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Joy Behar comes to grips with high cholesterol
By Kat Carney
(CNN) -- Comedian and talk show host Joy Behar is known for matching wits with the ladies of ABC's "The View," but when I caught up with the funny lady in New York, she described a family legacy that was no laughing matter. "Well you know how some people have cancer in their family and some have heart disease. My family was basically heart disease," said Behar. "My mother had a heart attack when she was about 50. My uncle died of a heart attack at 58. Both of my grandparents on my mother's side died of heart attacks around 60. " According to the American Heart Association, children of parents with heart disease are at increased risk for heart disease, and people with a strong family history of heart disease tend to have other risk factors, as well. Behar is no exception. Two years ago she says her doctors told her she had high cholesterol. She says, "It was like 289, 289. When I heard 289 I was like oy yoy yoy." For Behar, this was a wake-up call. "I started to take myself very seriously in terms of heart disease." Under her physician's guidance, Behar initially tried to lower her cholesterol through diet and exercise. "I started to watch the saturated fats, then I went on the treadmill and I got myself a trainer. I went for another test and it was the same. [It] didn't come down." Doctors then put the comedian on a cholesterol lowering medication known as a statin. Currently she is a paid spokeswoman for a pharmaceutical company that manufactures a statin medication. According to the National Institutes of Health, there are currently five different statin medications on the market, and they are the type of drug most prescribed when a patient needs to lower their cholesterol. For Behar, the therapy was successful and her cholesterol levels came down. "It was almost like the kind of high you get when you drop some weight," Behar said. "[The weight loss] was like in two months and how much [weight] could you lose in two months, 5 pounds? You know it was like weight loss but it wasn't." Behar says that knowing your family's medical history is important, and she encourages others to start asking questions. "Get curious about your family history, you know, start asking your parents. 'How did Uncle Frankie die? What happened to him?' If they say, well, he got hit by a bus then you don't have to worry about it."
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