In the past week, in an effort to improve my HDL, I've:
- Started back with taking 2 500-mg tablets of Slo-Niacin (sustained release niacin) per day.
- Started back with 2 450-mg tablets of panthethine (a vitamin B5 derivative and precursor of Coenzyme A) per day.
- Increased my krill oil from 1 500-mg tablet per day to 2 500-mg tablets per day.
- Made a more concerted effort to walk at least 30 minutes per day (although I didn't manage this every day).
I wanted to see if this was helping, so I remeasured my HDL. Seven days ago, the measurement was 29 and today it is 31. So, I'm moving in the right direction. (Yes, I know that based on the precision of the CardioChek home meter, there is probably no statistical significance between 29 and 31, but I'll claim it anyway.
)
Here are my measurements for today, March 6, 2011. Numbers in parentheses are change from last week:
HDL (good cholesterol) 31 (+2)
Triglycerides 106 (+12)
Triglycerides to HDL Ratio 3.4 (+0.2)
Weight 175.4 lbs (-2.6)
Waist 34.0 in (-0.5)
Blood pressure 106/64 (-11/-10)
Fasting blood sugar 85 (-13)
I'm out of test strips to measure total cholesterol (from which LDL can be calculated), but those numbers don't matter anyway.
The only thing that went the wrong way was my triglycerides (and, consequently, the triglyceride to HDL ratio). However, the change wasn't much. Plus, I lost 2.6 pounds this week and the body stores fat as triglycerides. So, it's not unusual to have a slight rise in the blood level of triglycerides when the body is in the process of releasing fat and losing weight.