I would love to get my HDL to 100!

Exactly what Nancy wrote. Dr Westman will see trigs drop very quickly in his patients, while for those who stay LC, the HDL will continue to rise slowly over time. Mine has been over 100 the past 18 months. It is the low carb diet that improves HDL. I take an Omega 3 supplement from Trader Joe's providing 1200 EPA and DHA plus Vit D, but it is more likely that the good fats in food and removing the carbs drive the lipid improvements.

The higher my good fat intake and the lower my carb intake, the better I feel and the leaner I get. I don't have any family members or friends who are into the low carb lifestyle, so I usually don't say much about it. If they knew how much fat I consume they would be shocked.
I wish I could get my husband to follow my lead. He is addicted to carbs. He thinks he is healthy because of his low cholesterol (total runs around 150) but his HDL is too low (40).

I thought I would update this thread. My latest cholesterol tests from 3/5/15:

Total 240
LDL 141
HDL 91
Triglycerides 36

This time my doctor called me and practically screamed into the phone "your numbers are too high!". I politely told him I wouldn't take a statin, then told him I would "work on my diet".
My husband went ballistic too. Every year we get a cardiovascular screening at the hospital and every year I am told that I have no plaque or signs of cardiovascular disease but my husband is now convinced that I am a heart attack waiting to happen. I don't know what to do to convince him otherwise.

So happy you updated this thread! So let's see, in two years your HDL has gone up a bit higher (excellent), your Trigs fallen even lower (amazingly excellent) and your total and LDL have barely moved (within typical lab statistical variances, and mostly due to the other two improvements ) An your doctor is upset? Does he realize that total and LDL are a calculated formula off the measurable serum components which improved? These are perfect...and no wonder I like the numbers...very similar to my panel😄

Your doctor like so many quoted on this sub-forum, seems not to have read the new ACC/AHA guidelines to prescribing statins. The move is away from using an LDL number unless it is over 190 or 160..and you are not even close. It has broadened the risks factors that do snare more people with changing the prescribing guidelines to risk factors like obesity, diabetes, etc...none of which you appear to have.

https://www.cardiosmart.org/heart-c...nes/cholesterol. (new numbers in medications section)

Maybe you should buy him a copy of Cholesterol Clarity?, but since he hasn't even read the new guidelines, maybe some short article😃. Quite a few good ones posted here in the past two years.
Here's one: http://authoritynutrition.com/diet-...eins-explained/

Wishing you continued good health with your excellent blood work.

Janet,

Thank you for your response. I really appreciate your assessment I think my doctor is in denial of the recent changes in the guidelines. It doesn't help that the hospital that he is affiliated with has set their own guideline, where they want to see total cholesterol between 140-199 (!!!) and LDL <100. Clearly they just want to diagnose more people with a disease. Even our insurance is more on board with the new guidelines and they suggest a total cholesterol of <239, which I thought was pretty reasonable. Our doctor has to fill out a form for our insurance with our cholesterol numbers. When he told me mine was way too high I mentioned the insurance form which recommends <239 and he just started stammering and sounding confused. Then he looked at the form and muttered something like "it's still too high"...
I think I will print something out about the new guidelines and send it to him.