Welcome lolex,
I see the same pattern unfolding in your case. When I was diagnosed a 80% blockage at the abdominal aorta bifurcation almost 6 years ago, my diagnosing internist telling that I could eat as much greens and make lifestyle changes I want, that would change nothing about my 30% chance of dieing within the next 5 years, usual for someone with my condition. With such a irritating perspectives my condition got first of all really worse.
Immediately before I had quit a job, where I knew from the beginning 2 years before I would have to, unless I'm able to somehow alleviate the constant stress present there, and which I haven't been. But now with this diagnosis and despite quiting the job, to smoke and doing daily walking exercises, my condition really got worse with all that additional super-stress: thereby decreasing my pain-free walking distance down to mere 3-400 meters.
For the first period I had divorce myself from every so unhelpful, not at all trained in preventive medicine physicians - and with a lot of faith in Paulings therapy I did make the progress - conventional medicine knows nothing about, unless using invasive surgery - by increasing pain-free walking distance to about 1 hour. Which made all the difference of having a life to me again.
2 years later 2 hours. But then came an impase. And searching the web further, reading countless contradictory studies and articles, in the context of my condition increasing stress again, my progress regressed again down to 1/2 hour, together with a severe chronic bronchitis.
Now I really needed a break, which I took at the sea-side in a laid-back country, which was dear to me from earlier years - a break from any kind stress, be it occupational or medicinal.
You seem already intuitively aware what a huge factor stress plays with CVD:
Hmmm…I nearly forgot… I’ve cut my smoking down from 30-a-day to 10-a-day. That is the source of my problems, I’m sure… together with a low intake of Vitamin C for years (I don’t eat much fruit & veggies, I’m embarrassed to say.)
Allay my Fears
It's too serious a condition with too many possible co-factors, you at least have to research and look into deeply first:
Fear or stress make you adrenals work over-hours, that will have a deteriorating impact to your thyroid. Or your thyroid was already weak and brought you the other way around to the same effect. Whichever way, cholesterol has a difficult time to improve unless thyroids working optimally. I could recommend the book from
http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/ since it covers many aspects of thyroid/adrenal health from a patients level and is a good introduction to that.
Vitamin C is already really important for adrenal health, but to a lesser degree are all other essential nutrients for improving. However, for some of them you have to check, and if your doc doesn't agree to do these tests, by using private labs: RBC (red blood cell) Magnesium, 25(OH)D3. Cholesterol test doesn't tell you much about your real risk, LDL-p, small LDL, Apo-B and Lp(a) would give you a much preciser picture. Beside Homocystein, Fibrinogen, ESR and hsCRP for a beginning. Also get your fasting, as well as 1 hour postprandial blood glucose tested, further HBA1c, Insulin, liver and kidney function (in my case I couldn't get my cholesterol much better before improving from a NAFlD). Knowledge is power and that could also help dispel fear.
• First, with high Vitamin C healing the underlying arterial lesions and Lysine ‘unplugging’ the Cholesterol… isn’t there a heightened chance of a chunk of plaque just peeling away, causing a premature and fatal blockage??
• Second, am I overdoing the supplements? Am I thinning my blood too much through Sunflower, Flaxseed and Evening Primrose Oils together with the Clopidogrel, thereby creating conditions likely to give me a stroke, internal bleeding or similar??
There is a chance of a chunk of plaque just peeling away. And we don't know the extent vitamin C and lysine could prevent that. Depends on plaque-stability and many other things. That's what you're probing into by taking all the lab-tests described above, which could give you better indications of your risk and what to do about.
In my case only a baby aspirin gives me internal bleeding, none of the many more nutritional I take. I would recommend you to take Omega-3 fish oil, instead of Omega-6 oils (except the GLA), which we already get to much from diet.
Enough for now and a starting place,
The very best.