Hello everyone!

I could use some input.

This summer was especially rough for me. For months, I was sick with what is known as endocarditis, an infection of the heart. The doctors do not know how I picked upthe bacteria, but it did a good job of messing with my heart, and in the end, I wound up having to have open heart surgery to have a mitral valve repair.

As you can expect, I now see a cardiologist on a regular basis to make sure I am recovering from surgery properly. The cardiologist had me take a cholesterol test, and I received the following results:

Total - 244
Trigycerides - 107
HDL - 57
LDL - 166
HDL Ratio - 4.3

My cardiologist said the LDL number was abysmal, and wants to put me on statins to lower this number. She also said the Atkins Diet is the absolute worst diet to be on, and I should change it immediately. I would like some other opinions before I agree to anything like this. Are these numbers really that bad? Also, please keep in mind a few things:

1. I have not been eating low carb for the past 2 months (I was too sick to do any of the cooking. And lets not even talk about hospital food).

2. To prepare for the heart surgery, the doctors did a heart catheter. They saw no evidence of plaque build up. Again, the damage was caused by a bacterial infection, not the usual clogged arteries.

3. Before this, I was on the Atkins Diet for 2 years.

4. I am 24 years old.

Thanks in advance for your wisdom! I'm concerned with my heart, but I don't want to go on a medication for the rest of my life if it's really unneccessary!

JMO
Immediately you should start taking CoQ10 for heart function 300-400 mg/day.

You should also take plenty of vitamin C and oregano oil.

I wouldn't take any statins for any reason. The first thing I'd ask is if you fasted 12 hours before your cholesterol test? If you didn't, that could be the cause of your results. You'd need to be retested.

Your results could also be caused by the bad diet that ensued around your illness and would be cause to have them retested after three months back on lc.

You can also take fish oil.

Again, I wouldn't go on statins.

my best guess is that your triglycerides will go down almost immediately after you go back to low carbing,and your HDL will go up some.

they aren't that bad as it is...

since your trigl. are already kinda low, and bound to go lower when you stop eating carbs, you can be assured that your LDL is mostly the harmless large fluffy kind. Low trig. are correlated to large fluffy LDL.

your doctor needs to educate himself.

Like the others said you want to get a rereading after a few months back on LC. I belong to a board for people with mitral valve prolapse and they say the drs have really tight standards once you a valve problem they want you on statins with LDL > 100. Some people from that board did atkins but still were out of range, they added a lot of fruits and veges, no red meat and got more improvement. Many of the ones that tried statins couldn't stand the side effects.

If your blood pressure is normal, take a while to think about this. Those drugs can have strong side effects. I have no medical training and wouldn't think of telling you don't follow your drs advice. Your in a more vulnerable position then the average person with your heart, so maybe LOL find a dr that is at least comfortable with LC for a 2nd opinion. I think the co q10 is a must for you.

When I get my cholesterol done at labcorp they break down the LDL into small/large knowing that might help with the decision too.

Hope your recovery is excellent!

Check out this website:

www.cholesterol-and-health.com

Also, the book "The Cholesterol Myths" by Uffe Ravnskov is good.

Hopefully that information helps. Also, doctors typically hate the Atkins diet in my experience.

Your doctor may be aware that Atkins suffered from bacterial endocarditis and is inferring a connection. Take your doctor's advice. Maybe look into the Zone Diet. Barry Sears developed it to save his own life because of family heart disease.

Atkins raised my cholesterol into dangerous levels and the Zone Diet brought it down again. Statins don't have to be life-long. Maybe do both and when the cholesterol is down, see how it goes without statins. You just seem too young to be on statins forever.

Not everyone does well on Atkins.

I'd advise you to purchase and read Anthony Colpo's book "The Great Cholesterol Con" before you even consider taking statins. He explains in tremendous detail why cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease, then he explains what does cause heart disease, and what you can do about it.

but in your case, I dont know why you should even be worried, or why anyone would advise you to take statins. Your LDL isnt that high, and your HDL and trigl. are pretty good and bound to get better fast, if you get back to low carbing. and since your trig. are low your LDL is definitley mostly the good kind.

If you are really worried, you can do what I did to appease my idiot doctor and to amuse myself - get a coranary Angiogram - a CT scan to check out your arteries. I just did it today - I'll get the results back in a few days. btw, my LDL is just over 200, but it's all large fluffy so it's all good!

What about South Beach? My doctor said it's a safer low carb as I must also watch fats and cholesterol (i don't have high ch. but I don't want any more problems).

I don't think you should be reading books on myths about cholesterol. You should get your cholesterol down a bit, and then read later these myths later I mean come on, you are 24 years old, you shouldn't have cholesterol that high, I wouldn't care if its even that fluffy! You do have a respectable HDL level though!

Although do get a CRP test soon as possible as this will be able to tell you much more about your risk factors.



Doctors are very educated people and much more knowledeable than almost all of us here. It's sad to see the lack of respect for doctors around here.

I couldn't disagree with you more.

Read first.

the original poster is young, his (her?) cholesterol numbers are probably just natural. Other than cutting out the carbs, there isnt much you can do to affect them anyway... unless you want to go on an Ornish style extreme low fat diet and meditate all day...

My own doctor seemed to be unaware of the value of large LDL. It was just a knee jerk reaction HIGH LDL = YOU MUST GO ON MEDS.


accept the advice of these people at your own peril....

You think its only carbs that affects cholesterol?

The very same could be said of accepting the advice of people on forums and for far more reason.

My 54yr old sister-in-law had been overweight most of her life. She went on the South Beach Diet, lost a tremendous amount of weight, got off statins, yahda yahda, but most important she has kept it off for over two years now.

Hi Rich,
I'm no expert, just trying to wade through and figure it all out, too. But I took statins for nearly 2 years and had serious side effects and ever deteriorating health, that my doctor kept dismissing or blaming on my diabetes, until through my own research I discovered it to be the statins. Not everyone reacts badly to statins, but it's now completely accepted, even by their manufacturers, that they interrupt the body's production of CoQ10.

Your ideas as to the cause... 2 months of coming off LC and eating hospital food, sounds like a reasonable explanation, especially in light of your having normal carbs before while LC.

Please take a look at www.spacedoc.net, for one doctors opinions on statins.
And if you do decide to start taking them, please take at least a 100 mg daily supplement of CoQ10 along with it.

I KNOW:

that a low carb diet:


lowers triglicerides
raises HDL


and that a high carb diet:

raises triglycerides
lowers HDL

AND that

lower triglycerides is very strongly correlated with a preponderance of large fluffy LDL.

that much is indisuputable. there studies are there, the science is in.