Take a look at my cholesterol

[ginger100]

I began Atkins the week after Easter, had blood work done about 3 weeks ago, got the report yesterday. I don't eat much sausage or bacon, work out pretty consistently. Prior to Atkins, had perfectly normal scores. Now, I do plan to call my dr., but what do you think of these results?

total cho. 274
ldl 186
hdl 7.9
triglycerides 44

that's all the info she's given me about the results.

[doreen T]

total cholesterol 274 .. over 240 is high
ldl 186 .... over 159 is high
triglyceride 44 ... below 200 is healthy
hdl .. 7.9 ?? Do you mean 79? if so, then that's great .. over 60 is desirable and protective against heart disease. If instead you mean the hdl ratio .. well, total cholest/hdl over 4.6 is high .... ldl/hdl over 5.6 is high.

There are a few possibilities why your total and ldl cholesterol might be elevated. First, had you been fasting for at least 8 to 10 hours (except for water) prior to the test? Eating food will skew the results. Caffeine and nicotine will elevate the levels, so if you had some coffee and/or if you smoke (or use the patch or chew nicotine gum ;)) the readings will be high.

Saturated fat in bacon and sausage (or any other animal source) isn't a factor in elevated cholesterol levels unless your carbohydrate intake is high thus causing insulin levels to also be high. Insulin stimulates the liver to produce cholesterol and to convert fatty acids to triglycerides for storage. Trans fats from margarine, vegetable shortening and other processed fats are more likely culprits. Sausages and bacon may cause other concerns though, due to salt, nitrates, sugar and wheat crumbs used as fillers.

The Drs. Eades of Protein Power offer an explanation why cholesterol and ldl may go up when following a LC program: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.)

http://eatprotein.com/answers11.html#11eIf your hdl is actually 79 ... then your triglyceride/hdl ratio is 0.56 which is fine.

hth :)

Doreen

[ginger100]

Thanks for the reply, Doreen. 1st, yes I did fast according to test directions, including no caffeine. I don't smoke or use the patch. 7.9, not 79, is actually what the report says for hdl, but it doesn't refer to a ratio. I am interpreting that as my hdl = 7.9.

I've seen the reference to that PP quotation in the past. I'm going to ask to have the test repeated, but I really don't know what to think right now. :confused:

[snaggle]

hey ginger, you may have already talked to the dr, but I am pretty sure there was a typo on your results and that the hdl # is actually 79, not7.9. The way the total is arrived at is to add the hdl and the ldl and divide the triglyceride # by 5 (which gives you the vldl, the third component of the total.) If you do that and use 79 as the third #, it adds up perfect. Anyway, your #'s are very similar to mine and I was actually freaked out at first (and my dr. still is) but the more research I do, the more it looks like our ratios are excellent and that we have nothing to worry about. Furthermore, I am not going to let my dr. put me on statins. I have been eating this way for a while and bet that my hdl and trig. #'s were way worse before, although this was my first test.

[KerryLou]

I had my cholesterol checked in my 4th month on Atkins and the results really scared me. My Doctor and I had a fight about the statins he wanted to put me on. I changed Doctors and started taking Red Yeast Rice, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, CoQ10, L-Carnitine and L-Lysine.

I re-checked my lipids after two months with the new supplements (continuing with LC) and had dropped by almost 100 for the total... My new Doctor was very impressed and said he'd never seen any drop like that before.

before ---> after two months
Total: 340 --> 245
LDL: 264 --> 170
HDL: 64 --> 61
TG: 68 --> 54

Hang in there. There are alot of good LC books out there that help with this subject.

Good Luck.

[Sheldon]

Doreen--

I'm curious where the cholesterol standards that you provided come from. They are different from the usual standards.

Also, when the Eadeses say that the TG/HDL ratio shouldn't be over 5, I assume you mean 5.0 rather than 0.5. Am I right? Mine is 0.8, that is, 55/68, which I believe is good. Let me know if I am mistaken.

Thanks.

Sheldon