I see the consultant in March and now it's February so I start thinking about the blood test more. For various reasons, it's going to be further ahead of the appointment than usual, so I'm now trying to make sure there are no significant gaps in my medication, diet or exercise for a week or two, to see how low I can go.
As I've written elsewhere, I've enthusiastically adopted the Ultimate Cholesterol Lowering Plan diet, with the hope that I can get it low enough to reduce my relatively high simvastatin dose before I change GPs. The high dose seems to encourage new GPs to suggest fiddling with my medication, even at the same practice and they can see all my notes, so should know better!
I'm aware that this will give a slightly false reading compared to my usual behaviour, but I want to see if it's possible. If it is and they can cut my dose, I will be stricter in future. I've done it before, when they wanted to try not medicating me (I was pretty sure it wouldn't work), and I could do it again.
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DakCB-UK
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I know what you mean about looming blood tests. I have an appointment in April, but the opposite problem having stopped all medication for the time being. My problem is how high will it be.
I can hear it now....this is what happens Mrs Aliwally when you don't take your medication etc etc.
Treat it as a new baseline reading. Do the other things right and then see what level that produces.
Give 'em a bit of the "I'd rather die sooner than live in that pain" schtick, even if you don't quite believe it. That would probably make them look for a different treatment, especially if they're not a sufferer.
Hope you get a good result DakCB-UK. I have blood tests this Friday but not expecting a good result as haven't been very good with my diet so know they are going to try to push me into adding in ezetimibe to my 40mg atorvastatin or switching again to rosuvastatin 40mg but neither will be happening!! Let us know how you get on.
I wish I was on yearly blood test currently I am on a monthly basis of blood tests. Currently my levels arent going down much. I also have high triglysrides. I am trying to get my diet in order. Once my brother goes to his new home next week then i can get back on track.
I wish I was on slightly more frequent tests, say 3 to 6 months. A year seems rather a long time to wait to see if any changes in treatment have had an effect.
Basically, FH sufferers react differently to the general population. That's why clinical guidance often has a distinct section for FH sufferers and why diagnosis and screening is such a big topic for HEART UK. We have high cholesterol levels because our bodies misregulate it, often extremely, as a result of some genetic instruction. Is there any reason to think that the basic misregulation would be affected by changes in carbohydrate levels?
One undisputable detrimental effect is that I feel that weighing and calculating the food to the levels of Fat Head is a pain in the backside, sucking the fun out of food, and something that I'd put down among the last resorts. At my low body mass, it's not in my interest to eat less, as I suspect I would if it became less fun.
There's also the debatable question of what if Fat Head's wrong and the lipid hypothesis is correct...
The last paragraph is not obsolete... it is a parallel reason.
I probably eat closer than many to a hunter-gatherer because I started treatment in the 1980s and we were basically told to cut down all processed foods because they were really bad in so many ways back then. I'm told they're better today, but I guess they're probably still generally higher-carb than making stuff yourself. Still today, I buy my fresh food from open markets (which are sadly dying out), small box schemes or community-owned shops as much as possible. So I guess I might be doing what some would consider the right thing (a fairly low-carb diet) for the wrong reasons (classic lipid-hypothesis-based cholesterol-lowering).
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