No diabetes drugs OKed by doctor...

So, yesterday was a great day. What kicked off the day was my appointment with my endocrinologist. I now have the "go ahead" from the medical establishment to stay off drugs for blood sugar control.

My HbA1C was 6.2! (The threshold to manage against is usually 7.0). Considering that it was >11 about a year ago, I'm quite pleased that I was able to get it down to "acceptable" levels without drugs and without weight loss. I am becoming a true believer in the power of will and meditation.

On a separate note, I think that quitting my job and going for the time so far can be cost-justified. If someone told me that I could "pay" $25,000 to $50,000 to stay off drugs, I would have paid that in a hearbeat!

Anyway, now that I've started to get the blood sugar under control, I need to work on the LDL problem. My HDL's are good (55), and my trigylcerides are good (106). However, total cholesterol is 255, which puts my LDL at close to 180. The doctor doesn't believe that I can get the LDL down without drugs. Let's see how that goes.

The first question I'm going to have to ask though is whether high LDL is even a problem. I've read some articles to suggest that LDL's themselves are not a problem (http://www.thincs.org/).

Then, once determining it is in fact a problem, the question is how to best lower it. Statins are not the only way. Soluble fiber and niacin have both been cited as ways to lower cholesterol. (http://my.webmd.com/content/article/78/95767.htm).

Anyway, I remain optimistic that I'm going to lick these metabolic issues without drugs...