Soybean's Intro

[Soybean]

Hello to all of you - and many thanks for creating this wonderful forum. I'm a long time lurker from 23andme and thought it was time to come out of the shadows and thank you all for the information you've posted. How helpful it has been!

I'm a 55 year old female 3/4, caregiver to my two parents for the last 5 years, and a business owner. I've previously been involved with a couple of DNA projects to try to determine a genealogical mystery in one of my family lines. I didn't really care about the health info, but then when I got it from 23andme, was really grateful - some health issues/concerns made much more sense when I saw my results.

I've been fighting lipid issues since I was about 20 (total cholesterol was 351 in August after 6 months as vegan). My current experiment is low carb (I've been gluten free for several months) and as low fat as I can tolerate I had a bad experience with statins and won't go on them again unless absolutely necessary. I'm active and exercise nearly every day, follow a healthy diet, have lots of interests. My blood pressure is 110/70 and cardiac calcium score is 0 despite my lipids (have not had advanced lipid test). I had Crohn's disease from my teen years through my 30's, but have had no serious flare-ups in the last 15 years. I have two MTHFR mutations according to my results, but not sure what to do about that - it's all a mystery (never heard of this before). As a caregiver for a father that has cognitive issues related to a stroke, I'm kinda terrified of ending up like him. I've recently sent in samples for both of my parents and am waiting for them to be processed. My daughter's test showed her to be 3/3, so I'm thrilled with that news!

I hope I'm near the end of the obsessiveness following getting the results - that is a crazy period, isn't it? Now I'm obsessively trying to see what I can do about optimizing my health and it has been SO HELPFUL to read through all the threads as you guys have tried to figure it out. Thank you all - I'm happy to be a part of the group and hope you will be patient with this newbie who is finding her way!

[Ski]

Welcome Soybean. Yeah we hope we can share and gain valuable info amongst us.



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[Julie G]

Nice to meetcha', Soybean! Sounds like you more than have your hands full. What a wonderful daughter you are With high TC numbers like yours, I always wonder about familial hypercholesterolemua...not that that points points a definitive dietary plan at this point. BUT, if you haven't already, you may want to check your 23 and Me results. They test specifically for that.

So glad you're here. Look forward to learning with you.

[lol]

Hi Soybean!
Never met a bean I didn't like! Your story sounds a little familiar, as I also have always had high LDLs. I have spent years experimenting with many different kinds of statins, with different doses. I posted under "drugs" about my statin worries. What to do? I don't know.

[Soybean]

Thanks for the welcome, LOL, Juliegee and Skibike! Lol - it seems like everything in this journey includes a long list of questions, doesn't it? Maybe high ldl has protective effects and isn't as bad as they say if so many studies show a common pattern of very low lipids in the brains of AD patients. Maybe we shouldn't take statins? Maybe we should? It's enough to make your head spin around.

[Ski]

Well the experts cant seem to even agree what truly is the cause of heart disease. Is it trigs, small LDL, LDL-P, APOB/A ratio, TC/HDL ratio.....god the list goes on.

And for every one of those that has some study saying its this, you'll find another saying its not.

[SpunkyPup]

run geneticgenie.com it will give you info to start there are others with more snps like Dr B Lynch