Statin

[brinethery]

(Not being used for medical advice) would you take a statin if your cholesterol was 226? Say your LDL is 156 and your HDL is 44 with a triglycerides of 140. Say you are 70 inches 253 pounds with liftong numbers press 230, squat 545, deadlift 605. Also 27 years of age.

I am 36 years old and have familial hypercholesterolemia, and do not take a statin. My total cholesterol is over 450. Here are the tests I did, and what I do in order to prevent atherosclerosis.

There is only one LDL sub-particle that is problematic. Those are the small, dense, inflamed LDL sub-particles. Ask the doctor to order an NMR lipoprofile through LabCorp. It's about $100. I think in that test includes triglycerides.
- On my NMR lipoprofile, the small dense inflamed LDL's barely even registered on the results. I actually had to learn how to interpret the results, and then explain it to my doctor.
Look up Coronary Artery Calcium CAC CT scan. The scan is about $100 in my area. The CT will scan for calcified plaques in the arteries. You'll receive a physician's report within a few days and you'll get a score between 0 to 1000. 0 means you have no calcified plaques, and then there's something to be worried about as that number goes up. If the number is somewhat high, go back in a year later and get scanned again. If the number stays stable, you're probably in the clear. When I got scanned, I scored a big fat Zero.

What I do for the diet component is:
I take 2 tablespoons of Carlson's Cod Liver oil a day and keep it in the fridge. The lipid molecules are really sensitive, so you don't want to cheap out on CLO. This is to keep my HDL up.
I eat a diet that is high in meat. I prioritize beef and lamb. I'll also do some sockeye salmon, chicken, Fage full fat Greek yogurt, and a cup of frozen blueberries in the evening if I'm trying to wind down. The only other non-animal thing I eat is guacamole if I'm having a burger patty. If you want to know why I think vegetables are a distraction, I would refer you to Sally K Norton. She does an excellent talk on oxalate toxicity. I aim to eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of desired body weight per day.
I keep my alcohol consumption very low. When you drink, your blood sugar plummets and then it spikes. I'm not a very nice drunk, so I have to stay away from it. It also gives me bad hot flashes.

In addition to the tests I mention, my other goals are to keep my blood glucose, insulin, and hemoglobin A1C low. I aim for high HDL and low triglycerides. I make sure my waist to height ratio is less than 0.5. So for me, I am 70 inches tall, and my waist at the moment is 32 inches. I also do yearly DEXA scans, and am aiming to lower my visceral fat as much as possible.

The new theory of what causes atherosclerosis is that it is caused by inflammation. High insulin levels in the blood will lead to inflammation, which will cause damage at the arterial junctions. LDL just comes in to repair it. What I'm about to say has to do with atherosclerosis. Dr. Joseph Kraft was a biochemist and studied people for 30 years. He would measure the insulin (emphasis: insulin, not just blood glucose) levels of someone over a 5-hour period and plot it on a curve. The majority of people who he ran this test on... about 80% had an abnormal insulin response curve. This means roughly 80% of the population has some degree of type 2 pre-diabetes or diabetes. If you would like me to send the Dr. Kraft interview over to you, I can. He talks about atherosclerosis in the second half of the talk. He studied over 14,300 people throughout his career.

This is my first time posting, so hopefully I'm abiding by all the rules. The cath labs at hospitals are their bread and butter, and there is a very good reason why insurance companies will not pay for a CAC CT scan.

Also noteworthy, is that my mom was a heavy smoker and passed away of brain/lung melanoma at age 64. Her 3 older siblings are still alive and they all have familial hypercholesterolemia. My cousin was on Crestor (she inherited it too) and had to go off of it. She was getting hand tremors and other bad symptoms. She went the same route as I did and got scanned. She doesn't have calcified plaques either. My grandpa on my mom's side is the one who passed on the FH. He was a heavy drinker, and passed away of liver cancer when he was in his 70s.

Hopefully this is helpful!