Cholesterol Numbers and What They Mean

[Saur]

Hi Members, I just recently had my HB1AC back. I tested back in June & my readings were high. I went through a difficult time & my diet wasn’t at its best. Readings in June 47 & now 45.

I also received my Cholesterol results which I would like your expert advice.
They are as follows:
Serum HDL cholesterol level


Result


1.1 mmol/L

Serum cholesterol/HDL ratio

Result

4.09.

These are showing as abnormal.

Thankyou

 

[AndBreathe]

Hi Members, I just recently had my HB1AC back. I tested back in June & my readings were high. I went through a difficult time & my diet wasn’t at its best. Readings in June 47 & now 45.

I also received my Cholesterol results which I would like your expert advice.
They are as follows:
Serum HDL cholesterol level


Result


1.1 mmol/L

Serum cholesterol/HDL ratio

Result

4.09.

These are showing as abnormal.

Thankyou

Do you have the other results for your cholesterol?

 

[Saur]

Do you have the other results for your cholesterol?

Serum cholesterol : 4.5
serum HDL cholesterol level: 1.1
serum cholesterol /HDL ratio : 4.09
se non HDL cholesterol level: 3.4

 

[AndBreathe]

Serum cholesterol : 4.5
serum HDL cholesterol level: 1.1
serum cholesterol /HDL ratio : 4.09

Generally, those would be considered to be decent numbers. Do you take medications for your cholesterol?

 

[Saur]

I never had any issues with cholesterol. This is the first time it has come up. I am predibetic.

 

[JenniferM55]

LDL cholesterol goes up with low carb diets. Don't know if this is pertinent to you, but I thought it interesting.

 

[Outlier]

So did I - thank you.

 

[filly]

LDL cholesterol goes up with low carb diets. Don't know if this is pertinent to you, but I thought it interesting.

Thanks very much. G.P ringing me again tomorrow. I shall be prepared........

 

[Lizzie2]

LDL cholesterol goes up with low carb diets. Don't know if this is pertinent to you, but I thought it interesting.

Thank you for that link it is really interesting.

 

[Omar51]

Thank you for that link it is really interesting.

LDL cholesterol goes up with low carb diets, understood. What is the solution ?, so what is the short answer to that ?

 

[Outlier]

There are different short answers, and mine may not suit everyone, but having read exhaustively on the subject, my take is that it doesn't actually matter.

 

[Paul_]

LDL cholesterol goes up with low carb diets, understood. What is the solution ?, so what is the short answer to that ?

I've done some reading around this topic. I'm not a scientist or a qualified medical professional, my reading of various resources on this topic could be wrong, but there appear to be three main schools of thought:

1) All LDL is bad and must be lowered. This school of thought generally ignores all other cholesterol related numbers, e.g. HDL, triglycerides, and any ratios. I'd note that from what I've seen, targets for LDL in this school of thought appear to only be achievable with statins in my opinion, even for "normal" healthy people living on a low cholesterol diet.

2) LDL has subtypes - LDL-C and LDL-P. Providing LDL-P is low, risk of cardiovascular complications are low. This school of thought generally says that triglycerides must be low for LDL to not be a higher risk factor. I've also seen various opinions on "fluffiness" and "LDL particle size" from this school of thought, but I must confess, I don't really understand much of the detail on these points. Worth noting that some countries, e.g. the UK, don't offer this level of cholesterol testing as standard. It may be available privately in these countries, I don't know.

3) No idea which is correct. This school of thought is where I am. I'm not anywhere near qualified enough to know whether the experts on either side of the argument are correct, but I do have enough statistical and scientific education to know all of them seem to rely on flawed interpretation of data in places to suit their agendas. The opposing experts can't all be correct, but I can't determine who is right or wrong, or if as is possible, they're both wrong and the answer is somewhere in-between. All I do know is that every health marker I can track myself is improving on low carb, including my BG and BP. My triglycerides halved in 3 weeks on this diet. My next round of blood tests is at the beginning of November, so I guess that's when I find out which stats are winning out on low carb, or losing.

 

[ianf0ster]

I've done some reading around this topic. I'm not a scientist or a qualified medical professional, my reading of various resources on this topic could be wrong, but there appear to be three main schools of thought:

1) All LDL is bad and must be lowered. This school of thought generally ignores all other cholesterol related numbers, e.g. HDL, triglycerides, and any ratios. I'd note that from what I've seen, targets for LDL in this school of thought appear to only be achievable with statins in my opinion, even for "normal" healthy people living on a low cholesterol diet.

