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- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
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Sorry there’s a lot of information here, but I want to give a full picture.
I’m a 39yo male, with Type 1 diabetes for the past 29 years. My historic HbA1c was consistently 60-70 mmol/mol (7.6-8.6%), despite my best efforts. Late 2017, increasing retinopathy spurred me into action, and I read ‘Dr Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution’ and ‘The Ketogenic Diet for Type 1 Diabetes’ by Ellen Davis & Keith Runyan. I’ve now been keto for the last year, and I’ve been pretty strict. My last HbA1c was 46 mmol/mol (6.4%), the lowest it’s ever been since my honeymoon period.
Before starting, I didn’t know lipids could change on keto, let alone so dramatically, so I didn’t have them tested, but I’ve found some results from my past medical notes. Historically, my total cholesterol (TC) has always been < 5 mmol/l (195 mg/dl). All figures below are presented as mmol/l (mg/dl), except the Apo A1/B – sorry, I don’t know the units (or US equivalent values).
20 Jan 2017:
TC 4.8 (185)
HDL 1.6 (60)
LDL 2.4 (92)
29 Aug 2018:
TC 21.5 (831)
HDL 3.1 (120)
LDL 16.8 (650)
TG 3.5 (310)
23 Oct 2018:
TC 22.1 (855)
HDL 3.2 (124)
LDL 17.9 (692)
TG 2.3 (204)
Apo A1 1.31
Apo B > 4.00
2 Jan 2019:
HDL 3.0 (116)
LDL 12.5 (483)
TG 1.5 (133)
I may be a lean mass hyper-responder, although my trigs are still on the high side. I’ve always been lean, though.
What’s prompted this post is the following: I had a coronary CT scan on Monday, and the cardiologist phoned me today to say there is a narrowing in one of my arteries. He explained that the lesion could be a matter of millimetres in thickness, and that the resolution of the CT image is only good down to about one millimetre. So he is going to arrange an angiogram to get a better picture of what’s going on. He said the lesion is likely to have been developing over a number of years, but we don’t know whether the ketogenic diet may have improved it or aggravated it.
Elsewhere, my retinopathy has increased and I now have mild neuropathy in my feet. I understand this is normal when BG control is tightened up significantly, and I’m hoping these will ameliorate in the longer term with continued tight BG control. As a matter of fact, I’ve also had retinal screening today which shows tentative signs of improvement. I wonder whether the lesion shown on the scan may follow the same pattern?
What worries me most is that my LDL count is still very high, and that my Apo B result is above the measured range. According to Tom Dayspring, the latter of these in particular is very bad! I hope to get an NMR lipid panel done in the near future. I’ve read ‘Cholesterol Clarity’ by Jimmy Moore, and ‘The Great Cholesterol Con’ by Malcolm Kendrick. These gave some reassurance, but I’m still concerned.
If anyone can offer advice or direct me to further information, I will be very grateful. Thanks for reading.
I’m a 39yo male, with Type 1 diabetes for the past 29 years. My historic HbA1c was consistently 60-70 mmol/mol (7.6-8.6%), despite my best efforts. Late 2017, increasing retinopathy spurred me into action, and I read ‘Dr Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution’ and ‘The Ketogenic Diet for Type 1 Diabetes’ by Ellen Davis & Keith Runyan. I’ve now been keto for the last year, and I’ve been pretty strict. My last HbA1c was 46 mmol/mol (6.4%), the lowest it’s ever been since my honeymoon period.
Before starting, I didn’t know lipids could change on keto, let alone so dramatically, so I didn’t have them tested, but I’ve found some results from my past medical notes. Historically, my total cholesterol (TC) has always been < 5 mmol/l (195 mg/dl). All figures below are presented as mmol/l (mg/dl), except the Apo A1/B – sorry, I don’t know the units (or US equivalent values).
20 Jan 2017:
TC 4.8 (185)
HDL 1.6 (60)
LDL 2.4 (92)
29 Aug 2018:
TC 21.5 (831)
HDL 3.1 (120)
LDL 16.8 (650)
TG 3.5 (310)
23 Oct 2018:
TC 22.1 (855)
HDL 3.2 (124)
LDL 17.9 (692)
TG 2.3 (204)
Apo A1 1.31
Apo B > 4.00
2 Jan 2019:
HDL 3.0 (116)
LDL 12.5 (483)
TG 1.5 (133)
I may be a lean mass hyper-responder, although my trigs are still on the high side. I’ve always been lean, though.
What’s prompted this post is the following: I had a coronary CT scan on Monday, and the cardiologist phoned me today to say there is a narrowing in one of my arteries. He explained that the lesion could be a matter of millimetres in thickness, and that the resolution of the CT image is only good down to about one millimetre. So he is going to arrange an angiogram to get a better picture of what’s going on. He said the lesion is likely to have been developing over a number of years, but we don’t know whether the ketogenic diet may have improved it or aggravated it.
Elsewhere, my retinopathy has increased and I now have mild neuropathy in my feet. I understand this is normal when BG control is tightened up significantly, and I’m hoping these will ameliorate in the longer term with continued tight BG control. As a matter of fact, I’ve also had retinal screening today which shows tentative signs of improvement. I wonder whether the lesion shown on the scan may follow the same pattern?
What worries me most is that my LDL count is still very high, and that my Apo B result is above the measured range. According to Tom Dayspring, the latter of these in particular is very bad! I hope to get an NMR lipid panel done in the near future. I’ve read ‘Cholesterol Clarity’ by Jimmy Moore, and ‘The Great Cholesterol Con’ by Malcolm Kendrick. These gave some reassurance, but I’m still concerned.
If anyone can offer advice or direct me to further information, I will be very grateful. Thanks for reading.
