Hey, so I did my baseline just over a year ago, about 3 weeks prior to starting Atkins.

My Triglycerides were 93, my HDL was 45, and my LDL was 143.

Now, I year later, my Triglycerides are 403, my HDL is 47, and my LDL is 338. Ack!

My doctor is in a panic, says 100% it's Atkins fault, and wants me to stop immediately, go low fat, and start on cholesterol medication.

The thing is, though, I just don't buy it one tiny bit - Atkins has changed my life, I feel 1000% better, I have dropped 67lbs, and I do NOT eat hardly any of the foods that my doctor now recommends I drop.

I have been following Atkins recomendations for Candida, as that immediately cleared up all my health problems, such as severe sinus congestion, sinus infection, and chronic sore throats that I have been suffering with for most of my life.

This means that my diet consists of Atkins induction, but without any dairy, cheese, milk, butter, eggs, mushrooms, or anything aged/fermented/dried, such as nuts, tea, vinegar, any grains except flax seeds, or ANY type of artificial sweetner, including splenda, sugar not, and stevia.

Any of the above immediately causes my congestion symptoms to pop back up so severely I gladly pass on all of the above and feel great as a result.

I generally eat around 5-10 carbs per day, with most of those coming from vegetables, especially spinach, but also brocoli, celery, lettuce, kale, celery, and celantro. I eat lots of fish, especially tuna fish, and lots of chicken, such as frozen chicken breasts or whole roasted chicken from the grocery store. I usually eat ground turkey instead of beef, simply because I was raised as a vegetarian and never quite aquired a taste for ground beef, but I do enjoy a good grilled steak every couple weeks (too expensive). I don't eat any pork, because it totally grosses me out. I eat a lot of canned salmon, canned tuna, canned sardines. I was originally eating them with mayonaise, but discovered that the eggs in mayonaise made me nausious, so now I eat them with a little sauerkraut, relish, and mustard, despite the minor flair-up in congesion as a result of the fermented stuff.

A typical breakfast would be a can of tuna or salmon, prepared as above, the same for lunch, probably swapping the tuna for the salmon or vice versa, and then I cook almost all my meals at home - main entree/meet/protein of chicken, fish, or beef, and then usually a spinach salad. In the beginning, I had used the lighthouse country ranch dressing, but dropped it because it contains both a small amount of sugar, is fermented, and contains eggs, the combination of the 3 just making it not worth it - I eat my salad with the meat for flavor, and this works fine for me.

I am quite happy with my diet, and see this as something I can sustain for a lifetime. Sure, most other people couldn't do it, but they also don't get immediately sick for a week for straying just enough for a bite of cheese. I have suffered most of my life with this congestion problem, have been to dozens of doctors to no avail, and am SO absolutely extatic that my health has been better than it has been in many, many years that the extreme diet restrictions are a tiny price to pay.

So, all of the above makes me think that these cholestorol numbers are INSANE - to the tune of there must be some mistake in the testing or SOMETHING, because I just don't see my diet as even the slightest bit unhealty. My doctor says I need to follow all these low-cholesterol guidlines, such as no eggs, no cheese, no blah blah blah - all things that I already don't eat.

I also already take an atkins basic 3 multiple, plus the atkins EFAs, plus I eat flax seed crackers with my tuna for fiber, and take vitamin c and CoQ10 as well.

What gives?? This huge spike in my cholesterol makes no sense whatsoever. It is SO frusterating to have all the naysayers telling me over the past year "ooh, atkins, evil, your cholesterol is going to go up and your heart is going to explode, blah blah blah"....I've always just shrugged them off and said "you'll see", and right about now I feel like the joke is on me. I can understand how the butter-fat-hamburger diet could be bad, but I just can't comprehend what is wrong with what I am eating.

I do not take any drugs or medication.

Oh, and I exercise as well, I'm a very active persion, I mountain bike, I rollerblade, I climb mountains, I back pack, I walk daily at work, I play tennis, I snowboard. I'm 26, I have no history of cholesterol problems in the family.

