In February, I had a procedure to place four stents in my arteries. In June, I went for a check up with my internal medicine doctor and told him about the stents. He referred me to a lipid specialist. Long story short, the specialist drew blood samples and sent them to a lab that specializes in measuring lipids.
Three weeks later, I returned for a consult to review the numbers. I had a fair number of measurements in the red and yellow categories, high and intermediate risk ranges respectively. In the high range was LDL-P, which is explained better by others.* As he explained it, there are two concerns with lipids; the number, which in my case was1842; and size. For that, he asked me to imagine I was opening a kitchen wall cabinet door and lipids were falling out like balls. If the balls are like basketballs, it’s fine. Mine, he said, we golf ball size and they are the ones that cause plaque build up.
He recommended Niaspan, a slow acting version of niacin. Regular niacin, he told me, causes a severe flush on the skin, like a sunburn, so people don’t like to take it. Niaspan doesn’t have that effect, or when it does, it’s tolerable.
I returned just under five months later for a repeat blood test and follow up. All the red and yellow indicators were now green. The LDL-P score, 887, well in the desired range of <1000.
Two things had happened in the intervening months. First, I read the book, Wheat Belly, which details the deleterious affects of wheat on the human body. The author, William Davis, MD, spells everything out in detail (if you’re interested, buy the book or get it from your library), with separate chapters for wheat and cardio, wheat and diabetes, etc. In my case, I went right to the cardio and discovered that the way wheat is processed by the liver, it generates tiny LDLs. That was one terrific piece of information.
Wheat, he said, is in everything. It’s in bread, of course, and in cake (aargh! I love chocolate cake). It’s also in frosting -- and in processed foods of all types. Manufacturers like it because it’s an appetite stimulant. I didn’t know that.
Second, I found out how much Niaspan costs, over $200/month. That’s a deal breaker! To get my niacin at a reasonable cost, I went to Costco and bought 150 count bottle of over-the-counter SLO_Niacin for around $10. I take one in the a.m. and another at night. Let’s see that’s 2.5 months worth in a bottle. Over the five months, that’s two bottles (around $20) instead of five fills (over $1,000). I take the pills with food and a baby aspirin, and rarely do I experience the flushing. When I do, it’s tolerable and short lived.
Consider reading the book if you have any of the following issues. A chapter on each is in the book:
Wheat and Obesity
Wheat and Celiac Disease
Wheat and Insulin Resistance
Wheat and the Aging Process
Wheat and Heart Disease
Wheat and the Brain
Wheat’s Destructive Effect on the Skin
Buy the book new, Buy it used, Buy it on Kindle -- or borrow it from your local library.
* http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/the-straight-dope-on-cholesterol-part-vi Scroll down to #8.
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