Heart attacks aren't just for geezers anymore...

[MJ]

Originally Posted by OldAgePensioner

MJ,
if you see a tuk-tuk with a dude drinkin corona and a couple of fine foxes allowing a guy to reduce their chance of breast cancer, that could be me. Airline fares from SF to BKK are pretty reasonable.

Does thinking about Thai women increase cholesterol?

OAP, it increases something but what I just can't imagine.

[mark500]

Must interject information about the latest blood lipid test. The newest lipid profile is called VAP.

http://www.atherotech.com/

No, this is not an ad, and I do not own stock in the company. But I do have high cholesterol. This newer test gives a much more detailed and useful analysis of serum lipids.

[califdreamer]

Originally Posted by mark500

Must interject information about the latest blood lipid test. The newest lipid profile is called VAP.

http://www.atherotech.com/

No, this is not an ad, and I do not own stock in the company. But I do have high cholesterol. This newer test gives a much more detailed and useful analysis of serum lipids.

I've been getting the VAP test for the last year or two and it certainly gives you a detailed look at your lipid profile. It can give you some peace of mind since the media is always coming up with new risk factors for heart disease (elevated homocysteine, C-reactive protein, size of LDL paticles, etc.).

With a little help from my friend Lipitor, I appear to be safe. We have family history of high cholesterol and heart disease so, before Lipitor, I ate all kinds of stuff with insoluble fiber and cut back on sat fat and trans fat... but I couldn't quite get the numbers in the low risk range... always a little borderline. Now TC at 140, LDL<100, etc.

Knowing all of these numbers doesn't make you bullet proof by any means. There is debate about significance of risk factors (for example, some think C-reactive protein level accurately signals level of dangerous inflammation, others don't think it tells you much). Another example, homocysteine level. Usual advice for hi homocysteine is to take folate/B6/B12 supplement but new study shows that may decrease homocysteine level but does not lower risk. Could be that hi homocysteine is not a cause of but rather a marker of heart disease.

Can also give you data that you can't do anything about. For instance, small, dense LDL is risk factor but I don't know how someone would go about changing that.

Overall, good to have data but it's no panacea.

[audreyh1]

Did you mean to say soluble fiber? It's soluble fiber that helps absorb excess cholesterol in the intestines and thus lowers LDL. Insoluble fiber doesn't help at all.

Audrey

[youbet]

I've been following this discussion with great interest.* Two months ago, family doc saw something he didn't like on an EKG during a routine physical exam.* He sent me for a nuclear stress test.* The nuclear stress test showed a suspicious area while active, but everything normal at rest.* So, I went to a cardiologist.* Given my age, history and other numbers (borderline high bp and cholesterol with no meds), he suggested an angiogram.* I had the angiogram yesterday and the conclusion was that the nuclear stress test was a false positive.* Now the cardiologist is putting me on bp meds and a cholesterol lowering drug to help me move from borderline to good for those readings.* And, of course, whipping me to exercise, loose some weight and cut back on the booze (darn! ).* It's been an interesting few weeks, just prior to ER, and I'm releved not to be starting early retirement with a quint bypass or something like that.

[old woman]

Heart problems are the number one killer of women. They have never been just for geezers. I have known women and men in their 30's that died from a heart attack.
The medical community seems to focus on men in testing and studies because they tend to die a few years younger. They assume women are like men so we can take the same drugs and other things. I would love to see them take women's heart problems just as seriously. Women don't have the same symptoms as a man but I bet most don't know what the women's symptoms are. We all know about men's symptoms.

[califdreamer]

Originally Posted by audreyh1

Did you mean to say soluble fiber? It's soluble fiber that helps absorb excess cholesterol in the intestines and thus lowers LDL. Insoluble fiber doesn't help at all.

Audrey

Thanks for correction. Yes, I did mean to say soluble fiber.

Glad to hear everything turned out well for you, youbet. Good news is maybe you've saved yourself from some problems down the road. Congrats on the upcoming ER!

[youbet]

Originally Posted by old woman

I bet most don't know what the women's symptoms are. We all know about men's symptoms.

If your doc doesn't know the difference between typical symptoms of a man vs. a woman regarding heart issues, please get another doc asap!

DW and I share the same family doc. *He was the one who brought up and educated her on the subject of female heart issues. *If you're telling us that this kind of proactive behavior on the part of docs is not the norm, that's scary!

[poyet]

A very good friend of mine, with whom I graduated as a diving instructor in 2000, and I can tell you that he was the kind of short slim and physically extraordinarilly resistant guy, went to Corsica with his four kids during the summer of 2004, waiting for his wife to join them there. She never saw him alive again, he died at 46 of a heart attack without any previous alert / symptom.
So, ER and enjoy everyday...