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A
Few Little Changes
By
Genevieve Williams
I could hear the amazement in my doctor's voice as she read the
numbers to me.
When I had consulted her about a respiratory problem a few days previously
she had looked at my chart and said, “We need to do blood work
on you again. Your last test was two years ago. With those cholesterol
numbers and your high blood pressure you are a prime candidate for a
heart attack. We really need to monitor you closely.”
Much as I dislike having blood drawn she scared me enough that the fear
overrode the dislike. I appeared the following morning for the procedure.
She was now telephoning me with the test results. No wonder she was
amazed. My LDL was down 95 points and my total cholesterol was down
88 points! Then she said, “The medication is really working for
you.” Well, surprise, I wasn't taking the medication she had
prescribed and I never had. What I had done was make three little changes
in my life. Nothing drastic or dramatic but obviously effective.
I had always been fairly conscientious about my diet, eating balanced
meals and keeping junk food to a minimum. I had also quit smoking about
thirty years before and drank only an occasional glass of wine with
dinner. I was less than twenty pounds over my ideal weight and I did
a modicum of exercise. Despite this semi-healthy lifestyle my numbers
had been creeping up over the past twelve years. The LDL had gone from
139 to 222 and total cholesterol from 230 to 314.
Another doctor had first prescribed cholesterol medication for me about
ten years ago. I had taken it for several months but just didn't
like the way it made me feel. Then I started hearing about liver damage
from such medication and that decided me. No more cholesterol medication.
I would simply cut down on red meat consumption and see what happened.
What happened was the march upward slowed but didn't stop. By July
2002 I was in a critical state with all figures in the high-risk zone.
The doctor gave me a new prescription along with a severe lecture. The
prescription went in the wastebasket but the lecture remained in my
head.
I read everything I could find about cholesterol. Evidently a lot of
people were interested in that subject; there was a ton of information
on the web and in the library. I finally narrowed the factors down to
three: elimination of trans-fats, increased fiber intake and regular
exercise.
It was fairly easy to substitute olive oil for butter or margarine.
I found that my grocery store ran a buy-one-get-one-free sale every
four to six weeks. Using my clipped coupons (I'm a fanatic about
coupons) I would stock up on the lightest available olive oil at sale
time and found the additional cost negligible if any at all. The mild/light
version does not have an 'oily' taste; as a matter of fact it
is almost tasteless. With some foods that demand a butter flavor I add
just that, mixing butter buds into the oil before applying it.
My day now starts with whole grain cereal to which I have added golden
raisins and 1% or 2% milk. I like to heat my cereal with milk in the
microwave for 1 minute, 30 seconds. This heating in the milk makes the
whole grain more palatable to me. The raisins also become nice and plump.
I follow this with a glass of unsweetened natural juice and a multivitamin
and my day is off to a good fibrous start.
These two adjustments are the only actual changes I have made to my
diet. I have always eaten whole grain bread, brown rice, plenty of vegetables
and more chicken than beef. Just imagine if I hadn't! I'd probably
be writing this from God's right hand.
The final lifestyle change was to exercise on a regular basis. After
all these years and many attempts I have accepted the fact that I cannot
do this on my own. I must belong to a class. It's also best if I
have to pay for the classes on a monthly basis. That way I have the
incentive that the more often I go the lower the cost per class. Mind
games, but it works for me. I exercise at least three times a week for
thirty to forty minutes each time.
So, those are my three little changes. They are quite painless but very
effective. The bottom line is that my doctor advised me that my figures
no longer indicated that I needed to take cholesterol medication. Right.
The only number that didn't go down significantly was the triglycerides
count. Additional research on my part indicated that fish oil capsules
and ground flaxseed would address that problem. I prefer not to make
dramatic changes all at one time and therefore have started on only
the fish oil capsules twice a day with meals. We'll see how that
works before adding the flaxseed.
Genevieve
Williams is a freelance writer. Her winning story will bepublished in
O, Georgia! A Collection of Georgia's Newest & Most Promising
Writers in October. Contact her at gengmw@bellsouth.net
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