So it has happened, I am on anti lipid drugs. After 5 years of fighting to keep my triglyceride levels in check with diet and exercises alone, my endocrinologist told me they are going over the roof now and I should be put on medication. During the annual health check up in March 06, the levels were 229 (normal is 200), a repeat lipid profile on 15th June 2006 shows that triglyceride level have happily glided up to 568 and VLDL from 46 to 113 -enough for the alarm bells to ring. I don’t like to live on medicines, but there is no escaping reality. I am glad though that I don’t have diabetes currently.
Sunday was spent lazing around watching “Antarmahal” a Bengali movie directed by Rituparna Ghosh. To repeat myself, I love the way this man handles characters and their relationship. Playing with the light and dark shades of people he makes them all so real that it gives goose pimples. Bongs indeed are sensitive and creative people.
I am borderline triglyceride level myself. I have tried dieting, not eating fatty foods, and even activity. It does not seem to do much.
Diet and exercises helps in not letting the triglyceride levels increase further, but I guess only to an extent -specially if the cause is hereditary. Keep getting your lipid profile done regularly and go on medication if your doctor says so.
Sorry to hear you are unlucky on this front. A high lipid profile unfortunately is not connected only to diet…it’s the way your metabolism is. But statins (or whatever the doc has prescribed for you) do bring the problem down to controllable, liveable levels. My husband has had this problem (and medication for it) since he had his heart attack at 38….and has had 20 years of a normal (read frenetic) and productive life. Indeed, he too hated being on medication in the beginning, but had to readjust his thinking. But do keep up with moderate and regular exercise, that has SO many benefits. It isn’t easy when you are working and have a small child, I admit!
I feel sad when youngsters suffer illness. I hope you (and Thaths, too, I just saw Jace’s photo of him ) can manage it well.
I was warned that I would be put on medication sooner or later. I am hoping I can be put off medication in a couple of months at least for a while, but that may not be….
Exercising is a part of my daily routine, I try and go to the gym at least 22-25 days a month. In fact since the time both of us (Tarique and I) have started going to the gym together, it has become quiet enjoyable.
Triglycerides
May be you are aware of this and you are already doing this – but it helps to switch to cracked wheat instead of rice and whole wheat rotis etc instead of carb rich foods (which at least a south Indian diet is high in). Basically eating foods with a low glycemic index (and hence will cause only a small rise in blood sugar level as opposed to one with a high GI) helps…and avoiding juices which are high in sugar. More sugar in the blood stream causes more insulin and that has been shown to cause an increase in triglyceride levels. (My husband’s family members have diabetes – so we “try” to be careful with our diet and hence we have looked into cracked wheat/whole grain breads instead of regular white etc). Foods with lower glycemic index take longer to digest so the levels of glucose in the blood remain more stable than a high GI meal which spikes the blood sugar and triggers all the rest of it. Some of these can be counter intiuitive – nuts apparently have lower GI than say a banana…fruits with more fiber are better. Legumes are great ofcourse. I guess both north and south Indian meals have quite a bit of those…You probably know all of this since you actually are delaing with this. But I thought I would anyway share it since we too changed our diet (though we could do a much better job of it) based on what has a high GI level and so on. Also soaking methi seeds overnight in water and having a teaspoon of the soaked seeds every morning apparently works wonders esp in controlling diabetes and the onset of it – not sure what scientific proof there is. One of our relatives swears that her father escaped diabetes despite all the risk factors (incl genetic) he had because of consuming cracked wheat and methi seeds diligently…
Good luck…am sure between the exercise you are already doing and the diet and some medication your tgl levels will go back to normal…