High Total Cholesterol (over 300)

[bpm]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Pat

[RapAdmin]

What brands do you think are good for these medications? Generally Good Indian Pharma Companies

[DeStrider]

I use the Brillo EZ from Sun Pharma. Based on my results, I am quite happy with this brand! I haven’t tried others.

[bpm]

And what’s your monthly dosage?

Thanks.

[DeStrider]

I take 180 mg Bempedoic Acid and 10 mg Ezetemibe in one pill daily.

[burton]

do you trust Big Pharma?
https://x.com/valerieanne1970/status/1868540584492765238?s=61

[AnUser]

Dunning-Kruger effect in action @burton

Peak of “Mt Stupid”:

'Do your own research' and the Dunning-Kruger Effect

['Do your own research' and the Dunning-Kruger Effect] “…“Do your own research”, means don’t follow the science, because “scientific research can’t be trusted”, go and find the answers in blogs, videos and podcasts. Where they’re sure they’ll find the kind of misinformation they’re promoting” “I mean these sources must be true, because there are people wearing white coats and Doctor in their name …” “[You’ll find videos that convince you], and the Google Algorithm [knows] you like that stuff, so here’s more of it. It’s not doing your own research that’s the problem, it’s where you do your own research and whether you’re skeptical enough to fact check what you find there” [image] …the term ‘Do your own research’ started to be employed over a decade ago by conspiracy theorists who thought there was a worldwide conspiracy of scientists, so they told their followers not to trust scientific research but to ‘Do your own research.’ And for many people – as I showed in th…

[essexaid]

I love the line “Cholesterol is made by our body. How can it be bad?”

By that logic I wonder whether the author would eat their own faeces.

[AnUser]

All of the cells in the body make their own cholesterol, with no relation with serum cholesterol. Not to mention that statins do, in fact, lower MACE (major adverse cardiovascular events) by a lot.

“Peak of Mt. Stupid”, this is what people have to deal with. Now we can just link my thread on the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

[DeStrider]

I think some people get waylaid by stupidity when people with low cholesterol have heart attacks due to other factors. Remember that MACE can be triggered by many different things such as diabetes. But that doesn’t give you a free pass on cholesterol!

You need to treat all of the areas where your body is breaking, not just one.

[RapAdmin]

Folks - post your PREVENT score below @ExMilitary

The American Heart Association PREVENT Online Calculator

The American Heart Association PREVENTTM Online Calculator

See background here:

New model enables simpler, cheaper estimate of heart failure risk

[DeStrider]

CAVEAT: My total cholesterol is 113. They wouldn’t allow an entry this low, so I had to boost it to 130. I boosted my HDL by 17 to compensate and get the same value for LDL.

[RapAdmin]

Yes - my total cholesterol is 100, and I had to boost it to 130 to be able to get an answer.

My results with the artificially high number:

[RapAdmin]

@DeStrider I recalculated using a boosted HDL (by 30, to counter the artificially high total cholesterol I had to enter) and the result was:

10 year risk of CVD: 2%
10 year risk of ASCVD: 1.1%
10 year risk of Heart Failure: 1.7%

I think the current protocol of statins, bempadoic acid and ezetimibe is working for me.

[DeStrider]

@RapAdmin Same here. Low-dose statins, Bempedoic Acid, and Ezetemibe are amazing.

I feel like we’ve subdued one of the horsemen of death. Doesn’t it feel great?

[RapamycinCurious]

@Alpha

I suggest that all cholesterol measures on their own don’t give you enough information.

You need to evaluate every marker you can with respect to your risk of heart attack or coronary disease.

These are all good tests to refine risk prediction for people at intermediate risk. If this person has LDL-C of 130, he or she needs to bring it the heck down, likely with drugs (though try lowering saturated fat intake and see how far that gets you), regardless of what those tests find.

@DeStrider

I prefer Bempedoic Acid and Ezetemibe over a statin. Same or better effects with fewer side effects.

Most people will not get side-effects from a statin, and most people will not get their apoB down as much with Bemp+Eze as with a satin – and this person appears to need large guns.

[desertshores]

A not-too-useful calculator. Besides not allowing you to enter a total cholesterol number of less than 130, it is so heavily age-related that you might as well just compare cardiovascular risk vs age.

Using the same numbers only changing the age variable. “age” from 30 to 79.

30 year old

79 year old

Age vs risk charts:

[DeStrider]

I had an LDL of 122 which is close to 130. Bempedoic Acid and Ezetemibe lowered it to 68. That’s a great start. A low-dose statin (5 mg Atorvastatin) dropped it further down to 48 for me.

To each their own.

[AnUser]

@desertshores

Age vs risk charts:

That’s an accumulation of cholesterol (via apoB particles) into the arterial wall in a nutshell.

[essexaid]

My total cholesterol is 104. I didn’t adjust my HDL since it’s already the highest I’ve ever had recorded (50). I can’t believe the model doesn’t factor in triglycerides though.