Healthy Numbers- It's All Relative

For the past 6 months or so I have attempted to change my lifestyle to accommodate a recently discovered metabolic condition. It was mystery to me how I came to have this problem. My doctor says these things are almost always genetic. My father has high cholesterol, but not nearly as high as mine. My brothers are overweight but healthy regardless if their diet is poor or healthy. I remember my mother saying that her cholesterol was high and taking medication, but I do not remember her having as much drama with this as I do and I never heard her discuss blood lipid levels. Both sides of my family battle with weak pancreas function, diabetes on one side and hypoglycemia on the other side. Still, no ideas. Until I mentioned my condition to my maternal grandmother (I hadn't told her before because she tends to get overly upset over most things). She told me that she has always had high triglycerides but it was a side effect of her diabetes. My uncle, her son, high cholesterol but thought it was due to bad eating habits. Mystery solved. My mother's side of the family is plagued with metabolic issues as well as adult onset diabetes (though I believe this part is obesity-related).

Anyway, I had my 6-month endocrinology check up last Tuesday, followed by a blood draw and a full metabolic panel. Honestly, I was nervous to get the results. Leigh and I went animal product free for about 2 1/2 weeks and I've been eating very little meat for the past month or so. But I've also been eating a lot more sugar lately. For a few days Leigh and I even went nuts for Nutella, doing the "after dinner with a spoon and the jar" routine. No wonder I gained 2 pounds the last 2 weeks (and I didn't get any exercise for those weeks either).

Today I got my results. My cholesterol is 184, down from 212 over the summer. My triglycerides are 242, up from about 220 over the summer.

Following my first set of labs and being put on medication I made drastic changes to my diet. I cut out all refined sugars, all white flour, white rice, fried foods, most cooking fats, alcohol, and milk chocolate. I reduced my intake of nuts, coconut products, and tropical fruits (all known to spike triglycerides). My last blood tests came back much improved- 212 cholesterol and 220 triglycerides. I can live with that. Since those blood tests were run I have reduced my intake of animal products even further, but have reincorporated some other food items. Namely, I've allowed myself to drink alcohol every few weeks and indulge in a dessert item. I've also relaxed about eating white rice and noodles made from white flour at restaurants. At home, however, all of our grains are whole and I eat as much oatmeal as I can handle (for cholesterol).

Even though I've relaxed on certain food items, basically the ones that are too difficult to avoid or hard for me to give up entirely, my results are pretty good. For some perspective, when I was diagnosed my cholesterol was in the 400s and my triglycerides were nearly 2,000. Healthy cholesterol is under 200, anything over 240 is high cholesterol. Of course, the compilation of LDL to HDL makes a difference, but my doctor says my cholesterol at 184 looks pretty decent, all things considered.

Triglycerides are kind of funny, as they fluctuate about as often as a person's blood sugar does (which makes sense because blood levels are directly related to what kind of food you eat each day). Healthy triglycerides are under 150. "High" triglycerides are in the 200-500 range, usually because these people eat a lot of burgers, fried foods, drink lots of alcohol, or eat a lot of white, refined sugar (in my case it's due to a metabolic condition.). Anything over 500 is dangerously high. So I went from 2,000 to 220, and now 242.

I was probably operating with high cholesterol and hyperlipidemia for many years. I really don't understand how I was able to function, sometimes even playing sports, with that consistency of lipids in my bloodstream. Anyway, 242 is still a high number, but considering that my body is incapable of metabolizing a large percentage of what is found in the American diet, I think I'm doing OK. At any rate, I will live a while longer.