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

Consultant unhappy sending me to dietician again...

@Yeoc, for a better picture of your cholesterol levels you need to ask for a fasting check next time, meaning you don't eat for 10-12 hours prior to the test.

These are the target cholesterol levels that they want people with diabetes to aim for:

  • Your total cholesterol level should be below 4.0mmol/l.
  • LDL levels should be less than 2.0mmol/l.
  • HDL levels should be 1.0mmol/l or above in men and 1.2mmol/l or above in women.
  • Triglyceride levels should be 1.7mmol/l or less.
 
good catch, I missed that it was nonfasting, although they do do nonfasting cholesterol/lipid tests now, I don't know what the result range should be with that.
 
sanguine said:
I'd agree - it's good to aim for non-diabetic numbers, 30s is what I'm targeting.
Click to expand...
Me too. I'm aiming for 5.4% or 35, if I can do that without hypo problems. Long term, damage takes off at 5.5%, is my impression.

What a struggle you're having. Listen, seem open-minded, go away and do it your way? You're not really alone. We back you.

What a pain. Lucy
 
Yeoc, the triglycerides do look high. Do watch the Sikaris video (and others on YouTube), which explains the latest thinking. You want to get trigs down to less than 1.0. That can best be done not by drugs, but by LCHF.

Sikaris says that LCHF usually raises total cholesterol, HDL (what we want!) and LDL, and lowers triglycerides. He says the high LDL and TC levels don't indicate a problem, but what matters is the ratio between trigs and something else. What's toxic is small dense LDL, and apparently how much of this we have can be predicted from the trigs number and some other number. You need to watch it.

Best of luck.
 
Trigs divided by HDL should be less than 1.3, and total cholesterol divided by HDL should be less than 4.
 
Thanks for helping Sanguine! As you can see, I got the point, but totally not the details!

This one - - is worth watching too. This is the one where he talks about how LCHF typically affects blood chemistry and therefore heart disease.
 
Quite a bit to go off thx everyone.

To surmise then:

Glucose testing can be useful even in type 2 to see how you respond to given foods and drink. It is not anywhere near as accurate a test as HbA1c which is giving us a good guide over a three month period. That said a reasonable number could still contain spikes and damage could still be occurring therefore it is good to occasionally check blood sugars and also get that HBA1c number as low as possible with good dietary control.

Watched the videos. So trigs and those ratios are key and they should be fasting. The diet I am on, in effect is the diet recommended by the doctor in the vids being LCHF. This will probably increase my total cholesterol, which is why an accurate up-to-date interpretation of cholesterol is required, to avoid outdated misinterpretation.

Does that about cover it, or have I missed anything?

Thx again everyone.

Hopefully my lipids will improve post Christmas and my HbA1c will improve again and I can get i to the late 30s. When I do eat a small amount of carbs, I am trying to ensure these are complex and slow releasing and part of the diet I am on means I keep a careful eye on carbs and I count them as best I can.

P.S

Some people asked why I am seeing the consultant. I have had two cancers separate primary cancers and have also had chemotherapy. I had two thirds of my liver removed due to liver cancer at the age of 17 in an 11 hour operation....never having touched a drop of alcohol. Thankfully I have been cancer clear for 17 yrs.

That said the above means, I might always have questionable lipids. And I am not so sure on that front how much I will be able to do about having a good lipid profile. For instance when I was running 20miles every single week and coaching tennis full time six days a week I had high cholesterol and back then I was thin as a rake. These days with osteoporosis in the lower spine, a damaged knee and post chronic fatigue syndrome - I am overweight and exercise impossible. So If I couldn't get good lipids by being a fit human running machine, I doubt I ever will have good lipids and suspect my situation in this regard my be more down to other factors, genetic (only person in 25 years in my city to have the liver cancer I got - only person in the UK that year at my age) and also down to limited liver function.

The above said I have been on the diet I am on for over a year and am getting better and better control of the diabetes with each and every HbA1c test and I am willing to adopt any dietary changes that can improve my situation, so not saying anything is impossible. Just open to what could help re- the lipid side of things.
 
Good to hear you have been cancer clear for 17 years. With only part of a liver this must somehow affect your cholesterol, so all you can do is continue to low carb and have regular tests. There are products on the market that are supposed to lower cholesterol, but I have no idea if they work. I believe oats is one such food.

It looks like you have everything covered. You got your HbA1c down to pre-diabetic levels, so no reason why you can't get down to the non-diabetic levels doing exactly as you are doing, and keep testing your fasting and post prandial readings to keep an eye on your levels.

Good luck, and keep posting!.

EDIT I am just wondering if your fatigue syndrome could be helped if you are more fat? The lower the carbs the more fat you need for your body to burn as energy.
 
Thx. Those videos posted were very good also. So thx for people posting them.

The fatigue pre-dates the lchf diet and would appear to be more connected to other matters. My consultants belief it is a long term/late effect of chemotherapy.

In terms of lipids and the liver, I found this link:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/272648-liver-function-and-cholesterol-levels/

So guessing this is part of my problem re lipids. Anyway, I'm doing well with HbA1c at any rate. Thx to everyone. Sorry for rattling on and taking up so much of your time - it is appreciated as has all the input, explanations/thoughts and videos.

Cheers
 
I don't know how much weight you carry. I never carried that much, but as I trimmed up, as well as my HbA1c improving, so did all my other scores. You could try to drop a few pounds, perhaps?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…