Dear Dee—
The good thing is that your cholesterol profile isn’t actually that bad. The fact that your HDL is high is wonderful. That represents your “good” cholesterol and it will actually give you a negative risk factor for heart disease if it hits the number 65! Most people need to have an LDL below 130. You are on the right track and if you keep exercising –that HDL will continue to shoot up. Fish oil 1000mg three times a day will help bring your triglycerides down. Put the tabs in the freezer so they will not thaw until they hit your small intestine. Most people stop the supplements complaining of “fish burps.”
Dee writes:
My work had a free health screening today. With a finger-prick blood sample and a ten minute wait, they were able to give me some test results and recommendations. This is exciting because it will be a great baseline for future comparison. As I’ve mentioned, I’m 49 and 50 pounds overweight. That calculates to a BMI (body mass index) of 29.3, right on the borderline of overweight and obese. Blood pressure is just slightly high at 122/84 and triglycerides are high at 225. Glucose is good – 107. And the ratio of good/bad cholesterol is good even though my HDL (good) and LDL (bad) levels are a bit off. HDL should be below 40 and mine is 56, LDL should be below 100 and mine is 123. Here is the great part: everything I need to do to change these numbers for the better are (drumroll) eat right and exercise. That’s the magic formula that everyone wants to take in single-dose pill form for instant results. Can you imagine if it was that easy? What’s that saying about anything worth having is worth working for? I’d take a cheap, black market, shortcut to health if I could. But I can’t. Logging off to go walk on the beach for two miles. Anyone who is joining me, keep up the good work and send me a comment so we can support each other.
