Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Oldjohnw
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Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by Oldjohnw »

I am one point below pre-diabetic ( I have been there before but pulled it back) and despite statins my cholesterol level has gone from 6.4 to 7.4. I could increase the statin dosage but don’t want to yet.


You have to reduce sugar. I don’t eat cake, biscuits and avoid processed foods anyway.

You have to reduce fat. I do eat cheese.

I eat loads of veg, limited red meat, brown bread only, oatcakes, brown pasta (I can’t stand brown rice).

You are told to get low fat. Which is, of course, in order to make it palatable, stuffed with sugar. I like Alpro but Mrs Ojw doesn’t. But I don’t want it every day and it goes off quickly and they don’t do smaller tubs.

What is a growing lad to do?

I am hoping it is a mere blip following a challenging house move involving some temporary bad habits and reduced exercise.
John
Gearoidmuar
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by Gearoidmuar »

I'm a retired doctor. Had a life long weight problem. Being fat in the family. in 2012 I gave up sugar. Nothing sugary but kept eating starch. Lost 20lb..7lb had crept back on by beginning of 2014 so went on LCHF diet. Low carb high fat. Have eaten 50g max carbs ever since. Don't measure portions. This stabilised at 40lb down by a little over 7y ago and has stabilised at that. What was remarkable about it is that I'd been plagued by bouts of depression during my adulthood (I'm 71 now) and it has disappeared during that time.

What you are advised to do is all wrong. Look at Dietdoctor.com, a Swedish website in English. Let that be your guide.
What did I just have for breakfast. Tin of sardines in brine, drained, mixed with three eggs and 20g cheddar in an omelet. Bowl of microwaved Brussels sprouts. I won't be hungry for 6h or more after that.
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Paulatic
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by Paulatic »

Hope it’s just a blip for you.
Mrs P got a warning earlier this year about her cholesterol level and we found it hard to make any real changes on a IMO a fairly healthy diet.
Biggest changes were
I make yoghurt with semi skimmed no longer full fat
We don’t buy cream
I blend our butter with rice bran oil (250gm with 80 ml oil) Will probably never go back to 100% butter as this is such a good option for many reasons.
Eat a lot less cheese,bacon and always buy low fat sausage.
After a few months returned for test and no big difference but the doctor said that the good cholesterol levels were also high and wasn’t worried… no statins.

When you say brown John I hope you mean wholemeal. Brown flour is white with colour :(
I had to Google Alpro :lol: is it yoghurt? My home made can easily last three weeks in the fridge.
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Jdsk
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by Jdsk »

Oldjohnw wrote: 19 Oct 2021, 7:57am I am one point below pre-diabetic ( I have been there before but pulled it back) and despite statins my cholesterol level has gone from 6.4 to 7.4. I could increase the statin dosage but don’t want to yet.
Plasma total cholesterol is variable within an individual. It might indeed be a blip.

I wouldn't advise changing anything specifically because of those values. But it is a good opportunity to review everything that affects cardiovascular health, including diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol, body weight and stress.

And as an adult man to remember to take vitamin D supplements.

Jonathan
Oldjohnw
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by Oldjohnw »

Jdsk wrote: 19 Oct 2021, 8:40am
Oldjohnw wrote: 19 Oct 2021, 7:57am I am one point below pre-diabetic ( I have been there before but pulled it back) and despite statins my cholesterol level has gone from 6.4 to 7.4. I could increase the statin dosage but don’t want to yet.
Plasma total cholesterol is variable within an individual. It might indeed be a blip.

I wouldn't advise changing anything specifically because of those values. But it is a good opportunity to review everything that affects cardiovascular health: diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol, body weight, stress.

And as an adult man to remember to take vitamin D supplements.

Jonathan
Don’t smoke, don’t drink, ride a bike and go walking most days. Weight more or less back to where is should be (lost 8kg in last 12 months). Stress is what it is, but generally fairly modest. I take vitamin D Supplements and have been congratulated on my diet by both GP and so-called NHS lifestyle coach ( I kept a diet sheet for two weeks). The only advice she could give was eat low fat but had no answer when I asked about extra sugar this involves.

