High Cholesterol Signs
Dealing with high cholesterol can be a frustrating task. Let me tell you my story about how I discovered that I have extremely high cholesterol and what my doctors told me.
I was diagnosed with extremely high cholesterol about 12 years ago. I was asked by my doctor at the time if I was interested in participating in a test for checking my cholesterol levels. I agreed, as I felt that it was a good idea.
High Cholesterol Test
After performing the blood work required for the test, I was called about two hours later, by my doctor, requesting me to come back into his office immediately. Upon arriving, he informed me that in the thousands of tests he’s performed for high cholesterol, mine was the highest he’s ever seen. At the time, I was in shock. You need to know that I didn’t have any of what I would call high cholesterol signs, or high cholesterol symptoms. Because there aren’t any!
His words were, “if you want to see your 40th birthday, you need to start treating your high cholesterol condition!”. Not a good start. I was 32 at the time.
Second thing he said was, “man, do you just eat eggs all the time?”. Yes, the foolishness continued. The immediate diagnosis was I had a bad cholesterol rich diet. I had to undergo a battery of questions trying to find out what cholesterol high foods I was eating. It didn’t take them long to discover that I did eat some things that I shouldn’t but it didn’t account at all for my serious condition.
High Cholesterol Medicine
Immediately, they started treating me with cholesterol inhibitor drugs. The idea is that the drug that I ingested with my food would link up with the bad cholesterol before my body could take it. I saw a minor drop in my cholesterol levels, but nothing that would take me out of the red zone.
This quest for removing cholesterol high foodsfrom my diet continued with various drug treatments until I was about 36 years old. There were a lot of advances made in the medical field in regards to understanding cholesterol and where it comes from. It was discovered that in some rare cases, it is a hereditary condition. Basically, my liver produces way too much of the bad cholesterol, thus raising my cholesterol levels to the danger zone.
High Cholesterol Symptoms
To be honest, I was a bit sceptical about the whole ordeal, as I felt completely fine. There are no high cholesterol symptoms, that I know about. So I performed a family survey of what diseases my father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, and so on either had or died of. It didn’t take long to discover a blood line of intense heart and stroke disease in my family. For example, my grandfather died at 54 with a severe heart attack. Before that, he had suffered a stroke in his mid 40’s. And so on. So I quickly learnt that just because there are not high cholesterol symptoms, there are plenty of high cholesterol effects that I did want to avoid!
I was prescribed a high cholesterol medication called Lipitor. It took a little while to find the right dose, but I can gladly say that my cholesterol has been successfully managed, without noticeable side effect, for the last 8 years. I have seen my 40th birthday and I intend to see a whole lot more.
I hope to provide tons of valuable information through this site so you will know as much as possible to combat high cholesterol in your life or the life of a loved one. Don’t be fooled, it is a killer! It’s silent and it’s deadly.
Please note, that all the information on this site is for information purposes only. Please consult the advice of your medical practitioner. I will not be held responsible for errors or omissions.
Please feel free to comment on what has helped you or a loved one battle high cholesterol. I’d love to hear your experiences!
