Hi,

as stated above. My total cholesterol is freaking high! (I noticed most of the low carbbers varies below 300mg/dl). I'm not sure if that means anything..any advice? My breakdown as below:

Total: 350
HDL: 107
LDL: 243
Trig: 30

I know i should be alarmed as my HDL is relatively high. But my LDL is ridiculously high as well. In addition, my liver AST level is slightly elevated as well (48Ul/L when the range is below 36). My doc said it could be due to my high total cholesterol level.

This is getting alittle disturbing. 2 years back, my readings are perfect (I was under low carb but low fat as well. I started increasing my fat intake about 1 year back).

This is similar to my husband. He's thin and fit and eats well and is not concerned in the least.

LDL and total cholesterol are rather useless (a good amount of Inuit had high TC).

Your Trigylceride/HDL ratio is .28, suggesting you're at very low risk of heart disease.

I agree with Jay. As long as my HDL is high and my Trigs are low, I don't care what the LDL and total numbers are.

In case you were not aware usually your LDL cholesterol is not measured directly but rather calculated through a formula. Low triglyceride numbers are known to skew results.

try out this link, http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~geoff36/LDL_mg.htm

punch your numbers in and notice the wildly different results that you get from the two formulas.

I got 237 and 174.6

Wide variation hunh?

Do you know if your LDL was measured directly?

People with thyroid issues will often have very high LDL readings.

Hi all,
thanks for the reply.

I'm testing my thyroid to see if there's any issue.
Not sure if they did direct testing on my LDL.
My gut feeling is no.

Any idea how can i test my LDL directly?

Thanks!

I've never had a direct LDL test done my self, however its a test your Dr should be able to order.

I am very disappointing in the medical profession, they only do half the job, then get mad when we as patients take an interest in our health and learn about something. I think they feel there authority is challenged.

They almost certainly didn't, since basically they never do. The direct calculation, via either an NMR or VAP test, is pretty expensive.

But one thing it also does is break down your LDL particles, so that you can see how many are pattern-A (large, fluffy, harmless) or pattern-B (small, dense, more dangerous). My TC and LDL were high also (295 and 201) and my doctor was freaked and wanted to put me on statins, to which I said NO WAY. But the NMR test showed it was 90% pattern-A. Yours probably is too, since pattern-A is associated with high HDL and low triglycerides.

In my case I found I was hypothryoid, which can affect cholesterol numbers. I have to go for blood tests next week to see if 7 weeks on Armour thyroid has changed my cholesterol numbers any.

The direct testing of LDL is a fairly expensive test and done very rarely. This was certainly a calculated LDL.