The only problem with that line of thinking, eddie, is that plaques in arteries are not made up of cholesterol.

The gooey sticky stuff in egg is proteins.

If I ate food based upon what it looks like, I'd have never eaten lobster!

If you feel comfortalbe with your results, then do nothing. Cholesterol from food does not get absorbed much, type of fat make difference in LDL and HDL so may be you can add some olive oil and nuts to your diet, if you want to lower CHO. Diet is indeed important, and my cholesterol is indeed linear to sat. fat intake, but again, YMMV. I never heard of stress causing high CHO, genetics do play role. If you could do meat and eggs only, may be you can do fish, nuts, and veggies for few months and see if you CHO drops a little. Just a thought.

CindySue,
I am very interested to hear more about variability in BP (high/low) in different individuals. My DH is on a higher side of normal, he has kidney stones also, so I am trying to get his BP under control without BP lowering meds, but not very successfull so far. He is not obese, may be 10 pounds over, has physically demanding job, on his feet all day, and plays sports.


So, are you saying that one with high CHO has less chances to get ISC than someone with low CHO and fragile blood vessels, when the BP is similar? I am still debating whether he should start BP lowering meds because of the side effects, but seeing high normal numbers makes me worry. His mother also had and still had higher BP but no stroke or heart attack in his family.

You might want to add in some vitamin D, calcium and magnesium. The combo lowers bp naturally.

I am saying that you don't know how strong or fragile your blood vessels may be until your BP goes "too high".

Too high for you may be a significantly lower level than too high for me. One person may stroke at a systolic of 180, another person may be fine at 200.

Cholesterol helps keep your blood vessels healthy (among other things). Healthy means strong and flexible. If your body doesn't have enough cholesterol to keep your blod vessels healthy that could lower your threshold.

I tend to run rather low BP. I've been as low as 70/systolic with no signs of any problems (but the docs freaked!). I rarely go over or even into the 130s. Now, if you checked my BP while I was agitated, it would likely be significantly higher....maybe too high for some.

It's the combination of the 2. Higher BP with healthy blood vessels isn't as dangerous as the same BP with weak, fragile blood vessels. If you keep your BP low enough you're unlikely to have a stroke, regarless of your vessel strength. But again, "low enough" could be too low for you to function.

Look at people that have a arterio-venous malformation. (AVM). When these are discovered, usually in a "leaking" state, the number one thing they try to do is lower the blood pressure. They know that these vessels are more fragile and higher BP is more likely to cause a rupture before they can get in and repair it.

Unfortunately few of us (if any) can tell how fragile or strong our blood vessels are. But since cholesterol is a main ingredient in the structure of blood vessels, it makes sense that blood vessel structure would suffer when cholesterol levels are low.

yes, and CoQ10 also.

You missed the kidney stones part, it is calcium oxalate. We tried differenty supplements: vitamins, calcium/magnesium and Vit.D with the same results.

he takes CQ10 daily, 150 mg, no changes.

It is true, I was always on low side (90/60) for most of my life, now I am more 110-120/60-70, and I also no longer suffer from low BP migranes.
But in hteory, the higher BP is - than it is more damaging to blood vessels, unless, we know what is the threshold, and currently it is set to 120/80.


BP raises when blood vessels lose flexibility, true, but cholesterol helps indirectly to keep them flexible. I believe age and more so steroid hormones make difference in flexibility of our blood vessels, but since they are made of cholesterol, it sort of helps. Cholesterol also helps to repair but the question remains: which is worse: having high/normal BP or suffer from side effects of BP meds.

I think only the person involved can make that decision. BP meds are usually for life. It's rare for them to be discontinued, although it does happen.

Many people take BP meds with few or no side effects. Others have serious side effects from most if not all. But you have to weigh the pros and cons. If you can tolerate the drug and taking it allows you to not worry about your BP, fine. But if you have side effects, even if considered "minor", change the picture.

For a parent having to make that choice for their child? All you can do is your best. Try and find out as much as you can and weigh the benefits and risks. If the BP isn't too high you should be able to try some non-medication treatments first. Restricitng salt, meditation, exercise, weight loss....all (and others) have some effect in lowering BP. But if the BP is considered dangerously high, take the meds AND work on changes so maybe the meds are short-term.