I just got my cholesterol tests back and I'm scared!


(Joey) #21

I’ll +1 to echo the sage guidance provided above by many well-informed forum members…

Frankly, your numbers look great.

Your blood work (even absent an NMR lipid panel, which is preferable to dig into certain details) strongly suggests that everything you’re doing seems to be working beautifully to restore good health and reduce risks of disease.

Without repeating the specific points covered by others above, I’ll simply add that your body appears to be loving the wonderful care you’re providing. :+1:

So please relax, enjoy, and stay well-educated … both to empower yourself with science and to resist any “professional ignorance” that pops up along your path.


(Marianne) #22

I had blood work done in November and some of my numbers were higher than yours. My cardiologist wants to put me on a statin. but I’m not going to do it (that’s me - we all have to weigh what we have learned and are told and act accordingly).

I believe that conventional blood values on keto deserve a different measurement than people who are following the SAD. These new measurements have not been adequately researched yet, explored or understood. I believe what I have read that although my results seem high compared to what we have been told is “normal,” I am actually healthier and healing my body by following a keto WOE. I told my cardiologist that I’m going to “wait and see” how my blood values shake out over time (just so he won’t harangue me for saying I’m not going to go on one). I feel comfortable with that.

Congratulations on six months of clean keto - no one can tell me that you are less healthy now than you were when you started.

:clap:


#23

Is it the oxidation in the presence of higher blood glucose that makes them smaller? On listening to Dr. Malcolm Kendrick and his deeper dive into oxidised LDL and the formation of atherosclerosis, I think he indicates a greatest concern over the oxidised LDL particles.

I love how biology is like a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of the sky.


#24

Hey Bob @ctviggen. Go back in the post using the edit icon button (the one they looks like a :pencil2: ) and take away the space between the asterisk and the first letter of your footnote ( :foot: :memo:)

That should fix it. I have enjoyed using the word asterisk* in a post.

*asterisk

  • space + asterisk

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #25

@kyarn

The TG:HDL ratio is really the most important part. Listen to Dave Feldman of Cholesterol Code at http://lowcarbmd.com/episode-72-dave-feldman


(Full Metal KETO AF) #26

Maybe, I don’t remember that detail. I believe he said something about the lipid bond between glucose and fructose being broken and that lipid turning to small particle LDL. I got that from the Robert Lustig lecture,

Fantastic if you’ve never seen it. :cowboy_hat_face:


(Bob M) #27

Thanks, that fixed it.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #28

Your ratio of triglycerides to HDL is less than 1.0. This means you are doing fantastically well, since anything under 2.0 is considered healthy. Your LDL particle sizes are virtually guaranteed to fit the healthy Pattern A profile. Further evidence that you are fine is that your HbA1C is completely normal.

If it’s any comfort, there is all sorts of evidence that cholesterol has very little to do with cardiovascular disease, except as part of the body’s healing processes. (Rather like assessing how injured someone is by counting the scabs.) Blaming cardiovascular disease on cholesterol is therefore a lot like blaming fires on fire trucks.

Cholesterol is a very important chemical in the human body. It makes up most of the walls of every cell, and over 25% of the cholesterol in the body is found in the brain, because it is an important part of neural signaling. Cholesterol is also the precursor from which vitamin D is made, to say nothing of most of the major sex hormones (progesterone and testosterone, in particular). It also plays an important role in our immune system, with a major role in killing off invading viruses. Not only that, but well over 50% of the people arriving in hospitals with their first heart attack have been shown to have normal or low cholesterol levels. So I don’t believe it is the problem that statin manufacturers keep trying to convince us that it is.


(Bob M) #29

And Dave Feldman has not been able to find any study anywhere where people with high HDL (>50), low trigs (likely below 100 or even lower), but high LDL (who knows? some of these LMHRs have super high LDL) have worse outcomes.


(Todd Allen) #30

And his review of the NHANES data found in people with high HDL and low triglycerides longevity was better with increasing LDL, I think up to 200. It’s observational data so not something to take as definitive but still quite interesting.


(Bob M) #31

That’s the problem: all this data is really epidemiology, so you don’t really know what’s cause and effect or only correlation. The reason LDL became “bad” was because statins ostensibly lowered LDL. If statins had another effect that was measurable, the “bad” thing would be whatever that effect is.

Could LDL be “bad”? I personally don’t think so, but anything is possible.

My personal opinion: Dave Feldman’s lipid energy hypothesis + Malcolm Kendrick’s “It’s the endothelium!” theory explains everything.


(Jack Bennett) #32

This Sachdeva paper from about 10 years ago collects together from people with 100% heart disease risk. Why 100%? Because they are literally in the middle of having one!

If low LDL were cardioprotective, you would expect to see either a threshold or at least a serious decrease in events below some LDL level. But you don’t. You can still have an event at a McDougall-Ornish 10%fat diet LDL level of 40 or 50. And your body is probably unable to manufacture hormones and cell membranes.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19081406/


(Tracy) #33

I feel so much better after reading the replies to my post. I can tell everyone has educated themselves on this subject. For the first time in my life my anxiety has worked in my favor. Once I started Keto I was afraid to mix carbs with the high fat foods I was eating. I never slipped a slice of bread into my meal as an occasional treat because I was terrified of being kicked out of ketosis. The worst I have done is maybe have a little too much broccoli or cabbage, if you can even call that mistake. I have faithfully followed Keto because I needed to know without a doubt that this lifestyle was going to be a healthy path. I have 100 reasons I want to continue the Keto lifestyle and zero reasons I want to go back to eating sugar. Keto is not hard for me. I love the foods I eat and I love not dealing with a blood sugar roller coaster anymore. Now that I understand my cholesterol numbers more than I did when first got the results I can see that it is an exact prediction of what a Keto diet should produce. A lifetime of brainwashing of fat being evil is hard to reverse in 6 months but I think I’m doing a decent job. Thanks again everyone for taking the time to reply.


(Susan) #34

You are very well spoken! But I know what you mean, when put on the spot.


(Tracy) #35

You are correct, Susan. Public speaking and any kind of one-on-one interview, including doctor visits sends me into a panic. I feel like my stumbling and inability to think straight in these situations makes me look dumb, so I have always just used the blanket excuse that I’m not well-spoken. The truth is I’m just nervous.


(Bob M) #36

Some people speak better through written rather than verbal words. I know I do.

Edited because my phone likes to change words from what I meant to what it thinks I want.