Doctor's visit results page

[freds4]

Well, I began my Primal journey in an attempt to lower my hereditary high cholesterol in order to prevent going on medication, as recommended by my Doctor. A previous attempt had me eating a vegetarian diet for 11 months after which I not only felt terrible, but hardly changed my numbers at all. On that day I went back to my "normal", "healthy", high-carb diet.
One day a co-worker that was into Crossfit suggested I try a Paleo diet (Which I had never heard of) and a bit of internet searching led me to Mark's website. Not being one to "ease into" things, I decided to jump in with both feet and went for two weeks on an extremely strict Paleo diet. The results were so positive that I went out and bought some cookbooks and began my Primal lifestyle in earnest and by the time 4 weeks had passed I had lost 19 pounds, was sleeping much less with twice as much energy, my skin looked and felt healthier and I was just generally so happy that I felt I was bursting with joy. By this time I didn't care if my lipid panel had improved or not, I knew I was never going back.
Fast-forward 6 months, today I got by blood test results and my bad LDL was 20 points lower, my good HDL was 20 points higher, my Triglycerides were 34 points lower and my overall number was 7 points lower.
Chol - 230, previous 237
HDL - 72, previous 52
CLDL - 143, previous 163
TRIG - 74, previous 108

My Doctor seemed puzzled when I told him what I was doing differently but he congratulated me and told me to keep it up. There is no more talk of medications.
As a side-note, two years ago I was diagnosed with Chronic fatigue Syndrome and it is worsened with exercise, so this was accomplished with almost no regular exercise at all. I can only imagine how much better it would be if I was able to incorporate an exercise program.

[Chatty]

Thanks for posting and congratulations!
I'm trying to do exactly the same thing -- lower cholesterol.

[rccrsphil]

Great job freds4, love reading posts about progress. Keep it up!

[WaylandC]

If you can incorporate walking into this diet you'll be set. An hour a day? That should be feasible. Take the time from watching television if it takes up that much of your time. Keep up the journey.

[Trifith]

I have to recomend easing into some exercise. Walk, maybe a very short strength session, swim, do something. Do it on a weekend, see how you feel. Add to it as you feel you can.

Just my increasingly worthless $0.02

[freds4]

Thank you, that's exactly what I intend to do. Walking/hiking should be the perfect thing for me as it is intensity not duration that triggers my CFS symptoms. I was trying to keep my post short so I did not mention that I have been racing motocross on the weekends and the stress and intensity of it has been causing me to have to cease all other activities in order to recover. I am coming off of 4 weeks of being sick and finally decided to park the dirt bike, get well and ease into a low-intensity walking/hiking/weight regimen. I love motocross and may try to go back to it someday but I love my health even more.

[JVib]

Congrats!! I love seeing these great blood test results. Did you happen to get a fasting blood sugar test?

[freds4]

Congrats!! I love seeing these great blood test results. Did you happen to get a fasting blood sugar test?

Yes, and I have it here in front of me but I'm afraid it's all Greek to me. I will post some other figures and maybe you or someone else can interpret?
NA 143
K 4.2
BUN 20
CRE 1.10
EGFR 71L
GLU 100H
ALB 4.9H
AST 34H
ALT 32
T BIL 0.6
ALKPHOS 67
SP GRAV 1.022
PH 6.5
UROBIL 0.2

[smilingjustalittlebit]

Thank you, that's exactly what I intend to do. Walking/hiking should be the perfect thing for me as it is intensity not duration that triggers my CFS symptoms. I was trying to keep my post short so I did not mention that I have been racing motocross on the weekends and the stress and intensity of it has been causing me to have to cease all other activities in order to recover. I am coming off of 4 weeks of being sick and finally decided to park the dirt bike, get well and ease into a low-intensity walking/hiking/weight regimen. I love motocross and may try to go back to it someday but I love my health even more.

MX is certainly not the sport for you in that case, it used to take me 3 days to get over a race day such was the intensity!

[Sol y Sombra]

GLU 100H must be your blood glucose - the H means it is high (I suppose, since 100 is borderline normal or even slightly high).

ALB (albumin?) and AST (a liver enzyme) are high too, I guess, since they both have H after the number.