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Article: Lowering your dangerous cholesterol.
- Article from:
- Women's Health Letter
- Article date:
- October 1, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Women's Health Letter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Judith, a patient in her mid-70s, called me in a panic. "My cholesterol is over 240 for the first time," she said. "In the past it was always under 200. Now my doctor wants me to take medication to bring it down. What should I do?"
I asked Judith about her HDL and LDL levels, but she didn't know what they were. "I just see cholesterol and triglyccerides on the lab report," she answered. "There's nothing here that says HDL or LDL and I don't remember what you told me they meant."
Cholesterol is a necessary fat contained in all cell membranes that's needed to make sex hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and bile, which are needed to ...