<p>[23</a> and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health? - YouTube](<a href=“23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health? - YouTube”>23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health? - YouTube)</p>
<p>Paging Dr. Idad and anyone else:</p>
<p>here are my lipoprotein panel results, please help interpret:</p>
<p>CHOLESTEROL 242
HDL CHOLESTEROL 67 MG/DL<br>
CHOL/HDL RATIO 3.6<br>
TRIGLYCERIDES 120 MG/DL<br>
LDL CHOLESTEROL 151 MG/DL H
PATIENT FASTING? YES </p>
<p>Fasting Glucose</p>
<p>FASTING GLUCOSE 88 MG/DL</p>
<p>Total cholesterol is high (not desirable), HDL is very good, triglycerides are low (good).</p>
<p>Bunsen, the yogurt snack idea is a great idea. He can’t handle plain yogurt so I doubt he could handle plain Greek yogurt. But I will search thru the yogurts out there and try to find a flavored one with less sugar. Imagine they all have splenda these days.</p>
<p>You know, he made some headway this weekend and that’s always such a great motivator. I think we’re turning the corner on this.</p>
<p>CJane – did I read your post correctly, 11 mph pace? You’re a beast!</p>
<p>No, sadly, sewhappy not 11 mph. I think they would be carrying me out on a stretcher.
11 mile minute pace, so more like 5 1/2 miles per hour.</p>
<p>Sewhappy, do not get your H anything with artificial sweeteners, especially splenda, if he has a sensitive stomach. While we cannot digest splenda and sugar alcohols such as sorbitol, certain bacteria loves that stuff and thrives on it in the pieces of the intestine where no sugar ever ends up (and no such bacteria should ever live). Not a good thing! He will be much better off with a fruit Chobani Greek yogurt - it is only 120-150 calories per container, but packs a lot of protein.</p>
<p>CJANE:</p>
<p>That looks like a fairly typical paleo/low-carb cholesterol report. It’s pretty similar to my most recent lipid panel.</p>
<p>High HDL is really good (the result of good fats like olive oil and fish oil). Triglycerides are pretty low (probably not much sugar/fructose in the diet.) Ratio of Triglycerides to HDL is less than 3:1 which is good and probably means you aren’t insulin resistant. LDL is high (the result of a high fat diet), but is probably the large fluffy harmless kind (it almost always is with favorable HDL/Triglycerides).</p>
<p>LDL of under 160 wouldn’t be high enough for your doc to talk about Lipitor, unless you have multiple risk factors. Even then, I think the relationship between LDL and cardiovascular disease in women is very tenuous. The HDL and triglycerides are the better markers.</p>
<p>Okay thanks for the feedback on the lab results.
The overall cholesterol number seems astronomical compared to any of the other cholesterol tests I have done in the past, but I can’t help but think that the triglyceride readings must have been higher, since I had been on a classic lowfat, high carb practically vegetarian diet. I need to dig those results out and compare.</p>
<p>Here’s mine (I have crazy low triglycerides):</p>
<p>CHOLESTEROL 247
HDL CHOLESTEROL 83 MG/DL
CHOL/HDL RATIO 3.0
TRIGLYCERIDES 43 MG/DL
CALCULATED LDL CHOLESTEROL 155 MG/DL H </p>
<p>Here’s Gary Taubes:</p>
<p>CHOLESTEROL 204
HDL CHOLESTEROL 68 MG/DL
CHOL/HDL RATIO 3.0
TRIGLYCERIDES 64 MG/DL
CALCULATED LDL CHOLESTEROL 123 MG/DL H</p>
<p>Okay, so clearly I have no experience evaluating these results, but wow! those do seem like crazy low triglycerides on your part. I am beginning to understand why your doc doesn’t do much more than grunt, he is thunderstruck by your results!</p>
<p>Well, my LDL had been very high prior to this most recent report. My doc thought it would come down as he got my thyroid levels under control (low thryroid = high LDL). I’ve since found information that LDL is often elevated while in an active fat loss mode, because fat and cholesterol are being dumped into the blood stream from fat cells. This last test was my first one with stable thyroid and stable weight. </p>
<p>I suspect that you are in an active fat loss mode offset by increasing muscle mass. I would be happy with your results.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m not really sure what he thinks. He did mention that my “ratios” look pretty good. 
