Cholesterol vs. Me: Round II
Posted on : 23-02-2010 | By : Anand | In : diabetes, health, healthy, heart disease, nutrition, weight loss
Tags: cholesterol, diabetes, diet, exercise, lipids
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Today was the big day. I woke up ready to face the doctor and see what kind of message my blood would reveal. I got my blood drawn last week for the first time since being in the hospital in October when I had my heart attack and bypass surgery. That was when I was 33 years old and about 235 pounds and 5′ 11″ tall. Not surprisingly, my height hasn’t changed but I am 4 months older and I’ve lost 42 pounds.
My weight is an obvious indication of the changes I’ve made in my life through diet, exercise, yoga, and meditation. But what about my cholesterol levels? And what about my hemoglobin A1c level?
I am extremely excited and pleased to share the results of my lab tests… (drum-roll please…)
Please check out the American Heart Association for their latest cholesterol guidelines.
Total Cholesterol on October 19, 2009: 270
Total Cholesterol now: 103
The “desirable” total cholesterol levels according to the American Heart Association is to be under 200. So I did well here…
Previous LDL a.k.a. “bad” cholesterol: incalculable
LDL cholesterol now: 47mg/dL
The “desirable” LDL according to the AHA is less than 100, but for people with heart disease, it is recommended to try to get under 70mg/dL.
Previous HDL “good” cholesterol: 26
HDL now 31
The “desirable” HDL level according to the AHA is at least above 40. Because this is considered the “good” cholesterol, the higher your level, the better. In this case, I started with extremely low HDL levels at 26, so although these numbers don’t seem too impressive, increasing HDL by 5 is considerably good.
Previous triglycerides 564
Triglycerides now 126
Above 500 is considered “Very high” and below 150 is considered “normal.” It sure does feel good to be normal!
Previous fasting blood glucose: Over 200
Fasting blood glucose now: 85
A normal fasting glucose is between 70 and 99.
My results were so remarkable, my doctor said that it appears as though I have no diabetes whatsoever (of course, you can never NOT be a diabetic once you are officially diagnosed, but you can control it at varying degrees). Of course, my medications certainly helped me, but the numbers that you see are definitely much better because of the lifestyle changes I have made.
I would love to celebrate by having some cake or going out to eat, but instead I’m celebrating by writing this blog post!
This goes to show that so much of our health is in our hands and that we can do something about it if we just try, and a lot of trying is knowing how.
In future posts, I’ll try to give you some tips at how to change your diet to improve your cholesterol and lose weight. If you really want to change your numbers, you’ll need to really change your lifestyle. But it’s worth it – especially if you can avoid the surgeon’s knife. Believe me, you don’t want that!
