Getting Healthy without Drugs

A personal story fighting cholesterol

Like many adults, I consider myself to be in generally good health, so things like “physicals” get delayed and put off. I was over due and finally got around to having a physical early this year. The results weren’t at all good and shocked me into action.

I researched my options and laid out a plan involving a commitment to change my lifestyle and diet.

Six months later – it was my doctor’s turn to be surprised.

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Routine visit, until…

The physical itself was entirely routine – I’m generally healthy, active, and fit. I run and ski regularly – the month before I competed in the Empire State Winter Games and won a medal in Ski Orienteering – which involved skiing a 12.5 km course! The only thing left out of the physical was some blood work. I was supposed to get a form in the mail prior to the physical and take it in to the lab, but some oversight kept that from getting to me. We decided I’d have the workup done and they’d let me know by phone if there was anything to discuss.

Why don’t you come into the office?

I visited my local lab and had them draw blood as expected, and the shock came a few days later when the nurse at the doctor’s office called me up. “Mr. Tylock, this is Dr X’s office, and I’m calling about the results of your blood test.” I politely replied and asked how things were. “You have an elevated level of Cholesterol, would you like a referral to the nutritionist, or want to consider a prescription?”

Now I’m making up the nurse’s words here because I think my mind went into shock – how could I have bad Cholesterol? Why didn’t she tell me how high? And what’s this about taking medicine?!?

I’m imagining she deals with this quite a lot, as she quickly scheduled me to come in and have a consult with the doctor – at that point in time, I was not ready to “hear” what she might have said – even if she said it perfectly. Going in to see the doctor was very much the right thing to do.

Doctor’s office, trip two

The return trip was relatively uneventful after the shock had worn off. The Doctor showed me my results (see below) and that not only was my Cholesterol high, my Triglycerides were even worse. Completing the tri-fecta, my ratio of good (HDL) to bad was equally poor.

I could either work the nutrition angle or take drugs.

My first impulse was “How about I take the drugs for a couple months to lower the level, and then stop?” You see, I’m not too keen on taking medication for the rest of my life – starting in my forties!

The answer was simple – yes, you can take it for a few months and bring it down, but when you stop, it’ll just go back to where it was.

Ok – then I better change my diet. I left with a copy of my lab tests and a recommendation to speak with a very helpful nutritionist.

I didn’t need to be told what I had to do…

Completely “healthy” nutrition isn’t very far away.

If you have your eyes open, it’s tough to miss the articles in the news, the local paper, the internet, and even prime time broadcasts like “The Biggest Loser”.

I was pretty sure a session with a nutritionist was more about convincing me that I had to make changes than it was going to be about what those changes needed to be.

And so I made changes.

• Cutting off the fat, setting aside things like the skin on grilled chicken.
• Smaller portions (say 25%) on main meals and smaller or no seconds.
• Elimination of soda. (well, mostly…)
• Reduced snacking during the day.
• Smaller deserts.
• Almost nothing after 9pm.
• More water.
• More fish.
• More juice, especially vegetable (low sodium).
• More fruit.
• Maintaining a daily vitamin
• Maintaining a 30+ minute workout 5 days a week

Little changes, small pangs

Some of the changes bothered me more than others, all seemed to be ok to make.

You see, I like the taste of fat in little bits once in a while;-) I thought soda was fine (and never could get over the funny taste in diet substitutes). And since I’ve never been overweight, I’ve never had to really think about how much or how often I eat.

But the numbers don’t lie, and it was time to acknowledge reality.

So change was in order, and I was committed to the change.

Results in the waistline

I didn’t make changes to affect my waist, but I did get some results there. I dropped about 8 pounds over the first three weeks and a notch and half in my belt.

And that was a good thing.

Because I’ve kept up my running and exercising, I expect that a small amount has been replaced by muscle – and that’s a good thing too.

How to make a Doctor’s day

I had the blood work done a week earlier and returned to Dr. X’s office for the news. I was confident but a bit nervous – had I kept things going well enough to get good numbers, or did I slip?

After a couple pleasantries about being back in, he pulled the results up on the screen. And asked what we had done since the visit 6 months ago? You see, he was a bit shocked to see the results – and surprised that we hadn’t used some form of medication to reach them!

The numbers…

I know you’ve been waiting to see them, and I was a bit hesitant to put them in here, but as they say on digg – if there’s no video, it didn’t happen;-) So here are the numbers pulled right from the lab results for you:

Giving myself a pat on the back

I’m not suggesting that what I’ve done is stupendous – but it is a very good step in the right direction for me, and I’m recognizing it as such.

The Doctor was pleased to have a patient that took his advice and made the right kinds of changes – I’m sure he gets tired of giving out the same advice all the time: “Control your diet, get some more exercise.” (When the advice doesn’t work, he has to turn to drugs – because controlling the cholesterol with drugs and their side effects is still better than leaving it high)

Health wise – it seems clear to me that with the numbers I had earlier in the year, I was looking at early onset of heart troubles. All that cholesterol and all those extra triglycerides were going to go somewhere!

And yes, I feel better too.

Everybody is different – but if this tale motivates you, I’ll be happy

I don’t know much about my readers’ health – but I expect that you’re human;-) And if you’re human, you’ve got a body. Take care of it, and it’ll take care of you. (Hey – the same thing can be said about your mind, but that’s an entirely different story;-)

Get that checkup!

My last bit of advice for the day – get that checkup, you never know what issues are lurking. It’s better to face what’s going on that to let it continue.