And, I think he was waiting to see what happened to my LDL after being on the thyroid for a while. I sneaked under the guidelines (I have one cardiovascular risk factor – age – offset by a the high HDL, a negative risk factor).</p>
<p>Oh Bunsen. That’s just why I posted the question, knowing you might offer up just that sort of incredibly useful insight. Splenda does disagree with him. </p>
<p>It’s a challenge supporting someone you love in all of this. It’s hard enough doing it yourself. The psychology is interesting. No, Sweetie, you look just GREAT, you’re not fat, but maybe if we get that 20 pounds off you’ll FEEL better . . . a mine field!</p>
<p>Sewhappy – I really like defrosted frozen raspberries in plain yogurt – they mix in (and flavor) better than fresh ones. I worked my way down from using about a tablespoon of honey to sweeten the yogurt to now, about a teaspoon of agave syrup. I also throw in nuts, but it sounds like Mr. Sewhappy wouldn’t want that. Maybe some lower sugar or agave-sweetend granola? Both the raspberries and the agave are low glycemic index foods. I also can’t have Splenda. Urp.</p>
<p>I also noticed that as I dropped sugar from my diet, fruit seemed to taste ever so much sweeter.</p>
<p>Frozen blueberries work too. My 2 year old grandson eats plain yogurt because he’s never had sugar-sweetened yogurt. </p>
<p>Even plain good-for-you flake cereals have a sweetness to them. You just don’t appreciate it if you eat refined sugar. Sugar-sweetened (up to 25%!) cereals have been in the news lately. They sell well, so parents must still be giving them to their kids. The parents think they won’t eat less-sweet cereals, but if that’s all you have in the house…they’ll eat. </p>
<p>Years ago (I’m thinking of Five Little Peppers and How they Grew, Little House on the Prairie) kids were lucky to have molasses as an occasional sweetener for their cornbread or oatmeal. They were hungry, and they ate!</p>
<p>The sugared cereals also cost two to three times as much as simple whole-grain cereals if you can find them. I pay about $2.00 to $2.50 per pound of simple cereals at Trader Joes. Trader Joes sweetened stuff is typically almost twice as much. Conventional grocery stores carry the natural sweetened stuff and that can be as much as $7.00 per pound. That’s a big uplift for adding sugar in whatever form but I guess it sells better than the simple stuff given how little shelf-room is given to the simple stuff.</p>
[Eating</a> fish may be good for brain health - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500368_162-57334310/eating-fish-may-be-good-for-brain-health/]Eating”>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500368_162-57334310/eating-fish-may-be-good-for-brain-health/)
In a new study, imaging scans showed that regular fish-eaters were less likely to have brain cells die off in the area of the brain responsible for short-term memory – recalling a phone number that was just heard, for example.
And people who ate baked or broiled fish at least weekly and didn’t lose brain cells were much less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or mild mental impairment, says Cyrus Raji, MD, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
<hr>
My wife pushes fish more than I do for preparation reasons. My plan is twice a week but I often forget. My wife bought a big piece (2 feet) of salmon today - I hope that I get some of it.
<p>I ate so much salmon last night that I have it coming out of my pores. Alas, tonight was pasta. My wife brought home the Trader Joe’s fresh mushroom ravioli, which I doctor up with a topping of sauteed fresh mushrooms and a reduced Marsala wine sauce with some grated Parmegiano cheese. I serve it with a big salad. It’s only 4.5 piece of ravioli each and I had a no-carb brunch (cheese omelet), so it isn’t the end of the world. It’s good, but I’ve gotten to the point where I’m not all that crazy about eating pasta.</p>
<hr>
<p>HopsScout:</p>
<p>That is a terrific video! I might quibble with quoting Jerry Garcia in a fitness video. I’m not sure there has ever been anyone less physically fit than Jerry Garcia. He died of a heart attack at age 53, while in a heroin rehab facility.</p>
<p>Speaking of videos, here’s a geezer video that was posted at Boyle’s forum today, featuring 50 year old fitness geezer Paul Ceck, who apparently doesn’t own a shirt:</p>
<p>[Functional</a> Cardio.MOV - YouTube](<a href=“Functional Cardio, Paul Chek Muscle & Fitness 2011 - YouTube”>Functional Cardio, Paul Chek Muscle & Fitness 2011 - YouTube)</p>
<p>This is a hardcore geezer workout. Sheesh.</p>
I’m fine with unsweetened 2% fat Greek yogurt. I drizzle in a bit of maple syrup and add dehydrated strawberries from Trader Joe’s. I mix all that into my old fashioned Quaker Oats. Then have an orange. Keeps my motor running until mid-afternoon usually.
DH likes the taste of sweetness. That makes yogurt more difficult. He will eat it with a little honey and vanilla extract. I love the idea of yogurt as a snack during the afternoon. I have a feeling he is low on calcium.
Speaking of which, did you wise diet/health folks know that canned wild salmon is incredibly rich in calcium? Costco carries a very tasty flat can of wild sockeye. Delicious dumped on a salad every now and then.
<p>The biggest benefit of salmon is that it is full of Omega 3 fat – the same stuff as fish oil capsules. All kinds of benefits of eating that kind of fat, primarily in raising good HDL cholesterol. As BC reported above, there is some evidence that a diet rich in Omega 3 fat is preventative against Alzheimer’s and even some preliminary research suggesting that it may be associated with reduced cancer risk.</p>
<p>Fish oil capsules are the only supplement I take (along with powdered fiber). 4 to 5 grams of fish oil capsules a day, either four 1200 mg capsules or five 1000 mg capsules (depending on what brand is on sale). I try to have salmon or tuna once a week on top of that.</p>
<p>I am upping my fish intake to 13 ounces per week from kippers in addition to what my wife cooks so that should take care of Omega 3. There are some grains (notably flaxseed) that contain Omega 3 too.</p>