Thank, Jonathan, for this. It’s what I wanted to hear, really! :) seriously, useful to hear. More of the same, I imagine.
John
Oldjohnw
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by Oldjohnw »

Paulatic wrote: 19 Oct 2021, 8:37am Hope it’s just a blip for you.
Mrs P got a warning earlier this year about her cholesterol level and we found it hard to make any real changes on a IMO a fairly healthy diet.
Biggest changes were
I make yoghurt with semi skimmed no longer full fat
We don’t buy cream
I blend our butter with rice bran oil (250gm with 80 ml oil) Will probably never go back to 100% butter as this is such a good option for many reasons.
Eat a lot less cheese,bacon and always buy low fat sausage.
After a few months returned for test and no big difference but the doctor said that the good cholesterol levels were also high and wasn’t worried… no statins.

When you say brown John I hope you mean wholemeal. Brown flour is white with colour :(
I had to Google Alpro :lol: is it yoghurt? My home made can easily last three weeks in the fridge.
Alpro is soya yoghurt. When I say brown I do mean whole meal. Have done this all my adult life. We stopped buying bacon regularly a couple of years ago, I have an occasional bacon sandwich out.
Last edited by Oldjohnw on 19 Oct 2021, 9:05am, edited 1 time in total.
John
Oldjohnw
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by Oldjohnw »

Gearoidmuar wrote: 19 Oct 2021, 8:35am I'm a retired doctor. Had a life long weight problem. Being fat in the family. in 2012 I gave up sugar. Nothing sugary but kept eating starch. Lost 20lb..7lb had crept back on by beginning of 2014 so went on LCHF diet. Low carb high fat. Have eaten 50g max carbs ever since. Don't measure portions. This stabilised at 40lb down by a little over 7y ago and has stabilised at that. What was remarkable about it is that I'd been plagued by bouts of depression during my adulthood (I'm 71 now) and it has disappeared during that time.

What you are advised to do is all wrong. Look at Dietdoctor.com, a Swedish website in English. Let that be your guide.
What did I just have for breakfast. Tin of sardines in brine, drained, mixed with three eggs and 20g cheddar in an omelet. Bowl of microwaved Brussels sprouts. I won't be hungry for 6h or more after that.
Thanks for this. I have sardines and tomatoes for breakfast.

I am 72 and only slightly overweight.
John
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Audax67
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by Audax67 »

Cautionary tale:

I've been diabetic for 30-40 years; diagnosis was 30 yrs ago but doc reckoned I'd been diabetic already for around 10 yrs. Received my first stent in 2008 after AIV stenosis was detected and was sent on a re-education course. This was the year after PBP 2007: I was as fit as a fiddle, had a BMI of 24 with hefty quads, but the re-ed dietician read "diabetes" and put me on 1500 kcal/day. After a few months of this I had dropped 8 kilos, had severe quad pains even on the flat and went deeply hypo a couple of times. Eventually said to hell with it and started to eat like a human again: all the pains disappeared and my HbA1c, cholesterol etc. hardly budged. A similar run-in with a dodgy post-stenting BP measurement got me condemned to beta-blockers and vasodilators, and it took me 3 years to persuade the medicals that it had been spurious. That also cost me my qualification for PBP 2011.

Moral: always take radical medical advice with a dose of Micralax.
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thirdcrank
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by thirdcrank »

Oldjohnw wrote: 19 Oct 2021, 8:48am
... Stress is what it is, but generally fairly modest. ....
All the best with this. When you tot up your other lifestyle factors, stress may be playing a bigger part than you realise.

When I reflect on the caused of my health problems - heart disease and diabetes - I can see that working rotating shifts and work-related stress played a significant part. Since I retired, the biggest stressors for me have been the medics; not all but most. I'd say do what the doctor orders and try to avoid looking for explanations.
Oldjohnw
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by Oldjohnw »

Well I don't work and because of a combination of illness last year and moving I even gave up the various governorships/boards I was on . I would have thought that I was as stress free as could be apart from around the house move.

Thanks all for some very worthwhile advice.

PS Paulatic: I think I would rather do without than have low fat sausage! That is where the flavour is.
Last edited by Oldjohnw on 19 Oct 2021, 4:00pm, edited 1 time in total.
John
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Paulatic
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by Paulatic »

Oldjohnw wrote: 19 Oct 2021, 11:48am
PS Paulatic: I think I would rather do without than have low fat sausage! That is where the flavour is.
An opinion I would have shared until Ive been trying them. Some are absolutely foul but some are good with generally more pork replacing the fat.
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axel_knutt
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by axel_knutt »

Oldjohnw wrote: 19 Oct 2021, 7:57amYou are told to get low fat. Which is, of course, in order to make it palatable, stuffed with sugar. I like Alpro but Mrs Ojw doesn’t. But I don’t want it every day and it goes off quickly and they don’t do smaller tubs.

