HBA1C Good Cholesterol Bad

[Goonergal]

Hi, had fasting cholesterol test today. Results total 8.7mmol/L, trigs 1.58, HDL 1.6, LDL 6.4, HDL ratio 5.4. Would appreciate comments on this compared to earlier results in this thread. Doc is still recommending statins.

Seems the trigs are much improved with a fasting test. You might want to compare both sets of results in this calculator: https://www.hughcalc.org/chol.php

 

[bulkbiker]

Hi, had fasting cholesterol test today. Results total 8.7mmol/L, trigs 1.58, HDL 1.6, LDL 6.4, HDL ratio 5.4. Would appreciate comments on this compared to earlier results in this thread. Doc is still recommending statins.

Great improvement in trigs .. anything Trig/HDL under 0.87 is considered as excellent (under 1.0 is good) and yours is now 0.9875 almost there..

 

[Wookie1974]

Great improvement in trigs .. anything Trig/HDL under 0.87 is considered as excellent (under 1.0 is good) and yours is now 0.9875 almost there..

Hi, I've finally had my annual check with hba1c 41. Cholesterol results - total 8.2, trigs 1.53, LDL 5.8, HDL 1.7, HDL Ratio 4.8. I have a review with the diabetic nurse next week and know they will be pushing for statins again. All other levels have come back normal so I'm quite happy with the results considering the year I've had. Not keen to be taking any meds if I can as what I've read about statins I don't like. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bulkbiker]

The importnt one is considered by some more informed medics to be Trig/HDL

Anything under 0.87 is considered excellent
Yours is 0.9 so pretty good Had you fasted pre blood draw?

Edit to add yours has improved since last time too!

 

[Wookie1974]

The importnt one os considered by some more informed medics to be Trig/HDL

Anything under 0.87 is considered excellent
Yours is 0.9 so pretty good Had you fasted pre blood draw?

Edit to add yours has improved since last time too!

Yes, made sure to have a morning appointment this time. Fasted for 12hrs before blood taken.

 

[AGC_68]

Hi, had fasting cholesterol test today. Results total 8.7mmol/L, trigs 1.58, HDL 1.6, LDL 6.4, HDL ratio 5.4. Would appreciate comments on this compared to earlier results in this thread. Doc is still recommending statins.

Hey Wookie1974
Congrats on getting your A1C down to such a good level.
That in itself will mean that the triglycerides and cholesterol in your blood will have less opportunity to do damage to your arteries.. It is the high glucose and chronically high insulin that caused the damage to the vascular system, high glucose damages the endothelial layer of the artery allowing ingress by the smaller diameter lipoproteins, and chronically high levels of insulin cause vascular resistance to insulin over time and interfere with blood pressure regulation mechanisms. Insulin does a lot more around the body than many people realise, and many systems are interconnected causing diverse consequences.

I started out with similar figures to yours for my blood lipids. I went low carb, and the A1C came down very nicely. The lipids came down a little but were still high. I took statins as I know the fact I have had elevated blood glucose and chronically high insulin for some time meant I probably had arterial plaque and my blood pressure was on the high side. Though I always had high HDL due to being very active which helped mitigate the worst of the effects I'm sure. The statins worked great for getting the lipid profile into a good place. However the side effects were really too much to bear for me. Muscle pain, fatigue, liver pain, diminished libido all the small print stuff. I had to stop. I continued with low carb, but cut down the fat intake and upped the protein intake to compensate, kept exercising and kept my total calorie intake under control. I did not cut fat out altogether as we need essential fats in our diet, but I did not embrace a diet high in healthy fats either as it is just more calories and it will contribute to higher lipid blood count. I continued to lose weight and get fitter. My total cholesterol came down from close to 8 to 5.4, HDL stayed high at 1,9 and LDL came down, importantly my triglycerides also came right down too. My GP still wants me on statins as the evidence is that for those with diabetes it does reduce CV incident risk and if I didn't have such side effects I'd take them. 5.4 is a little higher than regarded acceptable levels, but with a good HDL ratio to LDL and to Trigs I'll live with that. The risk is reduced with statins not just due to lowering cholesterol but due to the arterial plaque stabilisation effect, so I'd take them if I could. But for me the negative side effects were too much. Now I keep the fats healthy and make sure that they don't make up a large proportion of my calorific intake, carbs low, protein high. I also eat lots of non starchy vegetables and low sugar fruits to get a good amount of polyphenols in my diet to help keep CV inflammation under control, which means stable plaque. I had a lot of excess fat stored internally and getting rid of that over the last year has helped a lot too. I know some people have a genetic predisposition to high cholesterol which diet alone cannot address and for them statins or other blood lipid reducing drugs are a good idea. If you have a good amount of body fat than losing some of it will give you more storage room to put your blood lipids after a meal.

I'd suggest trying the following.
* Understand how much energy you need based on how active you are.
* Ascertain if you are carrying too much body fat.
* Do not overconsume calories. Consume what you need based on the points above.
* Keep the carbs low.
* Do not compensate by consuming even more fats to make up for dropping the carbs, up the protein instead it'll make you feel full for less calories and it'll reduce you blood lipids.
* Eat more protein it keeps you feeling full, stops you overconsuming fats and carbs and builds muscle which is great for blood glucose control.
* Eat non starchy veg and low sugar fruits as they provide great micronutrients that help keep you healthy but without a high calorie cost
* Make exercise a habit, build more muscle and lose some fat while staying healthy. Just 30 mins a day of the right level of intensity can do wonders. If they could replicate its effects with a pill they'd make a fortune. Moving and keeping your body strong and knowing it must maintain its capability to do things requiring mobility and strength works wonders. Do it.

If you're already doing this then statins could be good for you to get lipids down, most people don't suffer adverse reactions to them, but some do so you make your own choice based on how it feels for you. But I'd suggest seeing if diet and exercise can fix this first, all drugs have some side effects some of those are good and some are bad - and we all have different genetics and responses to them.

Good luck with the cholesterol and lipid profile mate.

 

[Nicknackwack]

You could research the results yourself, just Google the results. E.G Your LDL cholesterol is too high - normal range is 5 to 6.4. Then, after researching your results, take a view and ask yourself if you should go on statins

 

[Liam E]

You might want to ask your doctor what the number needed to treat is for statins and watch them squirm.

 

[Liam E]

Worth a look...

Table 1, Number needed to treat with statins to prevent one cardiovascular event in 5 years - Methods Guide for Effectiveness and Comparative Effectiveness Reviews - NCBI Bookshelf

If you've not already had a heart attack this table gives the NNT as 167. ie 167 people would have to take statins for 5 years to prevent one death... but it has a caveat that is well worth reading...

"AFCAPS/TexCAPS study reported a nonsignificant increased total and CHD mortality in the intervention group."

 

[Liam E]