Cholesterol tests back, doctor wants to put me on statins

(Anne) #1

I started Keto November 2018 at 148 lbs. I’ve been eating Keto consistently since then (only a handful of cheat days) and am at 137 lbs now (pretty much at goal weight).

I’ve always had normal blood work so when my numbers came back in December I was surprised that my overall cholesterol number had doubled, so she ordered another test, which I did in January. It came back pretty much the same.

I convinced her to give me another 6 months, based on all my research about cholesterol and Keto. I just got my numbers back and I’m not sure they’re better. In fact now my doctor is low-key freaking out.

My meat intake hasn’t changed; I’ve always eaten only poultry and fish, no beef and pork only rarely. I HAVE increased my cheese intake and have about 1/2c 1/2 and 1/2 daily (can’t stomach heavy cream). My fats are typically avocado, olives, olive oil, with the occasional mayo and cheese.

I’m going to request a CAC scan but am wondering if I need to worry about these numbers. And are there other tests I should request?

Here are my December numbers:

Total: 214
Tri:86
HDL: 73
LDL: 124
VLDL: 17

And these are my numbers 6 months later:

Total: 311
Tri:49
HDL: 100
LDL: 201
VLDL: 10

Should I be worried? Any advice you can give me? Thank you!

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #2
(Bob M) #3

A CAC scan tells you actual risk. And if you have a zero score, statins don’t help:

https://scct.org/news/425416/New-study-shows-CAC-scoring-identies-patients-that-benet-from-statins.htm

Check this out:

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image.png530×581 94.2 KB

For a CAC score of zero (upper left diagram), statins don’t do anything.

(Anne) #4

Thank you for this info!

(CharleyD) #5

You should be able to manipulate your cholesterol value with Dave Feldman’s protocol at Cholesterolcode.com above.

Be sure to not fast heavily 3 days before the blood draw, and also in those 3 days, eat keto, just break it up into 3 or so meals. Also avoid coffee and other caffeine sources, and MCT oil/Coconut oil and fat bombs.

(Bob M) #6

I did that and was able to reduce mine, but hers are a little high to begin with. I fasted 4.5 days, got a test (in yellow), then ate as much fat and calories as I could for three days (very hard to do, when you haven’t eaten for 4.5 days!):

Here are my results (if the link works):

https://www.ketogenicforums.com/t/the-feldman-protocol-thread/7789/71?u=ctviggen

My LDL decreased about 16 percent. Got a CAC scan the day before the first test, score was zero.

(Anne) #7

So much info here! Thank you - I’m working my way through this.

(CharleyD) #8

The first question should be, how do you feel?

I think if you feel fine, have good energy, and are enjoying eating ketogenically and fasting a little, then don’t worry about these numbers.

Just keep the Feldman protocol in mind next time you go in for bloodwork just to keep the doc off your back.

(Anne) #9

I feel great! Frankly, I was shocked to see the numbers and the concern on her face. I’ve never been on any medication and work out pretty hard (strength 2-3x/wk and cardio 5-6 days/wk) so it was a shock. I’ll definitely follow the Feldman protocol next time.

(CharleyD) #10

Excellent, that’s what I expected :sunglasses: :thinking:

Of course, you’re tearing down muscle fibers all over and to rebuild them, cholesterol amongst other things needs to be shuttled around like pallets of bricks in a new housing development!

(Full Metal KETO AF) #11

Just Say No To Statins :no_entry_sign::pill:

:cowboy_hat_face:

(Anne) #12

Hahahaha, yep, that’s EXACTLY my plan. And my husband is talking with his cardiologist about stopping them.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #13

@AnneMore If your doctors get pissy about the statins just agree to take them and then don’t!

:cowboy_hat_face:

(Carl Keller) #14

Your doctor is giving advice based on archaic guidelines. I’m surprised he or she didn’t also suggest leeching. :stuck_out_tongue:

What we’ve eaten in the last few days can have a profound effect on our cholesterol levels. Dave Feldman has proven that total cholesterol can be lowered by nearly 100 points, in some people, in under a week, simply by eating an extremely high fat diet. If our cholesterol numbers are this easily manipulated, why would we want to bet on a statin that increases our chance for not getting a cardiovascular event by a whopping 1%, while possibly complicating our quality of life with various side effects.

Furthermore, the Framingham study found that women with higher LDL lived LONGER than women who had lower LDL so it would seem counterintuitive to try to lower something that is protective… unless the pills you are taking puts more money is someone else’s pockets.

The article below and the video will shed more light on what I’m talking about:

https://proteinpower.com/drmike/2017/07/25/how-to-lower-your-cholesterol/

(Jeff Gilbertson) #15

I just listened to this today.

It’s directly related to this discussion.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #16

I hit the :heart: Button as soon as I saw this :rofl::joy::joy::rofl::cowboy_hat_face:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #17

I don’t understand. Your most recent ratio of trigylyceride to HDL is under 0.5. Anything under 2.0 is considered wonderful. If you were to have an NMR of your LDL, it is virtually guaranteed to show Pattern A, the good pattern. Not only that, but your LDL is only 201, so why is your physician freaking out?

The current recommendation that LDL should be under 130 was promulgated by the statin manufacturers. It is not supported by any research that was not paid for by a statin manufacturer—truth. Moreover, several large epidemiological studies funded by the U.S. government, which were expressly intended to prove the hypothesis that cholesterol causes heart disease, ended up showing the reverse. I refer to the Women’s Health Initiative, the Nurses’ Study, the Minnesota Coronary Study (which Ancel Keys himself directed), the Framingham Study, MRFIT, and there are others. In fact, not only did most of these studies fail to show a correlation between cholesterol level and cardiovascular risk, but they actually showed a negative correlation; i.e., lower cholesterol correlated with higher risk. This pretty conclusively proves that whatever does cause heart disease, it ain’t cholesterol.

Add to this the fact that data on first time heart-attack patients show that the vast majority of them have normal or low cholesterol levels. On top of that, of the people with familial hypercholesterolaemia, whose LDL is far higher than yours, the half that do develop cardiovascular disease all have congenital abnormalities that make their blood more likely to clot, whereas the other half never develop heart disease and die at a normal age of some other cause.

I’d say you have nothing to worry about. :bacon:

(Anne) #18

Agreed. It seems she’s referring to old science. She does seem open to accepting information, so I may put together a reading list for her. :smile:

(Bob M) #19

It’s been lowered to 100 now. Seriously.

I also think she has nothing to be concerned about, and in fact, I wish I had her numbers. However, you have to understand the way a lot of these places work. They use guidelines they have to follow. If you come in with “high” LDL, they HAVE TO tell you to or subscribe a statin. Of course, the statin manufacturers had a hand in this, but there’s no way to go against this, other than maybe changing doctors. But now, all doctors where I am are part of massive conglomerates. The lone doctor working out of an office and doing whatever he or she wants is gone.

Moreover, everything is known about you. I get constantly chastised to get a flu shot (Cochrane collaboration basically reviewed the evidence for getting a flu shot and were unimpressed) or a colonoscopy (no RCTs show the value of this). So, you can’t even change doctors now without them knowing too much about you.

(Wendy) #20

Just watched this yesterday. (It’s a long one but so worth it.) It covers a lot of things but the statin references are so relative. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.