Saturday, June 23, 2012

Damn you cholesterol! *shakes fist*

So, after being on Atkins for two weeks I got into the doctor to see if my kidneys were going to fall out from the excess animal protein. He indicated if I drank plenty of water they should stay inside me where they belong.

What did wind up concerning him as it turns out, was my cholesterol was literally one point higher than he wanted it to be so he indicated I should return to talk about medication options to fix it. (I should point out my theory on the increased cholesterol from last visit is due more to the induction phase of the diet which has far fewer vegetables than I normally eat more than a result of the diet itself. The Induction phase is really restrictive on vegetables and you know what meat doesn't have in it? Fiber lol)

Here's the thing though. No other options were discussed. He didn't mention increased fiber intake or other dietary changes like increasing my fish intake to increase good cholesterol and improve the ratio. He didn't mention an exercise program to help reduce the bad cholesterol. Nothing. One point above what he wanted and he decided some medicine is the right thing to do.

I don't like that. First off I'm not convinced that cholesterol in the blood is going to kill me. I get that cholesterol plaque on the arteries is bad but that's not what this test measured. It measures the stuff in the blood, not along my arterial walls.

So, I'm ignoring his recommendation I come in for medication. I'll change my diet (increase fiber and add fish) and add some exercise which I've slacked on for a while now, and see if that works. I can get it tested at Walgreens in a month and then again at three months and keep an eye on it that way. I'm not a doctor, but I don't need to be a doctor to look at a number and see if it's going up or down. He said it was too high so I'll bring it down... without medication thankyouverymuch.

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