Am I being paranoid about cholesterol?
I went for my first medical checkup 2 weeks ago – blood test. The result came out last week and I was surprised that I’m perfectly healthy. Just kidding. My title is saying otherwise.
Anyway, I got pretty bad high cholesterol problem. I’m not fat, in case you’re wondering. Ok, maybe a little but not THAT fat. I also tend not to eat so much unhealthy food…except for…..muruku and twisties. =_=
My level of bad cholesterol is quite high. The normal I think is 2.38 and mine is around 1.3 more. That is not good at all and I’m only 26 !!
My doctor said this to me which completely changed my behavior : “Either you go on diet or I’ll have to give you medicine for 1 month.”
It is THAT serious. Medicines to control cholesterol ?!? I thought that’s only needed for older people? =_=
Since then, I’ve changed my lifestyle completely. I go to gym whenever I can (1.5x more than before my blood test result came out). I don’t eat fried food ANYMORE. After 2 weeks, I didn’t eat anything fried. No more fried rice, fried noodle, nothing. No more fatty meat. No more junk food – no keropok (only a little bit of dark chocolate).
My friends and colleagues started to say that I’m getting paranoid and that I should just eat and don’t care. Some even “forced” me to eat. And I wasn’t very polite. I raised my voice and said “When I said NO, means NO. This is my body and my health. You don’t care but I care” to which my friend fell silent.
And no, I don’t think I’m getting paranoid. After all, it’s only 2 months. I need to control my cholesterol level and see if it will go down in 2 months time. I will go for another blood test 2 months later.
What about you? Have you done your blood test? Are you high in cholesterol as well?
p/s……… the reason I went for the med checkup, was that I didn’t feel good even after gym session. I think my body was telling me to go for check up and I did. Prevention is better than cure and don’t think that just because you’re young, you shouldn’t care about your cholesterol level.
Good on you to take charge of your health and not give in to your friends’ urging! Keep it up and hope that your cholesterol level will stabilise. After which, you should still watch your diet!
Penny
14 Oct 08 at 12:04 pm
@ Penny
Of course! More exercise for me. Less unhealthy food.
Guess what, since the “change”, I feel my temper is becoming better and my mind is more active.
Alvin Lim
14 Oct 08 at 12:52 pm
hahahah i am skinny..and i also have high cholesterol! very high, at the high risk border, not only a bit high..!
i found out last december.
i think i know de reason for my high cholesterol as i love fried food, junk food and i dislike vege. hardly exercise.
yup.. it’s bad..
now, what i do is cut down the fried food (still loving them, perhaps eat like 50% less than i usually did), eat less egg yolk, eat more fruits (try to eat everyday, sometimes failed but sometiems i ate 3portions a day), eat oats porridge (bleah, hate it), walk more (as a form of exercise, like 30 min a day, break to 4 times). and yeah, cut on chicken skin too..
i am hoping my cholesterol level will go down when i check this december..
take it easy, u can control ur food but dun make ur life so miserable..
cbenc12
14 Oct 08 at 5:52 pm
What a coincidence. I actually did my annual yesterday and looks like my blood pressure problem hasn’t gone away. Its always been lower than avg to begin with (I’m only 1 year older than u) and yesterday I learnt it got a notch lower. I feel like a tyre with a tiny puncture but I can’t find where it is. Damn.
Damien Tan
14 Oct 08 at 5:56 pm
@ cbenc12
Yeah! You do look thin from your photos and I’m very surprised to know that you got such high cholesterol level! Hey, don’t play play ler. It’s quite dangerous to have such a high cholesterol level. Don’t care what other people said. Our health is our own and we better don’t let our family members start worrying about us. Because if we really kena stroke (CHOIIIIIIIII), our family and friends would be the one who suffer the most.
If by avoiding few favourite but unhealthy food can prolong my life and give me a healthier (and happier) body, then I wouldn’t mind. I can always replace it with some other food.
@ Damien
My father has that problem as well. Try drinking more isotonic drinks, lesser alcoholic drinks and eat more salt (not too much). Those are known to help a little.
You’re only 1 year older than me? You sound much wiser. Hahaha
Alvin Lim
14 Oct 08 at 10:50 pm
Good thing you are taking charge of your health. Well, you can still eat a bit of those fried food once in awhile just don’t do it on an everyday basis.
From my experience, these measures are the best way to reduce your cholesterol levels
1. Aerobic exercises 20 mins daily (increase good HDL cholesterol)
2. Take Omega 3 (fish) oil
3. Take red yeast rice
4. Eat more fibres (increase good HDL cholesterol)
5. Avoid trans fat and hydrogenated vegetable oils (avoid this at all cost!)
6. Avoid processed food (once in a while in small quantities is OK)
7. Avoid fatty foods (try to avoid as much as possible)
8. Take oat
9. Drink alcohol (limited to 1 small glass a day, any more than that, your health will suffer) this will help increase good HDL levels.
If you do these 9 things, you will see a significant drop in your bad LDL cholesterol and an increase in your good HDL cholesterol. There will be absolutely no need for those cholesterol lowering drugs.
foongpcs last blog post..The Book Of Now
foongpc
16 Oct 08 at 12:36 am
Well, Alvin, i think those friends of yours are SO BLOODY IGNORANT. I hope it wasn’t one of us. You could do with educating them and good on you for not giving in to their nagging.
Fresh fruit as snacks – suggestion. When i was working in KL, there were fruit stalls at hawker centres??
Listen to your GP, healthty diet and exercise together. Good Luck and keep us informed if anything else crops up please.. =)
Ky-Lynn
16 Oct 08 at 7:21 am
@ foongpcs
Thanks for the tips! Appreciate it. But hor…i don’t understand what is red yeast rice. I only know brown rice. =_= and what are trans fat and hydrogenated vegetable oils?
I’m taking omega 3 pills but the doctor stressed that it is not useful at all. Hahhaa.
@ Ky-Lynn
It’s not one of us. Hahha. I’m not taking snacks but i do take fruits after meal – for the sake of taking. The fruits from the hawker centres are not really good. Some put sweetener.
Yaya, healthier diet and more exercise!
Alvin Lim
16 Oct 08 at 10:45 am