Triglycerides - huh?

Just when I think I am getting a handle on all of this, another monkey pitches another wrench at me.

What are triglycerides and why do I need to know?

If my blood sugar is within or close to limits, do I need to worry about triglycerides?

If my triglycerides are not where they should be, how would I know? Is this another test I need to get done?

Can a treatment regime, drugs and diet and exercise, that is good for blood sugar levels be bad for triglycerides?

I have heard that in some people certain of the drugs we all take or know about can be bad for triglycerides. How would I know if I am one of those people taking one of those drugs?

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Permalink Reply by Sarah on June 30, 2010 at 7:57am

Trigs are tested as part of a fasting lipid panel.. if you're having your cholesterol checked, it's already being done. If not, you could ask, but the evidence is somewhat mixed about what the #'s on your lipid panel really mean.

Usually lower-carb results in lower trigs.. but not always. Sometimes things like weight loss can impact them temporarily (elevating) but that resolves on it's own.

Your trigs may be just fine, even if the rest of your lipid panel is not, and vice versa.

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Permalink Reply by Bubbaluv on June 30, 2010 at 8:54am

Just a note too, if you are recently diagnosed, there is a good chance your trigs are high so you doctor may want to run a lipid panel a month or two after diagnosis once your blood sugars are more in line. For me, at diagnosis my A1c 11, fasting bg was 231 and my trigs only read >500 which is essentially off the charts ;-) once i got my BG down to good range my trigs at 2 months was perfect. My only point is that if you are recently dx'd, don't panic. Get your BG in control and work with doc to do a lipid panel. there are treatments including diet and exercise as well as medications if needed.

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Permalink Reply by JeffD on June 30, 2010 at 11:06am

So I just need to concentrate on blood sugar and weight, and likely my triglycerides will be taken care of? If true, that simplifies things.

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Permalink Reply by Bubbaluv on June 30, 2010 at 1:41pm

yes, its definitely the place to start. I only can talk from personal experience, but for me, and many other here, going low carb has resulted in both better BG control and weight loss. Start incorporating exercise and see where that gets you and your on your way. Within 2 or 3 months of having things on track, talk to your talk about running a lipid panel and see where you are and whether or not you need to make additional changes.

Deep breath, one step at time. Learn as much as you can, but try not to overload or over worry yourself. take each step as you can.

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Permalink Reply by Devon on June 30, 2010 at 8:04pm

Fish oil is helpful in lowering triglycerides, along with diet and exercise. I found out I was diabetic when I donated blood for the first time. Instead of my blood type card, I received a letter saying I was placed on the "do not donate" list due to my triglycerides. A liver biopsy and daily blood draws for a month and someone finally went "huuumm... your blood sugars are always elevated". Really?!

Elevated triglycerides in my case led to a sort of swelling in my liver which caused it to press against a capsule ( as I understand it), which led to SEVERE pain. My triglycerides went from 753 to 201 over the course of a year with diet, exercise, and fish oil.

From what I understand, treatment of diabetes doesn't WORSEN triglycerides, if anything, better sugars mean better trigs. Trigs seem to be trig-gered (haha) by carbs more than other things so better glucose/carb control usually results in lower number.

Trigs are a component of your VLDL (LDL= lousy cholesterol, HDL= Happy cholesterol) so elevated numbers can lead to hardening of the arteries, heart disease and increased risk of stroke. Hence why our docs like those numbers to be low.
I hope this helped a little.

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Permalink Reply by Jeannie Wagner on July 1, 2010 at 2:26pm

Trigs are the stored fats. Many diabetics who are insulin resistant have high trigs because a lot of the excess carbs they eat get stored as fat. A low carb diet will definitely help as will flaxseed or fish oil. On a very low carb diet my trigs fell to under 100 and my HDL rose to 90. Exercise also helps.

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Permalink Reply by bruce on July 11, 2010 at 8:38am

i had high trigs also. even when my other readings were. good I am on medication for them and they were still high. i found when i added 3 fiber supplement pills a day my trigs dropped quite alot. I highly recomend this. they are cheap also. when i stopped they went back up. so i stay on them now. Bruce

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Permalink Reply by FHS on July 11, 2010 at 9:47am

Since nobody has mentioned this so far, high triglyceride levels are associated with higher risk of cardiovascular diseases including heart attack and stroke. That's why it's especially important for diabetics to keep an eye on them and do their best to control them. There are medications that lower triglyceride levels but it's interesting when you see the commercials on TV that they say that lowering trig levels with medication doesn't seem to lower risk for cardiovascular disease.

Edit: Sorry Devon, missed where you talked about trigs and cardio disease...

Lot's of good advice here regarding how to lower trig levels. The biggest reason to lower your carbs if you have high trigs, though, is that anybody with multiple risk factors already for cardiovascular disease is probably going to make it worse with a high carb diet. Unfortunately, that includes a lot of people with diabetes, especially people with T2. It doesn't have to necessarily be that way, and people do quite well on higher carb diets, certainly at levels above most low carb diets. No matter how you cut it though, exercising at least moderately and watching your diet are the ways to lower your trig level.