Cholesterol and Diabetes

[EmilyBee]

I posted about my father in the Main forum a little while ago. He has high cholesterol and has been put on various low cal diets by his doctor with no effect what so ever. I know he sticks to them because he's that kind of bloke.

I asked if any of these include removing alcohol and he says no, but in moderation. I know that this is one element that he may not stick to so strictly and he likes his salt.

I suggested Atkins a while ago but know that his wife is dead against it. He NEARLY eats that way anyway and hardly eats any carbs. It's mostly the drink that would increase this. I know he could do Atkins easily and even give up the beer if he knew he could drink wine and spirits in moderation.

He vistied the doctor on Friday and he now has signs of Diabetes. I don't want to be a preacher but I would like him to try Atkins. I'm scared that he, his wife and the doctor will be scared by the increase initially but I feel it may be his last hope. I've bought him Atkins for Life and the DANDR. I asked him to read these when he receives them and maybe get his wife to read them too.

When I asked him about the diet the doctor put him on he said, "you know, the usual, cut out sugars". I said that he didn't really eat sugars as such and he said. "yeah I know, this is the thrid diet and it's pissing me off".

As I said, he's getting no improvement. I don't want to make him worse but I really feel he's on a slippery slope and that Atkins may help. It's his decision at the end of the day.

When I commented on the bad news of diabetes he said "well it'sold age isn't it?" He's 58! I don't think that's old, do you?

I'm worried, please help

[Coop2004]

Emily,

I'm going to move this to the Diabetic Forum and leave "shadow" here.

By shadow, I mean that the post will still be seen in both forums!!



Linda

[EmilyBee]

Many thanks Linda

[canuck]

Sorry no one gave you feedback on this and I have been away since Saturday. I apologize for your wait 

What signs of diabetes showed.?????

Only test to diagnose is 2 hr glucose tolerance test...

Normally high chol is one and high bp,

Then eventually BG go out of whack.

There is no such thing as borderline diabetes and it is NOT related to age, as you know, he would have to have the gene and his eating and alcohol contribute of course. Beer creates belly fat, belly fat contributes to diabetes, in activity and genetic disposition play a role.

Low carb beer is easier on gut but Atkins does allow wine after you finish thru a few weeks of the program. Ask him for his blood work results and maybe we can help you decipher them. Buy him the new book.Atkins New Diabetic Revolution.

What they are against is the first two weeks of induction everyone thinks we eat only steak and eggs and don't know the veg, salad and fruits we eat.

It will get worse……… it will lead to heart disease and in another ten yr he wont be able to reverse the damage whereas right now chances are he can. .

He is 3yr older than I am and I stopped insulin within 32 hr. read above posts, read thru diabetic threads and print or him to read

Sometimes people have such myths in their head that they close their ears and nothing you say will affect them (like wearing earmuffs) as they need the power and control or they need to live in denial.

You are a good DIL for being concerned but it’s his health and he needs to decide to accept responsibility for change or not. keeping old habits and eating unhealthy meets a need, maybe an unhealthy need but it meets a need nonetheless…..sadly…

Low cal and carbs from breads etc will escalate his chol and his Bg number so for sure. Diet alters the chol by 20% max so he can increase it more with hi carbs/low fat or decrease it going low carbs. Ask away and welcome.
:wave

[2big4mysize]

you could try the advice Mrs Atkins gave somebody on Larry king about backing into Atkins slowly by giving up stuff until they get to the weight loss phase.

the disadvantage of that is they miss the appetite control and stuff we gain on induction with the clean break.

But as Canuck said the low carb beer and alcohol could assist with that. the trouble with alcohol on Atkins is the human body burns alcohol for fuel first so all the other foods consumed while the alcohol is being metabolized are being stored. if he is just having a drink or two a day that would be okay but if he is drinking all day then he will have some trouble.

You should buy them a copy of the new Atkins diabetic book and point out that Dr Atkins was a cardiologist and used the DANDR plan on over 40,000 of his own patients to lose weight and improve their heart and overall health. He was very concerned about the epidemic of of Diebetes in our country and dedicated his time and energy in the last yr of his life to getting the word out about low carb and the good effects it has on them.

Borderline is US term many US docs use because they have seen that patients with that area of the BS scale will become diabetic unless they take actions to fix it. sort of like the warning track on the baseball dimond warns the outfilders you are about to smack that very hard wall and hurt yourself if you don't take a different corrective action.

[EmilyBee]

Canuck and 2big: Thanks for replying. My father obviously didn't want to worry me as he didn't go into details about the Diabetes. If I recall correctly, he didn't say "borderline" it was something like "showing first signs of. . . . ".

He's a 6 for his cholesterol. It's all foreign to me but apparently that's not good. I believe that he said 4 was more normal, or maybe that's what he's aiming for initially.

I know that he is serious about getting better. He often turns down bacon and other things he would have loved to have had. He keeps saying, "no, I'm not allowed that". I think he would do so well on Atkins as he has the right attitude (minus the alcohol of course), he's just getting the wrong advice imo.

I'm going to copy and paste would you guys have said into an email and see how that goes. I called him this evening and he said that he received the Atkins for Life book I sent him. Now I just have to make sure he reads it :raving

If you don't understand the cholestorol rating I gave you then I could always ask him for a more in depth result. I mentioned to him that people on this site talk about results in the 100's. He said he wasn't sure what that might be unless it's a US differing to UK thing.

Cheers :hug

[2big4mysize]

they use different units for the cholesterol.

What are huis total breakout for his cholesterol in terms of LDL HDL and tryglicerides that would be more useful for Atkins help.

Atkins will cause him to burn his triglycerides for fuel as that is fat in the body and raise his good cholesertol the HDL to help lower the LDL the bad stuff.

[canuck]

that i know of:
Only US uses old system rest of world uses metric, so yes a 6 is hi, so is a 4, now for diabetics they want you under 2,8 but thats almost impossible, there are conversion charts somewhere, Elleth found them,I have them in my papers somewhere and will try find them.

[2big4mysize]

to convert

To convert your cholesterol simply multiply the value by 39. For example, if your cholesterol comes in at 6 mmol/L, multiplying this by 39 yields a value 234mg/dL.

The same conversion factor of 39 applies to HDL and LDL values.


triglyceride values must be multiplied by 89.

[canuck]

Ahh I knew that somewhere in the back of my mind>LOL

[EmilyBee]

Thanks guys, the figures make a little more sense now.

I tried to get more information from him but he seems to either want to brush it under the carpet or he thinks I'm being too nosey - or both!

He now has two Atkins cookbooks, DANDR and Atkins for Life so hopefully he'll take a little time to read them