2) LDL has subtypes - LDL-C and LDL-P. Providing LDL-P is low, risk of cardiovascular complications are low. This school of thought generally says that triglycerides must be low for LDL to not be a higher risk factor. I've also seen various opinions on "fluffiness" and "LDL particle size" from this school of thought, but I must confess, I don't really understand much of the detail on these points. Worth noting that some countries, e.g. the UK, don't offer this level of cholesterol testing as standard. It may be available privately in these countries, I don't know.

3) No idea which is correct. This school of thought is where I am. I'm not anywhere near qualified enough to know whether the experts on either side of the argument are correct, but I do have enough statistical and scientific education to know all of them seem to rely on flawed interpretation of data in places to suit their agendas. The opposing experts can't all be correct, but I can't determine who is right or wrong, or if as is possible, they're both wrong and the answer is somewhere in-between. All I do know is that every health marker I can track myself is improving on low carb, including my BG and BP. My triglycerides halved in 3 weeks on this diet. My next round of blood tests is at the beginning of November, so I guess that's when I find out which stats are winning out on low carb, or losing.

I believe you have a slight mistake above in 2).
In the names LDL-C and LDL-P the C stands for Cholesterol quantity and the P stands for Particle count. AFAIK there are several different LDL sub-fractions that can be seen when it is centrifuged. But for simplicity there are usually just split into called small dense LDL (thought to be damaged oxidised/glycated 'bad stuff'), and the 'light fluffy' good stuff.

There are various claims and counter claims, but in the UK Lipid fraction tests don't measure these different sub-fractions of LDL, in fact LDL is just estimated in the results we get from a standard test.
It is thought that these damaged LDL particles are not recognised by the liver and so don't get removed from the bloodstream, unlike the light fluffy LDL which is removed from the bloodstream by the liver after it has fulfilled its function - which is the type we want most of. So some people claim that only the 'light fluffy' form of LDL is reduced by Statins, since they work by increasing the liver's receptor for removing LDL (and they can't detect the bad 'small dense damaged LDL - so can't remove it).

 

[Paul_]

I believe you have a slight mistake above in 2).
In the names LDL-C and LDL-P the C stands for Cholesterol quantity and the P stands for Particle count. AFAIK there are several different LDL sub-fractions that can be seen when it is centrifuged. But for simplicity there are usually just split into called small dense LDL (thought to be damaged oxidised/glycated 'bad stuff'), and the 'light fluffy' good stuff.

There are various claims and counter claims, but in the UK Lipid fraction tests don't measure these different sub-fractions of LDL, in fact LDL is just estimated in the results we get from a standard test.
It is thought that these damaged LDL particles are not recognised by the liver and so don't get removed from the bloodstream, unlike the light fluffy LDL which is removed from the bloodstream by the liver after it has fulfilled its function - which is the type we want most of. So some people claim that only the 'light fluffy' form of LDL is reduced by Statins, since they work by increasing the liver's receptor for removing LDL (and they can't detect the bad 'small dense damaged LDL - so can't remove it).

Thanks for correcting my interpretation of what I've watched/read. It's a lot to take in, that's for sure, and I very quickly reach a level of detail that beyond my capability.

For me, I've put cholesterol in the "I'll worry about it later if I have to" pile. I'm not short of health conditions to improve, so it felt like diabetes and uncontrolled blood glucose presented the far higher immediate and short term risk to that habit I've grown to enjoy of staying alive. I'm also overweight, which leads to increased diabetes complications, fatty liver complications, high triglycerides, and hypertension - all of which I've got too. So, for me personally, the risk of a little more LDL paled into insignificance compared to a low carb diet that's resulted in lower and managable blood glucose levels without medication, plus helped me lose a shedload of weight. The data within my gift and at my disposal seems to indicate I'm improving multiple health conditions with one diet strategy, so cholesterol is a potential trade off I'll happily take.

 

[KennyA]

LDL cholesterol goes up with low carb diets, understood. What is the solution ?, so what is the short answer to that ?

Mine hasn't.

 

[ianf0ster]

From word of mouth, it seems that for those who have used Low Carb all the way into remission, the norm is for LDL to reduce rather than go up.
The exceptions to this seem mainly to be slim t2 diabetics who were TOFI (Thin Outside, Fat Inside) like me. But even in my case my HDL has almost doubled and my Triglycerides have almost halved - so if the lipid ratios have any affect then I'm far better off on Low Carb than Low Fat High Carb, since T2 Diabetes supposedly ( according to several studies) multiplies your risk of CVD eightfold!