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Katie K · 06-06-2009, 10:22 PM

You might start with getting a new doctor.

A real doctor would have told you the following:

1) A total cholesterol number is essentially meaningless for the purposes of determining heart disease. Half the people having heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels.

2) Your LDL number is not directly measured, but actually calculated using the Friedewald Equation. Directly measuring LDL is expensive, so the lab uses a calculation. The problem with the Friedewald Equation is that at triglyceride levels above 400 or below 100, it does not accurately measure LDL. Using the more appropriate Iranian equation, your LDL is actually 135. That's 25 points lower than your incorrectly calculated lab results.

3) One of the best indicators of heart health is the triglycerides/HDL ratio. A ratio of 4 or above is bad. Your ratio is 1.1 is an incredibly good ratio.

Your doctor told you none of the above and is probably on the verge of prescribing you stat ins (another extremely bad idea). Does he/she even know what the Friedewald Equation is or that your LDL is miscalculated?

As this point, my assessment is that your doctor is a parrot. Someone who only knows how to regurgitate and treat a number (like your total cholesterol) instead of having the background to accurately assess your heart health. Simply put, your doctor does not deserve your patronage.

Just keep on doing what you are doing. Your heart health is excellent.

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Katie K Junior Member Offline Posts: 21 Join Date: Dec 2008	06-06-2009, 10:22 PM You might start with getting a new doctor. A real doctor would have told you the following: 1) A total cholesterol number is essentially meaningless for the purposes of determining heart disease. Half the people having heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels. 2) Your LDL number is not directly measured, but actually calculated using the Friedewald Equation. Directly measuring LDL is expensive, so the lab uses a calculation. The problem with the Friedewald Equation is that at triglyceride levels above 400 or below 100, it does not accurately measure LDL. Using the more appropriate Iranian equation, your LDL is actually 135. That's 25 points lower than your incorrectly calculated lab results. 3) One of the best indicators of heart health is the triglycerides/HDL ratio. A ratio of 4 or above is bad. Your ratio is 1.1 is an incredibly good ratio. Your doctor told you none of the above and is probably on the verge of prescribing you stat ins (another extremely bad idea). Does he/she even know what the Friedewald Equation is or that your LDL is miscalculated? As this point, my assessment is that your doctor is a parrot. Someone who only knows how to regurgitate and treat a number (like your total cholesterol) instead of having the background to accurately assess your heart health. Simply put, your doctor does not deserve your patronage. Just keep on doing what you are doing. Your heart health is excellent.