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!