Have been hearing a whooshing sound for some time, tried to ignore it, nervous it might mean stroke in my future. Have a family history of this.

When I see articles about plaque formations in arteries and strokes, etc, they frequently say that cholesterol is not always involved, so that, to me, means they are overlooking infection/inflammation/hypercoagulation. So, all this lifestyle explanation stuff might not apply, or not apply in all cases. I never stopped using butter or eating fried chicken or lapping up dairy products and all the other baddies, so why isn't my cholesterol thru the roof?

Will put my whooshing worries on the back burner for now anyway.

Glad you got good results.

Had been thinking lately that I really couldn't stand another health problem on top of what I already have.

The body makes cholesterol, lots of it. Diet has little effect, if you eat less cholesterol your body will make up the deficit.

Cholesterol is needed in many ways, to make cell walls and as the basis of many hormones. To make vit D when sunlight is present.

Cholesterol lowering drugs, statins, increase cancer risk. Google cholesterol skeptics.

Since cholesterol is so abundant it would be surprising if it were not found in plague. Perhaps an infectious agent caused an irritation and the plague serves to cover it. Sorta like a scab.

Normal cholesterol value prior to the 1980s was 150-250. That's what's in my reference book Clincial Diagnosis by Laboratory Method copyright 1973.

Why does everyone perceive cholesterol as a threat? Have we been hoodwinked?

Maybe I have gone off the deep end on suspecting infectious causation, but they are not making any progress on some chronic diseases with the other explanations that are current now.

Am guessing that borrelia are not plaque forming or they would have found plaque in my arteries. That doesn't mean that other germs don't cause plaque though.