Female Relationships

'Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!'(Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)

I think one thing great about being a woman is that we have many girlfriends to turn to in time of need. For a woman, her relationships with her girlfriends help her to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. The quality “girlfriend time" helps her to generate serotonin, a kind of neurotransmitter which can combat depression and create a general feeling of well being. Talking about problems is useful as getting someone else’s view can sometimes help us to understand the issues from a new perspective.

Women build relationships through sharing of feelings and personal lives whereas men often do through activities. Women tend to invest more time and are more committed to develop friendships. That explains why they developed more lasting friendships than men. So hanging out with friends is not a waste of time and unproductive as commonly perceived. As for me, my girlfriends are the ones who walked with me throughout this difficult season of my life. God always uses people in our lives to help us steer through storms in life. For that, I am thankful to God for the girlfriends I have!

Cholesterol result

‘You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.’ (Psalm 71:20)

Before I got my cholesterol result, I am very confident that my LDL has gone down, but the question in my mind is by how much. After all, the last two months has seen me cut down fish intake to one-quarter, exercise 5 times a week (half-an hour each), and eat plenty of fruits and veggies. As a result, I lost 2 kilos during this period. Here are the results:-

Cholesterol 4.4 (6.7)    : below 5.2 mmol/L (desirable range)

Triglycerides 1.2 (1.0)  : below 1.7

HDL 1.4 (1.2)              : below 1.5

LDL 2.5 (5.1)              : below 3.3

I more than hit my targets! Before seeing the doctor, I spent 45 minutes with the dietician who gave me some very useful tips on how to maintain a healthy cholesterol level. I learnt that there is a limit as to how much one can use diets to control his cholesterol as that constitutes only 30% in contrast to our liver which produces 70% of the cholesterol in our body system. So genetic factor can be a primary cause of high cholesterol rather than what a person eats. Statin is so effective in managing cholesterol because it works through liver. I am convinced my condition has to do with genetic factor or my hysterectomy.

I am still on Statin (low dosage) and will go for review in four months’ time.