You Are What You Eat

One of my patients got his blood drawn in the office today to check his cholesterol. The blood was spun down and my lab technician just about fell over when she looked at the tube. A normal tube of blood like the one on the right, should have red blood cells on the bottom, and a clear serum on the top.

The tube on the left looks like it has melted ice cream in it. That is because the person who donated that blood just ate 3 tacos for lunch today. It is what we call a Lipemic blood sample. I would have preferred a fasting sample of blood, but I've been trying to get a blood sample from  this person for 3 years now and this seemed like the best opportunity I would have for a while.

That creamy/milky triglyceride layer is what builds up in the walls of arteries. This patient is a relatively young person at age 38, but if he keeps eating like this, he'll start to have more health problems at an earlier age than expected. Your body just can't process that much fat, sugar and oil meal after meal. Eventually your liver and pancreas can't keep up and people start to develop a thing called Cardio-Metabolic Syndrome. Blood pressure goes up, sugars elevate in the blood serum leading to Diabetes, Lipid levels rise and your risk of Heart Disease or Stroke go up exponentially.

Be proactive, eat better!... you're worth it.
Dr.Ronan