- Messages
- 7
I find conflicting and contradictory advice confusing and begin to wonder whether worrying about health issues, or more specifically blood test results, is more damaging to health than the suggested consequences of the indicators themselves. I was diagnosed as being pre-diabetic last year following some specific tests for ongoing heightened cholesterol which I have had for 15 years. This brought me to the diabetes.co.uk site which has been very interesting and helpful. The adoption of the low carb-higher healthy fat diet has been good – but still flies in the face of ongoing advice that I am being given for lowering cholesterol.
I am verging on 50 years old and appear to be one of the TOFI people – Thin on-the-outside and fat-on-the-inside. I was of upper normal BMI despite being well built and quite muscular (particularly lower body – more on that below). After 4 months on a low carb diet I am slap in the mid BMI healthy range – but that has resulted in family and friends voicing concern about me becoming underweight/losing too much weight. I think part of that is that we have lost perspective about what a normal weight person should look like. I am now just stabilising at that weight and continue to avoid carbs. My trouser size has dropped from 32 to nearer 30 inches and I don’t have any middle age spread (particularly now).
I believe I can also say that I am of above average fitness – I live in the Highlands of Scotland and am a hill walker/mountaineer and am currently setting up a business involving trekking in the Himalayas. I climb daily since I have a hill at the back of my house. I also have a love of fruit and veg and have very little sweet tooth. If I am totally honest my dietary weaknesses are that I certainly took too many carbs (I didn’t know they were so bad for you) and drink above the 14 recommended units of alcohol (although certainly not to excess).
A fairly recent blood test showed a slight improvement in pre-diabetes (now just on the edge) but a heightened cholesterol. What is particularly galling was to have a rather unhealthy (may I say overweight) specialist sitting opposite me lecturing me on diet and exercise when I know that I certainly can’t exercise more than I do and don’t know what more I can do on diet (I’ve developed a taste for dishes such as kale, spinach, nut and shrimp salads over the past 6 months!). My local GP who knows me well is flummoxed why my blood results appear so bad (hence the useless referrals). I have also never felt as healthy– and feel heathier now as I reach my 50s than I did when I was in my 30s!
So my current thought is to call a stop to all these tests and seeing specialists and just to continue to do what feels right and cease from worrying at all about any of this. I will keep an eye out for type-2 diabetes symptoms of course. Is this a sensible approach? My GP feels it is sticking my head in the sand, but no specialist I have met says anything constructive. The specialist I saw recently suggested I cut down on fast food as part of a ‘life change’ – I haven’t eaten one MacDonalds, KFC or other fast food in the last 25 years - they have no attraction to me and they don’t really exist in the Highlands and before that I lived in East Africa where they didn’t exist. She clearly doesn’t believe me or the diet diary I handed in (probably didn’t even read it). I therefore plan to go happy-go-lucky since worrying about health feels like my biggest health threat right now. Apologies if this is not a helpful question for others that do have more control over their results – but I am sure many can understand my frustration.
I am verging on 50 years old and appear to be one of the TOFI people – Thin on-the-outside and fat-on-the-inside. I was of upper normal BMI despite being well built and quite muscular (particularly lower body – more on that below). After 4 months on a low carb diet I am slap in the mid BMI healthy range – but that has resulted in family and friends voicing concern about me becoming underweight/losing too much weight. I think part of that is that we have lost perspective about what a normal weight person should look like. I am now just stabilising at that weight and continue to avoid carbs. My trouser size has dropped from 32 to nearer 30 inches and I don’t have any middle age spread (particularly now).
I believe I can also say that I am of above average fitness – I live in the Highlands of Scotland and am a hill walker/mountaineer and am currently setting up a business involving trekking in the Himalayas. I climb daily since I have a hill at the back of my house. I also have a love of fruit and veg and have very little sweet tooth. If I am totally honest my dietary weaknesses are that I certainly took too many carbs (I didn’t know they were so bad for you) and drink above the 14 recommended units of alcohol (although certainly not to excess).
A fairly recent blood test showed a slight improvement in pre-diabetes (now just on the edge) but a heightened cholesterol. What is particularly galling was to have a rather unhealthy (may I say overweight) specialist sitting opposite me lecturing me on diet and exercise when I know that I certainly can’t exercise more than I do and don’t know what more I can do on diet (I’ve developed a taste for dishes such as kale, spinach, nut and shrimp salads over the past 6 months!). My local GP who knows me well is flummoxed why my blood results appear so bad (hence the useless referrals). I have also never felt as healthy– and feel heathier now as I reach my 50s than I did when I was in my 30s!
So my current thought is to call a stop to all these tests and seeing specialists and just to continue to do what feels right and cease from worrying at all about any of this. I will keep an eye out for type-2 diabetes symptoms of course. Is this a sensible approach? My GP feels it is sticking my head in the sand, but no specialist I have met says anything constructive. The specialist I saw recently suggested I cut down on fast food as part of a ‘life change’ – I haven’t eaten one MacDonalds, KFC or other fast food in the last 25 years - they have no attraction to me and they don’t really exist in the Highlands and before that I lived in East Africa where they didn’t exist. She clearly doesn’t believe me or the diet diary I handed in (probably didn’t even read it). I therefore plan to go happy-go-lucky since worrying about health feels like my biggest health threat right now. Apologies if this is not a helpful question for others that do have more control over their results – but I am sure many can understand my frustration.
