Biometric Screening-The Ugly Truth...

[SiouzQ.]

Whole Foods provided biometric screening for its employees last week. If your numbers fall within the "good" range you are eligible to gets different levels of store discount (we automatically get 20% discount on anything we purchase). If one is extremely healthy one could get up top 30% of all purchases.

So I went ahead and signed up for it, thinking I should be in a great position to possibly get a higher discount ~ it's been almost exactly a year (can you believe it) since I quit smoking! I exercise, I am not overweight, never had any problems with blood sugar issues, I eat a pretty healthy diet - loads of veggies, fruit, grains, very little meat. I try not to eat too much cheese and fatty stuff, and probably eat less than the average American in that department. I make all my own food,and rarely, if ever, eat out, no fast food, etc, etc.

Anyway, my numbers came back yesterday and it seems I have wholeheartedly (no pun intended) inherited the family trait of high cholesterol, leading to heart disease. It has been creeping up year by year, but this past year it seems to have taken a mighty leap upward ~ it was 261! Fourteen months ago it was 217, so that is a pretty large leap in a short amount of time.

I am going to call my doctor on Monday and see what he says. I really don't want to have to take medication for that because that makes me feel like I am getting old (I'm 52) and going into decline, if that makes any sense! I'm hoping there is a dietary way beyond what I already do to get those numbers down. I just hate the idea of having to take another daily medication (I've been on thyroid meds for many years).

It's interesting to me how much I have changed in the past few years ~ it wasn't that long ago that I was hanging around bars, smoking and drinking too much, being a musician and NOT paying attention to my health and well-being. Now that that phase is pretty much over, I am quite motivated to keep myself as healthy as possible because what I do now is going to have a huge impact on my senior years.

[onlinemoniker]

SiouzQ--a vegan diet will decimate your high cholesterol because the only cholesterol in your body will be what you produce yourself. Before I went vegan my cholesterol was 239. Within a year it was 173. The next year it was 162 and it's stayed about that ever since.

As an employee at Whole Foods you know how many vegan products are available to make switching to the vegan diet easy.

It only takes about 2 months to get used to the substitutes and about 6 months before it's second nature. I would suggest you look at veganism as an alternative to taking a statin the rest of your life. I would hate to be on any drug, personally.

Good luck with your goal to lower your cholesterol.

[CathyA]

I would have your doc test your level. Who knows........maybe Whole Foods doesn't want to give too many discounts!

[Kestrel]

Maybe Whole Foods' discounts should go the other way? Give the high discounts to those who need the healthy foods most? Encourage them to shop wisely at "their own" store ...

[Tammy]

The biometric finger prick screenings are not as accurate as actual blood draws, in my experience. Last year my chol was 165 at lab. Two weeks later the biometric finger stick came back at 200.

[catherine]

Also, what is your HDL v LDL v triglycerides? What are your ratios? I think it's a good idea for your doctor to give you a good picture. I have cholesterol that's slightly over what it should be, but my HDL is very high.

[Rogar]

I have routinely had sort of borderline cholesterol around 200 and my doctor has always given me a pass, but I've speculated on what I would do if it crept up. I think I would rather try to manage it with diet and excersize first before medication. Statins have their own inherent risks, which I think are higher for women.

It seems like the science of cholesterol has been changing recently and there are some differing opinions on how bad high cholesterol really is or isn't, but I've not kept up with the details. I know my doctor always put some emphasis on the "good" cholesterol vs "bad" rather than just the total.

[ToomuchStuff]

The biometric finger prick screenings are not as accurate as actual blood draws, in my experience. Last year my chol was 165 at lab. Two weeks later the biometric finger stick came back at 200.

I was wondering about that; wondering if it was picking up something from the skin that could throw it off? But if her Doctor got different results, would they accept them?

Let us know what they want you to take. We have a family history on one side and yet 70ish is the age they live to (it isn't they used to make it out to be). They want me to take the fish oil stuff, which I can't stand the smell of (not a fish person and have shellfish issues).

[Rogar]

It was time not long ago for me to refresh my supply of fish oil and I had the time to do a little research. I have never had a problems with it, but they have some varieties that have an enteric coating that is supposed to eliminate the digestive after-taste fishy issues. Also, you can get varieties that are not derived from shellfish. It seems to be one of the supplements that frequently gets recommended to lower cholesterol.

[frugal-one]

I have very high cholesterol and my HDL is borderline, LDL is high too. In reading, it says your cholesterol goes up as you age (to help protect you), also will increase if you have hypothyrodism. Read the Framington study to get the scoop. The drugs that the docs are pushing help men...especially statins... that is, supposedly, they help 1 in about 200 (tests have not been conducted for females).... that is too small a percentage IMHO to warrant the terrible side effects (ie muscle loss in legs plus a host of others). Do you research before you decide to go on any meds. I am trying to lose weight and exercise more. If my cholesterol goes down, fine, if not, that is the way it is.

[Gardenarian]

Your cholesterol level also varies a great deal depending on what you have eaten in the previous 10 - 24 hours. Did they ask you to fast before the test?

[Teacher Terry]

I posted on another thread the supplement that lowered mine by about 50 points in just a few months and it is not very expensive at all.

[SiouzQ.]

It did a twelve hour fast before the test, and they took two vials of blood from my arm. So here is the breakdown:

Total cholesterol ~ 261 mg (should be less than 200) I got a high alert for this one...
Triglycerides ~ 94 mg (should be less than 150) so that is good
HDL ~ 84 mg (should be greater than 46) this is good too
LDL ~ 158 mg (should be less than 130) I got a high alert for this too.