What the heck????

And yes, I fasted - the first time I went in for a full physical they forgot to tell me to fast, so I had to come back a week later for them to do it again.

My doc says medication, medication, medication, and I say no way!

But I have no alternative to offer him...

Help!

Thanks.

Did you fast for 10-12 hours before the test? Eating anything will give large values for triglicerides and LDL. I would get a retest as the values reported do not seem right if the test was done correctly.

I had heard the 10-12hr number, so even though my doc said 8 hours I went 11...

Do you really think 11 vs. 15 hours would make such a big difference?

I have been under an insane amount of stress over the past year, worse in the past 5 months....I read elsewhere that stress can cause spiked in cholesterol, is that true? If so, would that account for such an insane jump in numbers?

My first thought is you might have a bad test period. It happens. Drinks lots of water, fast, and try it again.

Larry

Get another test, perhaps at a diferent lab and see what the results are.

Hmmm, after reading about what you are eating, it is possible that you are not eating enough fat to bring your trigs down. Your doctor and others are yelling about your diet because they think that you are eating nothing but meat, eggs and cheese. What your doctor is telling you to eat, you are already eating. It seems to me, that your doc has no idea what has spiked your lipids. It is unscientific/unprofessional to blame something outta the blue, which is what he did.

Yes, although I wasnt originally concerned, since I cut out mayonaise and dressing, there went a lot of my fat content. I certainly don't hesitate to eat the skin off the chicken, and don't mind the higher fat meats, but all in all that's a pretty small amount of fat - perhaps 3 or 4g per day, tops. Short of more, fattier meats, I'm not quite sure what I could do to ad more fat. I found a product called "Nayonaise", which is a soy-based mayo without eggs, so I'll try that for a while and get away from the 1.5g of fat "tuna and mustard" creation.

Do you think stress is playing a role in these results?

The egg situation is quite odd, because I never remember having any problems with eggs, and ate eggs most of my life. It's only been in the last 6 months that I have discovered that eggs make me sick to my stomach/nausious, even things with eggs in them, like dressing or mayonaise.

Is that somehow related?

How about adding olive oil ( if you are not doing so already ), vitamin e, omega 3s in supplements form. I wouldn't worry about the eggs. Stress plays a major role in our health. It could be a culprit, I will do a search. Avocados are very nutritous, tasty ( if you like them ). You can put those in the food processor and use that as a sandwich spread. I would imagine that would be great on a turkey burger.

You say you are on Atkins, but you eat 3-4g of fat per day?!

Wrong, you are on a low fat diet, and have the numbers to show for it. The fact that its fairly low carb also, apparently doesn't make the difference here.

How about homemade salad dressings -- olive oil and red wine vinegar with some spices? Also, how about sauteeing some vegetables in butter or olive oil or melting butter on top of them? How about fresh fish instead of canned, cooked with butter and olive oil on top? Whole roasted chickens from the grocery stores are sometimes injected with solutions that include sugar and other undesirable things.

In my opinion, staying away from undesirable carbs is not enough -- you need to eat healthy fats.

I did go to a website last night that was not a lc website, yet, it said to avoid foods that raise insulin levels. This of course would be carbs. Fats do not raise insulin levels. I do know that my mom suffered spikes in insulin when she was under stress.

Here is a site I found that had some valuble info that could be picked out. http://www.wellconnected.com/rreports/doc23full.html
I this works and I hope it is helpful. Remember to be very picky about this information.

Another thing, Iin the site that I posted ( if it works ), says that you should have another test whithin 2 weeks to 6 months after an abnormal test.

Ask the doctor to subfractionate the LDL. there are dense LDL and fluffy LDL subtypes. the fluffy are like HDL and not harmful, the dense LDL are harmful.

I agree from your diet your are not doing Atkins which is high fat high protein, you are doing low fat high protein.

Fast for fourteen hours before the bloodwork. That is what Atkins recommends in his book.

Karen