December 17, 2003
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HDL
OK, there’s good news and bad news. I had my yearly lipid profile and fasting glucose test today, which I do because it’s suggested at my age and also because my mother had adult onset diabetes and died of a massive stroke. Since alcosugarholism rages in our family, I figure I’ll try to stay ahead of the curve. So the good news is that everything is good in the above tests EXCEPT one and I even improved on that one. The bad news is that my HDL is still only at 35 and anything under 40 is considered high risk. I did bring it up from 27 last year. That’s pretty good huh?
So here’s the deal about lipid profiles. It isn’t just total cholesterol you need to pay attention to. HDL-C is the so-called high-density lipoprotein (“good cholesterol”) which helps transport cholesterol to the liver for excretion. It is predictive of coronary heart disease, even if total cholesterol is normal.
So what do I do? Well, there are drug therapies – like statins, niacin, and fibrates, but they’re not easy on the liver. What’s left are lifestyle therapies – and these are (1) losing weight (especially in the abdomen), (2) improving body composition (less fat, more muscle) by aerobic exercise and diet, (3) moderate fat intake (but this has to be certain kinds of fat – like in nuts and avocadoes and such). So even though I climb stairs every damn day at work and I joined a gym, I have to up the exercise even more (at least 1/2 hour every day) and keep losing some more weight. I’d really like to stick around to see how my kids and grandkids turn out and have a few more adventures of my own.
Comments (5)
I hope you can get it to a healthy level. I suppose I should have mine checked one of these days.
For the last year I worked for the hospital going out and doing glucose/cholesterol screenings off-site. (Part time while I wrote my book). A lot of patients who had good readings told me they were taking capsules of apple cider vinegar and that it worked wonders. Just a thought.
Goodness, I wonder where you get those. I’ll check it out. Sure couldn’t hurt.
It is too bad that maintaining good health is so much work. That’s what I say. Infinite Blessings
good for you. keep it up — worth it. Here’s to more adventures!