Comments on: My Wife’s High Cholesterol http://www.lazymanandhealth.com/my-wifes-high-cholesterol/ Get Healthy with Me, One Post at a Time Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:24:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Lazy Man and Health » Lowering Cholesterol Without Prescription Drugs http://www.lazymanandhealth.com/my-wifes-high-cholesterol/comment-page-1/#comment-424 Lazy Man and Health » Lowering Cholesterol Without Prescription Drugs Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:26:29 +0000 http://www.lazymanandhealth.com/sickness-prevention/my-wifes-high-cholesterol/#comment-424 [...] week I mentioned that my wife’s cholesterol was off the charts in a very bad way. This is despite her healthy eating habits and exercising 4-5 times a [...] [...] week I mentioned that my wife’s cholesterol was off the charts in a very bad way. This is despite her healthy eating habits and exercising 4-5 times a [...]

]]> By: Susan http://www.lazymanandhealth.com/my-wifes-high-cholesterol/comment-page-1/#comment-327 Susan Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:02:55 +0000 http://www.lazymanandhealth.com/sickness-prevention/my-wifes-high-cholesterol/#comment-327 It's got to be frustrating, especially when making a health a priority. My total cholesterol level tends to be less than ideal (probably genetic). It's very sensitive to what I eat! Exercise is even more important to me because it raises my HDL and keeps the LDL in check. Your wife's HDL is excellent (most likely from exercising), she eats right, she isn't overweight, and she takes care of herself, in general. All those things will help lower her risk of cardiac disease. I'm curious to see what the doctor recommends. It’s got to be frustrating, especially when making a health a priority. My total cholesterol level tends to be less than ideal (probably genetic). It’s very sensitive to what I eat! Exercise is even more important to me because it raises my HDL and keeps the LDL in check.

Your wife’s HDL is excellent (most likely from exercising), she eats right, she isn’t overweight, and she takes care of herself, in general. All those things will help lower her risk of cardiac disease.

I’m curious to see what the doctor recommends.

]]> By: kitty http://www.lazymanandhealth.com/my-wifes-high-cholesterol/comment-page-1/#comment-326 kitty Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:44:08 +0000 http://www.lazymanandhealth.com/sickness-prevention/my-wifes-high-cholesterol/#comment-326 Have you actually used the Framigham calculator on American Heart Association website to quantify your wife's ABSOLUTE 10-year risk of a heart attack: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3003499 - click on "Learn your risk", registration is optional. You may be (pleasantly) surprised. You can play with the numbers to see how much reduction in LDL would affect them. The website you reference is very misleading in that it confuses absolute risk with relative risk. Even with a high relative risk increase because of high LDL, it is perfectly possible to have low ABSOLUTE risk if other parameters - triglicerides, HDL, blood pressure, etc. are OK. If one's absolute risk of heart attack because of all these factors is only 1% and high cholesterol increases it by, say, 50%, it'll still only be 1.5%. An increase from 1% to 1.5% is a whole lot less scary than "increase by 50%". Same with the benefit of drugs - if something reduces your risk from 6% to 4%, for example, and that after 10 years you better be sure that the risk of side effects is less than 2%. Have you actually used the Framigham calculator on American Heart Association website to quantify your wife’s ABSOLUTE 10-year risk of a heart attack: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3003499 – click on “Learn your risk”, registration is optional. You may be (pleasantly) surprised. You can play with the numbers to see how much reduction in LDL would affect them. The website you reference is very misleading in that it confuses absolute risk with relative risk. Even with a high relative risk increase because of high LDL, it is perfectly possible to have low ABSOLUTE risk if other parameters – triglicerides, HDL, blood pressure, etc. are OK. If one’s absolute risk of heart attack because of all these factors is only 1% and high cholesterol increases it by, say, 50%, it’ll still only be 1.5%. An increase from 1% to 1.5% is a whole lot less scary than “increase by 50%”. Same with the benefit of drugs – if something reduces your risk from 6% to 4%, for example, and that after 10 years you better be sure that the risk of side effects is less than 2%.

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