• Lab Tests, Markers & Interpretations

  Cholesterol

  Posted by caroline_hawari on June 27, 2023 at 10:46 am

  Hello B,

  My cholesterol levels keep going higher. Its not a family issue and I never faced this before.

  I exercise, eat super healthy, drink occasionally and don’t smoke so I really dont know what “lifestyle” change I can make.

  My HDL is very good but I cant explain why my cholestrol levels keep going high. Can hormones impact cholesterol levels?

  Thanks

   

  Caroline

  sahab78 replied 1 year, 4 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Bernadette

  Member

  June 27, 2023 at 11:35 am

  Hi  – we literally just uploaded our High Cholesterol handout in the Symptom Dictionary today. Your timing is perfect. We also have this write-up to help you better understand what your cholesterol labs mean.

  Before we jump into the possible reasons for increasing cholesterol, just know that clinical reference ranges for total cholesterol have been decreasing over the years. What used to be considered “normal” is now considered “high” as a result. So can you define or share your test results so that we can have a closer look?

  What’s really interesting is that research shows that after 65-70 years old, having a higher cholesterol level is actually protective and associated with a lower risk of death of all causes. On a graph comparing total cholesterol levels vs. mortality across 154 countries, there’s a U-shape curve that happens over time as we age. So the truth is that all-cause mortality is actually lowest in the 200-240 mg/dl zone and most cholesterol reference ranges today are much lower. In studies, lower levels show higher mortality.

  If however you do have trending high cholesterol, here’s the handout which lists the many possible root causes for high cholesterol which I’ll list below so we can troubleshoot together:
  •  Low thyroid function
  • Hyper-adrenal function from chronic stress
  • Insulin resistance and/or elevated insulin
  • Hyperglycemia/diabetes
  • Liver/biliary congestion (i.e. lack of bile flow from liver) 
  • Fatty liver 
  • Genetic predisposition: lipoprotein disorders, familial hypercholesterolemia 
  • Alcoholism 
  • Poor diet & lifestyle: high carb, trans fats & saturated fat consumption, sedentary lifestyle, smoking
  • Pregnancy
  • Medications (i.e. progestins, steroids, immunosuppressants) 

  Low thyroid function, hyper-adrenal function, insulin resistance and liver/biliary tract congestion are often the most common root causes besides genetics.

  There are signs & symptoms for each of these:
  • Here’s a video to see if you resonate with low thyroid function.
  • Here’s a video to see if you resonate with hyper-adrenal function.
  • Here’s a video to see if you resonate with early signs of insulin resistance. And here’s a video for more progressed insulin resistance.
  • Here’s a questionnaire you can fill out to determine if there’s an issue with liver/gallbladder function.

  The next step would be to test to confirm or rule these possibilities out if in fact, cholesterol truly is high.

  Hope this helps give you areas to explore. 

  Let me know what you feel is at play after watching the videos/filling out the questionnaire, and let me know if you have any questions.

• 

  sahab78

  Member

  September 28, 2023 at 4:30 am

   hi ,thanks for the detailed answer my question is what if its a familial hypercholesteolemia and genetic test showed that I have the mutilation, should I go for the medication am 45 and LDL is 6mmol/L which is very high

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