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Friday, April 3, 2015

Cholesterol Numbers Update - MEDICATION FREE

Today DH and I had our semi-annual date to Walgreen's to have our cholesterol tested......

DH had not taken his statins, or any other heart medications for four months.  Here are his totals....

157 total
198 triglycerides
90   LDL
28   HDL  If you don't have that much trash to take out, you don't need that big of a truck to carry it out.

Overall, we are very happy with these numbers. When we were in the waiting area waiting for the results, I was setting myself for bad news, like a total of 190, or something.  I was so delighted to see that without the statin drugs he was still close to 150.

A further comment on this, is that he confessed that he ate a huge bowl of oatmeal right before bedtime, which was within the time he was told to fast, so I think this effected the results, especially his high triglycerides level.

I am looking forward to a time when we can get a fully fasting results.  I am sure they would be even better.

I can say that after 2 1/2 years of frequently testing my husband's cholesterol while on and off statins, with and without exercise that Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., M.D.'s Reverse and Prevent Heart Disease is protective and does work.  We have tested it out under many different scenarios. And you can see how great the results have been for DH overtime.

Below is a spreadsheet that we have kept of our test results.



DH has been under 150 since he started the program while on statins.  This is his second test off of the statins.  The last test, done in August, he was at 149, and although he is at 157 today, I feel confident that at this moment he is still at a very low risk for a heart attack.

All of his heart disease symptoms, i.e. fatigue, ED, sweatiness, sleep apnea have completely reversed.  And people tell him he looks ten years younger than he did two years ago.

Being off of the medications and free of the side effects, I would not baulk if he stayed at 157 the rest of his life.  Plus, whose to say that the little drop of blood on the instant test at Walgreen's is foolproof? Additionally, since he ate late last night, not being fully fasting when he had the test, I would venture to say that made an impact on the results, as well.  In any case, the results are good.

I also bet that a 12 hour fast would have produced more accurate and happier results, but we are happy with these results because these numbers were off of the medications for many months, and with a small tweek here and there with exercise, I think we can get these numbers to the heart attack proof level.

Being medication free means he can exercise because he is now pain free. Being off of the medications means he can now exercise to nudge his numbers just a little bit more.  Until he stopped the statins, he couldn't exercise due to the pain.  While on the statins, he severely tore his gastrocnemius muscle (a large calf muscle) and was on crutches for two months.

The day he stopped his meds was the day he got off of the crutches, and the injury healed quickly afterward. That was also the day his widespread muscle pains stopped.

Now he can run, play basketball, work in the yard, and hasn't complained about pain for two months.

You have to be careful to make sure that pill you are taking for a cure doesn't prevent the cure.  In our case, the statins were making DH sedentary and aging him.

Now pain free, medication free, and still having very nice cholesterol numbers, we are looking forward and not looking back, and more committed to the diet than ever.