• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

My doctor is concerned about my mental state due to me starting LCHF

charlie000 said:
Sorry I am new here and can’t figure out how?
Click to expand...
At the top right hand side of your screen, click in the envelope symbol. From the drop down options, choose srprart ne conversation.

I hope that helps.
 
Last edited:
@charlie000 I am going to have to read all the posts I just skipped as I’m very interested in how this goes for you. I have made an appt with my cardiologist, who’s worked with me for many years, to talk about my electrolytes (she will hear about lchf apropos of that) and my cardiac electrical system. My blood work indicates a large rise in all lipid values since I went lchf, which were only nominally ok before that. Primary care didn’t like that one bit but addressed the electrolyte and iron issues instead as they’d fallen in a month, although still all normal but sodium and chloride which have been low for decades, never causing problems. All of a sudden I presented with arrhythmias and leg muscle cramps. So I am a tad nervous now that the cardiologist will fire me unless I go on her low cal very low fat diet, despite the fact I’ve lost all the weight I have to to make better HbA1c results — but lab number shows that marker as barely having budged. Nurse said, the blood doesn’t lie. I agreed, but offered that either my bg meter had to be over 20% low All The Time, I was having lots of high spikes overnight, or..... the lab’s A1c test was faulty. (After all that, I bought a home A1c test kit and used it. Its result was more in line with what my meter was telling me than what the lab test had said.) Who knows how this will play out.
Edit for typos and clarity
 
zauberflote said:
@charlie000 I am going to have to read all the posts I just skipped as I’m very interested in how this goes for you. I have made an appt with my cardiologist, who’s worked with me for many years, to talk about my electrolytes (she will hear about lchf apropos of that) and my cardiac electrical system. My blood work indicates a large rise in all lipid values since I went lchf, which were only nominally ok before that. Primary care didn’t like that one bit but addressed the electrolyte and iron issues instead as they’d fallen in a month, although still all normal but sodium and chloride which have been low for decades, never causing problems. All of a sudden I presented with arrhythmias and leg muscle cramps. So I am a tad nervous now that the cardiologist will fire me unless I go on her low cal very low fat diet, despite the fact I’ve lost all the weight I have to to make better HbA1c results — but lab number shows that marker as barely having budged. Nurse said, the blood doesn’t lie. I agreed, but offered that either my bg meter had to be over 20% low All The Time, I was having lots of high spikes overnight, or..... the lab’s A1c test was faulty. (After all that, I bought a home A1c test kit and used it. Its result was more in line with what my meter was telling me than what the lab test had said.) Who knows how this will play out.
Edit for typos and clarity
Click to expand...

If I am honest. This diet is very scary because of how everyone else around makes me feel.

People know I’m making changes in life but they laugh and ridicule me when I have cream in tea, or have butter and eggs...

But even when there aren’t people about I am scared because of what’s been drilled in to us. It’s working for me my blood levels are down and I’m tracking my hba1c on the mysugr app and it’s around 5.2 since March 1st ish.
 
@zauberflote - Do you have the breakdowns of your lipids, and have you researched what each means, and their relationships with each other? All too often, in my personal experience, medics are overly influenced by the headline totals and not the constituent parts of it.


Professor Siakris's way of describing and explaining is so easy to understand. He doesn't use compliacted language.

To look at your lipid propertions etc, this site is a great starter:

http://www.hughcalc.org/chol.php or http://www.hughcalc.org/chol-si.php , depending on your units of measurement.

Fingers crossed for you.
 
charlie000 said:
Hi all

I am prediabetic, recently came out of hospital after an AFIB episode. The afib I have is now being attributed to 5-6 cups of black coffee a day, with around 4 hours of sleep per night. After changing my habits, stopping coffee (completely) and cutting out a lot of caffeine including coca cola my heart rate has returned to normal, where my sleeping rate is around 58, and my resting is 64! This is in comparison to my heart rate being around 98, and the max 140 when afib was happening.

I visited my doctor, and informed him that I plan to change my life style. He asked what I was eating a I said I am eating full fat foods, and I now fry eggs in butter, and even put cream in tea.

He is concerned and he thinks that I am mentally unwell because having high fat will hurt me, and is urging me not to do it. I have to let him know by Monday what I am planning, as he is concerned. To avoid the hassle, I am thinking of calling him and giving him my 'word' that I won't be doing high fat low carb, and will follow the NHS Eat Well (which I won't), and so I can see what happens in a few ,months time.

What do I do?
Click to expand...

Personally I wouldn’t mention the fat bit in LCHF. Or if you do call the H healthy. I’d just say low carb not to freak the doc out. There are so many that still believe that fat is bad (although it would be in high carb high fat)
 
Last edited:
zauberflote said:
despite the fact I’ve lost all the weight I have to to make better HbA1c results — but lab number shows that marker as barely having budged. Nurse said, the blood doesn’t lie. I agreed, but offered that either my bg meter had to be over 20% low All The Time, I was having lots of high spikes overnight, or..... the lab’s A1c test was faulty. (After all that, I bought a home A1c test kit and used it. Its result was more in line with what my meter was telling me than what the lab test had said.)
Click to expand...

The HbA1c test does lie, and in my case by a lot. Anything non-standard in your red blood cells can interfere with the HbA1c result. In some cases making it higher than expected and in some cases making it lower than expected. You mentioned iron levels - that is definitely one thing that can alter the results. This isn't me making it up. It is fact.
 
charlie000 said:
If I am honest. This diet is very scary because of how everyone else around makes me feel.

People know I’m making changes in life but they laugh and ridicule me when I have cream in tea, or have butter and eggs...

But even when there aren’t people about I am scared because of what’s been drilled in to us. It’s working for me my blood levels are down and I’m tracking my hba1c on the mysugr app and it’s around 5.2 since March 1st ish.
Click to expand...
I agree, it is scary doing the opposite of what has been drilled into us, and coping with people's reactions. It makes it harder to stay committed to the LCHF
 
charlie000 said:
If I am honest. This diet is very scary because of how everyone else around makes me feel.

People know I’m making changes in life but they laugh and ridicule me when I have cream in tea, or have butter and eggs...

But even when there aren’t people about I am scared because of what’s been drilled in to us. It’s working for me my blood levels are down and I’m tracking my hba1c on the mysugr app and it’s around 5.2 since March 1st ish.
Click to expand...

Been there, had people critical of what I eat and won't eat and calling it ridiculous for along time.... but my blood work is better then theirs. Now some are trying what I have been doing (as many here are doing).

There has been a huge con job unleashed on the public for decades. Call it what you want, but I call it Profit before health. It's ingrained in a lot of minds you must eat carbs. That is starting to change because of the many success stories of low carbing...

For me, if some thing is working I'll keep doing it. That's the one thing that we all want, some thing that works.
 
@charlie000

I agree with @Tophat1900 that it works.

I was like yourself where I was gobsmacked at the recommended changes needed, owing to my belief in the dietary recommendations of the past. But you cannot dismiss the success stories seen here and I have had faith in the method. Now I know it works I am continuing on with it.
 
Last edited:
mariavontrapp said:
It makes it harder to stay committed to the LCHF
Click to expand...
I will not be stopping the lchf way of life, now I have got myself into a good condition again.

My hba1c has been in the middle thirties for the last five or six blood tests, my bgl averages are down, and my target weight is where I want it to be.

I also have reduced my Metformin by half, and will be stopped altogether with the next hba1c test in three months time if it's the same.
 
Back
Top