mrodgers

So, visited the doctor the other day. Got my results back. We have a wellness check yearly at work that looks at everything. I wanted to know glucose based stuff as well since diabetes is in both sides of the family, but all I got was cholesterol.

Anyways, anyone here know and understand anything about cholesterol? I'll lay it out for you here....


....................Nov 2012....Current

Total Cholesterol.......250.....233
HDL......................35......31
LDL.....................144.....159
Triglycerides...........354.....216


I was mostly worried about Triglycerides. They are still high, but I am very happy with that number compared to the past. I've only been doing the bike riding for a little over a month and a half now.

I know nothing about this stuff. Only that I've read that HDL helps to clean out the LDL. Since this summer, I've cut out almost all junk food. We use to eat quite a bit. I'm not a vegetarian and never will be, may as well just quit eating altogether if I can't eat meat, but the doctor gave me a packet about eating a low fat diet (actually the receptionist, the doctor has gotten his money and didn't seem to want to talk about anything, such is life these days. As long as they get money, they could care less about your actual health.)

I know I should be eating more vegetables, and "more" I could probably do. The thing with meat and most of our eating is, we eat all organic or our own grown food. We eat mostly chicken which is organic no added hormone or antibiotics and the beef we raise grass fed and rotationally grazed in the family, my father-in-law raises it. We certainly don't eat beef as often as having a freezer always stocked would predict. Most of our meals are chicken or spaghetti which is what most of the beef is used for (think eating 3 meatballs with spaghetti as the majority of my beef eating.)

I think we do eat pretty low fat. My wife cooks everything from scratch with fresh herbs and seasonings. We use very little salt, rarely use butter, cook in olive oil, etc. Like I said, we cut 99% of the junk food out of our diet (occasionally will have something, which is usually homemade of course.)

So, this is pretty much how I've always eaten, we rarely go out to eat, rarely eat fast food, never eat packaged prepared easy food, and I blame all my weight gain over the years on just the junk food which has been cut out. Even calorie wise, the reason I started tracking was to see what I ate normally for meals. That turned out to be about 1600-1800/day without including any snacking on junk food. Since that's been cut out, I'm pretty much left with I eat 1600-1800 calories a day and have been since June. Yes, prior to all this, I did eat a LOT of junk food. Ice cream and homemade baked goods like cookies, brownies, and cake was a big problem.

So I am somewhat confused as I expected to see a decent decrease from last year. I don't know if it is a significant decrease but it seems to me that the triglycerides from 354 to 216 is a significant decrease. But my HDL (target >59 my papers say) was lower from 35 to 31 and my LDL (<100 target) increased from 144 to 159. Yet the total cholesterol decreased from 250 to 233, I don't know what "total" takes into consideration.

Then again, the before numbers were from way back last November. At work we will be having another one of these "Know Your Numbers" day coming up this November. That will give me a better comparison look being closer together than almost a year.

With weight loss (247 in June, 235 end of July when I started riding, and currently 217 today) and with eating less, or pretty much no, junk food, I expected to see better numbers with the HDL and LDL cholesterol. I did with the Triglycerides, but not with the HDL and LDL.

10 Wheels

What was your A1C

mrodgers

If I knew what the heck A1C was, I'd tell ya, LOL. Ok, google tells me it is something with blood sugar. Like I said, I wanted it checked and all I got was cholesterol numbers. I guess he figured he made enough money on the cholesterol check and didn't need to check that.

Previous year in November, glucose check was 116 mg/dl. Since I was living in denial up until this summer when we began to lose weight together, I didn't do anything about it. Though now, as I said, we eat very little junk food, I would imagine it came down. I'll have to wait to see how many housepayments I have to skip to pay the cost of the cholesterol check before I see if I can pay for glucose check. My health insurance that I pay a fortune for is just about worthless.

sstorkel

For many people, diet (especially dietary cholesterol) has absolutely no impact on blood cholesterol levels.

10 Wheels

I don't give a flip about my cholesterol.

Couple years back he said mine was little high and gave me a script for a satin.
Threw the script in the trash and started eating 3 eggs for breakfast.

Went back 3 months later.
He said your cholesterol is going down, keep doing what your a doing. (now I eat 4 eggs)

Never head of anyone dying from high Cholesterol.

Get another Doctor.

Test:
https://www.amazon.com/Reli-On-K7601-...+home+test+kit

sstorkel

As a spot check, 116 mg/dl is a perfectly normal glucose level. You really need a Hemoglobin A1c check, however. That gives a better indication of what your blood sugars have been like, on average, for the past 2-3 months. If you're concerned about your A1c levels, you can go to your local drugstore and buy a Bayer A1CNow SelfCheck test kit for $40. The kit includes supplies for two tests. I haven't used this product, but Bayer claims the results are "lab accurate".

indyfabz

I have never heard of anyone dying from cigarette spoke. It's the cancer, etc., not the smoke, that kills you. It's just like jumping off a tall building. it's not the jump that kills you. Its hitting the ground that does.

mrodgers

My mother's cholesterol was in the 400's (just talked to her about it.) Because of cholesterol medication she is slowly dying of a malfunctioning liver. My mother-in-law also had complications with cholesterol medication, she literally could not get out of bed until the morning following after she quit taking her meds.

My father passed of a heart attack in 1991 at age of 43. My grandfather on his side had a stroke in early years (lived but I never knew him but for a handful of visits when I was very young.) My uncle on my Dad's side has diabetes. My grandfather on Mom's side had diabetes. I have reason to worry a bit about Cholesterol and blood sugar. I just lived in denial of my health until recently. I won't take medication for it though, it has created more problems than it solved with everyone I know who has taken cholesterol medication.

