High triglycerides: Wheat elimination or gemfibrozil?

April posted this question about high triglycerides. High triglycerides are very confusing to many people, often even ignored by many of my colleagues. Because she got such lousy advice from her doctor and because the solutions are really SO simple, I thought I’d relate her story with the advice that really works. I had blood work done last week after experiencing some edema in my feet and legs. My non-fasting triglycerides were 600 mg/dl and the doctor wants to put me on gemfibrozil and do a HbA1c to rule out diabetes. I want to try Wheat Belly first before taking the meds. Is that reasonable? He told me I need to start the medicine right away or I am at risk of pancreatitis. I am about 100 pounds overweight, so I obviously need to make some dietary changes. This is kind of scary stuff to me. I was told other than the triglycerides my cholesterol was ‘OK.’ My vitamin D was also very low at 13 ng/ml so I was given a prescription of D3 (50,000 I.U.) for 12 weeks. I just really don’t want to start a medication like the gemfibrozil without at least giving diet a chance. April likely has “Familial Hypertriglyceridemia,” a genetically-determined abnormality in which she is unable to clear triglycerides formed from diet. We know several things based on the facts provided by April: 1) Potential for pancreatitis really shows itself at around a triglyceride of 1000 mg/dl. This is very bad: Not only is it very painful, but it can do irreversible dam...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Lipids Triglycerides Source Type: blogs