What can happen to you if your Triglycerides are extremely high?

High triglyceride levels usually accompany low HDL (good) cholesterol and often travel with tendencies toward high blood pressure and central (abdominal) obesity. These are the markers of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance, very common disorders that increase risks of heart and adult-onset diabetes. You should definitely begin a more healthy diet, and you will find this will improve your health in more than one aspect. Also, you should begin taking omega-3 oil supplements, which come as fish oil. You will want to get regular exercise; lose weight if you're overweight; reduce the amount of saturated fats and trans fat in your diet; and cut back on alcohol, avoiding beer especially. (Even small amounts of alcohol can elevate triglyceride levels.)

I'm not sure if the high triglycerides are the cause or have any impact on your current symptoms, however it is always worth a try to lower your cholesterol since it is a healthy idea anyway.

The answer does not answer my question on the spells. I already knew about taking the fish oil so you only told me what I already knew. Sometimes at night when sleeping I get bad dreams and in them my heart is racing and feels like it can explode out my chest. I will wake up and my heart really is racing and I am afraid to go back to sleep.

I'm not sure if this is the best answer but at least it is a start. When I got my physical I was told that my cholesterol levels were great, so I know high cholesterol isn't the answer. And yet my symptoms seem to say that my cholesterol levels are to blame. No one else seems to be giving me any kind of answer so I feel like I have no choice but to say I accept this answer.
I probably will not use this service again, nor will I recommend it. You give the impression that I will get more than one answer and can choose which answer I like best. This is not true. I got one person answering and I am not satisfied but pressured to say I am and pay them. You've already taken the money out of my account. I get emails from you and the MD wanting me to say I like an answer that I don't like.

You're not paying us anything... This service is free. Nor do you have to choose my answer as the best answer but rather you can wait until an answer you like better surfaces. Sometimes it takes time, and others you just have to ask the question in another way. A lot of questions get skipped over and really we try the best we can to provide as much insight as possible, but realize without the proper test results and medical history charts in front of me, it is difficult to come up with a diagnosis. For example, i don't know your age, sex, race, family history, previous medical conditions, diet, vital signs, not even your blood pressure, your height or weight, your skin tone, general appearance of health, any blood test results other than total cholesterol count. The symptoms you have described point to a possible cardiac anomaly, whether it be a possible thrombosis, congestive heart failure or heart disease, but they are also so general that you could be having a simple allergic reaction or negative drug interaction. I'm sorry you feel so let down but realize that we do the best we can here with limited information to provide possible insight to questions that are proposed. I wish you the best of luck and hope you can find the answers you're looking for.

This answer was edited by justins86 9 days ago.

Reason: Addendum

One last thought... You're not on any vitamin B supplements are you? Especially niacin has been known to cause the symptoms you are describing in even small concentrated amounts.

My apologies on the payment statement. I put the question on 2 different answer sites and it was the other site that made me pay. I appreciate your efforts to help answer my questions. As far as more info, if it will help, I am a 52, caucasian, female and overweight. I had Lyme disease which was misdiagnosed and not treated properly for almost 5 years and by the time it was figured out, damage had been done. I was on 3 antibiotics for 5 years and the Lyme disease is now gone, but Fibromyalgia has come to take its' place. I have been on pain meds for just over 20 years along with other meds I'll list below. I've had several surgeries as well not counting a tonsillectomy which was routine when I was little. I had 2 c-sections, one in '80 and the other '81. My gall bladder was removed shortly there after. I had my right knee rebuilt about 25 years ago and in doing so that leg is now about 1/2 inch longer. I have VonWillebrand's disease and when they did the knee surgery it caused problems. My period started while in recovery and the bleeding wouldn't stop so about 4 weeks later I had to have a hysterectomy. My ovaries were left behind but about 2 years later I had to have one of them removed with a cyst on it. About 12 years ago I had developed cataracts in both eyes so I had surgery to remove those lenses and give me artificial ones. They did some laser surg to flatten them some as well. About the same time I started have the episodes that led up to the epilepsy diagnosis, except that for the first few years my MD could not tell me why I had the episodes. At the time the spells would last anywhere from a few minutes to all day. My friends say that I continued to function normally, but when I snapped out of it I had no recollection of what happened during the time. Finally a neurologist figured it out and now they last a few minutes at most and I am disoriented for a few seconds to a few minutes after the episode. My last surgery was to my right shoulder 2 years ago. They had to rebuild my rotator cuff and reconnect a tendon in that arm that had severed when I fell. And I have mild carpal tunnel. I live in severe chronic pain, but work full time and lead as normal a life as I can. Most people don't know unless I tell them.
Meds: 60mg MS Contin (2 q12h), Ibuprofen 800mg (1 TID prn), Norvasc 5mg (1 qd), Flexeril 10mg (1 TID), Lamictal 100mg (1BID), I also take Tums and Simethicone because everything I eat or drink causes gas.
I've been married twice, divorced 1st husb after 5 years and raised our 2 sons, then 1 and 2 years of age by myself. I started dating 2nd husb. when youngest son was a senior. We married after 2 years of dating only to have him die 3 weeks before our first annv. due to hosp error while treating him for a brain tumor. I have been a widow for 7 years.
OK, that is my history in a nutshell.

