Readers write about being type O with high cholesterol, triglycerides and elevated blood pressure.

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High blood pressure, or hypertension, usually resolves itself with the blood type diet, with an emphasis on getting adequate dietary fiber, calcium, magnesium, and potassium -- and staying away from refined grain and sugar.

In type Os, high cholesterol and triglycerides arise in conjunction with WHEAT rather than MEAT. Why? Because the wheat lectin loves to attach to insulin receptors on fat cells, and hates to let go. Kind of like the wrong key jammed into a lock. Blood levels of insulin, and subsequently cholesterol and triglycerides, elevate in response. The lectins in corn, potatoes, and many beans and legumes are to be avoided for the same reason.

85-90% of our blood cholesterol is manufactured in the liver. Cholesterol is essential for normal neurochemical function, and yes: too-low cholesterol carries its own set of health risks. So, a healthy liver is the first cause of well-balanced cholesterol. If liver function has been weakened by any one or more of the many prescription drugs which carry this side-effect, or by alcohol abuse, poor diet -- even a habitually angry outlook on life, believe it or not! -- cholesterol synthesis can rise or fall out of the normal range.

Usually, a minimal weight loss -- only 10 to 15 pounds -- will produce a sharp drop in triglycerides. Cholesterol levels, too, respond to weight loss; a 10% reduction is common when obesity is resolved. Type Os have a slightly higher normal lipid range than other types, and while Elaine's readings aren't quite in the "worry zone," I think that separating grains from proteins in meals, or alternatively following a no-grain plan, may turn this trend around within a month. A supplement that has proven highly and speedily effective in lowering cholesterol is red yeast rice. 1200 mg per day (1/2 teaspoon) is the dosage.

It is often a difficult mental adjustment for type Os who may have been told for years to eliminate meat and eat more grain to get healthy, now to learn that the opposite is true. If that's what your diet has been like, Rhonda, your results fit the profile. :-( Don't worry! The good news is that hypertension often responds well to dietary intervention, and these particular changes are toward simpler food and an active lifestyle.

Meat, and the appropriate essential fatty acids (EFAs) from oils, nuts and wild fish should replace that old way of eating. If you can drop ALL the grain for the time being and fill up on beneficial vegetables, you will speed your progress. Starting an exercise regime under the supervision of your doctor will provide vast benefits to you. By the way, using an herbal extract of Stone Root (Collinsonia canadensis) can help increase the strength and flexibility of your veins and arteries -- a concern for people with hypertension. Spend a week on the diet, and compare your blood pressure with today's reading. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

My best wishes to you, ladies, and thank you for writing!