So, I called my Dr and asked for my cholesterol labs to be checked in December as - I've met my deductable for the year. I will need refills on meds in January.

Drum roll please:

Cholesterol 163
Triglycerides 95
HDL () 33
LDL (calculated) 111

That is a VERY low triglyceride number for me.

Awesome! It's the sweet smell of vindication, isn't it?

Maybe they just caught your HDL on an 'off' day.

Hello, Nancy or anybody, what do you think about those numbers?

Well . . . I hate to rain on your parade, I truly do, but these are not very good numbers. They indicate the existence of inflammation and the beginning of heart disease.

Let me try to explain. First, you already know that HDL is a crucial number and yours is very low. Second, TG's are also very important, and yours are still a bit high. However, the most telling number is the ratio between TG and HDL. If you Google this ratio you'll discover that cardiologists are using it as one of the defining numbers for heart disease risk, followed by APO B/APO A-1.

Low risk for both ratios is .9 -- and every .10 above that indicates higher risk. Although we don't know your APO B/APO A-1 (a blood test that measures how small -- and therefore deadly -- your LDL molecules are or are not), it tends to track with TG/HDL. My TG/HDL ratio is .53, for instance, and my APO B/APO A-1 ratio is .56 -- each of which is half of the lowest risk. It means that I have Pattern A LDL -- light, fluffy and very heart-protective molecules. And my LDL is 153, so the total number matters much less than what the molecules look like.

So, what's your TG/HDL ratio? 95/33 = 2.9 -- almost three times the lowest risk. Which means that your LDL is very likely Pattern B -- the most dangerous kind, since the molecules are small enough to slip beneath the arterial lining and cause a build-up of plaque. It's the eruption of this plaque that causes a heart attack.

Furthermore, it has been proven that very low total cholesterol, especially for women, is not a good thing but a bad thing. Again, there's a wealth of information about this on the net, and you may want to start researching it. My TC is now 290, but as you can see from my ratios my arteries are in great, flexible, unclogged shape.

I would suggest that you have your doctor order a VAP panel ASAP, which will measure all your LDL lipids (there are five of them), and give you a better picture of what's going on. As will the C-Reactive Protein test, which measures arterial inflammation. Anything 1 or lower is great. Mine is .6 (I don't think it's a coincidence that all my ratios are almost identical). I suspect yours will be nearly 3 and you should get that test immediately.

There are lots of things that can turn this picture around though, so please don't panic. First, make sure you are supplementing with enough Vit. D to bring your level up to 50-70. I take 5000 iu a day. Do you know what your level is from your last blood test?

Second, make sure you are supplementing with fish oil, specifically one that has more DHA than EPA. That will be expensive, but you need it. Swanson Vitamins has the cheapest I've ever seen on this.

Third, make sure you are eating enough fat, especially saturated fat from animals and dairy. Lard, butter, suet, coconut oil, cream. I try to eat at least 150g daily at a minimum.This will raise your overall cholesterol to a better number overall, and help change your LDL from Pattern B to Pattern A, as will the fish oil and Vitamin D.

I wish I could have had better news, but if you get the tests you need and begin the supplementation and diet changes, those numbers can quickly get into a great range.

Lisa

I think Camaromom is diabetic, if I recall properly. And I know diabetics seem to have trouble getting the trigs down. Depending on how low carb you are and how consistent, then the trigs are definitely higher than I'd expect in a normal low-carber. And the HDL is pretty low too. That means that you might have pattern B LDL, which is bad. It's the small, dense sort that gets stuck in the epithelium of the heart and causes ruptures and stuff.

So yeah, it might be a good idea to get a VAP or NMR and see what pattern of LDL you have.

You might want to check into Dr. Davis's blog or join the Track Your Plaque program. They use diet (low carb), supplements, thyroid treatment if needed, to get things back in order. I know Ralph from the diabetes forum is doing that and he is very happy with his progress.

I had PCOS and was being treated for amenorrhea & TTC so I was on Metformin. Got preggers with ds who is now 8 and was on insulin 4 days after finding out I was pregnant. All blood sugars returned to normal after delivery, but endo kept me on the Metformin. We stopped it when my weight hit 145 and HgbA1C was 4.2. No weight loss for over a year. Endo had me go back on the metformin. Coincidence or not - I lost 10 more lbs.

I am currently on:
Crestor
Lopid
Lovaza - the prescription type fish oil.
(Don't blast me for using the statins).

Those are seriously about the best numbers I've had and I've been doing this since 2004. At one time my cholesterol total was 714, and my triglycerides were >2,000 and no that is not a mistype.
That is why I was asking awriter about thyroid the other day.
Carbs vary from 20-80 g/day, but more toward the 30 range. Oh, trust me I eat plenty of sat. fat. Add butter to my eggs daily, use CO, do not trim fat from meats etc.
I had a CRP done a couple of years ago and it was great. Nothing recent.
Barb

I'm wondering if the reason that your LDL is so high and HDL so low is because of the statin drugs? Sure, they may lower total cholesterol but because of them being "drugs" it's not natural and hence the reason for the high LDL. My mom had high cholesterol. It was over 400. She tried statin drugs. They made her so irritable and she got pain all over her body from them. She managed to get her cholesterol down to 240. She never had heart disease. She followed a low fat diet. I fear that the low fat diet did contribute to cancer that she developed. But she was always so worried about her cholesterol and it never caused her any heart disease. I think chloesterol levels are individual and people shouldn't strive for a certain number. Personally I think 163 is way too low. Dr.'s Eades feel that 200 is perfect and people shouldn't go below that.