Wed, Jan-30-02, 22:28
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Forum Founder
Posts: 37,231
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Plan: LC, GF
Stats: 241/188/140
BF:
Progress: 52%
Location: Eastern ON, Canada
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hi Lessara,
HDL (good) 45 - (over 40 is good ... over 60 is excellent) ... yours has increased, that's good
LDL (bad) 160 - Desirable below 130. 160 is considered high.
total chol. 226 - desirable below 200. 220 is moderate, over 240 is high
Triglyceride levels are more indicative of heart disease risk than cholesterol. Did you have triglyc. checked too? It should be below 200.
Without knowing the triglyceride level, and whether it came down or went up from the last time, it's hard to say. My gut feeling is don't panic.
In Protein Power, the Drs. Eades explain:
Quote:
I’ve been on the plan for awhile and feel better than I ever have. I’ve lost weight, my blood pressure is down and my sugar levels are now normal. My most recent lab tests show that my cholesterol and LDL went up. What am I doing wrong?
First of all, be aware that you are not doing anything wrong. The most consistent finding after people go on our program is that triglycerides drop and HDL, the "good" cholesterol increases. This indicates that your insulin levels have dropped and you have stopped converting excess amounts of sugar into fats as trigylcerides. Cholesterol is a number that is composed of both good and bad fractions, therefore we don’t tend to track it nearly as close as more specific levels of HDL, triglycerides and LDL. LDL cholesterol is made up of different particles that vary from person to person. Depending on the type of particles that predominate, one is said to have either pattern A or pattern B. With pattern A, the LDL is light, fluffy, and relatively large. This pattern is actually thought to be beneficial. With pattern B, the molecule is heavy, dense, and relatively small. This pattern is thought to be detrimental. Pattern B is a partial consequence of excessively elevated triglycerides. When triglycerides go down after the Protein Power Plan has been adopted, a phenomenon called the "beta shift" occurs where LDL is transformed into pattern A. So, paradoxically, even though the level of LDL appears to increase, the type of LDL that is being formed is usually much healthier. The difficult part is that the lab testing to determine your levels of LDL "A" and LDL "B" can only be done in a research laboratory with electrophoresis methods. While we cannot be 100% certain that this is what happened in your case, the research strongly supports this view.
The most important thing is to look at the overall picture. With the Protein Power approach we look at the triglyceride/HDL ratio as one of the best measurements of risk for heart disease. An upper limit of 5 is considered desirable, with anything over that indicating an increased risk. Some measures to help bring down your cholesterol and LDL levels are: stay on the plan (some people panic and feel that the plan is causing the opposite effect), take a "no-flush" niacin 500 mg 2-3 capsules per day, increase your fiber intake with perhaps psyllium seed powder-1-2 TBS mixed in water per day, and avoid excessive saturated fats and trans fats (fried foods and margarine.)
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I encourage their advice that you cut back on the saturated fat from red meat, high fat dairy (heavy cream, cheese, sour cream) and poultry skin. But don't go lowFAT ... Eat leaner cuts of meat, x.lean ground meats, skinless poultry, smaller amounts of cheese. Then what you do is increase the amount of monounsaturated fat .. use more olive and canola oil. Have avocados and raw nuts (not peanuts) and seeds .. almonds. walnuts, sunflower seeds, etc. Toast them yourself at home. Dry-roast would be ok ... the oil-roasted kind often uses hydrogenated oil (transfats). Monounsaturated fats will help to increase the HDL (good) cholesterol, which is very protective.
Doreen
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Cholesterol newbie
As well, decreased insulin levels mean that the liver isn't being triggered to MAKE triglycerides all the time.
Nurse called me
Linear Mode
