Hi all,

I'm 31 years old. I have never done my blood test in my life. I recently did my blood test and the doctor said the results seems to be genetic. But i am unable to understand why the doctor is not interested in medication and he says that he will put me in medication after some years. Since i do not know much about this profession, I need basic guidance and precautionary measures from you guys and what should i be highlighting to the doctor.

Blood Test (Prefered)
Total Cholesterol : 220 ( < 200 )
LDL : Could not be measured becoz of very high
Triglycerides
HDL : 28 ( > 40 )
Triglycerides : 568 ( < 150 )
Glucose : 113 ( 65-109 )
Alkaline Phosphate : 138 ( 20-125 )

But i consulted my friends and they say i should watch my diet and be on medication like LIPITOR.

FYI i do not eat any Non-Veg, no Smoking and no alchols.

I appreciate your response and thanks for the time.

Hi Tanram,

I am in a big rush at the moment--I need to go feed my mother, but I wanted to write a response.

If you would like, you can take a look at my journal (just click on journal under my name at the end of this message).

You will see that my blood test was very similar to your own back in March. I got it done this week and the improvement is very encouraging.

I will come back later on and write down the specific numbers for you and my personal, non-medical opinion since you and I have so much blood factors in common...only I am 20 years older than you.

Take care,
Natalie

Hi Again, Tanram,

First off, I am not in the medical profession at all and all I know is from reading and experience of myself and those I know.

My guess is that your doctor did not put you on Lipitor or any of the other "statin" drugs because you are only 31. These drugs can potentially tax the liver severely; he probably hopes that you can get your blood fats down without medication. If Lipitor were absolutely safe for everyone and we had a guarantee that nobody would have liver failure ever, there probably would be a lot more people taking it.

I also believe that there is a genetic component to our blood fats, but that we can do a lot in spite of the genes. I believe that the LC way of eating does indeed help with not only fat lipids but blood glucose. Since I am a Diabetic Type II my blood sugars are very important to me. I don't want to suffer the complications of diabetes: blindness, neural myopathy which can lead to amputations, etc etc etc.

So when I see your results, I see results that are similar to mine. BUT I have managed to get down my numbers after a relatively brief period of LC eating.

I also got down my blood glucose enormously: that in itself is a grand achievement. My LDL which could not be measured in March is now in at 128. Normal should be 35-100 so I have a ways to go with that. My triglycerides went down from 486 to 354. Normal should be 10-190. I have a ways to go.

BUT I only started my official LC way of eating on June 25th.

When I look at your stats, it makes me think that you are at risk for developing diabetes. POSSIBLY. I am NOT trying to scare you or intimidate you. I have read in many books that Diabetics often have elevated triglycerides AND a low HDL.

That's you and that's me too.

It's great that you don't smoke or drink alcohol. Those are positive factors, although I think that a little red wine with dinner is ok (I don't do that since it triggers migraines for me).

I think it would be great if you read around in this forum and read about the different kinds of LC eating plans. They have much more in common than differences, I believe.

If you LC I can GUARANTEE you that your blood sugar will go down and my own experience now is telling me that your other numbers will also improve.

It is an eating plan that you can stick with and that will not leave you hungry.

Good luck to you and please feel free to ask me if you have any more questions about my experiences.

Natalie

Hiya Tanram!

IMHO, statin drugs should be a last resort if the "problem" can be solved by lifestyle change - especially if the "problem" is ambiguous to begin with.

Triglycerides are often raised because of high amounts of carbs. Ditto for that blood sugar.

Check out this article <a href="http://www.westonaprice.org/know_your_fats/fats_phony.html ">here</a> about the healthy range for cholesterol levels.

**Note: that's actually not the link I was looking for. The one I wanted, but can't seem to find now, explained that 240 was going to be the upper limit for healthy cholesterol - but if that were the case, the scientists involved at this particular conference wouldn't have enough people for a study they were conducting, so they *lowered it* to 200. Pretty arbitrary, isn't it? (/soapbox )

You might want to read through some of the articles at http://www.powerhealth.net . The author posts to this board and really knows his stuff.

Cheers!

Hi Natalie,

Can you please explain me what is Low Carb WOE?

My WOE all these days

Breakfast : Serial's & sometimes OATS

Lunch : Rice with Vegetables Like spinach, carrot, potato,etc..
(Oils used for preparation is vegetable or corn oil)

Dinner : Wheat flour products or Rice

I am also planning to avoid 2 % milk and to get into skim milk.

Can you please guide me what should be avoided in specific.

Thanks for your response.

Regards.

Tanram, there are lots of links in the in the "Low Carb Links" section over to the right that will explain it. The one that explains it the best is http://wilstar.com/lowcarb/.

An important question: was that a *fasting* glucose level? Were you sure to fast the night before with no cheating? Not even coffee or tea? If that's a fasting glucose level, you're headed for trouble. I checked my old notes (I'm a lab tech) and an HDL under 35, triglycerides over 250 and your high glucose pretty much spell out type II diabetes. I hope your doctor is following up on this!!

If that's the case, you have to cut *way, way back* on all the carbs you're eating. All that cereal, wheat and rice turn to *sugar* in your blood. That's what carbohydrates are. Your diet, at a glance, seems seriously deficient in protein. A veg/an diet is noble, but deadly if you're running yourself into diabetes. Do check out our vegetarian forum, which is under the "daily low carb support" section.

Take care and stick around.

Hi Tanram,

How are you today? I do want to echo what Kristine has said. The first thing you need to do is educate yourself about the Low Carb Way of Eating and see if it is for you.

As a Type II Diabetic, I can assure you that it has made all the difference in my diabetes and that I will most likely be able to quit my diabetic medications very soon. They have already been reduced a lot.

There are a lot of different programmes but they do all boil down to the same concept.

On the right of the screen you might want to click on "Which low carb plan is right for me?" and read the helpful information there. I have read several (not all) of the books.

If you are a committed vegetarian, Dr. Schwarzbein has a cook book for low carb vegetarians. There may well be other cook books out there also; it's the only one that I have seen.

Good luck to you!

Natalie