Can I transfer my xbox live account to another profile?

I just got a new Xbox around Christmas and have been playing offline since then.  I had previously owned an Xbox about 4 years ago, but it red ringed to death and I had been away from console gaming since then.  I just signed up for Xbox live recently mainly to download patches, but also with the intent to return to online gaming sometime in the future (I currently just have a silver account).  Apparently, I must have created an account associated with my hotmail account many years ago, likely when I was looking into warranties with my previously mentioned Xbox woes.  Now that I am back to using my Xbox, I was curious if I would be able to merge the profile I have been using since Christmas with the one that was created years ago (which I am posting under), mainly since it is the email account that I actually check.  If this is not possible could I just create a new email account and associate it with the profile I actually use?