I have been low carb/keto for almost a year now and have been regularly testing blood. I am Canadian but my numbers are:
Starting Point: March 2016
LDL: 5.14
HDL: 1.42
TG: 1.31
TG/HDL = 0.92
Now: Jan 2017
LDL: 4.08 (Good)
HDL: 1.54 (Good)
TG: 1.89 (Bad)
TG/HDL = 1.22 (Bad)
Thoughts? Help?
What did you eat and how long before did you eat before the test. I have read on some other forums that the high fat we love so much can skew blood tests even after 12 hours of fasting. I am not sure how accurate this was nor do I have any science to prove it, but it sounded like a keto meal 8-10 hours before the test could cause elevated TG.
Hopefully someone else can shed some better light on the matter and be able to back it up with some science.
I was planning on doing some of my own n=1 regarding this topic in the near future, but that is still a couple of months out.
Pilotbob,
I’ve read quite a bit about HDL-to-triglyceride ratios. Several sources state that it’s most effective indicator of cardiovascular risk.
Link one: http://www.docsopinion.com/2014/07/17/triglyceride-hdl-ratio/
Link two: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2664115/
In the 2nd article, if it’s easier to skip over the scientific jargon, you can see that the conclusion favors the use of the HDL-to-trig ratio.
Jonathan,
I’ve seen cases discussed in which someone who followed a ketogenic diet had high trigylcerides, due to unknowingly eating foods that caused inflammation. Some studies have shown a correlation between high inflammation (CRP: C-Reactive Protein) and high trigylcerides. Inflammation is often misunderstood, since it can be as obvious as an allergic reaction, or it can be so subtle that you don’t feel anything on a conscious level. But your CRP levels remain high, your health improvements stall out, and your health markers are less than ideal.
You might want to consider cutting potential sources of inflammation from your diet. Cutting can be partially cutting down or cutting out 100%. Obvious potential targets could be dairy, nuts or seeds. Just one option to consider.
Ben - thanks for this.
I am eating quite a bit of nuts and dairy - I am also taking a CRP test next week and will report back on my results.
What is a good CRP test result?
Jonathan,
A result under 10 mg/L (1.0 mg/dL) is considered normal. Best of luck to you! 
Link: http://www.healthline.com/health/c-reactive-protein#Results6
Link 2: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/c-reactive-protein-crp
Those are fantastic ratios!
Take aways:
You’re on the low end of the ratio which is awesome…
The ideal range for TG/HDL is below 0.87 in concentration units (mmol/l), in mass units (mg/dl) it’s below 2. The next range is below 1.74 or 4 which is considered to be not bad.
So both values are in that not bad but not perfect range.
I have seen 3 people who saw their trigs go up on a low carb diet. That’s among the thousands from our FB group and now the forum. One guy (who was in the ninjas) stopped all alcohol on his doctors orders and his trigs dropped back down. The others ended up going off the low carb diet.
No one quite knows why some rare people see their triglycerides go up. It’s very rare. Triglycerides a sign of your liver pumping energy to your body fat for storage. So on a low carb diet you should be happily burning fat.
There are people who just can’t metabolize fats efficiently such as those with a Carnitine palmitoyltransferase deficiency but that is very rare. They might have an excess because they just don’t use it.
For some people it could be a problem with their particular variant of gene that makes their Apo-E. These people may have a problem specifically with saturated fats.
There is a video of Tim Noakes talking to ivor about it from the Iceland conference
Thanks Richard - it is interesting because I don’t drink at all (haven’t for 20 years). My plan at this point I am going to do my CRP and keep going unless it comes up high.
I still feel really good and my range hasn’t gone up that quickly or that high.
What is your thought on the inflammation argument?
Cheers,
Jonathan
Inflammation is a downstream effect of a lot of possible things. For example someone who has insulin high is not burning fats so they are shipping trigs to storage. Insulin also causes vascular inflammation. So insulin could well be a common cause of both.