Thanks Da, thanks a fookin' lot

[jawnbc]

Survey says.........d'oh!

As unsurprising as it is, I'm still not happy. My cholesterol is high, my triglycerides are worse and I'm 10-15kg overweight. And my liver enzymes are high, which could be related to this or not*.

So it's time for some "lifestyle changes". Goodbye faux Atkins diet, and my mega meat munching. Back to carbs. Ciao dairy products. And bye bye to Coke Classic. Am on Lipitor, since I really don't want to play the roulette wheel with respect to heart attack.

Anyone with experience here, I'd appreciate it.

I'm not despairing, merely unhappy.




*I had hep A in 1990

Comments

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

don't forget to eat fresh fruits and vegetables. I know that as an Irish person you aren't completely familiar with such things unless they have been cooked to death.

Eat a plum.

[quetzalcoatl.livejournal.com]

I got my cholesterol from (Aust scale) 11.9# (which means off the dial) in 1998 to 5.5 in 2003 (must go and check again) without tablets. This was before starting at gym, so exercise not mandatory.

If you have time next week or so, glad to chat re techniques.

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

I've similar problems but have not had to ditch the faux Atkins; rather my doctor and nutritionist want me to stay on it as it's done wonders for my blood sugar and my family has a long and strong history of adult onset diabetes. I've increased both my exercise and fluid intake, and have been taking Milk Thistle 175mg with every meal. Milk Thistle is known for cleaning the liver and it was actually recommended to me by my gp, nutritionist and urologist.

[timbear.livejournal.com]

I have high cholesterol (thanks Mum!) for which I take Simvastatin. I'm also trying to loose some weight at the moment but not by dieting per se, simply by eating sensibly. For example a high fibre low sodium low sugar cereal for breakfast (Shreddies or shredded wheat with no sugar in my case but read the box), low fat milk, a sandwich for lunch containing some meat or fish, lots of greenery and some wholemeal/granary bread. Evening meals are usually meat or fish bulked up with fresh vegetables since they are (largely) low calorie. It's good to ditch the veg and have cous cous or rice or pasta a couple or three nights of the week though, for variety. The big thing though is cut out alcohol, and drink lots of water or diet soda* if you can't stand plain water. It just so happens that this turns out to be quite a healthy diet too which is a bonus. So far I've lost about eight kilos and I feel good. Still drinking alcohol at weekends though :-)

*I've read that diet sodas while dieting can do odd things to your blood chemistry though - apparently the taste buds detect "sweet" and trigger a pre-emptive release of insulin which (because there is no sugar in the drink) makes your blood sugar dip somewhat and thus makes you hungry. It sounds plausible, but it could just be bollocks!

[boofbiker.livejournal.com]

I am on Lipitor and I am very happy with the results. I need a new test to see whats happening but I think it is good for me. Hope it is for you.

[mondragon.livejournal.com]

My doctor believes strongly that every minute I spend with my cholesterol too hand, my triglycerides too high, and my blood pressure too high is shaving time off my total livespan. He's all about treating with medication and deciding to go off it later if I can really change via lifestyle.

He said that what I eat has little impact on these, and since I thrive on meat the best thing I can do it to eat lots of fibrous green vegetables along with it. Which I do now.

I don't do well with carbs, so the more complex the better. Most people in my family are some combo of somewhat (to massively) overweight and have adult onset diabetes so a lower-simple-carb diet works best for me.

But it does suck getting older and having the beginning of the slow decay start.

[mondragon.livejournal.com]

A recent (and it looks like the best) study (13 clinical trials, 915 participants) showed that Milk Thistle 140mg three times daily had no more effect on deaths from liver ailments than a placebo did.

It's strange that so many reasonable health practitioners recommend something that's never really been proven to have a beneficial effect in people - probably because it doesn't seem to have any side effects or toxicity. It also competes for the most common liver enzymes so potentially has an effect on the circulating levels of other prescription drugs that use the same enzymes.

When I gave all this info to my doctor he recommended his patients stop taking it.

[puzzld1.livejournal.com]

You can see the saga of my cholesterol on my journal.

The short version is I have now dropped my total cholesterol 100 pts in 3 months and gotten my triglycerides and other numbers back in spec.

Here's what worked for me...

Yes, I take Lipitor
I also take niacin supplements and Omega-3 supplements
Oatmeal everyday (the real cooked stuff) with berries.
5-7 fruits and veggies a day
snacking healthily throughout the day to keep blood sugar steady and to stave off binging.
Green tea
Whole grains
No fast food
Cooking with olive or canola oil.
Fish at least 2 times a week.
Since I can't live without chocolate, 70 percent cocoa bittersweet is my friend.Less saturated fat and more taste for the portion.

So now that we're old farts we can bond over our medical issues as well as our sexual escapades!

I have also lost 2 pants sizes without trying. I'm not diabetic and don't have the marker for it, so I worry about that less. I also have the blood pressure of an iguana, so I'm not monitoring salt.

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you see I like placebos.

Wild Dances

[seomra101.livejournal.com]

Dance, as wild as you can. It works wonders.

:-)

[deafdyke.livejournal.com]

i feel your pain. I've got genetically high cholesterol as well. As an adoptee, I can't blame the folks. (Fortunately, I can blame them for pretty much everything else.) As a result, I've dispensed with most processed foods, the source of all evil.

healthy grains, veggies, and chicken, chicken, chicken.

[bear2b.livejournal.com]

Milk thistle and dandelion root tea will get your liver back in line

[devcubber.livejournal.com]

Almost 2 years ago, at the *tender* age of 35, I was diagnosed w/the high blood pressure and cholesterol. I see a doc who preferred me to make "lifestyle changes" rather than prescribe meds right away. To help me figure out the food side (due to salt and chol. level in the foods), I went onto ediets.com to do a trial run of menus. I think it cost $12 US, and I got 4 weeks of heart-healthy menus. Then I became the Mistress of Substitution, and now with EggBeaters®, faux butter, Kashi and other powerful whole grain type things, along with reading all labels and making sure that the cholesterol is either zero or pretty close to it, I have dropped my chol. levels by 42 points, my blood pressure is normal (did have to give up coffee, that stung the most) and I ended up losing 12 pounds as well. So far, so good. I have to be somewhat of a food nazi with myself, but the diagnosis scared me into rehabilitation (seeing that heart disease is a major killer of women and men).
You can do this!!

[b12x12.livejournal.com]

When I finally faced the fact that I had high cholesterol (which runs like diarreah in my family), I decided to try not to go the medication route and just went on a completely fat and cholesterol free diet (not that my diet was very bad before then) for three months. The result: my numbers dropped a whopping 3%. So I went on medication and have been on it for almost 10 years now. Not only is my bad cholesterol naturally high, but I also have to exercise a lot in order to get my good cholesterol out of the gutter. Exercising a lot comes and goes.

It was nice, though, to find out somewhat definitively that diet wasn't much of a factor in my cholesterol. As a result, I don't feel bad about going to Brazilian BBQ Buffet now and again! Yum!