by kimsuoil » Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:03 pm
Well I had my cholesterol test done today and will have the results in the next day or two. However, within the last 3 weeks I was diagnosed with coronary arterial disease. I passed out after my daily 3 mile jog and went to the doctor. I had a echo stress done which indicated blockage. After having an angiogram done the doctors saw blockages in all 3 of my arteries 80-90%. If you remember in past post I have been an avid jogger for the last 26 years, slim and trim, low blood pressure, been taking the B vitamins, folic acid and other supplements mentioned on this site. However my cholesterol has run 235-286 during the last few years. All of my doctors believe the my LDL was the ONLY risk factor that I had.
This past Thursday I had 6 stents put in to open my arteries. I am now on Plavix, a beta blocker, Lipitor, Zetia, and Niaspan in order to lower my cholesterol so the plaque can be stopped in its tracks. My doctor and I both suspect that my LDL (178 on last test) was probably the small ldl particles (LPa) which can infiltrate the endothelium of the arteries and become plaque. I am hoping that Lipitor does not give me as much side effects as the Vytorin did 2 years ago.
I also want to point out that these doctors do alot of these angiograms and can see the plaque build up in people that have high LDL and low HDL and they see that the progression is stopped or reversed in some cases with people that are aggressively treated with statins.
As the Doc mentions on this site, there is a place for these statins for patients such as I with advanced coronary arterial disease(CAD) in order to stop this disease. However, just having High cholesterol doesn't mean your fate will be the same as mine, as there are other risk factors.
The moral of this story is listen to your doctor, asked questions, if you really feel like you need a stress test or another test to rule out CAD, do so. If it looks like you have blockage starting you need to go with the current science of lowering cholesterol (possibly with statins), keeping normal weight, no smoking, exercise etc. Statins are not evil but appropriate when needed. I could have lived with the side effects of muscle & tendon pain while taking a statin instead of having these blockages.
I will be 49 years old tomorrow, and all of my friends are shocked that I was the one affilicted with blockages being the one with the healthiest lifestyles.
If anyone on this site has a similar story of blockage with only high cholesterol as a risk factor please reply.