Can someone possibly answer a few questions for me on the subject of
cholesterol?

I've recently been feeling some discomfort in my chest, and have gone
in to get various stress and blood tests done, most of which have come
back fine. The only abnormality has been an irregular heart beat that
I've known about since childhood. It skips a beat every now and then, a
fact I assumed was quite normal given that I've been familiar with it
for so long! Under stress on a treadmill recently it seemed different
though, as the doctor stated that it seemed my heart was taking a
double beat every now and then. But that, and the EKG I was given
initially which showed some slight abnormality is all that's posed a
problem. Even the nuclear imaging they did on my heart showed that
everything seemed to be fine. The specialist has scheduled me for a
catheter exam next week to try and settle the issue once and for all.

One of the points that did concern me though were the cholesterol
results I obtained from the blood tests that were ordered as a part of
the examination. Though I'm 47 I've only every had them done once
before, about 5 years ago, and at the time they came back reasonably
fine, with the LDL levels a little above where they should be - or so I
was told. The latest figures however concerned my specialist, and he
prescribed Lipitor to get the levels back down, as well as
Beta-blockers to keep the heart irregularities in check. Having done
some research on both medications I find myself somewhat troubled by
the results, and I'd as soon avoid taking both if possible.

Firstly comes the question of my cholesterol levels.  I've been a
vegetarian for a decade or so, though I still eat eggs and dairy
products, so in many respects I've been fortunate in that my diet has
largely sidestepped the cholesterol problems inherent in eating meat.
However from a weight perspective there are any number of other ways to
still pile it on, and unfortunately over the last 5 years I've really
allowed it to build up considerably, to the extent that I now weigh a
good 60 pounds over my ideal weight. Knowing that I was going to put
myself on a very strict diet in 2007 to shed the excess weight I'm
afraid I binged somewhat in the last few months of 2006 on all the
forbidden foods I knew were going to go out the window in the new year
(chocolates, cakes, eggs, cheeses, cookies, ice-cream, etc) so I'm
wondering if this may have skewered the test results that I obtained a
couple of weeks ago. I've learned that the body produces most of the
cholesterol and that dieting can only reduce it by 20% - 30%, but what
about the opposite? Could bingeing on cholesterol-laden foods send your
levels soaring to unusual levels, returning back to normal once a
regular or healthy diet has been resumed? The reason I ask is that I
want to wait for a few months to see if the strict diet I've put myself
on, plus the point made about the unusual quantities of 'bad' foods
eaten leading up to it, could see my cholesterol levels drop down to
healthy levels without resorting to the use of Lipitor.

My levels, by the way, are 221 in total, 141 for LDL, and 54 for HDL.
The specialist made it sound like they were quite dire and really got
me jumpy, yet my research showed that they're not THAT bad, and that
the ratio for total/HDL is reasonably okay. I'd obviously like to get
the LDL levels down, but as I said, I've wondered if the excessive
quantities of cholesterol laden food I ate in the last few months of
2006 may have helped set that figure so high.

As for the Beta-blockers, my concerns arise from the fact that my
family physician back in Australia (also a personal friend) has long
suspected that I may be an undiagnosed asthmatic because of a few
breathing problems I've had at times, particularly on a couple of
occasions when I've been diving - he wanted to send me off for tests,
but I skipped it as I figured that it must be a mild version of the
problem if I've managed to get through to my present age without any
major difficulties. That, and the fact I've had a life-long allergy
problem that I've never seen a specialist about, raises a few concerns,
as my research showed that Beta-Blockers can potentially cause problems
in both areas.

My second question relates to the measurements used here in the USA for
cholesterol levels and how they relate to those used in Australia. The
two countries seem to use entirely different systems, which makes it
very confusing to try and swap notes with my brother living in Sydney.
He quotes single digit figures that make absolutely no sense to me, and
vice versa from his perspective when I hand over my figures. Is there
some sort of conversion table around that could sort this out for us?

Thanks in advance