Veni, vidi, vici cholesterol! Vegan style!

mariecurie88

Hello!

I'm a 31-year-old grad student that was given the hereditary gift of high cholesterol from BOTH sides! Here's our family time line:

Early 40's = heart attack
Mid-50's = stroke
Early 60's = fatal heart attack

It really is upsetting to know that everyone of my family members fit or otherwise has statistically fallen into this pattern. Recently, on April 1st (yeah, I know "April Fools") my mother suffered her first stroke at 58-years-old which caused her to have an accident. Thankfully, she was okay and her car had minimal damage and no one else was hurt. She lost strength on her entire left side and uses a cane now. Her speech was not impaired at all, but her short-term memory some days is non-existent (pets and people long dead are alive to her). My mother could have eaten better, but we're talking about a strong woman that graduated in the second class of Marine women! So that was a wake up call, as was a past call when I was an EMT.

I started my EMS career at 16-years-old, largely due to my family history and wanting to know how to save my mother when her heart gave out. Well, when I was 17-years-old, my first heart attack patient was a 31-year-old runner. At the time I thought that was so old...that was until I turned the same age. Yikes. Turns out this runner was a volunteer fire fighter from the next town over, and had plague that had been building up for years in his arteries. Sounds too familiar.

So, what about me? Well, at 15-years-old and 186lbs (height 5'3'') my total cholesterol was 270. So, I went on WW, dropped 60lbs and my total cholesterol went down to 170. Later, I internalized traumatic events that happened to me as an EMT along with the passing of a family member due to cancer, and I worked out 3+ hours a day and went down to 114lbs. My cholesterol also went down, all the way down to 145 (total). *No, I don't have an eating disorder, and have received help for PTSD.* So, I know my cholesterol corresponds with my weight greatly.

Right now I am about 145 lbs, and my total cholesterol was 388 two years ago. I went vegan about 2 years ago, clean vegan (no junk) about 1 year ago, and my total cholesterol dropped down to 302. Hoping to do this with weight loss and diet, since my family on medications has nasty responses to statin drugs, and even with medication only goes down to 340 (total).

I could use some friends and encouragement. So, here we go to rewrite my family's history, and finally not max out cholesterol reading strips!