And the Verdict Is...
Just saw my doctor yesterday to see my latest blood work. I would scan it in, but our scanner gave up the ghost a few months back, and we haven't allocated the funds to buy a new one yet. The results are:
Total Cholesterol: 195 (Reference range 125-200)
HDL: 61 (Reference range >46)
Triglycerides: 72 (Reference range <150)
LDL: 120 (Reference range <130
Ratios look like this:
HDL/total cholesterol: 0.312; anything over 0.24 is considered ideal.
Triglyceride/HDL: 1.18; anything under 2 is considered ideal.
In short, at age 51, after 14 years of eating all the eggs, red meat, pork cracklin's, chicken skin, butter and cheese I want, it looks like I'm good for another 50 years, God willing and the crick don't rise.
What was that again about eating fat and cholesterol elevating risk factors?
In the interests of full disclosure, it should be stated that I remain unconvinced of the lipid hypothesis of heart disease etiology -- in other words, I don't believe high cholesterol causes heart disease. Further, my reading has convinced me that total cholesterol as high as 240 or so is normal, that in women high total cholesterol isn't even a risk marker, and that cholesterol under about 170 is dangerous.
That said, it appears that HDL and triglyceride levels and their balance do have a strong correlation to heart disease, I believe because they're a marker for messed-up carbohydrate metabolism. Which I have, in spades, but which I appear to have circumvented by simply ditching the carbs.
Which leads me to this other tidbit of Dana Medical News: I recently had saliva tests done for various hormone levels. They turned up the strong possibility that I am insulin resistant. Well, duh, I say, I've known my carbohydrate metabolism was messed up for a long time now. I've long believed that I was an undiagnosed pre-diabetic when I went low carb, and that had I continued eating all those whole grains and other carbs I would have been diagnosed as a diabetic long since.
Still, it's interesting and mildly alarming to know my carb intolerance is still skewing my hormone balance, even in the absence of carbs. I have, therefore, added GTF chromium (the GTF stands for Glucose Tolerance Factor) and vanadyl sulfate to my already prodigious vitamin regimen; these two supplements have the most clinical evidence backing up their effectiveness in improving insulin sensitivity. I have also started taking cinnamon -- just plain old ground cinnamon from the grocery store -- a quarter teaspoon 3-4 times a day, washed down with water. Several clinical studies show cinnamon to dramatically improve insulin sensitivity, and to improve just those risk factors I mentioned as markers of insulin trouble -- HDL and triglycerides.
If you like cinnamon in your tea or coffee -- I don't -- be aware that simply adding cinnamon to your brew can have very beneficial effects on insulin sensitivity.
