Help with hubbys chol results

[Sunny7]

He just got back his results and they are not good, how can he raise his hdl, and get his trigs down. Here is the results

total 187

hdl 29

ldl 114


trigs 219

his sugar is 130,


thanks

[Leo41]

His high sugar and trigs are from the same source--too much sugar and starch, processed foods.

In correcting those, he might raise his HDL. How does he eat? He needs to be on strict low carb if he wants to control that blood glucose--wasn't his doctor concerned?

I'd suggest you take a look at Dr. Richard Bernstein's website. He's a diabetic who advises on how to control type2 with diet. If your husband isn't already diabetic, he's headed there, and if I were in his position, I'd follow Dr. Bernstein's guidelines.

He also has a book, but most of it is on his website, and you can read it for free there.

[Sunny7]

The dr. of course wants to talk about him going on meds, but i want him to try something else, he had lost 40# on LC about 3 years ago, then talked to the dietician and she told him to have 40 carbs per meal and 20 carbs for 2 snacks, and he did what she said, and he has gained back the 40 # and i know he eats to much junk, he does get a lot of excercise though, but it does not seem to be helping. I will look up the book, thank you for your suggestions, greatly appreciated.

[MACXXX]

If your husband has had 2 fasting blood glucose tests > 126 6 months apart your husband is diabetic according to the ADA.

There is an inverse relationship between HDL and triglycerides. Lower the trigs by eating low carb and the HDL should come up. Fish oil will also help to lower trigs. His HDL should be at least 40 for men. Exercise generally helps to improve HDL so that may help as he cuts the carbs since he already gets exercise. Exercise also helps to lower blood glucose generally but since he is already doing that and still has a diabetic fasting blood glucose it doesn't seem to be helping much.

If the meds are metformin, they are safe and should help him lower his blood glucose from what I read.

Good source of info on blood glucose in Blood Sugar 101's site: Blood Sugar 101 and her blog site to learn about diabetic medications: Diabetes Update

Dr. Berstein's book and web site are also good sources but Dr. Bernstein limits one to 6-12-12 or 30 total carbs per day generally of the green vegetable category. Just be aware of that going in.

I would recommend you husband get a blood glucose meter and check his blood sugar in response to what he eats as well.

[Sunny7]

Thank you Macxxx, hubby does have a meter, and when he checks it, it is not a 12 hr fast, its usually before lunch, they told him at least 2 hours after he eats, and at home its usually in the low 100's up to 108. His dr, has not mentioned he go on any meds for this. i am conerned about his low hdl, so i am going to get him back on low carb for now and he is going to get retested in about 3 months or so. his trigs are quite high too, so hopefully if the hdl goes up the trigs come down.

thanks for your help

[MACXXX]

Originally Posted by Sunny7

Thank you Macxxx, hubby does have a meter, and when he checks it, it is not a 12 hr fast, its usually before lunch, they told him at least 2 hours after he eats, and at home its usually in the low 100's up to 108. His dr, has not mentioned he go on any meds for this. i am conerned about his low hdl, so i am going to get him back on low carb for now and he is going to get retested in about 3 months or so. his trigs are quite high too, so hopefully if the hdl goes up the trigs come down.

thanks for your help

There are some whose HDL does not go up until their weight stabilizes. So if he starts losing weight again and his HDL does not go up right away you may have to wait until he has lost all the weight he is going to lose. Don't think this happens with everyone but just advice to not panic if it does not go up for some time.

Sounds like your husband is pre-diabetic like me with those 2 hour post prandial blood glucose readings. The 130 is surprising to me given low 100s post prandially but fasting levels when one first wakes up are equivalent to that which the labs test for after fasting for 12 hours.