Better living through chemistry

[bill_schubert]

First off,  Zoe is doing well.  We went for a shorter walk today but she was perky the whole way.  Food in, elimination out, swelling slowly going down.  So, whew.  My only concern is that it happened in our back yard.  We have way more yellow jackets and wasps than we have previously.  No doubt due to the heat or some other ramification of climate change.  I suspect Zoe just got a couple of stings after having stuck her snout where it didn't need to be.  Same way she was bitten by a snake.  Curiosity killed the cat and has wrecked havoc with Zoe.

Meanwhile I had blood taken this morning to see if my injection drug is working.  And is it ever working.  I've always been on the borderline with cholesterol and have taken cholesterol drugs for a couple of decades.  Long ago I chose taking drugs over following the Dean Ornish path.  Next life I'll be a vegan.  I promise.  With my age and my AFIB the cardio doc I have (really the only one that much matters at my age) got jittery about my having borderline lipids so she had me shoot up twice a month with Rapatha.  My previous non-HDL was 133 and 146 on two previous occasions with <130  being optimal.  It is now at 55.
Cholesterol has been 183 and 199 with <200 being optimal.  It is now 99.
The same with Triglycerides and LDL.  HDL is the only one that didn't change much But it went down 15%.

The one caveat I'm waiting on is A1C.  I've never had a blood sugar problem but turns out the Rapatha can cause an elevation.  So I'm waiting on the results for that too.  If they are good then I've got zero side effects with a drug that costs me $34 a month and works wonders. 

 

Comments

[anais_pf]

I didn't quite follow the medical stuff but it sounds like things are good.

Yellow jackets are mean and will sting you with zero provocation if they feel like it. Zoe may not even have had to do anything to get stung, the poor thing.

[msconduct]

Wow! That shot is effective! I have high cholesterol etc because of my Hashimoto's, but I'm put off statins because of the A1c effect. Dropping dead of a heart attack rather than getting something lingering is my preferred exit so I'm not too worried. Good to know Zoe's recovering well.

[bill_schubert]

I'm on Rosuvastatin and have been for a couple of years but my cardio said she wants my cholesterol way down and from what I've read that is increasingly the recommendation by Dr Internet (actually Mayo and friends) so I'm inclined to agree. This is lower than I could get it even if I ate like Dean Ornish.

But, yeah, the A1C thing is no good and it turns out mine is now prediabetic borderline. No idea yet what we're going to do. It is absolutely caused by the Repatha and/or the statin. Ya pick yer poison. I already don't drink, don't eat excessively, don't drink sodas, exercise 7 days a week. Not too much I can change but to increase fruit and the few vegetables I can tolerate.

No input yet from the doc so we'll see. I don't have any prior tests so I don't know if it is a spike that will fade or an indication of ramping up.

[msconduct]

I'm never sure what to think about cholesterol. Medical opinion says statins are a no-brainer as they save tons of lives, but I've also read that that might be because they act as an anti-inflammatory rather than because of their effect on cholesterol. And then there's the role of good v bad cholesterol, and now they've discovered subvariations of bad cholesterol as well. My good cholesterol levels are good, and my doctor says my overall cholesterol is "acceptable", so I'm still dodging the statins for now. In women they can raise your diabetes risk by 50%, and I'm VERY afraid of diabetes.

What a bummer that the Repatha/statins have raised your A1C. It's such a dilemma. I doubt there's much more you can do lifestyle-wise. When I first got married we went full vegetarian Dean Ornish as that was all the rage at the time - I ate like that for years, did aerobics five times a week, and still my cholesterol level was only indifferent. I was probably developing the Hashimoto's, but if so the lifestyle factors didn't do a lot to affect it. Maybe the new diabetes drugs will make this issue less of a problem. It's annoying taking drugs to counteract the effects of other drugs, but it seems to be an inescapable part of getting older.

[msconduct]

Argh, I've just realised I wrote this talking about diet and cholesterol when of course you're looking at diet and lowering blood sugar. Same comment that there's not much else you can change of course. Something I did find helpful when I was getting out of the prediabetic zone was Jesse Inchauspe (the "Glucose Goddess")'s hacks to lower blood sugar. Although not diabetic, she tracks her blood sugar with a monitor and figures out what affects it. Her recommendations, which I found pretty easy to incorporate, were to eat vegetablse/salad, or protein if you're not having those, before carbs in a meal, don't eat carbs on their own but instead with protein, have a savoury breakfast (this improves blood sugar control all day) and exercise after meals containing carbs (this doesn't have to be a huge workout, she found thirty squats were enough to drop her blood sugar. I alternate squats and hand weights after dinner, and do housework after lunch). That might help keep you on the right side of the prediabetes zone.

[bill_schubert]

Oh, thank you for the lead. I'm on her site. I love me some carbs. Wish I was drinking so I could quit. Ice cream and cinnamon rolls, graham crackers and triscuits, and cereal. I could go all day.
And I don't much like veggies. Okra, tomato, green beans, lettuce, peas. That's about it. I like most fruit.
I've gotten away with it through exercise.
I'll probably get her book. Even a little change is better than doing nothing and it sounds like she's got some smart tips.

[msconduct]

Glad you found it helpful! It's really hard to be careful with yummy yummy carbs, but at least Jesse's hacks make me feel like I'm doing myself less damage with them. A couple of notes if you decide to buy the book: her thinking has evolved a bit since then. In the book she talks about just eating the veges then the proteins then the carbs, now she recommends having a salad before the meal. This sounded like a great idea to me but I found that it was just too much work producing an extra dish, so I just stick to eating things in the right order. She also doesn't mention having a savoury breakfast in the book - that obviously came from research released later.

The other thing to bear in mind is that she bases her recommendations of what foods to be careful with on her own experience. It's now known that there's a huge amount of individual variation in how blood sugar responds to various foods. I was puzzled when she said oats massively raise your blood sugar, because the customary wisdom is that they do the opposite. Then I realised that that must be true for her, but obviously not for everybody. If you want to know more about this, you can find out what your own particular problem foods are with a specific test (like with these people https://joinzoe.com/) or do what Jesse does and use a continuous glucose monitor to check your own reactions. Personally, I'm too scared they'll tell me something I love is a major problem. I now eat a lot less bread than I used to (sob!), but I still have it sparingly at weekends and I do not want to hear I shouldn't be doing even that. Life without any of my sourdough at all isn't really worth it.

[bill_schubert]

I did a savory breakfast this AM which is all she requires of me at this point. It was about the same as I always do and followed by exercise as it nearly always is. I'll stay away from eating cereal and/or cinnamon rolls first thing. Saved for later in the day. That's easy enough and if it helps, fine.

I do like oatmeal but probably put too much brown sugar on it. I do add lots of strawberries and blueberries to my oatmeal. It's kind of a wash.

At the moment I'm trying to get the cardiologist who set me up with Repathma in the first place to refer me to endocrinology so I can see if there is even a problem. One test is not enough to change me entire life. She's not commented on the test nor has she responded to my notes. My Primary Care fluffed it off with 'I didn't order the drug' kind of statement. She doesn't know anything about it anyway. I'm trying to stay in the med system that we've been using but in a couple of days I'll just find an endocrinologist who knows what they are doing and get more info.

At least I've got more background so I can ask questions. Thanks.

[mrdreamjeans]

Terrific!