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Cholesterol up :(

ghost_whistler said:
I must say, I'm seeing a lot of people posting what appear high levels of cholesterol across other communities.

Can we be absolutely sure we aren't storing up problems for the future?
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That's interesting, I must say I only use this forum so don't get a broader picture.
 
seanj67 said:
That's interesting, I must say I only use this forum so don't get a broader picture.
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I certainly keep my cholesterol in the NHS suggested numbers.
I'm not a great believer that higher is good.
 
As every has said those results do not make sense and certainly do not add up with what the nurse has said to you about starting insulin and then wanting a review in 6 months etc.

It looks like you are at critical point and need some answers. Whether you want to accept this confusion and what comes next (insulin/statins?) or be an involved partner with the healthcare professionals is the choice you have.

If you can book another appointment with the nurse/doctor and get things clarified for yourself in the next couple of weeks that would be helpful. With printouts or online results that you can then compare with past/future results

If you feel that you have lost your way with LCHF and this is why your HBA1C increased(?) ,then who can say LCHF is bad for your cholesterol levels if you aren't really following it.
 
ghost_whistler said:
I must say, I'm seeing a lot of people posting what appear high levels of cholesterol across other communities.

Can we be absolutely sure we aren't storing up problems for the future?
Click to expand...
Depends if you think that higher cholesterol is a problem.
 
seanj67 said:
Good evening all,

I'm after some input about cholesterol please. I've just had a 6 month review with a new DN and both A1C ( up from 7.6 to 8.4) & cholesterol are way up. The BG isn't an issue as my meter reports show it's falling well since the bloods were done a month ago (although she did mention Insulin being the next step - which is odd because my last DN said there were "several other options before that"), but the cholesterol was up and has been rising steadily for 3 years - which coincides with when I stopped taking Statins.

Now, I've been doing LCHF for some time and I don't eat a lot of dairy, but nor do I select low fat meats, quite the opposite really. The easy solution would be to take the meds, but that foes against what I'm trying to achieve. So my question is really, has anyone managed to lower theirs and if so what approach did you take? I need to think again about how I eat. I'm just worried that if I start being restrictive with fat then the whole LCHF plan becomes painful and I will fall over.

Luckily my weight had stayed the same and my BP was good. so some good news. I am however feeling a bit flat.

S
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I'm a bit confused by your initial post after re-reading it..
Your HbA1c has gone up and you have been following a LCHF diet ?
Have you been following the diet for the past 6 months or have you just started it which is why your blood sugars are coming down?
If the latter then how can you say that the LCHF diet has caused your cholesterol to go up?
As to cholesterol.. there is a fair bit of evidence that higher is not necessarily bad and that unless you have already had a cardiac event statins are not especially effective.
Also without the full breakdown of your cholesterol figures it is hard to make any qualitative comments.
 
ghost_whistler said:
I must say, I'm seeing a lot of people posting what appear high levels of cholesterol across other communities.
Click to expand...

People don't often post when things are going well.

There is a lot of confusion around cholesterol testing, doctors saving money by not doing full fasting lipids and people not fasting when they need to etc.

I was told my cholesterol was excellent at my review in January but felt no need to start a thread about it.
 
Sparrow456 said:
I'm not concerned at all as I have great support from my GP and Family. I simply wondered why Sean had stopped taking his statins. Latest comments from the NHS say that only 1 in 10 suffer any side effects, which as I said I do Not
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I have been taking Statins now for 12 years and have had no side effects,as of yet
 
ghost_whistler said:
Can you adequately prove that it isn't?
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No but neither can those that say it is.. Look at the WHO statistics on all cause mortality and cholesterol levels.
For women it looks fairly clear that higher cholesterol leads to longer life especially as they age. For men less clearly so .. but... as I have said a few times before artificially lowering the level of a substance that the body uses for repair and sustenance using drugs sounds a bit dangerous to me.

http://vernerwheelock.com/179-cholesterol-and-all-cause-mortality/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11502313

There are many others out there..
 
Wonderful statistics.
You don't die from 'all causes' with high cholesterol.
From the link, it's a straight line, you're 3 times more likely to die of CHD with cholesterol over 6.98 than you are with cholesterol under 4.65.
I'll take my chances with 'communicable diseases' and 'malnutrition' which if I remember was one of the biggest killers with low cholesterol from the WHO 'all causes' graph.

But we all roll the dice, either those with high cholesterol will die first, or those with low, or we'll find it doesn't matter if you're hit by a bus.
What we choose to believe will at least leave data for the next generation.
 
Like I said, 'all cause mortality'.
You'll find an inverse association between running back and to across the M25 and all cause mortality.
Those that do it repeatedly also die least of everything else.

And in all the studies, if too low seems to be bad, too high is as bad.
The WHO results are a very good example of the bathtub curve of mortality with respect to cholesterol.
I stick to the NHS guidelines, which seem to be best placed for all aspects of longer life.
 