Like I've said before, I'll be riding the bike up until the snow flies (then I'll be too busy shoveling snow to be able to ride.) I'll see in November when the snow usually starts and when I get my check at work and see how my current eating and the exercise does. I don't know if I can contribute the reduction in triglycerides to biking because it was comparing to way back in last November. I also have no idea how long it would take to lower cholesterol/triglycerides with diet and exercise. Like I've said, I've been riding the bike little over a month and a half and changing how I eat in regards to junk food and losing weight for 2 and a half months.

DX-MAN

Glad you don't give a flip. Others of us, who have a family history of heart disease (which is exacerbated by high LDL)do. My Dad went out due to heart disease, thanks mainly to poor diet and age-related decrease in activity. 5 bypasses, 2 stents, and he lived 11 more years. Statins? Please, that was the 80's.

FYI, eggs have long been misrepresented as a high source of LDL, so your tactic of egg consumption worked because that's the way things really are.

It was already said that falls don't kill, it's the sudden stop at the bottom; it's not the cholesterol itself, it's what the body does to deal with it. If the body doesn't deal well with it, or there is too much for the body to handle, it builds up, and contributes to 'myocardial infarction'

I don't take statins, either; I take a daily dose of "huff and puff with Kona". My numbers are about average. . .for someone 25 years younger than I am.

Kneez

This link might be helpful in interpreting your numbers:

https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ch...levels/CL00001

Null66

Serum cholesterol has been found to be related to simple carbs... Anything that spikes insulin.
So all that no No fat, cholesterol, foods usually did little more then sell statins...

Turns out the human body is VERY complex. Not all omega-6's, 9's and even 12's are harmful as not all 3's, and 6's are good.

Very oddly, different people have different ranges of cholesterol and even different ranges of what levels increase their risk... Some with genetically absurbly high levels have no CV issues...

One weird anecdote which may apply. I purposefully cut 20lbs of body fat. (I lift and am more interested in body composition then weight). Cholesterol test during that "cut" was much higher then before or after... Ratios were messed up too... Might just be co-incidence, might just be me... but track your's over time.

just got my "score" this week, lifetime low of 135...

JerrySTL

I had my little heart attack when my total Cholesterol levels were in the 230s. I was doing a 100% max effort climbing up a long, steep river bluff. My cardiac cath showed that most of my heart was in very good shape - like a 25 YOs according to the doctor - but there was a little artery that had a 90% blockage.

phoebeisis

Wow-cholesterol-statins-a contentious issue here and all over the internet.
My 2 cents
1)Low fat diet has been throughly debunked-IT DOESN'T WORK because low fat means HIGH CARBOHYDRATE
and High carb diet raises cholesterol-and it can raise your triglycerides I think(look that up)

So for diet-eat what your grannie probably told you to-LOTS of vegetables fruit -LEAN MEAT- lean beef is a healty food-frankly lean beef from a store is probably a better food that store bough chicken!
Lean meat-veggies fruit not too heavily processed bread if possible-avoid hydrogenated vegetable oil-(yes it now says zero trans fats-that is a sneaky lie- if it is under a certain % of trans fats it can say ZERO trans) use a little butter or olive oil if you like that-I prefer butter
MOST IMPORTANTLY forget the low fat because it means HIGH CARBS (there are only carbs fats proteins and really high protein isn't great)

EXERCISE- which you are doing

STATINS- hmmmmm-my wife was started on lipitor-80mg-huge dose after MI 4-18-13- had some problems with it-weakness plus stunning spikes in insulin requirement-dropped to 5 mg a day now

FORTUNATELY- statins work-decrease risk of MI-not just from lowering cholesterol-some other effect that is unclear-decrease stroke risk also
UNFORTUNATELY-no free lunch
1)odd muscle pain soreness fairly common especially noticeable in folks who-EXERCISE
2)odd muscle weakness-especially common at higher doses-comes on slowly-folks don't notice it-some MDs downplay it-
3)It raises blood glucose levels-pretty common-FDA recently required label change to reflect it

That is it-statins work-but .no free lunch- significant side effects- LOW FAT DIET-DOESN'T WORK - chicken or lean beef probably a tie for "goodness"if eaten in moderation-eggs 2/day so what. Eat vegetables fruits nuts lean meat potatoes(eat the skin) just fine as part of a good diet
Luck
charlie
PS I take a tiny dose of lipitor-62 over weight HBP and I wanted to see just what my wife was feeling-they make me feel slightly "odd" maybe tiny bit of soreness-nothing horrendous-but I notice something-I take 10mg ever other day-at night-I can tell I've taken it(hard to prove I'm not biased expecting to notice "something")
Guessing with your family history-he will want to prescribe a statin-
see what happens once you quit the Low fat high carb diet-numbers might improve.

PS If you tolerate aspirin- 1/4 aspirin per day 81mg baby aspirin-couple pennies a day-certainly the most cost effective medication in the history of medicine-drop MI risk-tiny bleeding risk some folks get mild stomach upset-...best 5 cents a day you will ever spend

Black wallnut 

mrodgers if you have insurance or even if you don't and your Dr. is not giving you good service and looking at your A1c fire him/her and hire a different one that does.

billh

losing 30 lbs in 4 months is an accomplishment of which you should be proud. Congrats!

as a general rule of thumb, doctors usually want total chol < 200 . . . but if you are losing weight, feeling good, I wouldn't worry about it. high cholesterol is no longer considered a very good predictor of heart disease.