Repatha along with pravastatin 10 mg and ezetimibe

@astohrer Hi what can you take for the high lp(a)?

@auntdina there is no treatment for high Lp(a) yet, though there are some in the research pipeline. Some people respond to a healthy diet and exercise, some respond to medications such as statins or Repatha. Mostly this is a genetic problem that is not controllable.

I thought to give a bit more information about my particular situation with regard to my cholesterol. I was unlucky in the roll of the genetic dice in that my father was 100% Northern Italian and he had the apo A-I Milano gene. His cholesterol never went above 130 his entire life, and he exercised very little and ate whatever he liked. I have heterozygous hyperlipidemia inherited from my mother. Her cholesterol was 300+ most of her adult life, and like me, she could not tolerate statins.

In my own case, I had three episodes in my mid forties that caused my cardiologist to put "allergic to statins" on my charts after trying four different statins over a two year period because the muscle pain was constant. My GP continued to argue with me and told me it was all in my head, so I fired her. The first two episodes involved muscle spasms in my neck that briefly cut off my carotid artery and caused me to pass out in the middle of lifting weights. In both instances I woke up on the floor. Fortunately, I was using a machine and the floor was rubber. The third instance was when I was doing my morning 3.2 mile run with hills. I was going down hill full speed when both of my quads locked up sending me flying onto the road and causing road burns on my hands, forearms, and knees. That episode was the one that caused my doctors to take me off of statins. Mind you, at that time I was lifting weights four days a week (heavy four day split), and running six days a week (I should also add that I kept this workout routine or ones similar to it for the last twenty two years and never had another episode involving my muscles seizing up, so I am confident that it was the statins). My body fat percentage was 11% and I was watching my diet with lots of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, and fish with the occasional steak. However, even with that heavy workout routine my cholesterol was just under 300.

As you can imagine, I am thrilled to be on Repatha and am only disappointed that it was not available when I was in my mid forties; it might have saved me from having four stents.

From my last lipid panel, Dec 15, 2025:
Cholesterol 108
Triglycerides 84
HDL 50
VLDL Calculated 17
LDL Calculated 41
Cholesterol/HDL Ratio 2.2
LDL/HDL Ratio 0.8

I will be seeing my cardiologist in February and will post any pertinent updates.