Cholesterol

Egads....

So my doctor wanted me to try out a new program that's targeted at cholesterol.  High cholesterol runs in my family along with heart issues, so I figured, why not?

Berkeley Heart Lab

I went in and they took 8-10 vials of blood. 

Went in on Friday to get the results. 

Good news and bad news...

Good news...  my cholesterol is in good shape:

Overall:  170  (below 200 is desired)
LDL (Bad Cholesterol):  130  (This "near" optimal)
HDL (Good Cholesterol):  36  (This is low unfortunately.  I blame genetics).
Triglycerides:  280  OOps!  A bit on the high side, but easily fixed.

That was the good news.  The bad news?

Well, the Lab also checks the size of the cholesterol molecules in your body and then rates them on a scale.

5 being the biggest and desirable, as these molecules are big and "Bouyant" and don't stick to the your veins very easily.

1 being the smallest and very undesireable as the clump together and stick to the veins.

So, the majority of my LDL molecules fell in the "3" range.  Not good.  Puts me at risk.

The majority of my HDL also were "3's" (I think) which was also not good...  those need to be bigger to "scrape" the walls of your veins and remove the "bad" cholesterol.

So, although I've lost 50 lbs, my health still isn't optimal.  I'm going to have to adjust my diet yet again (no biggy) and probably change my exercise program up to work on it.

There were various other tests, ApoB and other measurements, which I didn't pay much attention to for this visit, but will delve into them more on the next one.

I still blame genetics for 50% of my cholesterol problems...

Oh well...