Thank you so much for such a detailed history, this really helps and makes a huge impact on possible diagnoses. The medication is what concerns me. You're taking quite a few pain relievers including an anti inflammatory and muscle relaxer. These drugs in combination can have several side effects but the morphine alone has side effects of lightheadedness, dizziness, sedation, nausea, vomiting, sweating, Weakness, headache, agitation, tremor, uncoordinated muscle movements, seizure, transient hallucinations and disorientation, visual disturbances, Flushing of the face, faintness, muscle tremor and parasthesia. Do you notice anything that provokes the episodes? Does it correspond to after taking your medication? Especially taking 2 doses every 12 hours of morphine, I would expect to see some, if not many of the side effects mentioned above. Norvasc can also cause the flushing as well as dizziness/faintness and a rapid heart beat. Lamictal can cause chest pain and faintness/dizziness as well as vision problems and double vision. These are just some of the side effects, let alone the possible drug interactions that they could have on each other ( I am unsure of these, sorry). You may want to talk to your doctor about switching medications, especially the morphine and lamictal. I understand the anti-seizure medication is an important one, but the morphine has other substitutes that may be less problematic. Also, stress and anxiety can worsen symptoms of flushing and chest pain. Try to take some time to just relax every day, especially if you feel an episode coming on. Like I said, try to see if there is a certain time in the day or any certain exposure (ie taking your medication) that prompts the attacks. Even if it is a few hours after taking the medication, this can still be significant because some drugs take long periods of time to enter the blood stream and become effective.

The undiagnosed lyme disease is a huge factor in the chest pain as well as the memory loss and definitely the chronic pain and fibromyalgia. The disease actually attacks the nerves and may be the underlying cause of the fibromyalgia. Chronic neurologic symptoms occur in up to 5% of long untreated lyme disease patients. A polyneuropathy that involves shooting pains, numbness, and tingling in the hands or feet may develop. A neurologic syndrome called Lyme encephalopathy is associated with subtle cognitive problems, such as difficulties with concentration and short-term memory. Up to one third of Lyme disease patients who have completed a course of antibiotic treatment continue to have symptoms such as severe fatigue, sleep disturbance, and cognitive difficulties.

I feel quite confident that these are the true underlying causes of your present complications. As far as treatment goes, you may want to talk to someone who deals with alternative care that may be able to get these strong medications at least on a lower dosage if not have you off of them completely. All these medications do is mask the symptoms, not treat the underlying cause, and can even have side effects that are worse than what they are intended to "treat." I hope this is a little more informative and helpful.

Thank you. Actually I have only started taking the Norvsasc a couple of months ago because by Bp had gotten high. The Norvasc does help with the BP but I think the spells may have started shortly after I started the Norvasc. So perhaps that's the culprit. On the pain med situation. I did not start on morphine. I actually started on low doses of Vicodin and over the years it was increased and then changed to the Morphine about 8 years ago and increased as the pain got worse and made my ability to move around almost impossible. I have days now that the pain is so bad I just want to amputate the leg or the arm that is killing me. The pain is so deep. It feels like a weed eater is in my bone marrow and ripping me apart from the inside out. And with the Fibromyalgia on top of it it makes me hurt from the outside in when I get touched or I sit on my legs or cross them or while sleeping if I'm laying on my side. The Ibuprofen lasts me 2-3 months as it is PRN. I don't take it every day, just on the worst. I rarely take the Flexeril Tid either. I usually take 2 when I go to bed to help me sleep as it is so hard to get comfortable and stay that way. Sleeping on my sides is almost impossible for longer than 1/2 hour on one side an 1-2 hours on the other. But then on my back even though my legs get propped with a pillow, it makes my back hurt and I snore. So, usually the Flexeril and Ibuprofen gets taken at night and not during the day.
Thank you for all of your help and info. I will speak to my MD about trying a different BP med and see if the new episodes stop.