Cholesterol results - worried

[Jeff_uk]

Evening all,

I’ve been running a LCHF diet for just over 2 months, a few weeks ago I became a little unwell and ended up having blood tests done to establish the cause of the issue.

I was called back into the surgery to discuss my results. My overall cholesterol has risen from 5.6 (I know this was a little high before I started) to 9.2.

I understand this is maybe something others have experienced. I’ve been offered statins and told to stop with the LCHF diet and cut out all saturated fat from my diet.

I’ve not taken the doctor up on the statins as I felt really conflicted. My HBA1C is at 40mmol - 5.8% and I feel great. However I have introduced carbs back into my diet and cut out loads of the fats, cheese, cream, butter etc.

After speaking to the dietitian at our local NHS trust she agreed with the GP and suggests I reduce the fats and re introduce carbs.

I’ve been to the doctors to get a print out of my results as I wanted to try understand if it’s LDL cholesterol or HDL cholesterol. I don’t really understand the report!!

I’ve left it with the doctors that I have an appointment with my diabetic consultant on 26th February and I will discuss the results with him. I’m worried that I’m going to be given incorrect information as the cholesterol level will scare him.

Any advise would be great

 

[xfieldok]

Are you on, or recently been on, any medications?

 

[jjraak]

i do feel for you and the worry.

First stop is get you full lipid panel results,
then look up @bulkbiker post re cholestrol and or statins

sure many will be along to offer advice or pointers.

 

[Jeff_uk]

Are you on, or recently been on, any medications?

I’m on insulin and levothyroxine, no other medication

 

[Jeff_uk]

i do feel for you and the worry.

First stop is get you full lipid panel results,
then look up @bulkbiker post re cholestrol and or statins

sure many will be alone to offer advice or pointers.

Thanks, if I’ve got my cholesterol profile from the doctor what am I looking for in terms of results of lipid panel?

 

[Jeff_uk]

Thanks, if I’ve got my cholesterol profile from the doctor what am I looking for in terms of results of lipid panel?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/186837957@N07/shares/Tz469z

Is this the lipid profile?

 

[xfieldok]

There is a cholesterol calculator on line somewhere, does anyone have a link?

 

[CondorX]

I am Type 2, well just in remission now, and had a very similar very recent issue issue with cholesterol uncertainty - GP panicked with my Total Cholesterol of 8.8 and LDL of 6.02, but failed to note that my Trigs were very low and HDL really good with ideal ratios.

Check on an online calculator like Hughes Calculator or the one at cholesterolcode.com

Or you could post your numbers up here and one of us will help you get the ratios etc

Read and listen to the links from bulkbiker's cholesterol threads, also look for video clips by Professor Sikaris - they make a lot of sense and are very informative. Your circumstances are somewhat different to a type 2 but don't just blindly stop your diet - in my case, the GP wanted me on statins instantly and referral to Lipid Clinic......if you look at my most recent thread you will see how it panned out

 

[xfieldok]

If you have a thyroid problem see this:

https://www.medhelp.org/posts/Thyro...-and-increasing-LDL--Cholesterol/show/1680946

 

[jjraak]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/186837957@N07/shares/Tz469z

Is this the lipid profile?

yes..just posted back, but then read the insulin T1..

checker here..http://www.hughcalc.org/chol-si.php

can't offer too much advice T1 way beyond what i know about,
so i'll leave that to those more experienced in these matters.

Hope you find a way that works for YOU.

 

[Jeff_uk]

Thanks everyone for the information. I’m struggling to convince the other half that what I was doing wasn’t just an attempt to make life difficult. I can’t help but feel the doctor is going to be dead against me getting back on with LCHF and will try convince me to eat healthy fats and increase my carb intake. I’m pretty sure my other half will be listening to the doctor not me!!

 

[bulkbiker]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/186837957@N07/shares/Tz469z

Is this the lipid profile?

Yes it is a lipid panel.
How long had you fasted before the blood was taken for the test and if you hadn't fasted what had you eaten/drunk before the bloods were taken?

Edit to add are you currently losing weight? That can have an impact on the results too..

 

[bulkbiker]

And probably more than you ever wanted to know about cholesterol...

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/cholesterol-and-statins.156985/

 

[TriciaWs]

My other lipids were good for the first year plus on low carb, and my triglycerides fell. Then within 3 months they suddenly went up, total LDL and HDL although the triglycerides stayed down.
I did some research and discovered that it might be the antianxiety drug my GP had put me on just over 3 mths earlier so told him I wanted to try coming off that first. In spite of my lipids falling in the next 3 months every who sees the test results tells me it is dangerous - and that I should come off my high fat diet - my notes state 'refused statins' instead of 'we discussed this and I was going to try something else first and then they went down' (halved that recent increase in 3 months, but that gets ignored).
As long as my glucose results are good and my lipids aren't sky high I'm staying low carb and 'refusing' statins!

