hi ya'll

i got my labs back today. some of this stuff i can't make heads or tails of though and i'm hoping ya'll can help me not only figure it out, but help me figure out as well how to get my cholesterol levels in the proper ranges.

my DH said " it's no wonder with that diet you've been on"

my family has been supportive of my weight loss, but still believe the diet is damaging, because i got that from DH and commentary on all the bad fat i eat from mom.

anyway, here is what it says



total cholesterol - 200 mg/dL (says under 200 is desireable, so borderline)

triglycerides - 89 mg/dL (says under 150 is ideal so this one is good right?)

HDL cholesterol - 29 mg/dL (good cholesterol, less than 45 for women, low)

LDL cholesterol - 153 mg/dL (bad cholesterol, less than 100 is ideal, so high)


kidney/creatine - 0.7 mg/dL (says normal < - 1.2)

glucose fasting - 81 mg/dL (says normal 60-99)

liver test (ALT) - 33 U/L (says normal < -36 )

TSH - 0.9 uIU/mL (says normal 0.2 - 5.5)

blood cell count

white blood cells - 6.4 K/uL (says normal 3.5 - 12.5)

red blood cells - 4.80 M/uL (says normal 3.60 - 5.70)

hemoglobin - 14.4 g//dL (says 11.5 - 15 is normal)

hematocrit - 41.9% (says 34% - 46% is normal)

MCV - 87 fL ( says 80 to 100 is normal)

platelet count - 436 K/uL (says 140 - 400 is normal, so this one is high?)



blood cell review

neutrophils - 54% (50-100)

lymphocytes - 39% (20-50)

monocyte - 5% (1-14)

eosinophil - 2% (0-4)

basophil - 1% (0-2)

any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you

I do know that some of your numbers aren't good, but that's really irrelevant without knowing what they were before. You already know your cholesterol numbers are bad.......But you have to take them with a grain of salt if you don't have your numbers from BEFORE you started Atkins. Not sure anyone's going to be able to shed any light for you without previous figures to compare these to. For instance, your total cholesterol is 200 which is bad, but if your cholesterol was previously 280, then 200 is a definite improvement! Wish I could be more help, but comparison is vital to telling whether Atkins is helping you.......IMHO

You glucose (blood sugar) is wonderful! This puts you in a low-risk category for diabetes.

You HDL is low, but the good news is that this is easily raised for most folks. Exercise (cardio) will do a lot, as will increasing your Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil caps, eating oily fish, using flax seeds and/or flaxseed oil in your cooking).

Your LDL (bad cholesterol) could be better, but isn't bad.

Your triglycerides are fine.

Your hemoglobin/hematocrit numbers are good which means your blood can move plenty of oxygen.

The good news is: This all looks quite fine.

The truth is, however, we don't really know how important any of these numbers are (other than the glucose which is only accurate if one is fasting) to overall health in the long run. We do know that having less body fat overall puts one in better risk categories for all sorts of diseases from gastroesophageal reflux to heart disease to diabetes to....who knows?

You're doing great. You're down 32 lbs. Keep eating what you're eating, maybe add some fish/flax, and go for a walk.

hello awordqueen

thank you for responding

unfortunately i didn't get labs before i started. i had thought about it, but the truth of it is i am pretty much doctor and needle phobic, and didn't go until i started feeling bad almost all of the time. now, i wish i would have. i'm betting though that they were alot worse before, had to have been just with the sheer amount of sugar i was consuming but with no true way of knowing, all i can do is continue trying for improvement and retest after some time passes.

i'm glad none of the numbers look too bad, but, i was also hoping something would show why i feel so lousy all of the time.

there was of course some suggestions for improving cholesterol numbers, but really, some don't fit this woe at all, and i don't wish to switch woe's unless future testing proves it is beneficial to do so.

here were the suggestions for improving cholesterol numbers


total cholesterol:

quit smoking
eat healthy foods
be physically active for 30 minutes each day to control cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease



Triglycerides:

limit high fat foods
limit high levels of starches
overeating
excessive alchohol

HDL "good" cholesterol:

quit smoking
choose low fat foods
be physically active



LDL "bad" cholesterol:

no specific recommendation other than levels under 70 are sometimes recommended for people at extreme rish of heart attack.

all the other numbers looked to be in range, so i'm not going to worry about those.

thank you again for your help i really appreciate it

my opinion: cholesterol numbers are indicative of very little - read some of the research, people with low numbers have heart attacks, people with high numbers live to be 100 - I don't think the medical people understand it yet. I strongly suspect that the frenzy within the medical community to lower cholesterol is an effort to push the statin drugs - big money! (and no, I don't think a total cholesterol of 300 is good - but now docs want below 200.... maybe next year below 150.... I think I read that cancer victims have low cholesterol, don't know if it's a contributing factor or a side effect).

If you look at Protein Power (Eades) they have a formula for comparing the numbers, and they claim (with research to back up the claim) that you want to achieve certain ratios rather than worrying about the numbers themselves. And (if I remember correctly) the higher the HDL the better that ratio is (my HDL was over 100 last time, total cholesterol over 200 - but still quite good because of the ratio).

I think it says more to start tracking these numbers and see how yours are doing - a rise in LDL might well be something to be concerned about, etc.

Your fasting blood sugar is good - but there again, I think you need more than one number - maybe borrow someone's glucometer and test yourself for a week (that is, if you're concerned about diabetes).

