Row Day

Year ago: 190 total (HDL 59)
This year: 253 total (HDL 48)

What the haps? 

Does my body simply resist healthy cholesterol levels?  Has it adapted to this new diet and lifestyle, and engineered a way to restore cholesterol back to 230-250 level?   

Or maybe -- not likely, but maybe -- 230-250 isn't bad for me.  Cholesterol in that range is correlated with heart disease, but maybe it isn't always a predictor.  People with good cholesterol can still develop coronary problems.  Can some people live healthy heart lives with cholesterol profiles like mine?

Perhaps there is some small subset of 250+ cholesterol heroes whose hearts and arteries can exist harmoniously with that sort of lipid count, but I think that's wishful thinking in my case.  Even though I'm not experiencing other warning signs, I don't want to be the next Jim Fixx. 

It may just be a hereditary fact that my metabolism doesn't deal with lipids efficiently, no matter how healthy a life I live. And the ultimate solution will be to turn to drugs to assist in the blocking of low density lipoprotein development.  That's something I and my doctor will have to decide during the coming months or years.  It may just be an inevitable aspect of turning 50.

In the meantime, I'm not abandoning my heart-healthy practices.  If anything, I'll try adding one or two elements, like including a daily fish oil supplement in my routine and perhaps a low-dosage aspirin if RX advises.  And resuming the daily niacin thing and its attendent flush; perhaps even doubling the dosage to 1000mg.  I don't think any of that will make a difference in four weeks when I do a re-check.  Bottom line is that whatever I do, it's going to have to be something I can live with permanently, since the effects (if any) only persist as long as I'm doing it. 

With a lot of work, I can reduce my weight to 140 and my body fat composition 12-13%, but I don't think that's really going to be the difference maker.  I wouldn't mind doing that just to see if I can "get ripped," but my guess is that even at that extremely lean state, my body will still resist sustaining a better ratio of HLD to Total Cholesterol.  Both times when I've improved my cholesterol (early 1988 and mid 2009), the effect was temporary, persisting only through the early stages of improved fitness and weight loss.  Once my physical conditioning stabilize, my cholesterol seems to return to "normal." 

If nothing else, turning 50 with cholesterol like this gives me the risk factors I need to have insurance cover a coronary calcium scan, where I can check on the state of my arteries. (Maybe it'll cover an ultrasound for abdominal and peripheral arterial aneurisms; another hereditary risk that runs in the paternal side of the family.)


Edit:
Link for future reference
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I was going to swim today, but both the inside and outside lanes were packed.  Instead, I put in 30 minutes on the Fluid Rower.  That's the first time I've done more than 5-10 minutes since I don't know when.  Once upon a time, the row machine was a regular part of my weekly cardio routine.  I usually rowed at a high intensity, playing a private game of racing an imaginary pace rower and trying to break my 6000m record each time out.  Looking through an old blog, I found an entry from July 13th, 2009 in which I set a personal best on the Fluid Rower of 6000m in 25:05.  Today, I tried that again and timed myself at 25:40.  So I've lost a little bit of my rowing conditioning...but not bad.  I think it would be an interesting challenge during this period of non-running to see if I can break 25 minutes.  I think I can. 

After stretching out and cooling down, I hit the fixed weights.  Instead of running the circuit 3 times through, I hit each machine for 3 sets with quick intervals before moving on the next.  I tried keep it cardio-intensive like the circuit training, but I specifically wanted to work on increasing the resistance and fatiguing the muscles.  I think I did that.  If I do that a few more times, I could probably resume the circuit with each station at a higher weight.  That's my objective.  I've been using the same weights for what seems like forever.  I have them all memorized.  I want to put the pin down another plate.  I'm going to do the same thing again on Friday, except I want to work the legs into the mix.  I might not go as hard because I want to save myself for the 2nd of 2 CrossFit trials I have coming.  I chose not to go last Saturday because I was still feeling the lower back fatigue from the previous week.  But that's cleared up now and I want to give it another go Saturday morning. 

The calf (calves) feel good.  I'm walking okay and can lever up on my toes. I just know it's too early to start pounding them with running.  I was originally intending on trying a light run on Sunday to check, but I might wait one more week.