Help with cholesterol numbers please

(Sarah) #1

I have done keto/ carnovire before and it heals my gut issues. I am doing keto to feel better rather than lose weight. I have been on it this time round for two months. I have been eating eggs, beef, lamb, pork and a little cheese. I have however, also been eating a fair bit of heavy (extra thick double) cream. My recent blood work results are below as I am concerned about lipids profile. I am a female, 60 years old and I am 5’ 2" and weigh about 123 lbs. Advice and ways forward please.

Marker UK (mmol/L) USA (mg/dL)
Total Cholesterol 8.4 325 mg/dL
Triglycerides 2.7 239 mg/dL
HDL Cholesterol 2.1 81 mg/dL
LDL Cholesterol 5.1 197 mg/dL
Non‑HDL Cholesterol 6.3 244 mg/dL
Cholesterol/HDL Ratio 4.0 same (unitless)
(Bob M) #2

Saturated fat does NOT raise LDL. There is no known mechanism by which it can do so.

Keto might (or might not) raise LDL, but it’s independent of saturated fat intake. For instance, if you’re losing weight and eating less, your LDL can go up.

What is your HDL? Did you get HS-CRP tested?

Also, you may be a “lean mass hyper responder”, although your numbers are slightly outside this range:

#3

Without the subfractions, you really don’t know whether it’s bad or not. The total is high, and while the total (or others) by themselves don’t tell the whole picture, I don’t think they should be ignored either.

Standard lipid panels are many years outdated at this point, you really want to know your sdLDL, that’s the one that IS actually bad independent of the others.

Also, being non-fasted means that number is a lot less reliable. With modern tests like the NMR, it makes no difference if you’re fasted or not. But with the old lipid profiles, that can affect them pretty decently. If you fat intake was high prior to the test, it’s been thrown off by that.

Unless you’re chugging cream like it’s a drink, I doubt that’s an issue.

May want to paste this in as those numbers won’t mean much to a pretty large majority here.

Total Cholesterol : 324
Triglycerides: 239
LDL: 197
HDL: 25

Your total is high, you LDL isn’t terrible, Trigs are pretty high, and HDL is really low.

(Sarah) #4

Yes I did wonder about LMH-R but don’t think I fit the profile. HDL was 2.1 mmol/L. They don’t do HS-CRP routinely in UK. Also my B12 and folate levels have dropped though still in the “normal” range.

(Sarah) #5

Thanks. Yes doc has suggested a fasting test next time. He’s happy for me to wait a few more months and knows I’m on keto/carnivore.