5 posts tagged “heredity”
The minister of home affairs and I are completely puzzled. We received an SMS last night saying that my brother had given in and had gone for his cholesterol test. That's a good thing!
He had good news: his total cholesterol is only 4.9mmol per litre.
This puzzles us, though. How did he manage to avoid the gene that has expressed itself in every other member of the family? My maternal grandmother died in her 60s after a series of heart attacks, my mother's reading is exceptionally high, my sister's is high, mine is high, and it has also expressed itself in my maternal aunt's family. In fact, one of my cousins, who is 10 years younger than I am, is on medication.
We are happy for my brother, make no mistake. We just cannot understand how one person managed to avoid this thing!
I just received news that my sister has finally had her cholesterol tested too. She registered total cholesterol of 6.1, almost the same as my 6.3.
She is being put on the same diet as my mother and I am on and will be retested in a month.
I am so glad she did the test - now if only my brother will develop some sense and go for it too. Familial hypercholesterolaemia is not curable, but it is controllable. If he doesn't control it, it means an early death.
I said yesterday I would report back on my latest cholesterol test results, so here they are.
The doctor says my total cholesterol is 6.3mmol/litre (it should be below 5mmol). The LDL cholesterol is 4.5 (should be at most 2.9). I don't recall the triglyceride level, but I think he said about 2 (should be below 1.69). Of serious concern is the homocysteine level, which is 29 (should be between 5 and 15). A high level is a powerful risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
The doctor feels that although my LDL level is high, he is not going to put me on cholesterol-reducing medication just yet. For now, the focus will be on getting the homocysteine levels down. To do that, I need a daily intake of 400 micrograms of folic acid, 25mg of vitamin B6 and 0.5mg of vitamin B12.
We are hoping that the dietary changes and exercise will lower the LDL level while the vitamins address the homocysteine.
I have to go back to the doctor for another test in two months' time. If things have not improved, we'll have to take it from there.
I went for my lipogram on Saturday morning, and it was not good news.
On 31 December, I had a cholesterol level of 6.33mmol/litre. On Saturday, it was 6.56mmol. Worse still, my LDL (bad cholesterol) was at about 5.5 while my HDL (good cholesterol) was only about 0.6.
We took the results to our doctor, who agrees that the problem is genetic (familial hypercholesterolaemia). Since our diet is very healthy (particularly now) and given the high rate of heart attacks on my mother's side of the family, my body is overproducing cholesterol.
He had blood taken and sent to the lab for tests, the results of which should be available this afternoon. He also wants to stress-test my heart and do an EKG to see how it is holding up at the moment.
The reason is that he wants to build an accurate risk profile, because my medical aid won't pay for cholesterol-reducing medication unless the risk is very high. Preliminarily, though, I have a 25% chance of having a cardiac arrest in the next 10 years. I'd say that's high!
The doc also says I need to get my weight down to 82kg (180.8 pounds) from its current 85.7kg (188.9 pounds) - a 3.7kg (8.2 pound) reduction.
I'll blog tomorrow about the results of the blood test.
Given my mother's high cholesterol level (8mmol) and the family history, I am alarmed at my brother and sister's complacency about the issue. Neither will have their blood tested. I cannot understand how parents are willing to risk an early death resulting in other people raising their children. How can anyone lack such common sense?
It turns out that my mother's side of the family has a hereditary problem with cholesterol. Many of her ancestors and relatives died of heart attacks, and a recent test showed her cholesterol level to be 8mmol per litre (it should be below 5mmol).
Alarmed by this information, I went for a test on 31 December. My cholesterol level is 6.33mmol. A level greater than 6.2mmol is considered high risk.
I am going for a lipogram this Saturday morning to determine the ratio of "good" cholesterol to "bad" cholesterol. The minister of home affairs has good genes, it seems. Her level is just 4.18mmol!
My diet has now been changed, and it's not an easy adjustment for me to make. I have never been overweight and thus have never had to watch what I eat.
I have to eliminate things like chips, chocolate, ice cream, pies, cheese, baked goods, white pasta, white rice, fried eggs and other fried goods (including samoosas, one of my favourite things to eat), food with cream in it, salad dressing and so on. In my diet are wholewheat pasta, brown rice, seeds, fruits and various other low-fat and fat-free alternatives. I can't even eat my favourite peanut-butter sandwiches anymore!
I know I'll get used to it. It's just difficult at the beginning.
Why didn't I choose my father's genes instead?