Like I said, I will call my doctor on Monday and see what he thinks. Even though most of the time I eat a really good, an almost vegan diet, I still eat eggs, some meat, some cheese and my weakness is ice cream. I eat the not-so-good stuff very moderately though, but maybe I am fooling myself. I do tend to nibble a lot at work. I think it would take a huge shift in thinking to go completely vegan and never eat things like ice cream or cheese or eggs, but I'd sure hate to start on some life-long drugs because of this. Pretty much every one in my family that has passed on has gone due to heat disease and heart attacks. My brother had to have some stents or something put in in his early '50s and my dad had a quadruple by-pass at age 84.

[onlinemoniker]

SiouzQ--I know. The idea of vegan can be daunting. However, if you can do anything to change your diet, get rid of the DAIRY!!!!!

Cheese and ice cream especially are so high in cholesterol--much more cholesterol dense than any other food.

The purpose of milk in nature is to turn a 60lb calf into a 400lb cow in a year. It's full of fat, hormones and protein to make that happen. I guess you can figure out what it will to non-calves who eat it.

Also, try the following PHENOMENAL vegan dairy substitutes:
Trader Joe's soy creamer
Trader Joe's Soy Dreamy ice cream
Earth Balance Buttery Spread
and the mother of all dairy substitutes, Daiya vegan cheese.

Some people (not me) are not fans of soy milk but they really like almond and rice milk.

You will get used to the different tastes of these products and grow to love them over time. I tasted dairy milk two years ago after having not drunk it in years and years and it tasted HORRIBLE to me. I was used to the soy milk and I love it as much as I ever loved dairy milk and believe me, I was the DAIRY QUEEN in my day.

Good luck.

[Dhiana]

Maybe Whole Foods' discounts should go the other way? Give the high discounts to those who need the healthy foods most? Encourage them to shop wisely at "their own" store ...

+1

[lhamo]

While the American Heart Association for some reason recommends that doctors focus on the total number, your ratio of HDL to total cholesterol is actually WELL within their ideal ranges at 3.1:1. Their own website says that the target should be lower than a 5:1 ratio.

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Cholesterol/AboutCholesterol/What-Your-Cholesterol-Levels-Mean_UCM_305562_Article.jsp

Call me a skeptic, but I strongly suspect that the recommendation to focus on the total number is somehow linked to the money they get from statin manufacturers. It isn't THAT hard to learn to divide, and as your case shows someone with extremely high HDL levels probably doesn't need to worry much about a high total number.

Whatever you do, please do NOT let them put you on a statin. I predict that within another decade we will see a rash of class action lawsuits and banning of these dangerous, marginally effective drugs.

[lhamo]

Oh, and I would look closely at the WOMEN in your family before assuming you are going to drop dead of heart disease. Males in my family -- yes, they need to be careful (grandpa dead of heart attack at 76, dad at 52). The females? Not so much.

[JaneV2.0]

There are several good books that explain the pitfalls of cholesterol testing. One is Cholesterol Clarity by Jimmy Moore, also The Cholesterol Con by Malcom Kendrick. See Uffe Ravnskov.

Many people have brought their numbers in line with low-carb eating, so you're not limited to veganism if you want to tweak the numbers. (Maybe you're wheat-sensitive.)

Stay away from statins. Not only are they dangerous, they've not been proven to be effective in women. I agree with Lhamo. I also agree with Kestrel, and think Whole Foods punishing people for "overweight" and other concerns is counter-productive.

ETA: Your triglyceride level is the only one that really matters, and it's fine. And your ratio is good. I wouldn't worry about it, if I were you. Really low cholesterol is more of a worry.

[rosarugosa]

I've been wondering about this lately myself.
My levels broke down as:
total 249
HDL 104
Triglycerides 53
LDL 134
Ratio is 2.4, and it says it should be less than 5.0, and less than 3.5 is "highly desirable." When I asked the health coach if this meant that my cholesterol level was pretty decent when you put it all together, she said that we still really want to get that total cholesterol number down. But she didn't come across as having a lot of insight; it sounded more like a scripted response.
Now I eat cheese like life is a big cheese-eating contest that I'm determined to win. :) So I'm going to try and cool that a little bit. We've been known to have 11 different types of cheese in the fridge at once and we're currently down to 7, so that's a move in the right direction, I guess. I want to see DH & I both take some sensible, sustainable steps towards a healthier diet.

[Suzanne]

SiouzQ: what leapt out at me is that you say you eat tons of grains. High starch intake can be really problematic for some people. As your triglycerides are low, it seems your sugar intake is okay. It might be worth trying a low-carb diet for a month or so, and then retest. Also, some people do better with a high level of mono-unsaturated fats than with polyunsaturated fats, because the PUFAS (most vegetable oils) are very high in omega 6 fatty acids that cause whole-body inflammation. You might also need some longer-chain saturated fatty acids to reduce inflammation. In general, low-carb diets are better than low-fat at reducing LDL.

[wellnesswizz]

SiouzQ: what leapt out at me is that you say you eat tons of grains. High starch intake can be really problematic for some people. As your triglycerides are low, it seems your sugar intake is okay. It might be worth trying a low-carb diet for a month or so, and then retest. Also, some people do better with a high level of mono-unsaturated fats than with polyunsaturated fats, because the PUFAS (most vegetable oils) are very high in omega 6 fatty acids that cause whole-body inflammation. You might also need some longer-chain saturated fatty acids to reduce inflammation. In general, low-carb diets are better than low-fat at reducing LDL.

Hey Suzanne, just came across this post on Biometric Screening (https://incentfit.com/wellness-word/what-employers-should-know-about-biometric-screening/) that gives up to date info as of 2021. Hope it helps give some more clarity on the whole 'Biometric Screening' stuff!