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Rising cholesterol on LCHF

Adaobi

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi guys! First post here so please be gentle with me....

So, back in April I got diagnosed with fibromyalgia and had to have a blood test done as part of the whole process. Turned out I had diabetes 2 as well. It was a ****** week to be honest. The T2D diagnosis hit me hard, which reading from the forums is not unusual. The information I got from my DN was sketchy (also not unusual I guess) so I looked for information online and found this forum and spent days reading threads on managing type 2 diabetes. Big thanks to you as you all helped me so much!

I'm on 2 x 500 mg metformin a day. I've joined a gym (due to recurring problems with balance/dizziness and various injuries I'd sort of stopped working out) and got serious about getting fit again. Slowly things are improving, which feels great!

I need to lose a lot of weight. Here in Holland the official advise for diabetics is to choose a healthy balanced diet, low-fat, rather low calorie and a fair amount of carbs. Before visiting this forum I'd never even heard of LCHF, but it made sense to me so I switched to eating low(-ish) carb (50-100 g carbs a day). Thanks to my new work-out regime and cutting out bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and sugary drinks etc. I'm slowly but steadily losing weight. My blood sugar levels are also better: my first HbA1c back in June was over 80, last week it was 46. Definitely a 'hell, yeah' moment!

The thing is this: my LDL cholesterol is not good - and rising. It was 2.8 in June and 3.2 now. Is this down to LCHF? I was rather confident that with my healthier lifestyle my cholesterol levels would improve, so I'm baffled and upset. I don't want to take more medication, especially not pills that are known for causing muscle pain, with the fibro I've got enough pain as it is.

I'm at a loss what to do here. Should I just suck it up and take the medication and hope that it doesn't aggravate my fibro? Can I tweak my low-ish carb diet to lower my cholesterol without pills? Any advice for me?
 
There are others that can explain far better but an initial rise is common before it drops. It’s to do with losing releasing fat from our cells as we lose weight. It usually sorts itself out as weight stabilises. Also check your hdl, this often improves at the same time. Ratios improve which is more relevant and trigs drop too. There a lot of recent research about how relevant many of these figures actually are to health. Search out the thread by bulkbiker which has lots of links and info about this.

Well done on what you have achieved which is far more important imo
 
Molecules of cholesterol are used to transport fat around the body - when losing weight it is common for cholesterol to rise as it is moving fat from storage to be broken down.
All the 'information' about cholesterol being bad for us is made up, apparently - to support a hypotheses which doesn't bear scrutiny.
People who have cholesterol levels rather above average seem to live longer - so most of the effort to put everyone on statins seems counter productive.
 
This is a thread you will find interesting - started by @bulkbiker
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/cholesterol-and-statins.156985/

It isn't the LDL that is important. It is the HDL and the triglycerides and the ratio between them.
As for statins, the decision to take them is entirely up to you. It is not up to your doctor. He can only offer them.

May I ask, did you fast for this test and what were your triglycerides and HDL?
 
Ivor Cummins is one of my 'go to' people when it comes to the latest science backed thinking on blood lipids.
He usually lays bare the erroneous, faulty info, we the masses have been fed about Cholesterol since Ansel Keyes.
See if this video helps.
 
Thanks for the reassuring replies - you guys are fast. I had no idea that your LDL levels may go up before they come - hopefully - down again. I'm a bit calmer now, thanks!
I'll dive into the info about cholesterol, the thread started by bulkbiker and the video by Ivor Cummins.
 
Bluetit1802,

True - the doctor can't force the pills on me, thankfully those days are long gone. But going against medical advice is a bit scary for me.

Yes, I did fast for the test.
I don't have the exact HDL from June but it was below 1, it's now gone up to 1,1.
The HDL ratio (?) is now 4.
The triglycerides are 0,9 now, down from 1,1 in June.
Total cholesterol is 4,7 now, and was 4,4 in June.
 
Depending on your age.. higher cholesterol in older women has been noted to be protective against all cause mortality so one could say yours is a bit low.... controversial but quite well supported.
 

You will find along this path that medical advice from GPs in the diabetes and cholesterol field is seriously lacking.
 
Recommend two books. (I hope I am allowed to do that on this forum?)
How We Get Fat, and what we can do about it ... Gary Taubes
The Big Fat Surprise ... Nina Teicholz
They are both a little tedious, but very informative (and shocking).
Lifesavers, imo
Big empathy with your fibro ... my wife has just been diagnosed with PMR, not a happy woman, I can tell you. Best wishes.
 
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