When Lifestyle Changes Don’t Help Your High Cholesterol
Since I was 21, I’ve known I have seriously high cholesterol. With untreated total cholesterol as high as 450 and a family history to catch the attention ...
Connecting With Others
None of us wants to have the kind of high cholesterol that doesn’t respond adequately to changes in diet and activity. None of us wants to be ...
My Relationship With My Doctor
I was 63 in 2017, when I first met my current cardiologist, and I’d come prepared. After spelling out my family history — father and brother dead at 50 and 27 ...
The Emotional Impact of Living With Familial Hypercholesterolemia
I always assumed I’d die young. This may sound shocking to most people, who hope and even expect to live well into their 80s, 90s, and beyond. For those ...
What It Was Like to Find a Treatment That Works
The year was 1976, and I was 21. My 50-year-old father had died 10 years earlier, after suffering a massive coronary. My only sibling had died in 1975 ...
What It’s Like to Pass a Genetic Condition Down to Your Children
There are as many ways to parent as there are people. But, with rare exception, the one thing we all have in common is the intense desire to ...