YOU Tips continued

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Have Regular Readings. Not just with your book club or by an astrologer. These regular readings are about tracking your health numbers. Instead of measuring your success through the scale, the real measurement- and test- of your success is seeing whether you've reduced your cardiovascular risk, as evidenced in the following test readings: Blood Pressure: Optimum level is 115/76. Blood pressure readings can be variable, so have your BP taken in the morning, during the day, and at night, as part of your normal activities (except for thirty minutes after exercise, when it will naturally be higher). Take the average of three readings to come up with your base number. After that, take readings every month to help you monitor your progress. (if BP is high, then you can track it daily.) Lipid Profile Blood

Test:Have one now to establish your baseline measurement, then have your blood analyzed every other year so that you and your doctor can watch changes and make appropriate adjustments to your eating and/or drug plan. HDL (healthy)Cholestero l: You're at a low risk if your HDL is greater than 40 mg/dl. But like basketball players, the higher the better. In fact, if your HDL is over 100mg/dl, the chances of heaving a heart attack or stroke related to lack of blood flow are smaller than the chance that a Hollywood celeb could walk through Boise unnoticed. (Except in some extremely rare cases where HDL malfunctions inside the body, there has never been a heart attack or stroke due to lack of blood flow reported in the entire medical literature in a person with a functional HDL over 100). LDL (lousy) cholesterol: You're at a low risk if your LDL

is less than 100 mg/dl. By the way, research shows that for all women, and for men over sixty-five years old, the LDL number isn't nearly as important as the HDL. So women and men over sixty-five don't need to obsess to much over LDL levels unless their HDL levels are too low. Fasting blood sugar: Below 100 mg/dl. C-reactive protein: Below 1 mg/dl. Get a Lift. Muscle isn't just for football players, bouncers, and souped-up cars. Everyone benefits from adding some muscles to his or her body; in fact, adding some muscles will help lower your levels of blood sugar. The more muscle you have, the more you increase insulin receptivity- that is, the process by which insulin transports glucose into your cells. If you gain muscle and lose weight, you change the

chemistry of your cell membranes so that you absorb more glucose throughout your body rather than having it stay in your blood. You add muscle by doing strength exercises (more coming up in the YOU Workout). Stop Freebasing Sugar. One thing that causes blood sugar to spike is, uh, sugar. that is straight, pure sugar-not eaten with any other substances like fat or protein around it. Though we recommend eating as few simple sugars as possible, if you do eat them, you should always be sure not to eat that candy bar or cookie dough by itself. Have a handful of nuts or some olive oil with bread first; that slows your stomach from emptying and will keep sugar levels from creating a pyrotechnical effect in your blood. Go Chrome. Chromium, a mineral found in a variety of foods (especially mushrooms), seems to help control blood sugar. Taking 200

micrograms a day if the supplement chromium picolinate can help aid the uptake of insulin, to help your cells use blood sugar for fuel. Though the studies aren't definitive at this point, we recommend the supplement for waist-and blood sugar-control. Chromium increases your cells' sensitivity to insulin and is depleted by refined sugars, white flour, and lack of exercise. One study showed users lost four pound over ten weeks compared with no pounds in a control group. You should take it with magnesium, which reduces low-grade inflammation that can be associated with insulin resistance. A dose of 600 micrograms of chromium has been shown to be effective for those with type 2 diabetes, but for others, stick to the recommended dose of 200 micrograms. Just because a little is good doesn't mean that taking a lot more is better. Taking too much chromium can hurt your kidneys. Become

Sensitive. Here's a tantalizing observation: Cinnamon (with an m, not a seems to have an insulinlike effect, enhancing the satiety center in your brain while also reducing blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Just a half teaspoon a day can have some effect. Sprinkle it in cereal or on toast, or add it to a smoothie. Get in the Zone. Studies show that deidtation has a statistically significant reduction of risk factors for coronary heart disease, such as blood pressure and insulin resistance. Find a quiet room, take a few minutes, close your eyes, and focus on one healthy work, or phrase, like "om" (or "omega-3 fatty acids"). YOU TEST Hey There, Good Looking, Can I Get Your Number? In most cases, like a bike fall or a noodle-size hangnail, seeing your blood is not a good thing. But for our purposes, you need to look deep inside your blood to get an assessment of the effect of the extra weight you're carrying. That's where you'll find all the numbers that indicate the risks that may be associated with carrying extra weight. If you don't know these numbers, see your doctor for your latest blood results or request a blood test from your primary-car physician. Blood Pressure: __________ (Measures the force of blood being pumped through your arteries. Ideal is 115/76) HDL Cholesterol: __________ (Measures the amount of good clog-clearing cholesterol in your blood. Greater than 40 mg/dl is acceptable. And you've hit the lottery if you're above 60

mg/dl.) LDL Cholesterol: __________ (Measures the amount of bad clog-forming cholesterol in your blood. Ideal is less than 100 mg/dl if you have any risk factors of heart disease, or 130 gm/dl if you are otherwise healthy as a horse and your ancestors never suffered heart disease.) C-Reactive Protein: __________ (Measures levels of inflammation in blood vessels, a marker for many types of diseases. Ideal in most labs is less than 1 mg/dl.) YOU TIPS! If You Think It's Not You, Find the Cause. For some of you, it doesn't matter whether you eat like a worm or exercise like a thoroughbred; you just can't lose weight. "Hormones" are an appropriate scapegoat for some with knee-tickling guts. If

you're convinced that your fat can't be attributed to your lifestyle, it's worth asking your doctor about blood tests that measure hormone and other chemical levels to see what medications may address hormonal issues. These are the levels we'd suggest learning about; Test Desired Level Thyroid-Stimulating Less than 5mIL/I Hormone (milli-internationa l units per liter) Potassium More than 3.5 mg Calcium Between 8 mg and 10mg Luteinizing Hormone/ The individual values aren't

as Follicle-Stimulatin g important as the ratio, and you'd Hormone like a 3:1 ratio of LH to FSH, no matter what time of the month. Free Testosterone More than

200 mg/dl for men; 20-70 mg/dl for women. Do a Once-over. PCOS can be diagnosed with a blood test that measures total free testosterone. If your ratio of luteinizing hormone to follicle-stimulatin g hormone is greater than 3:1 (see above), that can also indicate PCOS. Treatment comes in the form of birth-control pills, to regulate the hormonal patterns, and the diabetes drug metformin-Glucophag e-to help prevent a cross fire that happens between the ovary and the pancreas, and to calm the inflammatory responses in the liver, so that it helps the body become more sensitive to

insulin.