For the majority of the population, eating foods high in cholesterol has no impact on their blood cholesterol. A smaller portion of the population are hyper responders, but that may or may not increase their risk for heat disease depending on their medical history.

If you are eating lots of inflammatory and processed foods, even through they are considered vegan, that might be a factor; however, I've read enough of your posts to know that this is not the case.

Other things that can drive your cholesterol numbers up are thyroid issues, infections, genetic predispositions (APOE4, familial hypercholestrerima), diabetes/insulin etc. Triglycerides numbers will help give you a better picture of what is going on here.

There is also a tremendous amount of variability in the standard cholesterol test. You could take this test 2 days in a row and have wild swings in variability of your numbers (there is a study or two on this).

If your doc is pointing you to stain land, ask for something called the NMR lipoprotein panel. That standard cholesterol test that everyone takes is just a surrogate marker for actual risk; it's indirectly calculating that LDL number. The NMR lipoprotein test will show you the real story - apoB lipoproteins.

If your arteries are streets and cholesterol are passengers, then your apoB lipoproteins are taxi cabs. Those taxi cabs drive the passengers around to different destinations, which fine if you have enough road for all the traffic to drive on. The problem begins when you too many taxis on the streets. They start to bump into each other and some even get driven off the road.....and they pierce the side of the street. When you get too many apoB lipoproteiens in your blood stream, they start to pierce your arteries and that is why knowing your particle number can be important.

okay, here are thenumbers

cholesterol- 209 reference range 125-200
hdl 56 > or = 40
chl/hdl ratio 3.7 < or = 5.0
ldl chl calculated 127 <130
triglycerides 132 <150


my calcium was 10.7 with a ref range of 8.6-10.3

I do not directly supplement that, but my doctor wanted me to every other day my d3 because he felt it was reading high from my overall results....

My bloodwork overall is rather sharp. I am hinting for my last results that were sent to me as I am sure cholesterol was nowhere near that high.

Can pain and discomfort ie:stress increase cholesterol? I have had that increased a lot. Changes on the way to address it. I just really don't think going another drug off of one test is the move.

Who told you this was high?

The drug companies keep changing the values (and lowering) for treatment to continue making money.... your levels are far from high.

I had the lipoprotein tests that madisongrrl mentions, and mine were low. So I don't worry about my numbers, which vary from 220 to 245 for total.

If your cholesterol was not fasting, it will also be a bit higher than a fasting level would be.

Don't worry... be happy!

Hi Jon,

Even though your trigs are within range, they are still very high. Your diet could be playing into this. Are you eating lots of grains or fruit? You really want those under 100 or 75 to be safe. I've written a little about this here: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...27#post1164227

Also if you take vitamin D you will want to take it Vitamin K - the current thinking on this is that all these fat soluble vitamins have to be in a certain balance and the K will help keep the calcium out of places where it doesn't belong, like your arteries. I use a product by Thorne http://www.amazon.com/Thorne-Researc.../dp/B0038NF8MG

I eat a banana a day for the potassium. Other than that due to the sugars I really don't, save avacados.

Grains, more than I should but less than most people. I try to stay with whole grains too. Hmmm.

It was fasting. I can fast with biblical figures at this point. 'You use locust and honey? Amateurs.."

I really have nothing new to add. MrsD and Madisongrrl and others got you covered!

A few months back on Public Radio there was a doctor who said in his opinion everyone over the age of 50 should be on Statins! I can't imagine what would happen to me without this group! THANK YOU!!!!!

Seniors need to be doubly aware when taking statins because, in addition to all the other negative side effects, they cause a decline in cognitive ability.

Dr. Tara Dall is an advanced lipidologist who hails from my home state of Wisco. You can search you tube for some of her talks and videos. She also does work for the Health Specialty clinic in Reno, NV.

For those of you following this thread and are interested in understand LDL particles and want to know more about the NMR test, you can watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xC1bujLukw

Here is a video that explains how Dr Dall goes after the cause of high LDL particle count.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN3icRhFR7o

I would imagine that it is a little bit harder to keep the grains and sugars low for vegans, but your triglycerides are likely the telling factor. Carbohydrate-rich diets can raise your trigs - even if you are eating whole grains, which are not probably as healthy as we are led to believe - especially in for certain groups of people. And there are a small population of people than can eat whatever the heck they want, never have any negative medical issues, and never gain any weight. Life is funny that way and hardly seems fair. If you are amenable to making some small dietary tweaks, I think you may see a lowering of your trigs and your cholesterol numbers as well. Maybe ask your doc for a 3 month extension, make some tweaks and then repeat your cholesterol/trigs test to see what happens.

If Janie sees this thread, hopefully she can chime in with her personal experience. I know that she was using a blood glucose monitor to see how different foods/meal types were impacting her glucose levels. I think that it was very helpful when she was crafting her diet.