13 yo son has grown 7" in last 6 months, A1c has taken a big hit. It was 8.9 at last endo visit. Normally always below 7. But his cholesterol and triglycerides were also elevated. Cardiologist may want to start statin if can't get it under contol with diet and exercise. Any other with this?
Hi Linda,
can pretty much echo your own story. Our 14yo daughter has grown a lot in the past year and her HbA1C has taken a hit too. Seems she's always been volatile but certainly more so in the past year despite even greater efforts at managing all the variables.
Her lipids have trended in the wrong direction too over the past 2.5yrs. On last bloods, cholesterol now back in range. When high, she had somewhat high HDL (bad) and high LDL (good) but her triglycerides were always fine. She is celiac and so her diet is very strictly controlled so our endos agreed there was nothing to be done with diet (not that we were inclined to inflict more there!). She doesn't exercise that much though her BMI is fine and she's right on the curve for height/weight.
A doctor friend of ours said that cholesterol often changes (often without us knowing it, unless regularly testing) at different stages in our life. Testing on children is not regular so we're probably not best to dictate what is 'normal'. Interesting how despite mention of statins etc., her cholesterol has come back well in-range and we can't attribute anything in particular to that - we manage her T1D as rigorously now as 18 mth ago. Only thing we can identify is that we re-introduced oats back into her diet - pure oats, celiac friendly, that is. Her celiac screening has always good but coincidentally (or not), her latest bloods show her best celiac levels.
Another front in this debate is the accuracy and interpretation of cholesterol tests. First off, fasting or not fasting measurements are very difference and you need to be consistent. Also, it always baffles me how HDL and LDL are added to give overall cholesterol even though high levels of LDL is very good! There's also a healthy medical debate around how cholesterol is measured - I've forgotten the detail on this but it put my mind at ease in that the good cholesterol mitigated the bad cholesterol. Anyhow, that's our story fwiw - best of luck,
J
Thanks for your reply. The cardio has recommended 40mins cardio exercise a day and much better BS control, and recheck in 3 months. I hope this will do it. I have got some reg. oatmeal for him. I guesss we will see.
Try eliminating dairy -- almond milk and coconut milk have the same level of calcium but w/o the cholesterol. He'll have to go without cheese, I'm afraid... but coconut milk ice cream is awesome, so it isn't total deprivation. It is a very good way of reducing cholesterol intake. I did this when my total and LDL levels were high [LDL is the "bad" cholesterol, not the good -- that's HDL] and it worked wonders. Also, I think someone else said this in another place but it bears repeating: check thyroid levels. There's some solid data connecting hypothyroidism and high lipid levels here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3109527/ and it's pretty widely known that hypothyroidism is common in people with T1D and their relatives. [I have Hashimoto's disease myself, which is why I know about the lipid-thyroid connection]