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Anyone else out there with extremely high lipoprotein (a)?
Heart & Blood Health | Last Active: Sep 1 12:53pm | Replies (242)Comment receiving replies
Thanks for your reply. I had routine blood work done and my LDL was high, I tried bringing it down with a very low saturated fat diet but it didn't lower so I was re-tested for Lp(a) and it was 271.- I suffer from health anxiety so I hesitate to post about my situation because most people want to talk about the bad stuff and it creates more anxiety and worry for me because I live alone and I ruminate about all of this. I did join an Lp(a) fB support group and asked the very specific question which was if anyone had both FH and Lp(a) and if their numbers were as high as mine. One woman said her Lp(a) was over 500 and her LDL was double what mine was. She was very helpful that there are good treatments out there and she helped put my mind at ease. I find so many people reply with comments that have nothing to do with the question I asked. Talking about diet is not helpful with genetic LDL and Lp(a). I am seeing my pharmacist in a couple of days to get her opinion on what might be the best med for me and then I have a drs appt on Sept 3rd and she will prescribe whatever statin is decided on.
Replies to "Thanks for your reply. I had routine blood work done and my LDL was high, I..."
I will entirely disagree that diet isn't important with inherited familial coronary artery disease! I have been on a Mediterranean diet and EXERCISE my whole life and started testing cholesterol, triglycerides and whatever else I could get tested when I was 18! I missed the heart attacks and strokes that everyone in my family had in their 50s & 60s. There came a point where diet and exercise weren't enough (in my later 60s) but I had already laid the great ground work for keeping my lipid numbers low enough where they probably won't be the kind of issue they were for the rest of my family who inherited the disease. I have anxiety too - but I face it (I am not risk adverse). I go to all the doctors who will see me. I have an awesome cardiologist and he said to change to strength/resistance training now. I will do that. I dropped my triglycerides and cholesterol again by refining my diet. I acquired insulin resistence and asked for medicine. Now I am feeling much better and hope that now that my insulin is processing better it will help sustain what I need to keep my body mechanics in good shape. Statins did not work for me. My dad was on them for 25 years, 169 cholesterol and continued to have artery blockages all the way!
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@islandgirl33, I am sorry you are learning about all of this in a very difficult way. I find myself getting stressed about things I don’t understand, then the more I learn the better I feel about it. I hope your pharmacist has helped you prepare for your doctors appointment next week.
I want to encourage you to focus on what you can control, what you can do to be healthy. The other part is treatment, and everyone is so different as to what works best. Focusing on a good relationship with your doctor will pay you dividends. It will help to depend on your doctor and their expertise to walk you through what they know. This way you can focus on applying what you learn. Don’t expect to understand it all at one time, and that’s ok.
While diet doesn’t necessarily get super high LDL or LP(a) numbers where they need to be, it does help your body to function at it’s best. This in turn has to help the body process any drugs better. Exercise helps in a couple ways: it strengthens the heart and gets blood moving around our body. One cardiologist told me another huge benefit is that it helps patients be able to know their body well, to troubleshoot when problems do come up.
Tell me more about your health anxiety. Have you been experiencing other health related challenges? Why type of things do you try to reduce your stress?