Question for Delphi Doc

[SweatHawg]

Just curious.....any thoughts as to how much diet or genetics plays a role in cholesterol?....
I know we are all individuals but--when I saw my MD a few months back for a routine checkup, my lab work came back with my cholesterol at 141...great I thought. The year before it was 162...I asked my Doc how could my cholesterol have dropped that much when I eat meat every meal & I am eating more red meat now than in the past. My wife is 5'7", a few pounds under weight actually with one of the smallest waist's you will ever see. She eats a lot of fresh fruit,veg's, salad & drinks water all day. Her cholesterol was about 210-not real high but as active as she is & with her healthy diet, I thought hers would be better!
When I questioned my doc about mine dropping & hers staying over 200 his answer was , "I think a lot of that is just genetic, doesn't matter what you eat." I thought that as I put him on the spot that, was the first thing he could think of-just a generic answer. What are your thoughts--- \Thanks in advance/

[Delphi]

I'm not an internist and I don't treat hypercholesterolemia so I'm not an "expert" on this. Genetics has a lot to do with cholesteral and triglyceride levels. Some people have TG levels over 1000 no matter what they do. I can eat 4-6 eggs a day (I used to do that) and still run a cholesterol well under 100. Exercise will improve your numbers in general and also improve your HDL/LDL ratio- higher HDL and lower LDL is better.

HDL = high-density lipoprotein = "Healthy"- goes up with exercise
LDL = low-density lipoprotein = "Lazy" - goes up with inactivity
Cholesterol- goal is under 100
Triglycerides- goal is under 200

There's supposedly a village of people somewhere in the world (Italy?) that has almost no coronary artery disease. Their TG levels are sky-high but they lack a carrier protein, or enzyme, or their HDL levels are very high, or something to that effect. They're an extreme example to show that the lab numbers alone are not everything.

[Tryska]

it's partially genetics, partially what you eat. you can have a total cholesterol count well over 200 and still be in the best of health, provided your HDL/LDL ratios are good.

incidentally, in my opinion, what you eat counts, but not in the way we've been taught to think it does, since Dean Ornish....i believe a diet high in refined carbs and low in protein and fat is more responsible for a messed up HDL/LDL ratio then the a diet high in dietary cholesterol.

[Delphi]

Got my numbers backwards. As Tryska alluded to, you want a cholesterol <200. Triglycerides should be somewhere under 150, depending on the lab. Under 100 is cool. See, I told you I'm not well versed on cholesterol stuff... Can't operate on it, isn't important. j/k