January '08 June '08 August '08 March '09 ***April '11 ***May '12 *August '16 **August '18 ****August '19 Total Cholesterol 289 215 183 195 197 189 221 197 179 LDL Cholesterol 214 121 115 122 115 112 131 110 110 HDL Cholesterol 48 46 42 47 52 43 51 52 46 * Added August 21, 2018 - darn it, cholesterol is still too high after all these years. ** Added August 31, 2018 - well, it is headed in the right direction but not far enough. *** Added October 3, 2018 - Dr. McDougall 10-Day program from 2012 ****Added September 20, 2019 - so now LDL between 70 and 189 mg/dL is a reason to consider statin therapy. Ugh.
In November I had it checked at a health fair where I work and got a reading of under 150 but I doubt that was accurate. In any case, I've been successful at keeping it down but it has creeped up since the summer.
I've got to confess that because of that super low reading in November I started getting a bit careless with my diet and exercise. I'm still riding my bicycle and eat mostly vegetarian and low fat, but the dessert bar at work is way too tempting and I tend to gobble down whatever is put in front of me.
Feeling a bit apprehensive over this last exam I decided to do the equivalent of cramming for an exam. I rode my bicycle hard and fast over the hill to work all week and cut out all the fat I could from my meals. I'm not sure if it made a difference on my cholesterol but something else popped up on the blood test:
Hematocrit 40.3YOU ARE MILDLY ANEMIC. STOP BY FOR ADDITIONAL BLOOD TESTS TO FIND OUT WHY YOU ARE ANEMIC.
Geez, if it's not one thing it's another! In addition, my blood pressure was rather low. What's up with low blood pressure and anemia?
Well a quick check on the Internet (what did we do before Google?) calmed me down. It turns out that many athletes experience these same symptoms when starting up a strenuous exercise program. So much for cramming for a blood test by over training. In addition, there's a slight chance of vitamin B-12 deficiency that could also cause anemia but I'm not a big fan of popping pills (including vitamin pills) for a quick fix.
I need to go back for another blood test but I won't be cramming for the test.
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