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

cholesterol LDL levels and Low carbing.

S

simply_h

Well-Known Member
Messages
201
Location
The north
Hello Again,

I have read many many times on this forum and on the internet that Low carbing lowers LDL level and increases HDLs and lovers Trigs.

Now my HDL's and Trigs are fine, but my LDL's are higher than normal, so my doctors tell me.
HDL : 1.3
LDL : 5.3
Trig : 1.0

I do low carb, but low do you need to go while low carbing to get the LDL figure down, so my doctor is a happy man... AS I DO NOT want to take satins.

Does Low carbing actually lower cholesterol??

Also I have read that there are 2 types of LDL (see links below) (I hope ADMIN don't mind me posting these)
http://www.preventive-cardiology.com/sm ... se_ldl.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-density_lipoprotein

From reading the above small LDL's and Type B LDL's are the dangours ones, but currently I (and everyone else) dont know the concentration of small v big LDLs in our blood..

When the doctors test in the UK, they dont test for this, just LDLs as a whole, I have asked my doctors about this and he looked at me strangely, as thou he did not understand what I was talking about.

Also I have seen some recent studies that resistant training (weights) does increase LDL's levels as well, but I am guess this much increase large LDLs and Type A LDLs.. Look them up on google ect..

As I would love to have the test to show which type of LDLs in have more off, as currently I do have high LDL's, which is a big worry for me.

Any advise would be really good.

Thank you
Simply_h
 
In answering this can someone also compare the risks of high cholestorol vs using statins?

I am on a statin (and have been for a year or so) and now have good cholestorol levels (I think).
HDL: 1
LDL: 1.7
Trig: 0.79

I'm not seeking to be put off using a statin because it's transformed my cholestorol levels. But some people seem very anti them.
 
Hmm,

As I understand it the important thing is the ratio between HDL and LDL - I just googled for what it should be and found this;

"The ratio of HDL/LDL looks at the ratio of good cholesterol (HDL) to bad cholesterol (LDL). The ratio is determined by dividing the LDL cholesterol into the HDL cholesterol. For example, if a person has an HDL cholesterol of 50 mg/dL and an LDL cholesterol of 150 mg/dL, the HDL/LDL ratio would be 0.33. The goal is to keep the ratio above 0.3, with the ideal HDL/LDL ratio being above 0.4."

It's in mg/dl but that doesn't effect the 0.3 target.

So, on that basis you have a ratio of 0.24 so you are a bit 'low' - in other words you need to up your HDL and lower your LDL. My LDL is quite high (3.6 at last look, but I also have high HDL and very low triglycerides) so my ratio is pretty good.

I've found that low carbing has reduced the trigs and and increased the HDL, but the LDL doesn't really come down.

Now, the 0.3 target may be hocum; I haven't really looked very far, so please feel free to correct but it rings bells with me.

Lastly, I think really it's all grasping at straws from the Low Cholesterol High Priests with their Holy Statins (er, does that work..?) at first cholesterol was the problem, then when it became increasingly obvious that it wasn't it was subsets of 'good' (hurrah) and 'bad' (boo, hiss) cholesterol that where the real indicators (albeit they aren't if you are a woman, and not much unless you've already had a heart attack and are lowering them with statins if you are a man). I bet soon we'll discover the really evil (aaaaah) sub-subset of LDL that is the culprit which just so happens to be lowered by my newly patented statin. But that's just me... :shock:
 
Dillinger said:
I've found that low carbing has reduced the trigs and and increased the HDL, but the LDL doesn't really come down.
Click to expand...

Yes I agree with that. I think that the current understanding that (compared to a high carb diet) a low carbohydrate diet will often:
1) Decrease blood triglycerides (a risk factor for heart diseases and stroke)
2) Increase so called "good" HDL cholesterol levels
3) Increase the size of LDL cholestral particles (but not change the levels).

Since big LDL particles are generally thought to be less harmful that small LDL particles, these are all supposed to be good things.

Don't have any personal experience with cholesterol, as my levels were good on diagnosis (although my blood triglycerides improved significantly in the first 3 months, and haven't been measured since).
 
Hello All,

Are there any more views on this great cholesterol debate of our time.. :-)

As cholesterol is always in the news and as we diabetics are always being pestered by our doctors and nurses about doing this and doing that ect...

So wondered if anyone had any more info it it..

Cheers
Simply_h
 
Back
Top