HDL going down, not up
 

Hooray. I just went in for my 5 week check-in with my doctor and here are my numbers:

pounds lost: 12

inches lost:--lots

uric acid--normal
glucose--normal
electrolytes & liver function tests--normal

I'm very pleased overall (results below) but I"m puzzled as to why my HDL might have actually gone down 10 points. I was hoping HDL would either stay the same or go up.

Anybody else have this happen? I use TONS of olive oil, so I'm not sure what else to do to raise my HDL. Suggestions?

Lipid Category---Baseline----5 weeks
HDL----------------52-----------42
LDL---------------166----------140
VLDL---------------20----------10
Triglycerides-------101----------51
Total Chol.---------238---------192
TC/HDL ratio-------4.6----------4.5

Congrats!
 

Good for you! 12 pounds in 5 weeks is pretty darned good. I'm sure there's advice on raising the HDL somewhere on this board - you can find ANYTHING here.

Good job again! :wave:

Lucky, nice numbers :thup:

While your HDL has gone down, your ratio has remained pretty constant. This is a much more important number in the long run. With total cholesterol going down the fall in HDL is consistent; it's not like LDL went up and HDL went down. I would not be overly worried (but then again, I'm not a medical professional, so take that for what it's worth!)

I recently posted in the cholesterol / heart disease forum with my own results looking for information on raising HDL levels (Mine have always been lower, and LC didnt change that - in fact it didnt change anything! Which wasn't a bad thing, all numbers were 'normal'). To make a long story short, there are some good tips / pointers on raising HDL.

The ones that stuck with me are:

- Exercise; intense cardiovascular exercise raises HDL. The magic number seems to be 1200 calories a week from this type of working out.

- Alcohol in moderation. Wine a few times a week will help raise HDL.

- Quit smoking if you smoke. This alone will raise HDL by approx. 7 points.

- Fish! or Fish Oil.

Again, the post contains a lot more information and some good links. I posted back in early November 2002.

HTH
Nat

Wonderful set of numbers
 

THose numbers are such major improvement in so little time! :thup: Congrats! Triglycerides aer supposed to be a more definitive criteria of heart risk for women - more so than HDL/LDL. Keep on shaking them numbers!

Patti

thanks for the support and encouragement.

I hadn't heard about that comment that triglycerides were a better predictor than HDL/LDL for women. I'll try to do some checking around and see what I can find on that.

You guys really keep me going. Thanks.

Nat, your posts are always a great source of information. I like the new photo of you, too.


I'll go back and look for the post you mentioned.

Thank you so much.

Coronary Artery Disease
 

Hi - as a follow-up regarding my statement that Triglycerides are often a more predictive value of cardiac risk in women - this is of course still being studied since women were often thought to not be at risk for heart disease like men, and subsequently there have been very few studies on women, and many women with heart attack were sent home. Also the female hormones play a large role in a women's risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD).

In a chapter from Braunwald, "Heart Disese: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, 6th ed." - "Elevated total cholesterol and LDL levels are only weakly associated with CAD in women and only in women 65 years or younger. Instead, HDL is closely and inversely associated with CAD risk. Triglycerides are an independent predictor of CAD, particularly in older women. Hormone replacement therapy with estrogen increases triglycerides in 20 - 25% of women, especially if their baseline levels were already elevated."

In general this chapter in Braunwald is saying that HDL and triglycerides more indicative for your risk of coronary artery disease than total cholesteral and LDL levels. While you are searching for info on this topic, please share with us. This is an important topic for both men and women - especially on low carbohydrate diet since there is such a significant improvement in most peoples lipids when eating fat and protein, and small amount of carbs. Amazing! Totally the opposite of what the mainstream medical community embraces.

This is not medical advice, and any concerns you have should be directed at your medical doctor or cardiologist.

Oh Happy Day! :rheart: :rheart: :rheart: :rheart: :rheart: :rheart: :rheart: :rheart: :rheart:

Patti

PS - HDL is typically raised with exercise, quiting smoking, and losing weight.

Thank you, Patti, for the clarification. Since I'm one of the women at risk under age 65 (my mom's first heart attack was at 53--she died of another at 64) I suppose I am a person to whom LDL and total cholesterol may also be important.

In the past on low fat diets my HDL always got pretty low--once as low as 27, which was pretty scary to me. I hope on this higher fat (and oh-so-wonderful) WOE I can keep my HDL from dropping too low. I walk 4 miles a day (have been doing that for 13 years) and have lifted weights 2-3 times per week for several years. I quit smoking Sept. 30, 1990 (yessss!) so I am hoping that this time and this way of weight loss will help me maintain a decent HDL level.

I'll post whatever I find on predictive power of various lipid factors as I continue looking.

Thanks for your help and for the reference. I appreciate your taking the time to look it up for us.