This just amazed me, and I thought some others might find it interesting, so I'm posting it.

My father just had his cholesterol checked:
Good cholesterol: 94
Bad cholesterol: 24 (No, that's not a typo.)

He will celebrate his 54th birthday in March. The good cholesterol was so high (for a male) and the bad cholesterol so low that the doctor asked his permission to send his name and contact information to some medical research center.

I asked him what he had been eating. Eggs, Bacon, pasta, red meat, same stuff he's always eaten everyday. He also runs daily and does marathons once or twice a year. He's had injury problems with his ankle for the last year though, so he's had to cut his training back quite a bit.

His parents don't have cholesterol anywhere near as low as his. (His father has had heart bypass surgery.) Maybe it's a genetic thing he picked up from a grandparent.

Or maybe I should go running right now and then eat some eggs and bacon. :)

The running is probably a big part of his low cholestorol. I had mine checked way back in '93, when I was running quite a bit and eating clean. The total was 116 (I don't believe the doctor split the good and bad at that time). I haven't had it checked since, but I'm sure it's higher.

I had mine checked back when I ate choco chip cookies for lunch every day. :) It was 125, with 'good cholesterol' around 80-85 if I remember correctly. I exercised every day, so that probably had something to do with it. I'll have to get it checked again someday, but with my luck it'll now be sky high after a year on a healthy diet. :P

Excellent news for you Freemason. You can't (currently) escape your genes, and having a good starting point is so much better than having a bad one.

Andrew.

I found this chart helpful:

Cholesterol Chart (http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/medicine/cholesterol-range.htm)

Andrew, good point. I hope I picked up those particular genes.

Also an update: My mistake, doctor isn't sending his info to a research center, he's sending the information to a medical journal for publication. (I'm unfamiliar with medical journals. Do they just publish things like that? "This one patient had cholesterol levels off the bottom end of the charts." That doesn't seem like much of an article. Can someone who is familiar with medical journals enlighten me?)

All sorts of things can get published. The more contentious an issue, the more divided an opinion is about a subject, the easier you can get a publication.
For instance, I had an article published in 2003. There was a similar article published in the same journal last year, which drew quite different conclusions, but they didn't cite my article. I wrote in reply to their article, and my letter has been published this month. The basic gist of the letter is very simple:-

1 Why didn't you quote me?
2 We think differently.

In contrast, I've been trying to get another article published for 4 years, and no-one wants to know. The premise is too simple I think, as all the reviewer comments are wanting more and more information, which (in my opinion) dilutes the message.
Also, remember, consent is needed before the whole submission process begins. There is a long road to go before any of his details might appear in print.

Andrew.

I read an article recently, that I thought was posted by someone on this board, that very low cholesterol levels were found to be as important an indicator for greater risk of stroke / heart disease as high levels were.

?

While my Chloesterol isnt as low as your father, I also have pretty low considering my situation. I weighed 390 at one point of my life (357 as of this morning) but yet my chloesterol has been low. I had it taken last week and it was 120's. For my weight the doctor was simply amazed. Also my BP ranges from 110/60 to 120/70. How I got this for my weight I dunno. I ate quite a bit of fatty foods, sweets mostly.

Must be genetic in my family somewhere as my mom who is overweight also is the same way.