Question about triglycerides and keto

#1

Hi there,

Question for keto veterans!

Has anyone had experience of trigs going up when starting Keto? And then do they normalise after a while?

My situation. Keto for 8 weeks, just got trig result of 2.9! All other bloods were normal. I’m mid 30s, don’t smoke, rarely drink, and my BMI is in the low end of normal.

I had a strange episode this weekend and was rushed to hospital for a CT scan which came back clear. No stroke, thank goodness. The episode could have been an atypical migraine or… now that I’m researching a bit… could have been a result of the high trigs if they were blocking blood getting to my brain. I suddenly felt off and drunk, tingling in my face and right hand, couldn’t grasp or reach with my right hand.

Now we’re wondering if the high trigs were there before I started Keto, but I’ve no way of finding out.

I love Keto, really believe in the science behind it, and don’t want to stop it if I don’t have to. I’m a trained neuroscientist so I’ve got that end covered. But I’m curious about any first hand experiences of trig variation in long term Keto-ers out there?

Any stories welcome :grinning:
Thanks!

(Sarah ) #2

If you had a TIA this weekend, there are a zillion possible causes. It’s unlikely that keto has anything to do with anything, and if it did trigger something, it because you have an underlying problem.

It’s worth readig this if you haven’t already https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4832890/ focus on the biggies like smoking, blood pressure, sleep apnea, and excess alcohol consumption

EDIT more info: I’ve been keto for just over 5 months and have no personal experience with this issue, only work in healthcare and have seen a gazillion TIA and CVA

(Todd Allen) #3

My pre keto triglycerides was 260, and then 79 after 1 year keto. (in standard US units)

#4

Thanks @SarahJustMe

Helpful to hear your input. Especially as I need to get confidence up for going to my doctor, whose approach to medicine is ‘everything’s probably fine, let’s never look into anything further, tests only lead to uncovering things you didn’t want to know’

I am the opposite of the typical profile for high trigs so things are pointing to an underlying issue (which is nothing I’m scared of. Unlike my doctor, I have a lot of faith in modern medicine :wink:

Thanks again

#5

Thanks @brownfat

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #6

I have only heard of trigs going down. That was true for me personally.

Your episode sounds a lot like one my husband had while we were traveling. They ran a MRI, to check for stroke, turned out it was dehydration. He was ok after a couple of bags of fluids. He couldn’t even put his sentences together and he had difficulty grasping things. I had to take over driving, rush him to ER etc. He barely remembers any of it. He is T2D, eats lower carbs, not strict keto, any time he wants me to drive, he is very ill.

It really sounds like you need a new dr.

Hope you get it all sorted out quickly.

(Mike W.) #7

Were you fasted at the time of the draw? I’ve heard they can go up as they’re circulating in the blood while fasting.

(Sarah ) #8

Triglyercides go up and down in response to lots of things. Are your kidneys stressed? Make sure you’re drinking plenty of water. (And make sure to clarify to your Dr, if you’re really going to town on the animal protein, or not. There is much confusion about high protein low carb, and high fat low carb, in the pop diet world, and Drs get confused too.

#9

Hi Mike,
Thanks. Great point. I should have mentioned that - no I have never fasted on Keto. Or in general!

An hour before it happened I had eaten some almonds and walnuts, and a fat bomb of: peanut butter, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, desiccated coconut and butter

But then my bloods weren’t taken for another 2ish hours.

#10

Thanks @collaroygal that sounds like a scary experience to have in the car! Thanks for sharing, it sounds very similar.

I’ll try to push this doctor for now. It gets very tricky trying to change a consultant doctor in the U.K. it’s possible, but tricky

Thanks!

#11

Thanks, I’ll up my water for sure following this. Usually have 1 litre a day Plus whatever I get from 2 (half caff) BPCs and tea.

This goes way outside my range of knowledge so please forgive me if this is a silly question - could adrenal dysfunction cause kidneys issues …just by proximity? An ACTH Test in October showed a lower than normal cortisol response. Since is was ‘just below’ cutoff for normal, i was told it was probably fine.

