Yes, my maternal grandmother who was physically active, but overweight had type 2 diabetes. And my mother, who began to gain weight in her mid-30's lost the weight with exercise, and for most of her adult life has minimized sugar in her diet, so she likely is a tightly controlled pre-diabetic. Unfortunately, she's carrried the diagnosis of early stage dementia for years - (she'll be 80 this year!) - yet due to her diet and exercise, she's still living independently. Yet another testimonial to the power of diet and exercise.
I think Totto, you may be onto something in that sustained high blood glucose levels over time worsen inflammation. To illustrate, I'm going to talk a little more about my lab results over time...
date...................10/04............01/06............07/09............05/11............02/15...........05/15...........reference range
cholesterol.........213...............254...............227...............231...............229..............236..............optimal <200 mg/dL
triglycerides.......115...............149...............180...............171...............126..............123..............optimal <150 mg/dL
HDL.....................53.................60.................43.................51.................44................50...............40 - 60 mg/dL
LDL....................137.............. 164...............155...............146...............165..............166...............optimal <120 mg/dL
hsCRP-Cardio..................................................................3.29...................................4.90..............low <1.00; average 1.00 - 3.00; high >3.00
A1C..........................................5.5................7.3................8.4................9.9................5.5..............4.0 - 5.6 normal
........................................................................................................................................................5.7 - 6.4 pre-diabetes
........................................................................................................................................................>/= 6.5 diabetes
I read an article by Dr. Sears, creator of The Zone Diet, in which he talked about how lowering blood glucose improves lipid panels. I don't see evidence of that yet, but I've only been on the LCHF diet for 3 1/2 months.
There are other influences at work here too.
From 2007 to 2009 I was under a tremendous amount of stress due to my employer's 2 years of cancer treatment - it was brutal for her. This greatly increased my work load during this period. It's interesting to note that my triglycerides were their highest at the end of that period suggesting I coped by eating more carbs. Looking at my 2011 triglycerides, I think I was still stressed, still eating more carbs.
In 2011, I was formally diagnosed with non celiac gluten sensitivity. The result was eating less carbs and a huge drop in my triglycerides.
I have no explanation other than the high blood glucose levels for my worsening lipid panel and hsCRP-Cardio number.
My hope is that I'll see additional improvements in my lipid panel and hsCRP-Cardio over the next 3 - 6 months, following 4 years of high blood glucose levels.
