Much Improved Cholesterol and BP!

[chrisinhouston]

Well it's been 6 months since I changed my eating habits and about 2 months since I stopped eating meat and switched to other protein sources like fish and plant based ones. That coupled with my wife and I walking 1-1.5 miles most mornings and getting back into bike riding and I've seen a big improvement in my stamina and clothes that seem to fit better. I'm not into weigh-ins but I feel like I've lost a few pounds.

So I had my annual check up with my cardiologist the other day and got my blood work done in advance so he could look over it. I see a heart doctor because I didn't like the general practitioner I had seen a couple of years ago. She wanted me to come in every 90 days for any of the drugs I take and she prescribed some totally unnecessary tests so I decided to just see a heart doctor for BP and a lung doctor for my asthma and a urologist for my prostate and they just ask me to come in annually for a check up and then dose out the prescriptions. Costs me a bit more to see a specialist but it beats seeing the GP every 90 days.

So here are my numbers:

Blood Pressure 120 over 80
Total Cholesterol 192 down from 210 a year ago
Triglycerides 102 down from 140
HDL (Good) 75 up from 52
LDL (bad) 97 down from 125
Liver Function Good
Glucose (fasting) 132 which is too high!

The main reason I think my Glucose is high is that my wife and enjoy a few glasses of wine each night and I am still overweight. I think if I can drop the weight, 10-30 lbs or so and cut back to maybe wine on weekends or just one glass with dinner and I should see that drop. No one in my immediate family has or had diabetes and I have to look back to great grandparents or some of my grandfathers siblings for the disease. I don't drink any sugary drinks (other then wine) and I eat only whole grains, lots of steel cut oats, brown rice, etc and if I eat pasta it is usually the high fiber whole grain kind.

Oh well, I feel better for the most part and your mental attitude is important!

[Griff]

Good work!

[glatt]

That's great, Chris!

I've got slightly elevated fasting glucose too, and I can't figure it out. I'm skinny and get decent enough exercise. I should schedule another dr. visit to have it checked again.

I'll be bummed if it means I have to dramatically change my diet. I like being able to eat pasta and bread. I eat very few sweets and never drink soda, so it must be the carbs.

[Griff]

I don't remember seeing glucose in my tests last year, must have been ok since I'm no booze few grains.

[glatt]

This is probably nothing, and just one of those overblown new scientific studies, but I just read this opinion piece in the NYT written by a researcher.

My research team and I conducted a longitudinal field experiment on the effects of learning skills for cultivating warmer interpersonal connections in daily life. Half the participants, chosen at random, attended a six-week workshop on an ancient mind-training practice known as metta, or “lovingkindness,” that teaches participants to develop more warmth and tenderness toward themselves and others.

We discovered that the meditators not only felt more upbeat and socially connected; but they also altered a key part of their cardiovascular system called vagal tone. Scientists used to think vagal tone was largely stable, like your height in adulthood. Our data show that this part of you is plastic, too, and altered by your social habits.

To appreciate why this matters, here’s a quick anatomy lesson. Your brain is tied to your heart by your vagus nerve. Subtle variations in your heart rate reveal the strength of this brain-heart connection, and as such, heart-rate variability provides an index of your vagal tone.

By and large, the higher your vagal tone the better. It means your body is better able to regulate the internal systems that keep you healthy, like your cardiovascular, glucose and immune responses.

She's arguing that spending more time on your devices, and less time connecting face to face with real people, reduces your vagal tone, which increases your glucose level and hurts you in other ways.

My face to face time with real people has dramatically dropped over the last 5 years or so since we moved into this new building at work. Some days, I don't interact with anyone at work face to face. I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Nothing else has changed, except general aging, but my glucose has gone up.