Your TSH number - I know there's been lots of discussion about it over the years (here?) - that's another number that I think standard western medicine doesn't have a good handle on.....

hmmm - if you're a smoker (looks like it?) then why don't you try that one change - bound to make you feel much better - I'm aware of how hard it is to break that addiciton, but maybe now is the time?

hello mammac-5

thank you for coming in

i'm so happy the glucose number is good. it ought to have been, it was a 16 hour fast! diabetes is rampant in our family and i don't want it! i've been sugar free for over a year now and am really happy to be. my mom had a meter and i check from time to time. my only confusion on that comes frome feel ing hypoglycemic in the 70's sometimes. didn't used to happen until the 60's before this woe and according to proper guidelines, i shouldn't even feel that way in the 70's. still trying to puzzle that one out.

thank you for telling me how i can raise the HDL level. i'm just going to make myself get those fish caps in. i really have a ton of supplements, but have difficulty swallowing them, so i have been off of most of them for at least a month. i do get in flax foods pretty regularly though, so hopefully that helps.

i really appreciate your reassurances thank you so much

i'm trying to get rid of that body fat for sure! i'm right proud of the 32 pounds, but i had been stuck for something like 9 months. i'm back on track now, but only because i got the flu and it changed things for me now i've got a cold on the tail end of the flu. it's been one darn thing after another! joined a gym last month too so i am getting the exercise in (till flu that is) i love going to the gym! can't wait to get back to it!

thank you again, you're awesome!

i will pick up where i left of there, but i wanted to know anyway since we are on the subject now how is it smoking affects cholesterol exactly? i know it restricts blood flow and oxygen levels, but the cholesterol itself, i'm not sure how that part fits in, unless cholesterol is a code word for one of those previously mentioned

ny mom, just said yet again, that the reason my bad cholesterol is 153 is dietary fat. when i said no, she said "OKAY" in that mother tone.

i'm willing. i'll retest, give me a decent time period to pass before doing it again friends. if it is the same or worse, i'll switch woe's.

i'll be damned if i'll be happy about doing low fat though

hello BKM

i have been seeing that around lately, about the incidences of heart attacks, and cholesterol numbers. i thought it was that 50% of people that have heart attacks don't have high cholesterol. i can tell you this though, i have no intention of using any statin drugs, and i'm pretty sure at this time, nothing is out of whack enough to warrant it. i hope what you mentioned about cancer isn't a proven fact yet. cancer runs in our family even wo0rse that diabetes and heart attacks. before my mom and her brother got diabetes and had heart attacks, everyone in the family before them, and i mean everyone, died of cancer

i do have a copy of protien power and just started reading it a couple of days ago. i haven't gotten that far into it yet, but am eager to now can't wait to check out the ratio. thank you for cluing me in

i am going to start tracking these numbers now. i need some idea though of how soon to do this again for comparison. i use my mom's glucometer sometimes, with this woe, the numbers are always good now. never high, occasionally low. as long as it isn't showing any tendancy towards prediabetes, i'm all good with that

i am hoping nancy LC will be in here to chime in on the TSH number. i don't think it was the free t thing she had mentioned, but on the explaination of labs, it does show in the normal range.

thank you for your help and advice BKM i really appreciate it ya'll are awesome for helping me straighten this out

Does it matter?
It causes lung cancer. It's known to be harmful.
What's the point of losing all the weight you want to lose if you're never going to be able to breathe right?

While I don't fully understand the science, and it may be unfounded in terms of the correlation, it's still good advice.

Here's at least one supporting document from PubMed.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...l=pubmed_docsum
Tobacco Smoke == Acute Reduced HDL

hello hogarth

no, it doesn't matter, it's still dangerous regardless, but i asked because i was curious. if the information is not known, well then, it's not known. never hurts to ask though. i used to be one of those that wouldn't have asked, now, i do.

being a smoker for many years now, not only am old enough and have been a smoker long enough to start feeling the effects, but i get plenty of advice on how bad it is from cigarette packages , RN's, family, and friends, as i am sure most smokers do. unfortunately, it doesn't really factor into my desire and so far unsucessful attempts to quit, but i am fairly aware of how bad it is. i just have never heard it referenced in terms of cholesterol levels before now.

i'm sure i will have to try many times before i am sucessful at quitting, and i do plan to.

i only wish it was as easy as switching to this woe was,

i only wish i had never started to begin with

i only wish the reason i ever started in the first place wasn't so damn stupid.

wishing isn't worth a peck of salt though, i'll just have to keep working at it

thank you for stopping in have a super great day

oh, and thank you very much for the link

i've spent much of the day reading protein power. it is quite complicated and alot to absorb, at least to me. i don't entirely understand the ratio thing for cholesterol levels, but i did get the basics of how statins reduce cholesterol and how one can get their own body to reduce cholesterol. right now i am trying to outline all the ways protein power and atkins are different from each other. this may take awhile

i hope everyone has a nice evening

Here are a few links that discuss the effects of smoking on cholesterol levels:

http://www.cardioconnection.org/fra...ter/faq/faqD#10

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...8&dopt=Abstract


Bottom line is this (and I say this as a former pack and a half a day smoker for 25 years): if you are really interested in improving those numbers, quitting smoking is probably the biggest thing you can do that will have the largest impact on those numbers and if you continue to smoke, dietary changes will only produce minimal improvement.