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fmullen
Sat, Mar-15-03, 13:28
Can anyone tell me what my numbers mean? My doctor says my colesterol is to high and wants me go on medication. I have been following Atkins way of eating for 5 months now and don't understand this. Total is 7.07 (275)- LDL is 4.64 (180)- HDL is 2.14 (80) and my TG are .64 (25). Is there a doctor in the house?
kjturner
Tue, Mar-18-03, 04:09
You doctor would prefer your LDL be 130 or less. 180 is a bit high, but your triglycerides and HDL are great! Do you know what your 'risk ratio' is? I should think it would be well inside the 'normal' limits. That's more important. From what all I've read as long as the triglycerides are really low and the HDL is high (ideal ratio is HDL equal to or higher than Triglycerides--which yours certainly are) then the body tends to make less harmful LDL. Frankly, I think you're doing just great! Want some help making a decision? Go here:
http://www.nursespdr.com/members/database/ndrhtml/atorvastatin.html
...and read the side-effects....this is for Lipitor, which is the most commonly prescribed medication for lowering cholesteral.
Or this:
http://www.nursespdr.com/members/database/ndrhtml/simvastatin.html
...this is for Zocor....
Also check out: http://www.mercola.com/article/statins.htm
Read some of these articles here as well. Then make up your own mind.
Me? My totals were reading around the 262 mark with LDL of about 156. I nixed the statin drugs my doc wanted to put me on. Within a year all my numbers changed and now he leaves me alone because my numbers are now near perfect. And, yes, I eat butter, cream, cheese, and red meats....
doreen T
Tue, Mar-18-03, 08:28
hi there fmullen,
You might want to review this post about cholesterol and triglyceride values, and what the numbers mean, in this thread ... Cholesterol and understanding it's numbers? (http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=847079#post847079) .. I've included non-US reference values ;)
Briefly:
total chol. - below 5.2 is desirable, over 6.2 is high
LDL ("bad") - below 3.3 is desirable, over 4.1 is high
HDL ("good") - over 1.55 is desirable, below 0.9 is poor risk
triglyceride - below 2.3 is desirable
~~~~~~~~~~
LDL/HDL ratio - below 2.3 is low, over 5.6 is high. Yours works out to 2.16 .. which is low. :thup:
A high HDL is protective against heart disease risk, even in the presence of an elevated LDL.
Kturner is right, your numbers are great. Your dr. will have to come up with a lot more justification for prescribing an expensive drug with potentially harmful side effects than an elevated LDL, especially in light of the excellent HDL, and low triglycerides.
In fact .. there's plenty of research evidence that elevated cholesterol levels in women is NOT and indicator for heart disease risk. And even the levels for men are much higher than what the pharmeceutical companies and AHA are urging drs. to prescribe the drugs for.
Here's a quote from an article by Sally Fallon and Mary G Enig Phd., from the Weston A. Price Foundation:Men who have cholesterol levels over 350 mg/dl are at slightly greater risk for heart disease. For women, there is no greater risk for heart disease, even at levels as high as 1000 mg/dl. In fact, mortality is higher for women with low cholesterol than for women with high cholesterol .
The full article is here .. http://www.westonaprice.org/moderndiseases/hd.html
Doreen
doreen T
Tue, Mar-18-03, 08:30
Here is more information about elevated cholesterol and LDL, from the Drs. Eades of Protein Power.
I’ve been on the plan for awhile and feel better than I ever have. I’ve lost weight, my blood pressure is down and my sugar levels are now normal. My most recent lab tests show that my cholesterol and LDL went up. What am I doing wrong?
First of all, be aware that you are not doing anything wrong. The most consistent finding after people go on our program is that triglycerides drop and HDL, the "good" cholesterol increases. This indicates that your insulin levels have dropped and you have stopped converting excess amounts of sugar into fats as trigylcerides. Cholesterol is a number that is composed of both good and bad fractions, therefore we don’t tend to track it nearly as close as more specific levels of HDL, triglycerides and LDL. LDL cholesterol is made up of different particles that vary from person to person. Depending on the type of particles that predominate, one is said to have either pattern A or pattern B. With pattern A, the LDL is light, fluffy, and relatively large. This pattern is actually thought to be beneficial. With pattern B, the molecule is heavy, dense, and relatively small. This pattern is thought to be detrimental. Pattern B is a partial consequence of excessively elevated triglycerides. When triglycerides go down after the Protein Power Plan has been adopted, a phenomenon called the "beta shift" occurs where LDL is transformed into pattern A. So, paradoxically, even though the level of LDL appears to increase, the type of LDL that is being formed is usually much healthier. The difficult part is that the lab testing to determine your levels of LDL "A" and LDL "B" can only be done in a research laboratory with electrophoresis methods. While we cannot be 100% certain that this is what happened in your case, the research strongly supports this view.
The most important thing is to look at the overall picture. With the Protein Power approach we look at the triglyceride/HDL ratio as one of the best measurements of risk for heart disease. An upper limit of 5 is considered desirable, with anything over that indicating an increased risk. Some measures to help bring down your cholesterol and LDL levels are: stay on the plan (some people panic and feel that the plan is causing the opposite effect), take a "no-flush" niacin 500 mg 2-3 capsules per day, increase your fiber intake with perhaps psyllium seed powder-1-2 TBS mixed in water per day, and avoid excessive saturated fats and trans fats (fried foods and margarine.)
http://eatprotein.com/answers11.htm#11e
fmullen
Tue, Mar-18-03, 19:05
Thanks all, I feel much much better now.
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