Cholesterol HOW???

I have an under-active thyroid which went undiagnosed for many years (as I associated symptoms with the menopause), but I have a low level of cholesterol and a very good ration, and very low blood pressure. Partly I am sure due to being very active, but mainly due to genetics, I'm sure.

Under active thyroid gland can cause high cholesterol as can some meds but I agree that genes can plat a part.

Carry on eating healthily you will feel so much better and be a lot healthier, it is not just cholestrol which is affected by bad diet.

DH is a picture of health, has always been an athlete and eaten very healthily yet his cholesterol in his 30s was 13.5 - hence the statins ever since for his familial hyperlipidaemia.

Cholesterol is considered to be part of the picture in the development of atherosclerosis but there are other factors e.g. blood pressure, gum disease, exercise, obesity, diabetes and so on that are also linked statistically. And they are all just statistical predictors of risk. The development of plaques in the arteries is a complex process.
My MIL had sky high BP and her arteries were not in good shape at all (20 years of angina...) but she lived for a couple of decades in that condition. Go back 10 years we'd have never have predicted that, with all the things wrong with her, she would last until January 2015.
Eventually I used to think of it like this - every year she may have had a 50% statistical chance of dying - but if you imagined 100 women in her poor health, she was always one of the 50 that did not die (or have a heart attack or stroke). And each year she continued to be in the survived group, because someone had to be.

thanks jane ... I'll take a look

tanith If your level is just over 5, that's nothing to worry about.
In any case it is not the total amount of cholesterol that is important, but the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL (the good cholesterol which has a protective effect). It is the LDL which is bad. The ration should be 4.5 or less.
Your total cholesterol could be 6, but if your HDL was 4 and your LDL was 2, the ratio would be 1.5 which would be very good.

more info here

yes jings the jury is still out on cholesterol and statins. Many of the people with high cholesterol levels do not die of heart disease or stroke, and many of the people who do die of heart disease or stroke do not have high cholesterol. Blood pressure is far more important as an indicator. The body produces its own cholesterol, it is not all dietary.

My DF has reached 91, spent his life eating chocolate, fried breakfasts, you name it -and he's as fit as a fiddle! Hoping I have his genetic makeup dominating mine!
Poor DM hasn't the same luck.....

loopylou I'm with you we came out of there and I said "I'm really happy for you ", but inside I was screaming "WTF" is going on here..

JessM his close family history is littered with early death from stroke and angina etc..

I wish I understood it.

I'm sure I've read you can't alter your cholesterol level very much through diet.

Cholesterol isn't the be all and end all though, is it? Yours is probably right for you. Just so long as you don't have any of the other criteria - smoking, high blood pressure, being overweight, lack of exercise.

Yep- genes- same with teeth, and so many other things.

Because most of the variation is genetic, not dietary.

Pure bl.... luck I suspect, DH the same, bugger it!