My Journey With Health And Fitness – My Health Is An Anomaly

Left the fitness centre this morning and thought, so much for a run today. I had decided after last Monday’s debacle of getting cold and soaked I am just not putting myself through that again. The forecast for today is heavy rain and winds. I have come to the realization that missing 1 day has no overall impact on my training or fitness level. Torturing myself in inclimate weather does however have immense impact on my mental health. It is supposed to be better tomorrow so I will hopefully get a run in then.

Yesterday it was time for my annual physical. This is mandatory for me because of having been diagnosed with diabetes in 2018. As part of this process I get a battery of blood/urine testing done to make sure there are no issues. I was thrilled with almost all of the results. My glucose fast number was bang on target. My A1C (basically the average amount of glucose in my system over the past 3 months) perfectly normal. The best was my GFR which measures kidney health. Normal for a 60 year old is 85, mine is 96! Overall all but 1 indicator show that I am healthy.

The one area that I was concerned about was my cholesterol. It’s not that it is really high it is just my LDL level was slightly above the tartet range. That target range is lower than in people who don’t have diabetes and I was not out of range for non-diabetics.

Now my doctor is very used to me being the type of patient that wants to discuss these things. So she reviews my history so that we can have a discussion. She noted that in October 2018 my A1C was 8.1 which is why I was diaganosed as diabetic. But then she also saw that not one test since then has my A1C been out of range. As she pointed out that is nearly 8 years. I reminded her that for about 2 years I was on diabetic medication along with statins for cholesterol and had been on BP meds for years before that. However, as I lost weight and became more active she kept recommending the lowering or removal of the medications until I got to the point of only taking vitamins. I also advised here that my life changed drastically when I left work as back then I traveled so much there no healthy eating and certainly no exercise.

We got into a discussion about whether I should go back on to a statin for the cholesterol which led us to a discussion on the fact I am a bit of an anomaly when it comes to my health. Apparent people my age don’t normally completely reverse their health issues like I have. She also told me that normally just a diagnosis of diabetes means you should be on a statin but she just didn’t see the need given I have my glucose levels so controlled. Also, other indicators such as my triglycerides have never been out of range so there was no definitive reason for me to be on statins though she said if I wanted to take them just in case she was fine with it. I adivsed that I like being medication free and for as long as I can stay that way I will do everything it takes. We also agreed that if my LDL is still elevated with next year’s test we will reevaluate but she said at this point she is comfortable leaving things the way they are.

I liked being called an anomaly and the fact that it makes my doctor have to analyze everything. I also like the fact that I have a doctor who is willing to include me in decisions about my health rather than just handing out drugs which may not be needed.

Bottom line, my health is an anomaly as it shouldn’t get better as I age. However, with hard work and determination I plan to keep it that way.