Newbie

Hello @Jillytee I can't add much more to the fab info above, except my congratulations on your progress so far. A tip I was told, if you want someone in your thread to get an alert that you've either quoted them or replying to them, put the@ sign directly infront of their name. Also it kinda checks if you've got the spelling right..

Well done for being so self motivated. Keep going, keep posting

Hi @Jillytee, I note you say "still" 7, which implies it was 7 before LCHF. I started at total level of 5.6 and moved to 3.99 eating everything you mentioned above bar sausages (nothing against these, but there is only so much I can fit into my diet). We are all different but you might want to watch on catchup New Sugar Free Farm, which talks alot about good high fats. There was another programme on about a month ago (I think Food Unwrapped) which basically showed that good high fats effectively pass through your system. Fats vs Carbs is on youtube and showed Jamie Owen (TV and radio) presenter reducing his cholesterol from 5.6 to 4.9 on LCHF (he was having quite a lot of butter, it really pained his Doctor to admit the results), in addition there is further information provided in this documentary on cholesterol.

Be careful of the statins I refused these due to the research I undertook and like many on this site have achieved good results via real food.

Jillytee said:

Hi all, good news is bs is down to 6.3, previously 6.8 and a weight loss of 16kg since last September following the lchf diet. However my total cholesterol is still 7, HDL 2.25, LDL 4.1, trigs 0.8, cholesterol/HDL ratio 2.78, so have been given statins and told not to eat butter, cheese, sausages, or full fat anything and only 3 eggs a week and no prawns which rather messes up my lchf diet !!
Does anyone have any advice or experience of this please?

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Hi @Jillytee My total cholesterol went up from 4.7 to 6.1 and my GP suggested I cut down on the cream, butter and cheese and eat more oily fish, avocados and olive oil instead if I wanted to eat high fats.
But although the total cholesterol was higher my HDL had improved and my ratios were better which is more important than the total cholesterol figure as I understand it.

You can put your figures into this calculator to get you ratios:
http://www.hughcalc.org/chol-si.php

Yours are ideal!

@Jillytee I stopped taking the statins as I didn't think I needed them, though I didn't get any of the side effects like muscle pain which others have experienced. There is a lot of debate on here and elsewhere in medical circles as to how useful they are.
If you put cholesterol in the search box at top right you will find a lot of threads about it.
There is medical opinion that higher total cholesterol is more beneficial for women and older men.

@Jillytee , yet again clever peeps have beaten me to the opinion I would offer... Keep reading on the cholesterol threads, the NHS advice is outdated, and evidence suggests just plain wrong. I could never advise you go ignore your GP, but I've learnt that our (the general public's) understanding of "cholesterol" is badly skewed.
Cholesterol itself is wonderful stuff. It helps maintain the outer coating of the bodies cells; it makes up bile acids that work to digest food in the gut; and it allows the body to make Vitamin D and hormones, like oestrogen and testosterone.
As I understand it our bodies self regulates the amount of cholesterol we need, if we take more in our diet, the liver produces less.
The trick of course is to get the balance right between Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL small dense particles which can lead to fatty plaque deposits in our blood vessels) and High Density Lipoproteins (HDL which mop up any excess cholesterol and transport it to the liver to be excreted). LDL and HDL are frequently referred to as cholesterol, but this is incorrect, they are proteins that carry cholesterol in the blood.
Recent research has concluded that current evidence does not support low consumption of saturated fats in the prevention of heart disease and stroke. Very simply, small, dense LDL, present itself in our diet in the form of transfats and excessive carbohydrates (chips, burgers, pies, cakes), NOT animal fats or eggs.

My opinion is that this is another case where the medical profession is running behind the research, much like it's dietary advice ie LCHF?

You have fantastic ratios, awesome HDL and brilliant Trigs.
I wouldn't be messing with perfection.
Plus, of course, statins are well known to raise blood glucose levels, so your HbA1c may increase if you take them...

I do wish health care professionals were better informed.

Well the official NHS guidelines are to eat starchy carbohydrates too. But it's only advice and up to each of us to decide whether to accept it or not. My GP wants me to have another blood test 6 months after my last. Not because of my bs but because of my total cholesterol figure. I did point out that my HDL was optimal and my ratios were all good - better than 12 months before when they were High Risk.
Anyway I am happy to be having another HbA1c test in march to see how my figures are, but unless they are really very high and all the ratios in the High Risk range I will be declining to take statins.

Jillytee said:

Thank you all so much for sharing your knowledge with me and confirming my own thinking. I argued my case yesterday with the practice nurse but she would not concede on anything other than to say she had to stick to NHS guidelines !

Why are they so outdated when there is so much research and information out there, I feel that all my efforts will be undone if I follow nhs advice

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Sadly, yes, the guidelines are out of date. Most of us are forging our own path. I wouldn't worry too much about the cholesterol either. I don't think the rise is anything to do with what you've been eating on LCHF. My cholesterol levels FELL after three months.

Up to you whether you take the statins or not. As others have said, they can raise BG levels. Some people who take them also suffer aching joints, among other things, which can put the kybosh on exercising.

You're doing brilliantly!

I agree, it is crazy. I've refused statins and I'll keep on refusing them.

Unfortunately very few nutritionists/dieticians have caught up with the concept of LCHF; still we live in hope.

I'm wondering if your nurse thinks you've joined Diabetes UK, rather than this esteemed site. I told my doctor about this one and urged him to take a look. Wonder if he has yet...?

@phonic2k I am assuming that it was a full HbA1c fasting test as @Jillytee got her cholesterol results also.
But you are right about questioning the bs figure, 6.3 would be 38 in the HbA1c range and non-diabetic like me, unless it was 6.3%.

@Jillytee GPs use different figures for the HbA1c results. 6.3% would be 45 in the HbA1c (ifcc) figures which is in the pre-diabetic range of 42-47.
This graph shows the different figures used:

So if you were 6.8% last September you were in the diabetic range then at 51 HbA1c (ifcc). Anything 48 or above is diabetic.
You have lowered your HbA1c since then to the pre-diabetic range. Well done! If you continue what you are doing you should be able to reduce further into the non-diabetic range (below 42). But once you have been diagnosed as diabetic you will always have to control what you are eating or you will go back into the diabetic range again.
It is best to buy a glucose monitor and check your levels yourself. You won't get one on prescription as the NHS generally won't prescribe them for Type 2 diabetics unless they are on insulin.
It does take a bit of time to get your head around all this, but you will.