I got my first ever, shiny-new lipid panel. Along with the results, the nurse said to stick to a low-carb diet but also do low-cholesterol.

Here's the results
TC - 212
HDL - 44
TG - 75
LDL - 153

Well, I knew that LDL under 100 breaks the formula. The Iranian method has me at 139.

She's giving one year to lower my LDL below 130. I think my HDL is low because of my crap eating for the past several weeks. Seems like I'll do just fine if I up the HDL and lower the TG a bit more. Any advice on how to do this?

I think it's triglycerides under 100, not LDL, that makes the usual calculation off, but no matter. She's giving you one year to lower your LDL below 130? Or what? She gives you a Lipitor-and-pickle juice enema?

Yeah, your HDL is probably just temporarily down. What's your typical menu like lately? Quality saturated fat will get the HDL up and will raise the LDL but improve the ratio. My notes say the LDL to HDL ratio should be less than 4.3, yours is at 3.15 (using the Iranian figure you gave, 139).

Keep us posted!

Thanks for the correction. Yes, tris under 100. Is there a general brain function panel I can ask for?

The "or what" is indeed statins. All the women in my family she's treated have high LDL, so she's thinking hypercholesterol(emia? spelling fail). Not sure why she would think a healthy 20-something needs statins to drop 23 points, but that will be her mandate if it's not below 130 next year. She's quite statin happy.

Here's yesterday's menu. This is pretty (embarrassingly) standard since we started the last round of respiratory ick in January.

Breakfast: 2 eggs, bacon, sauage, 1 cup wilted spinach + splash heavy cream, donut (d'oh)
Lunch: japanese currey (chicken + stir fry veggies + potatoes + unknown delicious sauce), basmati rice
Dinner: chipotle steak bowl (rice + steak + lettuce + cheese)

Could be worse but it could be a whoooole lot better.

Oh, you're under the weather? There's some kind of coughing bug going around here too. Switch to pure chicken broth if possible, you might avoid the mystery ingredients (& rice, natch) in the curry & chipotle bowls (keep steak). Those sound like they would clear out the lungs/sinuses though. You know what to do about breakfast. After recovery carry on w/continung LC and I would bet on your lipids optimizing.

Hmm, your call on the hypercholestaemia - do you mean familial hypercholestemia (sp?) This page says FH is LDL of 220 or more in adults.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001429/.

If you don't feel that's a risk for you, tell Nurse Statin you got a big bucket o'No for her on that issue

Taubes Why We Get Fat page 187


I'd worry more about the HDL.

Statins do nothing for women. Not only that, didn't she read that they cause birth defects? Why even think of giving these to a young woman?

http://www.cholesterol-and-health.c...nant-Women.html