Blood Music

[digitaldiscipline]

This has nothing to do with swashbuckling feminine hygeine products. Cavalorn and Marchenland have that link if you're so inclined.

So, in the course of blowing my week off in the service of home repair, gardening, and general physical maintenance, I had a physical, with a followup to get my blood drawn for this, that, and the other.

This and that looked great...
- Total cholesterol: 158 [<200 is recommended]
- LDL: 62 [<100]
- HDL: 40
- LDL:HDL: ~1.5:1 [<5:1]

The other... not so much.
- Triglycerides: 279 [<150]

Per Wikipedia:

Reducing triglyceride levels
Cardiovascular exercise and low-moderate carbohydrate diets containing essential fatty acid are recommended for reducing triglyceride levels. When these fail, fish oils, fibrate drugs, niacin, and some statins are registered for reducing triglyceride levels. Prior alcohol intake can cause elevated levels of triglycerides, and reducing alcohol intake is routinely recommended in patients with high triglyceride levels. [emphasis mine]

I'll file this under "Well, no shit." [Part of me is morbidly curious as to what my workup during the dark days in Pennsyltucky would have looked like.]

So, it's pushups instead of hitting The 'Pine for yours truly from here on out.

Comments

[ms-cantrell.livejournal.com]

just switching to whole grains and cutting out high fructose corn syrup-stuff will make a difference. when i met my husband, we were both pretty heavy drinkers (whisky/beer vs dinner? easy choice). anyway, his triglycerides were over 400. after two years of living with my healthy-eating self, his count went below 150. also, he pretty much stopped drinking. which would explain why my triglycerides are still around 160-170... i like beer.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I suspect, had it been one more day between my last cocktail and my bloodwork, it might have been a different story, but, still... it's empty calories, and tough on the various systems (though it's got it's attractions in both the expected and unexpected ways). *shrug*

[ladysoleil.livejournal.com]

My triglycerides are probably laughing and flipping everyone off. Last time I got all the bloodwork done everything came up normal, but you reminded me I should go get it all done again before my health insurance changes over and I'll be out of pocket for the bloodwork.

So, thanks for the rant, it was motivational.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Given how low my cholesterol is, there's probably a genetic component to my score as well, but, in all seriousness, it's probably just as well that I don't drink like I did ten years ago.

Plus, I feel inadequate when K has both the best ass -and- the best abs in the relationship. ;-)