Any more room on the 5% couch?

[Vikingepigen]

Hi all,

Not sure if I am a low-carber or not (!!) so sorry if I am in the wrong place - moderators feel free to move post to appropriate place (I am 50-70 max 80 carbs/day).

Had my first full blood after diagnoses .........

HBA1C = 5.7 (from 10.2)
Cholesterol = 5.5 (from 7)
HDL = 1.1 (not known)
LDL = 4.0 (4.6)
Trigs = 0.98 (!!)

Chols/HDL ratio = 5

So doing pretty well!! Need to attack that Cholesterol figure, though and my GP agreed to give me 3 months to lower it before discussing meds. He gone completely off the idea of giving me any other meds - but wants to see the HDL up a bit and the LDL down (preferably to 3 or less).

He has even given me some test strips!! Only 50/month but that will do for starters ......... at least he has come around to even giving me some!! In general he was very happy, in fact hugely impressed with my improvements and with my weight loss (2 st or 13kg in 3 months). It was VERY hard for him to admit that I had done well on diet alone, but he was big enough to agree to let me try and lower the Cholesterol by diet alone. As he said "you have obviously put in a lot of effort and made huge changes in your lifestyle and manged to get your Bg down and seemingly well controlled in such a short space of time, that I am happy for you to try and adjust diet to make a difference to Cholesterol/lipids". Result!!

General room for improvements, I know - but I am just happy to getting these kind of results just 3 months down the line - I had hoped for a HBA1C of 7 or slightly lower, never expected it to be below 6!

Now where is that diet advice for lowering the Cholesterol ................ hmmmmm sounds "fishy" to me! :mrgreen: Olive oil replacing the butter for frying, and adding some fish at least once a week must be a good start - and any excuse to eat almonds is fine by me!

Can you tell, I am a happy bunny!?? :lol:

Alice

 

[sugarless sue]

Well done Alice,that's fantastic !!!!

 

[cugila]

Hi Alice.

Well done. You deserve to be in the low carb forum area so that is why I moved you. Keep up your good work.

Ken.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Congratulations on your HB A1c Alice

And good luck on lowering your Cholesterol.

 

[hanadr]

WEll done Alice!!

 

[yipster29]

whoop whoop what amazing results!!!

Well done!

 

[red]

Hey Alice,
Im really pleased for you, an inspiration,
best wishes
Red

 

[fergus]

Wonderful, Alice! Congratulations! :mrgreen:
With your carb reduction, your cholesterol numbers will probably improve all by themselves. 5.5 total cholesterol is about spot-on in terms of lowest cardiac risk, and lowest risk of death from all causes anyway. In my opinion, anyone trying to persuade you to lower it any further should actually check the evidence. It doesn't support that idea at all.
Oh, and did I say well done?

fergus

 

[Spiral]

Well done Alice Congratulations!

 

[graham64]

Well done Alice,
You deserve your success, as Fergus said your cholesterol will probably show even more improvements hopefully this will be seen after your next review.

Cheers
Graham

 

[Vikingepigen]

Thanks everyone! I am chuffed to bits doing so well, so far. Minor tweeks in diet to incorporate some oily fish and eat more almonds (though!) seems like a good idea, but I am happier and way more relaxed about it all now and with the GP "falling into line" is a HUGE weight of my shoulders, too.

Now upwards and onwards with the rest of me life - at least from a diabetic point of view.


Alice

 

[Patch]

Great work. I bet that 5% sofa is SUPER comfy!

 

[benniesmum]

Great numbers! Make room on the couch - I plan to join you soon!

I'm still working on getting my Hba1c below 6. My first Hba1C was 10.7 in March 2009, this week it's 6.4, so I'm getting there. I'm mostly low carbing with a garnish of extra exercise.

Like you, I'd like to get my cholesterol down though. I was 6.3 now 4.8 (diet only) , but although my LDL is down from 4.3 to 3.3, my HDL went down from 1.7 to 1.0 (tris are low). My doc wants to put me on Symvastin, but I've refused so far. Any ideas how I can reduce it without going on the tabs?

 

[Vikingepigen]

Hi Benniesmum

There are a couple of threads talking about lowering those numbers, try search for "cholesterol" and you will see them.

Here you will see something about increasing your HDL http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/cholesterol/a/raiseHDL.htm

Also it depends on how your diet is in general - for me I need to add some oily fish, like Salmon once or twice a week, also munching on almonds is supposed to beneficial as is using good olive oil.

Seems like you are doing quite well, so keep it up!


Alice

 

[ATSBod]

Don't worry about room on the couch - it's a Hogwarts couch (expands automatically to accomodate the number of people on it 8) ).
I know - it happened when I sat there!

... Jim

 

[Cazz]

After low carbing for over a year, I've finally joined the 5% club - just! Latest hba1c is 5.9% down from 6.8%. Really pleased. I'm still eating the same low carb diet I was 6 months ago. The difference is that I've switched to animal insulin which I've found works better for me. I was on Levemir and Novorapid before but something wasn't quite right with it so I asked to change and I'm much happier now on animal.

Cholesterol levels a bit weird though:
Total: 7.4
HDL: 2.4
LDL: 4.6
Trigs: 0.8
Ratio: 3.08

Nurse said cholesterol test is very sensitive and can be up one day and down the next. She happy though with the figures because HDL is high and ratio is okay. I would prefer to get LDL level down though. She also did my cardiac risk factor on the computer which was 3.7%. The lower the better. Aim is to get less than 10%.