Know your numbers
There is an old Chinese proverb that says, ‘‘When you love what you do for a job, you never have to work a day in your life’’.
Friday nights at the Emergency Department can feel like hard work no matter how much you love it. However, driving through the iconic Molesworth Station on a Landcorp tour over the past few days hasn’t felt like work at all.
Molesworth Station is about the same size as Stewart Island or Lake Taupo. It’s 180,000 hectares of High Country ruggedness looks like it’s straight out of an epic movie. Framed by the inland Kaikoura range and its legendary peaks of Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku, Alarm and Gladstone, Molesworth is steeped in history and farmed by true Southern Kiwis, on horseback with their trusty dogs. The scenery takes your breath away and is truly the road less travelled, as it winds its way South from Blenheim to Hanmer Springs.
Accompanying me on this trip is Jo Davies, a nutritionist and photographer from Taupo. We are here to test Landcorp farmers for the usual suspects of high blood pressure, high blood lipids and abnormal diabetes markers. We often find farmers carry low risk for diabetes as they are far from the temptations of a sugary environment and energy drinks. However, they often have high blood fats and elevated blood pressure if they haven’t trimmed the fat off their mutton, beef and lamb and they haven’t added salt to make it crispy.
Listening to Jo, I learn more about what these blood fats mean and how we can improve them by tweaking our diet and lifestyle. Important numbers you need to know are cholesterol, HDL, LDL triglycerides and the ratio of cholesterol to HDL. Once you know your numbers you can find out if you need to tweak them.
One patient eats bacon with his eggs and tomatoes every morning for breakfast, but his blood tests are all perfect so he doesn’t need to tweak a thing. His high fruit and vege intake has lowered his LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) and his active lifestyle has raised his HDL (High Density Lipoprotein), even with a few wines. Raised LDL which carries cholesterol in an endless loop is not good, as it stays in your pipes, clogging your arteries. The HDL is protective, as are the mighty rivers of Molesworth, transporting unwanted cholesterol to the sea, or in your case, your liver which breaks it down.
To keep your arteries flowing like the Severn, Acheron and Clarence rivers of the mighty Molesworth, Jo recommends upping your intake of healthy fats like avocado and olive oil, and decreasing saturated fat found in processed foods. It’s about tweaking what you do, small changes can give healthy, sustainable results. Farmers are great with their numbers and the ones at Molesworth are no exception; they monitor stock growth and water quality with BLAIR ENSOR serious intent. And it makes sense that you monitor your own numbers so you are sustainable as well.
If you want to lower your blood pressure consider taking a leisurely trip to Molesworth Station, pausing to stop and breathe the mountain air as you escape to paradise. ● Dr Tom Mulholland is an Emergency Department Doctor and GP with over 25 years experience in New Zealand. He’s currently a man on a mission, tackling health missions around the world.