Hello everyone, I have been Atkinsing for a year now. I have lost 20 pounds with 10-15 to go, but have been on "temporary maintenance" for about 6 months with a plan to lose more in 2017. Before I started this great way of life my doctor put me on 10mg of Lipitor for a Cholesterol level slightly above 200. Six months later, my level was 167, then I began Atkins. Six months later my level was 166, then cut the dosage in half to 5 mg. Six months later, December 2016, my reading was 160. Around this time I cut out caffeine completely (coffee and diet pepsi), but started decaff coffee in the mornings. Around this time I started donating blood/platelets, so my blood was being tested more often. A week after my December bloodtest for the doctor, my donation test showed a reading of 171. A week later, it showed 183. Three weeks later, 2 days ago, it showed 191. I googled decaff coffee and read articles that it can raise bad cholesterol between 10 and 15 %. Any thoughts or comments? I will be discussing with my doctor but wanted to run it by you folks also, thanks.

Drink the good stuff. I don't know how much coffee you drink but in moderation coffee is not bad.

Me? Confessed coffee-holic. No advice on that!

Also x-treme prejudice against measuring cholesterol and "fixing" it with statins.

Recommend you continue personal research to make a decision.

Maybe The Great Cholesterol Myth by Jonny Bowden et al.

Hi. I would browse our Cholesterol/Heart Disease forum. What was your HDL? My cholesterol is a hair over 200 but my HDL is sky high. Neither doctor I've seen was concerned, nor should they be. My LDL looks elevated, but you have to take the number with a grain of salt because the calculation is inaccurate for people with miniscule triglyceride numbers like LCers tend to have.

I switched to decaf coffee, also. Not sure if it affects my number or not - I wasn't drinking coffee at all the last time I was tested.

Can you handle some caffeine? If you only drink it in the mornings, most people don't have much of a problem with it... and plenty of Atkins folks never did give up caffeine completely.

(ETA) I went a-googling to see if I could figure out why decaf specifically would affect lipid profile. From this page:

Hi Kristine, thanks for the response. I can change back to caffeine coffee, and I may. I do not know my HDL, since the blood bank only measures total cholesterol. I just found an article that says that platelet/plasma donations can increase HDL and lower LDL levels in certain individuals, so now there is another factor to consider. My next donation is Jan. 18th so I will get another reading. In the meantime I will switch morning coffee but stay away from the diet pepsi and go from there. I have email'd my doctor for his thoughts, but have not heard back yet.

How do they test at the clinic? Is your doctor using the same method? What is the accuracy of the test?



http://www.gpnotebook.co.uk/simplepage.cfm?ID=-80412606



I read on another site that in one study, participants had on average cholesterol 7 mg/dl higher in December than in June. I know my diet and lifestyle change considerably in the winter months, that's liable to have an effect.

Hi Teaser, thanks for your response. I do not know how the tests are done. I get my blood tested at Quest in June and December and meet with my doctor a week later to review the results. The blood bank draws 3 vials before the donation actually takes place. These vials are tested for infectious diseases and that is when the cholesterol is measured. Two to three days after donation, you can check your online account to get the results. I just found out that Walgreens will test your blood and measure LDL and HDL for $30. After a couple of more results from the blood bank, I may go do that just to get more detail. In the meantime, I went back to 10mg of Lipitor, just as a safety net.

Looks like your total number is quite *low* compared to what most folks around here think is a good number. As others have said, you might like reading some of the threads over in the Cholesterol and Heart Disease section, like:
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=466506

or this group of articles:
https://www.diigo.com/list/iamzute/...erol-skepticism

You need to know our numbers separately. That one number doesn't tell the story.
You should be able to call dr and get the individual numbers.. That will tell you more.

As for Coffee, I can't live without it..

Your total doesn't matter within reason, the breakdown is what is important, and sometimes even that isn't a great marker. Half your LDL isn't even bad! Remember the 200 limit is just a number that a select few doctors came up with to decide than can stick you on a staten. Hopefully your off lipitor completely at that point. On the coffee front, get off decaf. Remember, there is NO SUCH THING as decaf coffee! Coffee has caffeine, their chemically removing it (kinda) which is always iffy. Coffee has many health benefits and unless you've determined that caffeine has an adverse reaction in you, than just drink the good stuff. I've never seen a person that actually has BP or Cholesterol issues from coffee in over a decade of being or talking to other low carbers. You should read the book cholesterol clarity from Jimmy Moore, strongly recommended.