My recent blood test results

(paul) #1

Hi, new to the forums, but familiar with low carb high fat diets.

I’ve been on a cyclic ketogenic diet for around 2 or so years, with short spells of being non keto. for pretty much the whole of 2017 I have been on a CKD though and have followed the carb nite solution and carb backloading. I started with cns earlier this year, switched to cbl in the summer and now back to cns. out of curiousity I decided to get a blood test to see how everything is. here are the numbers that I got back;

serum total cholesterol level (XaJe9) 6.2 mmol/L above high reference limit
serum HDL cholesterol level (44P5.) 1.7 mmol/L
serum cholesterol/HDL ratio (XaEUq) 3.6
triglyceride level (X772O) 1.00 mmol/L
serum non high density lipoprotein cholesterol level (XabE1) 4.5 mmol/L above high reference limit a treatment goal of 2.5mmol/L approximates to an LDL of 2.0mmol/L

the “above high reference limit” were notes that were flagged on my particular results.
some points to mention, I have recently also been practising intermittent fasting and I had been fasting when the blood tests were done.
I had cycled some carbs into my diet 3 days prior to blood test for one day, then back to keto again.

so is there anything to be concerned about here?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #2

Don’t think so. Your ratio of triglycerides to HDL is very good at 0.58 (anything under 0.9 is good); the rest of the numbers here are really irrelevant. Did they do an analysis of the size of your LDL? HbA1C? Those you might want to pay attention to.

Total cholesterol has no association with heart disease, your HDL is very good (the higher the better), and total LDL also has no association with heart disease. Given your trig/HDL ratio, your LDL is probably mostly large and fluffy; it’s the small, dense LDL that appears to be associated with the risk of heart disease.

Your doctor may want to get you onto a statin, but you certainly don’t need one.

(Richard Hanson) #3

I think PaulL got it right.

Once upon a time dietary scientists discovered how to measure serum cholesterol and ever since they have spent literally billions of dollars trying to prove that those tests provided some indication of the risk of heart disease. Unsuccessfully.

I think the next time I go in for an appointment I am going to just skip those tests and instead I am going to start tracking my insulin level. I would also be interested in my IGF1 number, but I think getting the standard blood lipid panel is a waste of time and money. When scientists can show even a correlation between serum cholesterol and CHD, I might consent to those tests again.

Best Regards,
Richard