[WebRover]

I didn't want to hijack Full of Grace's thread about a doctor who did not recognize her weight loss. But it triggered the thought to share my most recent experience with my doctor (also female)

Background: My blood chemistry was slightly bad. Doctor talked about my weight and blood chemistry, recommended avoiding fried food, increasing exercise, limiting alcohol, increasing fruit and vegetables and limiting red meat to 1x per month. I followed the guidelines except the exercise and on the next two appointments my blood chemistry went from slightly bad to worse to even worse. But I lost a little weight between each visit. She recognized the loss but was concerned about the other numbers going the wrong way. She was ready to start me on some drugs, but recommended some alternative therapies first.

Most recent appointment: I'd been following South Beach starting after my most recent blood test in December. This was the first blood test and appointment since that change. When the nurse was doing my vitals, I asked her to check how much I had lost since my last visit. Twenty pounds. When the doctor came in her first comments were congratulatory about how much weight I had lost. When we reviewed the blood test results, most were much better and she congratulated me on those as well. Then she said, This is the best part of practicing medicine, helping people get healthy. Even though I've still got weight to lose and blood chemistry improvements to go, this made me feel really good.

Edited to comment: My doctor's recommendations and South Beach's are complementary, except for the extreme limitation of red meat. Somehow South Beach works for me where her guidelines didn't because it gives me something to follow, some guidelines, instead of what I can't eat. Even just saying eat more fruits and vegetables wasn't enough of a guideline for me. I have stopped eating processed meat (luncheon ham, other lunch meats) but have other red meat about as often as it shows up in the South Beach menus. And knowing that "more fruits and vegetables" from a SB perspective means 4 1/2 cups of vegetables and maybe 1-2 servings of fruit, is a helpful guideline that I can really use.

[murphmitch]

It probably made your doctor feel good too. What a good feeling you must have! When you think about it, all day the doctor has people coming in with problems big and small. I know the other thread was about a doctor who lacked compassion, but I think some doctors just get jaded about talking to people with lifestyle issues who never take their advice.

I have had my cholesterol go up in the last couple years (210-216) since menopause. It was always low before(<170). I started South Beach in January and had my cholesterol checked in February, but it is still in the same range. I stay on plan almost 100% and am at my lowest weight, so I'm kind of discouraged. My mom had to go on meds for cholesterol in the last few years, so I hope I'm not headed down that road. I have to think it's the menopause thing. Love South Beach. Congratulations!

[WebRover]

Murphmitch - my doctor was talking about new research that shows that LDL cholesterol is made up of two parts, small particles that are the harmful ones and large particles. There is a blood test that has been at the research lab level until recently to detect how much of each makes up the LDL. I'm looking into how much insurance would pay since its only done at one lab and it's not the standard one insurance covers. If my bad LDL cholesterol is mostly large particles it would not be the concern it is if it's mostly the small particles.

[murphmitch]

I read about this in Dr. Agatson's Book "Heart Health Revolution". It explains it very well. It's called the Lipoprotein subfraction test. I don't know what the cost is. It would be interesting to have done. Basically the smaller, dense particles are better at burrowing into your blood vessels and creating havoc than the bigger fluffier ones. Both HDL and LDL come in these different sizes, so even if you have a higher HDL (good cholesterol), if it's the wrong size particle, it can spell trouble. Also there is a Lipoprotein (a) test. This type of LDL particle is troublesome also. It can make your arterial walls more porous to the LDL molecules to get in and cause vessel damage. Not every lab can perform these tests and I bet they're expensive. So I guess just getting your cholesterol numbers really doesn't tell the whole story. I highly recommend this book though. I did have the calcium scoring heart scan that he suggests people have and I got a perfect score on it. One of my gifts to myself for losing weight. Plus it was only $99.

[full of grace]

That's so awesome!! Congrats and way to go.