I spent most of my life thinking heart disease was something that happened to “other guys.” I don’t have a family history of heart problems but obviously occasionally heard of cases. The older guy at the office. The guy who never exercised. The friend who lived on pizza and stress. Then I started looking at my own numbers, specifically LDL (aka “bad Choseterol”) and tried to tackle it through diet, GLP-1, Ezetimibe and considered statins.
The numbers weren’t disastrous, but they told a story I didn’t like. My PCP argued they would just keep getting better as I lost more weight. I am sure that’s true but I wanted to be a bit more proactive.
January 2025
- LDL: 131 mg/dL
- HDL: 33 mg/dL
- Triglycerides: 159 mg/dL
That was the wake-up call. I was lifting, eating halfway decent, losing weight, doing “healthy-ish dad things”… but my arteries didn’t care about vibes. They cared about particles and numbers.
May 2025
- LDL: 110 mg/dL
- HDL: 35 mg/dL
- Triglycerides: 100 mg/dL
I remember staring at those numbers thinking: Okay. Time to actually fix this.
So I tightened things up. Less grazing, more protein. I doubled down on regular strength training instead of heroic spurts. I got in TRT and I stayed consistent with supplements that support metabolic and lipid health—Thorne Elite Multi, fish oil (3g EPA/DHA), Vitamin D3 + K2, magnesium threonate, Glycine(which fixed sleep) and citrus bergamot , which has some evidence for nudging LDL down.
October 2025
- LDL: 106 mg/dL
- HDHD: 39 mg/dL
- Triglycerides: 79 mg/dL
- ApoB: 96 mg/dL (borderline high)
- CRP: 1.40 mg/L (down from 2.83)
It was progress—but not enough to actually change my cardiovascular trajectory.
So I did something new: I used AlgoRx to get a prescription for ezetimibe.
I avoided the statin conversation — I’m sure they are safe but didn’t want to worry about the muscle side effect if I didn’t need to. Ezetimibe seemed a good first step as a simple, evidence-based medication that reduces the amount of cholesterol your gut absorbs. It’s not flashy, but it works for some people.
And a few weeks later, the new labs landed in my inbox.
November 2025 DiscountedLabs
- LDL: 71 mg/dL
- Triglycerides: 53 mg/dL
- HDL: 39 mg/dL
- Non-HDL: 84 mg/dL
- ApoB: 68 mg/dL (now optimal)
- Lp(a): 16 nmol/L (extremely low-risk)
I stared at my phone, feeling something I didn’t expect: relief.
All year, I’d been fighting this quiet fear in the back of my mind—the fear that I was doing all the “right things” but still marching toward the same fate as so many men my age.
Seeing LDL drop from 131 → 71, and ApoB fall from 96 → 68, didn’t feel like winning. It felt like steering my life back into the lane I want to be in.
The lane where I get to be the 70-year-old who still hikes. Still trains. Still plays on the floor with grandkids without groaning like a dying walrus. Still here.
This whole year taught me something simple and annoying and true:
Strength isn’t just the weight you lift. It’s the numbers you control.
And sometimes the bravest thing you can do is open your lab results, face the truth, make a plan, and actually stick to it.
Luckily for me (a self described data nerd) that part comes easy and even is fun!
And the numbers don’t lie: I’m going in the right direction. Later during this journey I also started testing Apo B, which PCPs still seem to ignore. I was excited to see it at 68 which seems “optimal” by most accounts.
P.S.: affiliate/discount links to Thorne and Amazon pay me a small commission. #ThornePartner