I hesitated about posting the figures hereunder but a couple of people expressed an interest in what tests I had been trying so here goes.
I got the idea of trying different things from the Feldman protocol but my tests are in the opposite order to his. Initially I just wanted to check to see if eating high calories would reduce my LDL levels as his protocol does not work for some people.
The 5/11 entry is the first try out of my cholesterol tester. Although it doesn't form any part of anything I've still included it as its interesting just to see the fluctuation in cholesterol from one test to another when I am not doing anything out of the ordinary. When I looked at the results of the test on the 15th November, my baseline test, I admit I was puzzled as my HDL had gone down pretty low. I was trying to lose weight at the time so I wonder if this might be a reflection of the lower food consumption and the probable lowering of fat intake; the results seem to be similar to the results obtained from eating low calories between the 19th and 22nd November, so maybe I wasn't eating as normal as I thought.
So back to what I was trying to determine, the theory is if you eat lots of calories your cholesterol will go down and your other markers improve as well. For 2 days I ate lots and lots of calories (horrible experience) and tested again on the 17th November. Interesting results as all my markers can be seen to have improved. I followed this through with what should have been the first part of the protocol to eat very low carbs and low cals for 3 days. I wasn't actually sure what to expect but I should have realised, everything would go in the opposite direction, which meant I had probably shot myself in the foot for my hospital cholesterol test so of course had to revert back to eating calories to try to get back to the status quo. My bloods loved the low calorie option though, with pre-prandial bloods showing in the low 4s. I very rarely have bloods consistently that low. With the upped calories option my bloods lifted up too high.
I'm not sure what I have shown here except how dynamic cholesterol is, which I wasn’t aware of. The Feldman protocol seems to work but on a very temporary basis so nothing I can use to bring my levels down and keep them there. In the future I think it may be interesting to explore the idea of a low calorie diet some more. It’s really beneficial for my bloods but rubbish for my cholesterol so I would love to know why and would be interested to see what happens over a longer period of time. Will cholesterol steady out or will it rise the longer I eat low cal. I obviously cannot try this out in the very near future whilst still under the hospital but may be later. (Might warn my doc first though). I would also like to look at the effect of eating different foods. In theory foods should not make a difference but as all I have done is eat more fish and fibre, add olive oil and ditch dairy as best I can so see my cholesterol is slowly reducing, I do wonder if because of this polygenic issue foods do have an impact on me. If it the case then its probably impossible to determine which foods they are but I may give it a try. Regardless of whether I try other tests or not, at least I now have the tool to keep a check on my cholesterol - that saying the strips are quite expensive so everything in moderation I think.