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bulkbiker said:
I'm a bit confused by your initial post after re-reading it..
Your HbA1c has gone up and you have been following a LCHF diet ?
Have you been following the diet for the past 6 months or have you just started it which is why your blood sugars are coming down?
If the latter then how can you say that the LCHF diet has caused your cholesterol to go up?
As to cholesterol.. there is a fair bit of evidence that higher is not necessarily bad and that unless you have already had a cardiac event statins are not especially effective.
Also without the full breakdown of your cholesterol figures it is hard to make any qualitative comments.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying LCHF is definitely putting my cholesterol up - there's no way of knowing that. It's likely it may not be as my cholesterol has risen year on year over the last 3 years. I've followed Atkins/Dukan in the past and it still rose, although the ratios were better then. I have a GP appointment booked for a couple of weeks time, so hopefully I can get a better view of what the figures are and see where I can go with it. I think my blood sugars are coming down due to LCHF and the fact I'm using BG more. for a few months I have been going to the gym 3 times a week and doing strength training - I always see an improvement when I do that. Coupled with a low carb diet it pays off.
 
seanj67 said:
I'm not saying LCHF is definitely putting my cholesterol up - there's no way of knowing that. It's likely it may not be as my cholesterol has risen year on year over the last 3 years. I've followed Atkins/Dukan in the past and it still rose, although the ratios were better then. I have a GP appointment booked for a couple of weeks time, so hopefully I can get a better view of what the figures are and see where I can go with it. I think my blood sugars are coming down due to LCHF and the fact I'm using BG more. for a few months I have been going to the gym 3 times a week and doing strength training - I always see an improvement when I do that. Coupled with a low carb diet it pays off.
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As you can tell by your thread there are as many different opinions on cholesterol as there are members here. My personal thoughts are that the overall number is fairly meaningless and it is far more to do with the ratios of triglycerides to HDL. Also the general view that high cholesterol leads to Cardio Vascular Disease is in my view a gross oversimplification of an extremely complex subject which appears to still be poorly understood by the medical profession. As always though "you pays yer money... "
 
bulkbiker said:
As you can tell by your thread there are as many different opinions on cholesterol as there are members here. My personal thoughts are that the overall number is fairly meaningless and it is far more to do with the ratios of triglycerides to HDL. Also the general view that high cholesterol leads to Cardio Vascular Disease is in my view a gross oversimplification of an extremely complex subject which appears to still be poorly understood by the medical profession. As always though "you pays yer money... "
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I can! - I didn't want to start an argument, but that's the beauty of forums. I like to read different opinions and I can then go and research. It's all good :)
 
'evening all.

Ok, since I started the post I've gone back and had some baseline levels taken from a fasting test and have juts collected the results. Now, it says no further action but that's perhaps because the GP & I are working on a plan anyway. So, can someone more knowledgeable than I on these things tell me which are the important numbers to get down please?

Thanks!

S
 

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OK.

Your triglycerides are extremely high and these are the baddies. (Should be under 2, preferably a lot less)
Your HDL is low (the goodies) (should be over 1 and the higher the better)
Your LDL has not been measured because your triglycerides are high. (mostly baddies unless trigs are low)
The cholesterol/HDL ratio should be under 5

So it all could do with improving if you are concerned.

What plans have you discussed with your GP?
 
seanj67 said:
'evening all.

Ok, since I started the post I've gone back and had some baseline levels taken from a fasting test and have juts collected the results. Now, it says no further action but that's perhaps because the GP & I are working on a plan anyway. So, can someone more knowledgeable than I on these things tell me which are the important numbers to get down please?

Thanks!

S
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{Strokes beard and mumbles}

I have higher than the standard range cholesterol but am following the people who say it is O.K. to be high at the moment.

Several things about your results:

  • Your HDL is very low. Should really be above 1 and if your total cholesterol is high then a higher HDL goes towards "making it all right".
  • Your triglycerides are very high; so much so that the notes say that they can't be used for calculating LDL. Not sure what is going on there, but (regardless of what the surgery say) you should have fasted (nothing but water) for at least 16 hours before your blood test. Otherwise the fats you have just eaten are included in the numbers. You really need the baseline reading.
  • I have been told about a ratio between HDL and LDL but you don't have an LDL value (because of your high Triglyceride value).
Beaten to it by @Bluetit1802 !
 
Bluetit1802 said:
OK.

Your triglycerides are extremely high and these are the baddies. (Should be under 2, preferably a lot less)
Your HDL is low (the goodies) (should be over 1 and the higher the better)
Your LDL has not been measured because your triglycerides are high. (mostly baddies unless trigs are low)
The cholesterol/HDL ratio should be under 5

So it all could do with improving if you are concerned.

What plans have you discussed with your GP?
Click to expand...

OK thanks for that.

Well after seeing the DN , I went to see the GP to get a better understanding. He was really good. He asked why I took myself of statins and I explained that I felt after 10 years I was getting side effects - muscle pains, tiredness & joint pain. He said that there was a new statin that had very few side effects as it worked in a different way. It's very expensive and they are told not to prescribe it apparently, but he said he was more than happy to let me have it if I wished.

We agreed that I would get the tests done on a fast (apparently cholesterol can change hourly) and we would give it until my next review ( 6 months) and see where we were. He said he personally had seen "massive" improvements from diet, exercise and alcohol withdrawal alone. Then he told me that he thought the 5:2 diet was excellent too and also recommended I eat the plant sterol spreads etc. which had been proven to work. I asked about changing my diet to a meat free one and was surprised when he said there was no point as diet actually only played a small part in cholesterol numbers and if I was lucky I would see a very small change as a result....certainly not enogh to get me where I need to be. He did say alcohol played a part as it stressed the liver.... I do drink so that's something to look at.

So, we've said we will meet again in a few months and have a look at the numbers if they are still going up then I will consider the new meds, but I have time to get my ass into gear and try sorting it holistically. Time to get running!

s
 
You can only try and see what happens.

Carbs are known to decrease HDL so the fewer of those the better.

Foods that help with all lipids are the omega 3 ones - oily fish (especially salmon) and lots of it, olive oil, avocado, flax seed and chia seeds, nuts, one small glass of red wine a day (full of antioxidants), dark chocolate and so forth. R-Alpha Lipoid Acid supplements are also supposed to help. Exercise is very important.

Good luck, and keep us posted.
 
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