Question about lowering cholesterol.

[fuzzybabybunny]

Everyone hears about drugs and foods that "lower cholesterol." My question is, do these things only lower cholesterol that is free flowing in your blood vessels, or can they actually slowly eat away at existing plaque buildup, resulting in a clearing up of your tubing, so to speak?

Are there tests currently that can deduce where plaque is building up?

 

[IGBT]

..I hear fishoil tabs or eating fish keeps your tubes clean.

 

[kevman]

I had it at 267 , took fish oil pills for 6 months and now got it down to 189.

 

[BornStarlet]

The simple answer is yes. Drugs that lower the total amount of cholesterol in your body can cause your body to "scavenge" the existing plaque because your body needs cholesterol to function. However, sometimes damage is done to the vessels due to plaque formation (scarring etc.) and that damage would not be reversed. As to a test about where plaque is building up, you can have ultrasounds of your carotids of renal arteries, you can have angiography done but that's quite invasive, and neither test would be done without reason to already suspect a blockage. As far as I know there is no simple screening test to check for cholesterol build up other than serum cholesterol levels, and that is only based on the presumption that high cholesterol in the serum must be going somewhere. Hope that helps!

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: kevman
I had it at 267 , took fish oil pills for 6 months and now got it down to 189.

..similar results too. I take 3 a day. get em at costco.

 

[kevman]

I do one fish oil and one flax seed oil a day. can't beat the results!

 

[SoulAssassin]

Originally posted by: BornStarlet
The simple answer is yes. Drugs that lower the total amount of cholesterol in your body can cause your body to "scavenge" the existing plaque because your body needs cholesterol to function. However, sometimes damage is done to the vessels due to plaque formation (scarring etc.) and that damage would not be reversed. As to a test about where plaque is building up, you can have ultrasounds of your carotids of renal arteries, you can have angiography done but that's quite invasive, and neither test would be done without reason to already suspect a blockage. As far as I know there is no simple screening test to check for cholesterol build up other than serum cholesterol levels, and that is only based on the presumption that high cholesterol in the serum must be going somewhere. Hope that helps!

That's a helluva good first post.