 

[Jeff_uk]

Yes it is a lipid panel.
How long had you fasted before the blood was taken for the test and if you hadn't fasted what had you eaten/drunk before the bloods were taken?

Edit to add are you currently losing weight? That can have an impact on the results too..

Thanks for the reply, the blood test was at 5:30pm so my guess as I can’t quite remember is I ate something around 12:30, maybe a cheddar soup and a packet of pork scratchings, can’t quite remember. I had also probably had a cup of coffee with double cream and a couple of waters.

I lost about 9lb since 1st December, the weight loss has slowed so don’t think I was really losing much weight at this point.

We had just come back from a weekend away where I hadn’t really kept to my LCHF plan, we arrived back on the Monday and I had the blood test on the Wednesday

Thanks again for the support

 

[Listlad]

I am potentially going to encounter the same issue in a few weeks. It will be interesting to see how my figures pan out and the response I get from my GP on them. I eat a lot of cheese, double cream, nuts etc etc. Weight is down, HbA1c is down and blood pressure is down. All due to my dietary control on lchf. If they tell me to eat more carbs and less fat then I will have to counter that with the success on my diet so far.

 

[HSSS]

Thanks for the reply, the blood test was at 5:30pm so my guess as I can’t quite remember is I ate something around 12:30, maybe a cheddar soup and a packet of pork scratchings, can’t quite remember. I had also probably had a cup of coffee with double cream and a couple of waters.

I lost about 9lb since 1st December, the weight loss has slowed so don’t think I was really losing much weight at this point.

We had just come back from a weekend away where I hadn’t really kept to my LCHF plan, we arrived back on the Monday and I had the blood test on the Wednesday

Thanks again for the support

So the days food will have had some significant effects. Especially on triglycerides.

 

[bulkbiker]

Thanks for the reply, the blood test was at 5:30pm so my guess as I can’t quite remember is I ate something around 12:30, maybe a cheddar soup and a packet of pork scratchings, can’t quite remember. I had also probably had a cup of coffee with double cream and a couple of waters.

I lost about 9lb since 1st December, the weight loss has slowed so don’t think I was really losing much weight at this point.

We had just come back from a weekend away where I hadn’t really kept to my LCHF plan, we arrived back on the Monday and I had the blood test on the Wednesday

Thanks again for the support

If it wasn't a fasting test (and it seems it wasn't) then any results derived from it are very suspect.
Personally I'd be telling the GP to re-do the test after a 12-14 hour fast when you will get some clearer results and can examine the ratios more carefully.
Your trigs look a bit elevated but that may well have been influenced by your intake in the 10 hours before the test and as they are quite dynamic then I wouldn't be keen to draw any conclusions. Especially not when looking at a lifetime medication that will likely have little benefit to you.

 

[NicoleC1971]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/186837957@N07/shares/Tz469z

Is this the lipid profile?

Yes and here is a video going into the weeds a bit that may inform your decision on diet and statins. Broadly you may have a genetic tendency to hang on to ldl or have lots of benign ldl caused by LCHF and be a 'hyper responder' where the high numbers reflect lots of energy in your blood because you mainly run on fat.
However your trig/hld ratio seems unfavourable which could indicate that some of that ldl is of the small dense variety that can bury itself in your arterial walls or cause inflammation. Just read that you'd had a carby weekend so this would perhaps explain elevated trigs! Also the trigs can vary a fair bit in any case so it is the HDL you should focus on.
The risk of going high carb /low fat are to your blood sugars and it is not clear that reducing your sat fat would reduce those very low density lipo proteins. People do get hikes in their ldl when going low carb but their hdl often increases and trigs decrease too so it would be interesting to see if that's been the trend for you.
A statin would lop off lots of ldl including both the benign and not so benign particles but may result in side effects including increasing bgs!
So I'd get clued up on these issues and ask your doctor for a more individualised approach rather than just following the orthodox advice of reduce ldl at all costs!
ps have had to think all of this through for myself because I have high ish ldl but am lucky to have low trigs/high hdl ratio and be female so have decided not to statin myself.

 

[ianf0ster]

It is common for LDL to be raised during the weight loss phase of a LCHF 'Way Of Eating'. Mine were despite using the Dave Feldman protocol to fudge them lower.
Since I'm now in weight maintenance I anticipate that my LDL will have dropped and so don't plan to re-do the Dave Feldman protocol for the next set of blood tests.