Jackson Free Press logo

This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

After my last blog and a poor cholesterol report from the doc, the results of my 2nd round of blood work came in letter form to my home address. “Dear Lydia, We are pleased to inform you that the result(s) of you lab work done on 07/14/2010 was/were normal. We recommend this evaluation be repeated in one year.” And a little hand written note on the bottom of the letter read, “Cholesterol 165. Great job! Keep up the good work!”. I lowered my cholesterol 52 points in 3 months! It’s good to know that I can control this and I don’t have to take medication to lower my cholesterol (maybe a few vitamins, but that’s cool with me).

MFP Solutions Lab logo

The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.