For the first time since I got my original cholesterol test in flight school in 1989, my cholesterol is in “normal” limits. An endocrinologist at the VA specializing in lipidology (it’s a thing) put me on a combination of two meds to try to get the numbers to be prettier.
I’ve been studying this issue basically my entire life since I was first diagnosed with Hypercholesterolemia, and while I had a few moments in time where I felt impending doom as a result of my crappy genetics, in recent years new evidence has made it much easier to live with the possibility I was about to drop dead any moment. For interested nerds, my HDL has always been extremely high and that’s thought to be protective. Ratios of HDL/LDL, HDL/Total, etc. have always been Acceptable to Ideal. However a recent particle test I had done on my own gave me pause, so I pursued the above-mentioned specialist.
While I would love to credit the addition of one small pill she prescribed to my already high dose of statins as the cure for what ailed me, I inserted a confounder into my experiment! Immediately following the particle test, I began the Linus Pauling protocol: 5 Grams of Lysine, 5 Grams of Vitamin C and 2 Grams of Proline in divided doses throughout the day. I did this every day for the 6 months between lab work, so now I don’t know if it was Linus Pauling or the new little pill that have basically made me immortal.
So I have stopped the Linus Pauling Protocol and will carry on for the next six months just taking the prescribed drugs and see what my next labs look like. In the meantime, since a sudden cardiac incident has been removed as a likely cause of death, I’ve taken up smoking.
Joe's Blog 