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Originally Posted by BirdDancer
I've had high cholesterol for a while. Notably beyond "just high enough to be flagged", but I am a bit overweight and certainly diet has played a part. [I like cakes and donuts, etc .] I won't say that my Seroquel XR doesn't play a part, too.
I am not on a statin because my doctors believe that if I do adjust my diet (and exercise), that my cholesterol will go down. My GP hasn't put me on the statin also because he calls me low risk. He said "You're under 50, have normal blood pressure, and other results are often normal or not that high".
I actually have finally started a serious diet. When I reach my normal BMI (or lower) I'll be curious to see how my blood work is then. That'll be in February.
About 9 years ago, on Depakote and Invega, I had reached my highest weight ever. All of my blood work was bad. I was pre diabetic. I went on a serious dietitian prescribed diet and lost 40 lbs in six months. When tested then, all of my blood work was perfect. I had switched to Lithium, Tegretol XR, and Geodon, but I think the diet was the hero. I maintained much of the weight loss, but my blood work worsened a bit over time. Yes, Seroquel XR was added, but I know my diet contributed.
I haven’t seen my PCP yet for the follow up on the appointment. I’ll hear what she says in July.
I wouldn't panic having slightly high cholesterol. You may just want to analyze what you eat. Perhaps it need not be fewer calories overall.
Do you have a lot of stress? I've read that that can increase bad cholesterol in some cases. See Does Stress Affect Your Cholesterol? |
Oh, yes, stress beyond stress, and I have had significant anxiety as long as I remember, even 4 or 5 years old. Add that to traumatic life events, and my tendency is to be anxious about a lot of things, and to have a lot of bad panic attacks.
On the other hand, I have a surprisingly high level of good cholesterol. They crunched some numbers, put my cardiac risk at 0.23% despite the bad cholesterol. I do eat sweets and junk food, but I try to outdo the amounts of those foods with healthy foods, and fried foods are just out for me. In fact, since I finished these iron infusions, I am craving healthy food a lot, foods that are less processed, apples, oranges,strawberries, raisins, avocados, wheat crackers with cheese, salads, water instead of soda, and strangely for me, tea instead of coffee. H says it’s almost like I’m pregnant even though the only pregnancy food craving I had was cheese. It’s a not the norm for me, but it would be nice if it stuck around.
There is also some research out there regarding the NAFLD suggesting that thin or underweight people may tend to store more fat in the liver, so maybe that plays a role. Goodness knows for 2 or 3 years straight, I was really teetering. I have had ED relapses, but I seem to turn things around within a few months and mostly less than a year. It’s never as bad as it was my first go-round, but I have to imagine all these episodes could have left there mark.