Sunday, December 5, 2010

Looking Towards the December Test Results

I'll see my specialist on December 16th. There have been some interesting changes as a result of being out of the country for three months. I've lost 15 pounds! I think this is simply as the result of eating a ton of vegetables in China and not snacking between meals. I want to continue eating lots of vegetable here. In terms of exercise, I trained a lot less, though I was active and walked quite a lot. In the first month I did the Xinjiang trip which involved quite a lot of exercise, especially in the Kanas Lake area.

The result is that my base heart rate in the morning is higher by about ten beats: 60 rather than 50. I suspect I have less HRV as well, though I scored 41 on my Polar fitness test as opposed to 42 in July. I suspect that reading is optimistic.

My weight has gone down, but so has my general fitness level, I think, so that the weight-loss probably won't translate into lower cholesterol. I hasn't translated into lower BP. My systolic is about 10 points higher than before China. I'm getting readings of 130 and even 140 when I got 120 and 130 before. The diastolic remains about the same however.

My GP counseled cutting the Crestor (5mg) in two and taking only 2.5mg/day. I did that for a couple of weeks but found the cutting hard to do without a tool (which I may get today). Nor did I take the Niaspan until a couple of weeks before the test. So I would not anticipate the best results profile this time. I would say 180 overall cholesterol. Maybe 100 LDL and normal Triglycerides due to the Trilipix. 43 for the HDL reading.

A bit of recidivism here, but perhaps now with the weight loss, 2.5mg/day Crestor and at least 1 500mg Niaspan/day I can get back to where I want to be. No problem taking the 4g/day Lovaza, trandolipril, and Trilipix. I'll be eating more vegetables and oat and oat bran for breakfast. And increasing exercise.

There is still the training effect, but with weight loss, may I could get to the 150 overall cholesterol, 75 LDL, 125 Triglyercides and 45 HDL by March. Will do a lifeline screening on December 15th as well.