What is a growing lad to do?
It's perfectly possible to eat a low fat low sugar diet, and without buying special 'health' foods.

If you want to reduce something in your diet, the prerequisite is to find out where most of it is coming from first, otherwise you'll end up targeting the wrong things on the basis of assumptions. You're likely to find that the vast majority of it is coming from just a handful of items, and not necessarily junk food as it might be tempting to assume: the Pareto principle. It might sound like a bit of a bind, but it's not half as much of a bind as turning your whole diet on its head and getting little benefit for it.
Temp Diet.png
(The only bugbear in my diet is salt because I eat a lot of bread, but even then, it's way below the national average: 6.3g vs 9g)
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thirdcrank
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by thirdcrank »

Back to stress: long ago (aftermath of the Valley Parade fire, 1985) I was sent at some expense, on a short course on stress. One of the basic themes was to recognise the difference between pressure and stress. It's a truism that some people thrive on pressure. The definition of stress, however, is when the individual feels that the demands made on them are not matched by their abilities to cope. So, stress can be the result of being under-employed/ bored stiff, just as it can by a feeling of being overwhelmed.

The more personal point I was making is that the more I took an interest in my treatment, the more stressed I felt. eg I was given a Glyceryl Trinitrate spray, with advice along the lines of "If you get a pain in your chest, use the spray and if that doesn't work, use it again and if that doesn't work, call an ambulance because you are having a heart attack." I've never used the spray but at that point I was agonising about every chest pain." I queried this with a cardiac nurse who said if it didn't relieve chest pain it was probably indigestion."

I'm a born worrier and have decided to do as I'm told and shun explanations.
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simonineaston
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by simonineaston »

As I write, I'm eating a large plate of potatoes, and bashed 'neeps, both cooked in salty water and then seasoned heavily with crushed black & ground white pepper, and a lot of butter. That's all. Bang full of flavour and very easy to eat. Now don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that's what everyone should eat, nor am I saying "Look at me - see how clever I am!"
What I am saying is that we've, a lot of us, got out of the habit of eating plain food, cooked from basic ingredients and have instead been seduced, often unwittingly, by the industrial food industry to the extent that it's almost inconceivable to contemplate a meal without a significant component of processed food and - Bingo!! All of sudden, without even giving it much thought, we're eating Lord Alone Knows What !!
Even something as innocuous sounding as yoghurt, especially with that oh-so-healthy-sounding fruit, can be a vehicle for ingredients that when scrutinised, turn out to be more like the contents of a chemistry lecturer's laboratory store room than the vast majority of us might suspect.
S
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RRSODL
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Re: Pre-diabetic and raised cholesterol

Post by RRSODL »

Oldjohnw wrote: 19 Oct 2021, 7:57am I am one point below pre-diabetic ( I have been there before but pulled it back) and despite statins my cholesterol level has gone from 6.4 to 7.4. I could increase the statin dosage but don’t want to yet.



I eat loads of veg, limited red meat, brown bread only, oatcakes, brown pasta (I can’t stand brown rice).

You are told to get low fat. Which is, of course, in order to make it palatable, stuffed with sugar. I like Alpro but Mrs Ojw doesn’t. But I don’t want it every day and it goes off quickly and they don’t do smaller tubs.

What is a growing lad to do?

I am hoping it is a mere blip following a challenging house move involving some temporary bad habits and reduced exercise.
There is your problem controling your glucose levels. Cut down carbohydrates, eat your green leafy salads, adds more fat to your diet in the form of extra virgin olive oil, grass fed butter, oily fish like salmon, mackerel, olives, avocado.

Stress will rase your glucose levels, your body releases cortisol under stress, cortisol is a hormone that deposits glucose that is stored in your body, into the bloodstream, and since you are very likely to be resistance to insulin, your pancreas can't produce sufficient insuline to deal with the extra glucose so your glucose meter reads higher levels or it's shown in A1c test over a longer period.

If your ratio of total cholesterol to LDL is below 3 then you are OK.
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