Chaos Ranch
Well-Known Member
I'm sitting here Googling and WebMD-ing and reference link checking everything I can find on what the doctor told us today. It's not good.
Little background information. For the past two years my husband's workplace does a little health fair. They test their blood pressure, heart rates, cholesterol, BMI, things like that. Well for the past 2 years he's came back with high cholesterol (well over 250). We took him to our (then) doctor, he says, well we'll modify his diet later....and did nothing else about it. Went to new Dr. and he tested at 264. New doc says he wants to run an extensive panel... says only two labs in the US do it. One is in Houston, TX. They did a LPP (Lipoprotien Particle Profile). Doc was concerned because husband is only 36 years old. He's 5'10" and 167 lbs.
Well the results are in, and they're bad. His good cholesterol (HDL) was normal. His tryglcerodes were normal. But his LDL (bad cholesterol) was very high. This lab also broke down the different levels of the good, and the bad cholesterol. There's 6 different types of good, and 6 different types of bad.
Doctor was alarmed because the main LDL that you do NOT want to be elevated, is the Lp(a). (pronounced L-P little a). Well my husband's numbers were completely off the chart. Here's what I found on Wicipedia about what the different Ld(a) levels are.
Desirable: < 14 mg/dL (< 35 nmol/l)
Borderline risk: 14 - 30 mg/dL (35 - 75 nmol/l)
High risk: 31 - 50 mg/dL (75 - 125 nmol/l)
Very high risk: > 50 mg/dL (> 125 nmol/l)
So very high is 50. My husband's level was 61.8 !!! Ld(a) high levels are basically predictors of heart disease. It also says the higher your level, the less likely you are to survive a heart attack. And it says that you are at very high risk of heart attack, stroke, and a few other things I didn't know much about in the ages of 40 & 50 range. It says that it causes your blood to clot. Your body naturally constantly clots and then dissolves. The dissolver can only work on one thing at a time, so if it's working on your body's normal clotting process, it's not working on the Lp(a) that's also on the side clotting as well. Thus, the risk of clots lodging in your heart, and brain, and lungs in increased greatly.
Also, this type of high cholesterol does not respond to normal control methods. (diet, exercise, medication, alcohol, etc.). It only really responds to Niacin and estrogen Of course hubby isn't going to take estrogen. Some studies have shown possible lowering with testosterone and aspirin. Though our doctor said only the Niacin and estrogen affected it.
So, his only method of being of some help is putting him on 1,000 mg of Niacin (starting at 100 and working his way up to 1,000 within a month) and also adding 3 fish oil pills. Says the fish oil helps fatten up, and slick up the particles (which are measuring very tiny, which is bad, rather than larger, which isn't as bad) so that they will slide through rather than gathering and building up/blocking off.
Does anyone here have any experience with this? Any tips? Advice? This just terrifies me... the thought of loosing my husband ... oh god, I just can't imagine it.
Little background information. For the past two years my husband's workplace does a little health fair. They test their blood pressure, heart rates, cholesterol, BMI, things like that. Well for the past 2 years he's came back with high cholesterol (well over 250). We took him to our (then) doctor, he says, well we'll modify his diet later....and did nothing else about it. Went to new Dr. and he tested at 264. New doc says he wants to run an extensive panel... says only two labs in the US do it. One is in Houston, TX. They did a LPP (Lipoprotien Particle Profile). Doc was concerned because husband is only 36 years old. He's 5'10" and 167 lbs.
Well the results are in, and they're bad. His good cholesterol (HDL) was normal. His tryglcerodes were normal. But his LDL (bad cholesterol) was very high. This lab also broke down the different levels of the good, and the bad cholesterol. There's 6 different types of good, and 6 different types of bad.
Doctor was alarmed because the main LDL that you do NOT want to be elevated, is the Lp(a). (pronounced L-P little a). Well my husband's numbers were completely off the chart. Here's what I found on Wicipedia about what the different Ld(a) levels are.
Desirable: < 14 mg/dL (< 35 nmol/l)
Borderline risk: 14 - 30 mg/dL (35 - 75 nmol/l)
High risk: 31 - 50 mg/dL (75 - 125 nmol/l)
Very high risk: > 50 mg/dL (> 125 nmol/l)
So very high is 50. My husband's level was 61.8 !!! Ld(a) high levels are basically predictors of heart disease. It also says the higher your level, the less likely you are to survive a heart attack. And it says that you are at very high risk of heart attack, stroke, and a few other things I didn't know much about in the ages of 40 & 50 range. It says that it causes your blood to clot. Your body naturally constantly clots and then dissolves. The dissolver can only work on one thing at a time, so if it's working on your body's normal clotting process, it's not working on the Lp(a) that's also on the side clotting as well. Thus, the risk of clots lodging in your heart, and brain, and lungs in increased greatly.
Also, this type of high cholesterol does not respond to normal control methods. (diet, exercise, medication, alcohol, etc.). It only really responds to Niacin and estrogen Of course hubby isn't going to take estrogen. Some studies have shown possible lowering with testosterone and aspirin. Though our doctor said only the Niacin and estrogen affected it.
So, his only method of being of some help is putting him on 1,000 mg of Niacin (starting at 100 and working his way up to 1,000 within a month) and also adding 3 fish oil pills. Says the fish oil helps fatten up, and slick up the particles (which are measuring very tiny, which is bad, rather than larger, which isn't as bad) so that they will slide through rather than gathering and building up/blocking off.
Does anyone here have any experience with this? Any tips? Advice? This just terrifies me... the thought of loosing my husband ... oh god, I just can't imagine it.