Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Heart Health: 6 months after medicine

I just got my blood work back from my September labs.

Here is the March values:
Lipid panel:
   cholesterol, total               173  mg/dl         <200    (GOOD!)
   HDL cholesterol               37  mg/dl            >39    (CLOSE!)
   cholesterol/hdl ratio           4.68                 <5.00 (GOOD!)
   LDL cholesterol, calculated   (can not be calculated when the
triglyceride exceeds 400 mg/dl).
   triglyceride                        712  mg/dl         <150>(BAD!)
 
Here is my September Values:
Lipid panel:
   cholesterol, total               153  mg/dl         <200    (20 pts improvement)
   HDL cholesterol                 50  mg/dl            >39    (13 pts improvement)
   cholesterol/hdl ratio           3.06                 <5.00    (50% improvement)
   LDL cholesterol, calculated   76                   <100     (good)
   triglyceride                        133  mg/dl         <150    (nearly 600 pt reduction!)
 
Clearly, the cholesterol meds, Omega 3/6 and food/exercise have worked!  
The reduction in triglycerides is amazing.
 
So, thanks to medicine (mostly) and lifestyle (somewhat), 
I have some really good lipids.
 
The Tricor, Simvastatin and Atenolol were a bit tough to get in balance, 
but they worked out fine in the end. 
 
The bad news is that my Glucose is 96 for a healthy range of 65-99, 
and my Hemoglobin A1C, a longer term measure of glucose levels, is 5.7, 
right at the boundary of healthy and risk.  
 
So I need to continue the weight loss and exercise to keep that in check.
 
There's hope for me.  
 
Now, get your butt out there and get a lipid profile.  
It takes 5 minutes at a lab.  Do It!  

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