(Trish) #12

Can keto shake arterial plaques loose though? Let me explain…i have very hard water. Lots of iron calcium etc. I had a hot water heater for 20 years. No problems except had to once replace an element which was totally covered in “stuff”. 20 years in I get a water softener. 2 months later I can’t get water to run from the hot tank. Open bottom to drain…won’t drain. Apparently 20 years of buildup on walls was released and pounds of the stuff fell off the walls and clogged the exit pipe due to loosened from water softener. So could this happen in our internal pipes as well wherein the plaque build up gets loosened , moved along and temporarily creates an issue elsewhere as it starts to disipate?

(Sarah ) #13

We’re in different countries, but heres some more info

I routinely see trigs in the many hundreds or even over a thousand (I think this just means moving the decimal place?: your 2.9 is my 290? Your 8.6 would be my 860?). These are extremely unhealthy people, but stroke is not on the top of the list of things we’re looking at. Generally a level of 290 would be handled with diet and exercise, even in the med happy US. Most of the diet recommendations are tied in to the standard low fat, moderate carb CICO diet that is standard in the medical world, b ut even they focus on cutting carbs as a first line intervention. You havent been on keot long enough to really see how its going to affect your lipid profile though.

Dave Feldman has a ton of info on triglycerides on his website It can be an overwhelming amount of technical info, he really goes into the weeds, but its also incredibly informative. http://cholesterolcode.com/basics/ and also http://ketogeek.libsyn.com/18-dave-feldman-siobhan-huggins-part-i (theres also a part 2)

(Sarah ) #14

Also regarding the adrenal gland. If your adrenal dysfunction is caused by something like a tumor, then yes proximity matters. But many things that your kidneys do, is impacted by the adrenal glands, especially electrolyte balance. My guess is that you are going to get sent to a cardiologist who wil do a bunch more blood work and maybe do some imaging of your arteries in your neck. Like I said, in the mean time, just be nice to your body. More water, more veggies, go for walks, do deep breathing. Pretty much always a good health intervention.

#15

Hey @Shallimar thanks. I have no clue! Curious to find out if the analogy follows through with physiology too!

Thanks @SarahJustMe - I’ll read through that too.

Exactly - that’s how I’ve been reading it anyway. And ‘normal’ is 1.5-1.9/2 or 150-190/200 as far as I’ve been thinking.

That’s good to know, cheers. I’ll plan on keep an eye on that in the longer term keto-wise to observe if it’s all tip top.

Reassuring to know. It seems that stroke was on the minds of the doctor-on-call (a very good service where a doc comes right out to see you in your home if it’s the middle of the night) and A&E (our version of the ER) because of a family history of stroke and my lateralised body weakness at the time. The trigs result was a surprise that came up during the regular intake screening. In any case, I’m glad i know. Knowledge is power, forewarned is forearmed etc etc.

The only thing that stands out is that I could increase exercise. I’m getting zero and am very tired and sleep excessively - seems to be due to the low cortisol?

This has given me lots of concrete things to ask the doctor, which will help a LOT moving things forward. cheers! No scan of the adrenals yet, so hopefully I can push for that. And a cardiology screen.

You rock. thanks for the clear info and the kindness :slight_smile: For one, I think I’ll up the net carbs to 50 or 60 a day to allow for more veggies in the interim.

Wishing you all the best!

(Chan Cleland) #16

If I understand you had the blood draw two hours after eating high fat meal. I think Mike is correct. You said you are very lean so probably were still trafficking high levels of Trigs in the blood stream for energy delivery. Get a retest with a 12 fast and your numbers might be very different. @DaveKeto has tons of info on this.

#17

Good to know and keep in mind @chan_cleland, thanks for that

I’ll ask my GP if they’ll do this on request - thanks!

Im all ears @DaveKeto! :slight_smile: I’ll also do a search of the name on the forum to see if I can find old threads that you’ve all written

thanks!!

#18

In the US we use mg/dL for cholesterol and blood glucose and mmol/l for ketones. Most of the rest of the world uses mmol/l for their glucose, ketones, and cholesterol.

So a 2.9 reading would be a 52 in the US, Awesome numbers!

#19

I went for a health ins cholesterol test on day 7 of a fast… BAD idea!

#20

hey there, thanks for thinking of a conversion

Check out this site

In the trigs convertor (second one down) it shows that a 2.9 in the UK comes out as a 257 in the US.
Not as bad as 290! But still over 200.

Does this pan out for you @lfod14? I can’t see where the 52 comes from. Maybe that’s for cholesterol? Is that what you mean?

Thanks!!