My Doctor is Scaring Me! page 2

[sbhikes]

Personally I think the drug companies have managed to manipulate all of the target numbers lower and lower so they can get everyone on all of their toxic drugs.

This. My last cholesterol test result was 265 for my total cholesterol and my doctor was not terribly concerned. And yours is 211 and your doctor wants you on statins? I'm thinking he's got too much stock in the drug companies and is getting close to retirement.

[FrankiG]

The only possible recommendations I would have are these:

1. If your eyes are bugging out at the possibility of 'lean meat' then what are you eating? Is the meat you're ingesting grass-fed and organic or is it conventional? Grass-fed meat is naturally leaner than conventional meat and has a different fatty acid profile that makes it healthy, but the fat from conventional meat is NOT healthy IMO and there's a reason many paleo people recommend lean cuts of meat if you buy conventional. Are you eating a lot of processed 'meats' (sausage, lunch meat, etc...) that are really in a different category from well-raised natural meat? I'm a fan of chicken skin, steak, and occasional bacon (1-2x/month max) but I think that some people go a bit too gung-ho into 'all meat is healthy - all meat-based-fat is healthy!' and can gorge themselves on stuff that is not good for their bodies. Store-bought bacon 3x/day=unhealthy, I'm sorry. Eating chicken/beef/lamb 3x/day? Great! Ground lamb and Oscar Meyer Bacon are not even in the same ballpark when it comes to the health of their fat.

2. Are you taking omega-3 if you refuse to eat fish? Your dr.'s rec here is spot on IMO and part of living primally is expanding your palate. Fish are a VERY healthy source of food and fat. How are your omega 3:6 ratios?

3. How is your vegetable intake? Is it at least 50% of your total intake per day (not in terms of calories but if you were to lay out all your eating on a table, would vegetables (and a few fruits) compromise half of the table?

4. How is your sodium intake? Are you getting your salt from natural 'real' sea salt (that is multi-hued) or is it coming from salty processed meats or salty packaged paleo foods?

No need to eat cereal grains, but perhaps rethink if there are areas of your diet that could use tweaking .

[paleo-bunny]

I had a health MOT y'day evening at my gym. My total blood cholesterol came out at 6.3 mmol/L in the elevated zone. When I asked what about the breakdown into LDL and HDL? The response was - well if you are concerned, go to your GP and get a test that does a breakdown, accompanied = by a spiel on how a diet high in saturated fat raises cholesterol levels. Yeah right.

There is no way I am going to go to my GP and ask for a detailed test, because I'm loathed to be coerced into taking statins. My random blood glucose (no food within last 2 hours) was 5.1 mmol/l, only slightly up from since I went primal, and my resting heart rate was down from 82 to 66. VO2 max was seriously down too but I question the validity of the measurement when I was laying down for a few minutes - wtf is that about?

[Finnegans Wake]

As someone who decided to make substantial changes (thought I was eating healthy, but it was just mostly CW) when faced with the rising BP, rising glucose, and the "pre-diabetic" scare/lecture, I can tell you that eating according to the PB will help you with BP and blood sugar. Do NOT follow the doctor's dietary advice unless you want things to get worse. It may take some time - I'm a work in progress, but heading in the right direction - but the first thing I would suggest is to tell your doctor you want off whatever diuretic is being prescribed. They CAN mess with your potassium levels and if you forget to take your potassium, it's not fun.

Get your weight under control, get your diet right, and some day you can ditch the pills entirely. In the meantime, accept the fact that your doc is going to spew CW dietary advice. Don't worry about high cholesterol and don't accept any prescription for statins, PERIOD. Eating PB will lower trigs, raise HDL, and the rest will work itself out.

Seriously, been there, done that, feeling better than I have in a decade-plus.

[qqemokitty]

Thanks so much everyone!

Re: My lean meat cry face. I eat only grass fed prime organic best possible (sadly expensive) cuts I can find and all the chicken I eat is free range. I don't eat any processed meats at all aside from occasional organic chicken sausage. I no longer eat sandwhich meat or anything salt added. I even eat no nitrate no salt no sugar added bacon! I'm an obsessive label reader, and I made the switch to organic, local, free range emphasis before I started going primal. It started with horror stories about tyson chicken and went from there. :P

I do need to take omega3, because I really do not care for fish. I kinda like scallops I guess... >.< I know the not liking fish thing is a failing but the very smell of it approaching me, cooked or raw, gives me the heaves.

I eat a good amount of veggies and fruits but I plan to step up my leafy green intake much more. I cook with sea salt, EVOO, and bacon fat that my roomie and I collect.

Thank you everyone!

Oh btw my doctor is probably my age (29) or thereabouts, and female. I was hoping she'd be a little more progressive but no luck with that.

PS, Potassium pills taste NASTY. :s

[texas.grok]

BP fluctuates throughout the day. Putting someone on BP medication based on office only readings is just irresponsible in my opinion. I used to work with an osteopath that would not put someone on BP medication until they had been monitored with an ambulatory blood pressure monitor. Only after getting 24 hours worth of data would he consider putting them on BP medications. And if my doctor yelled at me, I would fire him. I'm paying him for his services, if I don't like what he is doing, I'll fire his ass and find another doctor.

Also BP readings in the office can be higher due to something called "white coat hypertension". Basically you are a bit tense due to being in the doctors office and it can raise your BP.

I would get a second opinion and possibly a new doctor.

[Alex Good]

Well here's a question, are your blood glucose and cholesterol high compared to what they were pre-primal? Because there's a very good chance that someone who made it to 300lbs (and I honestly don't mean any offense by this) would have quite a bit of damage to undo.

[Warmbear]

Next time you go see him, look up and print out the studies and it's explained PB content from Mark. Go to your doc with this and questions written down. I did this and my doc looked at it, was impressed and is working with me. He also is suggesting PB lifestyle to other patients of his. He may also try it himself.

Be organised, be educated and go in with all your data to hand. I have lost almost 60 lbs since Jan 2012 and have another 80 or so to go. This works, works well and if you need potassium eat a banana a day.

[Radialhead]

I'm pretty shocked a doctor would put you on BP meds with those figures. Have a read of what Malcolm Kendrick (author of The Great Cholesterol Con) has to say on the matter. Does treating high blood pressure do any good? « Dr. Malcolm Kendrick

Ditch the pills & stick to the clean eating & it'll almost certainly sort itself out. Mine dropped from 143/83 to 116/63 within 3 months of kicking all the crap food & sugar out the door, & that was nothing to do with weight loss as I didn't have any to lose. I'd definitely get a BP monitor; white coat syndrome can make a big difference, especially next time now that you're worried about it anyway. Take a reading a couple of times a day, making sure you sit down & chill out for a while first.

[BratKat]

I agree! Putting you on BP meds with that kind of reading is truly uncalled for. Plus, do you really want to take nutritional advice from a doctor who would put you on a (unnecessary) potassium-depleting medication without prescribing the supplemental potassium that is needed to accompany most of the diuretic BP meds?! Or at the very least they should have monitored your potassium more closely before it got to dangerously low levels. Seriously, most doctors just want to throw pills at every problem, rather than addressing underlying causes (I know... I work in a pharmacy....). And stay away from the statins--seriously, talk about a drug company scam!