 4 eggs and another protein shake (16 oz whole milk this time). If I'm really hungry I'll add some instant oatmeal or pancakes, and like 4 strips of lower sodium bacon.

I don't want to give up eggs or whole milk, love those things. I also cook my eggs with real butter. I'm not quite sure what else to do but want to get this corrected as soon as possible.

[Tricia Magrini]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_7u7...e_gdata_player

A must see in my opinion!

[Sean Dunston]

I'm not a doctor, and I don't even play one on TV... but given your youth, I would guess you are genetically predisposed to have high total cholesterol.

The good news, however, is that you have excellent HDL and Triglyceride numbers. In the grand scheme of things, cholesterol numbers are predictors of whether you will get heart disease/coronary artery disease. Having low Triglycerides is a good showing that you are at a lower risk. having high (in excess of 60) HDL is also a good showing that you are a lower risk.

Of course, most doctors these days want to throw you on a statin because they have shown to have good results in lowering total cholesterol. There are side effects to statins - be sure you read up on them. Most people do not know that Rhabdo is one of the possible side effects. If you are putting yourself at risk of Rhabdo by doing your workouts, I'd be careful about potentially exacerbating those risks by adding a drug that can be a contributing factor to that condition. My $.02.

There are competing theories on dietary cholesterol (what you ingest) and its impact on the actual amount of cholesterol found in your blood. Do some reading on the subject to see what you think.

Check with your parents to see what their cholesterol numbers are.

[Joffray Marcantel]

Thankfully I have a physical next week, so when I'm discussing this with my doc I'll ask him about my LPA number and my LDL pattern per Tricia's video. I won't let him put me on any meds.

I know my dad's on meds for his cholesterol, and he's also in excellent health at 53, but I'll see if he remembers his numbers.

[Michael Dries]

Was this LDL number measured or calculated. Sometimes folks with very low trig scores and have artificially inflated LDL scores because of the equation used.

IF you really want to lower the LDL eat a little less fat. Quite honestly if it were me (I'm close to those numbers and I'm 31), I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[Joffray Marcantel]

Originally Posted by Michael Dries

Was this LDL number measured or calculated. Sometimes folks with very low trig scores and have artificially inflated LDL scores because of the equation used.

IF you really want to lower the LDL eat a little less fat. Quite honestly if it were me (I'm close to those numbers and I'm 31), I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I'm going to assume it was a measured number, though it didn't exactly say in the letter I received.

I don't plan on changing up much with my diet, maybe just cut out that turkey sandwich. Maybe switch to Canadian bacon instead of regular also (if there's even a difference. I like both anyways)