blood sugar and blood lipids and Lipitor:

part 3 of the trilogy :

so, i get my blood tests back in july and panic. my triglycerides are 375! oh my, how could this be? what could cause such a thing? and my LDLs are borderline high and my HDLs are borderline low.....but my triglycerides....i nearly fainted.

i don't know what your numbers are, but here's my story and how i think the numbers are linked to the prediabetes.

so, what causes high triglycerides? the thing that seemed to be a possibility for me has to do with blood sugar and inability to process carbs. if carbs are consumed and not processed they build up and get converted to triglycerides and then get stored in the gut and its all related, the more gut we have, the more insulin resistance, the less processing of the carbs....... vicious cycle.

also eating too much. also not enough exercise.

what they found was that when people with high overall cholesterol were put on low fat diets, those with high LDLs responded fairly well, but those with high triglycerides didn't respond well at all (relatively speaking).

so how does one lower triglycerides?

apparently exercise can work (so for me, this was step one, but for you, you're already doing it).

eating low carb and high good fat can also work. so, i'm eating low carb like in my previous post and eating high fatty fish, high nuts, EVOO diet. now when i say "high" i mean higher than i was. so for fish, 3 oz salmon 2x a week, and 3 oz tuna 1-2x a week. i read that the fish oil isn't as good for someone with diabetes (and since i'm prediabetic) and its better to eat the fish. i had already added almonds to my diet. read that walnuts are the highest in omega 3 of the nuts. i also read that in a study men with high triglycerides ate 40 grams of hazelnuts a day for x number of days and lost like 1/3 of their triglycerides. i'm small in comparison, so started eating 20 grams of hazelnuts a day and then either almonds or walnuts in a veggie stir fry or a salad or mixed with apple. i measure everything out on a scale as nuts are very caloric. i only eat the 20 grams at a time and either 1 or 2 servings a day as 20 grams is about 200 calories. but they are incredibly filling. so paired with something like an apple and i don't need to eat for at least 2-3 hours. i was never a big nut fan, but i'm getting used to them. i don't love them but i don't hate them. instead of the whole nuts, i'll do peanut butter or almond butter on an apple for variety, but have to make sure the PB doesn't have high glucose corn syrup.....high glucose corn syrup bypasses the main regulatory step of glycolysis and adds to overproduction of triglycerides......sorry, i'm a biochemist.....i teach this stuff in class too.

i'd add ground flax seeds too for the omega 3 but just not a big fan of them. ...but will eat them if i need too. very rich source of omega 3.

ground flax seeds, salmon, and walnuts seem richest in omega 3.

seems that watching the saturated fat is important too.....
so my protein is now mostly fatty fish and chicken and turkey......
though once a week i have lamb chops (which i adore) or steak or pork (oh, a good pork roast with lots of garlic cloves embedded into it.....)
i've tried very hard to stay away from sausage (love good italian sausage) and bacon (love applewood bacon)......
eggs seem to be controversial....high in cholesterol, but longer fatty acid chains so maybe ok....since to me the jury is still out, i eat them occassionally but not excessively.....dairy is also very high in saturated fat.....so if i absolutely have to have my Häagen-Dazs, i now eat one or two spoonfuls, rather than a bowl of the stuff....and to me, if i have to eat "lowfat" ice cream, i just don't see the point. i also have to have my chocolate, so now that's my one cheat for the day, and i have just a tiny amount each day.....i'd rather give up almost anything other than my chocolate......but now its a less than 100 calorie piece, trust me, its not much, but its very caloric, like the nuts. cheese is also a killer if you love it like i do, but i've found some lowfat options that i can live with, lowfat swiss and lowfat cheddar both seem ok....i'll have about an ounce of lowfat cheese each day for the calcium......i like nonfat yogurt..... stoneyfields makes some smooth creamy nonfat yogurts that i really like: keylime, lemon, vanilla. but they have a lot of sugar (a lot of carb) so i only eat 1/2 container at a time / per day.....or i like nonfat yogurt in place of sour cream in soups, as a dip, for fruit, etc........

i also only eat 2-3 servings of fruit a day, because fructose is still sugar, and it partially bypasses that same regulatory step in glycolysis. and that means the whole fruit as the fiber helps a lot and its mostly water and fiber and not too much sugary juice.....i eat the amounts recommended for diabetics..... and i never do fruit juice, just way too much sugar.....just thinking about it makes me comatose......i used to drink OJ, switched to grapefruit but that was too acidic for my stomach.....now each day, i try to eat an apple, a small clementine, and another kind of fruit.....apples seem especially good for me.....the whole fruit, fruit juice thing would apply both for the blood sugar and triglycerides......

i doubt the exercise and diet alone cut my triglycerides from 375 to 92 in 1.5 months; i really think it was the statin.

but now that its low again, can i keep it low with diet and exercise? i'm gonna give it a good shot. i'll know in about a month.

ok, so the statins lowered my bad lipids, but also my good HDL, so what's a girl to do? i'm hoping the exercise and being off the statin and eating lots of "good" fats will allow it to rise. exercise is supposed to be one of the best things for HDLs, but you are already doing that so maybe your HDLs are ok. if the exercise and increased fish and nuts doesn't work, i've read in several places to eat 1/2 raw onion a day. i hope it doesn't come to that. read that onion can raise the HDLs pretty dramatically. maybe i'll try the flax seeds first.

if your triglycerides and HDLs are OK, and its your LDLs that are bad, then you're like most people and a low saturated fat, lower calorie diet might be all it takes.

but for me it really is all about the triglycerides, HDLs, prediabetes, insulin resistance, fat stored in the gut. not really about the saturated fats or weight loss.

i'm with you on the food thing. i do allow myself to cheat a little so i don't lose all self control. the chocolate almost every day. a bite of ice cream if i can't resist. one blue potato chip when i have the craving. but yes, i've been really good about watching my calories, watching my carbs, watching the saturated fat. i've been writing it all down, helps me keep track.

well, those are my secrets for now. i so hope that 2 months off the statins won't cause all my numbers to turn ugly again and hope i can get the HDLs up with exercise and high omega 3's.

but its so hard for someone raised by an Italian who reads cookbooks the way others read novels and realizes that with the food network on tv there is always good television to be had....so hard to not think about and dream about food. some people really do eat to live, but i truly see nothing wrong in living to eat. OK, maybe i am addicted to food what's wrong with that?

sue