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The Dreaded Cholesterol....

LindsayJane

Well-Known Member
Messages
609
Location
Taunton
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Housework - hate housework with a passion - and rude people.
Having been so thrilled yesterday with my HbA1c result I am more than a little disappointed with my cholesterol levels.

Tested on 26th June:
Total 11.7 (up from 9.6)
LDL 9.2 (up from 7.1)
HDL 1.7 (no change)
Triglycerides 1.8 (no change)

This was after 16hr fast and just 2 pints of water during the test morning.

Readings in brackets from previous test on 3rd April 19. LCHF since January 2019. Total weight loss since January: 18 kilos (2.8 stone). HbA1c: 36 (down from 95 at diagnosis in November 18).

I'm not going to fret over this and I am abslutey against taking statins, but I would like some input from those of you in the know and with more experience than I. Is there anything I can do to bring LDL down or do I just wait and let LCHF work its magic? @bulkbiker - I would especially appreciate your comments please (if you don't mind).
 
I've been on the statin for a long time now and mine is lower than 4 and if I didn't take them it would be highly likely 11+ and I have worked hard to get it down and I didn't have any clues about them just that my cholesterol levels were high and needed to be lower and I said sod it and up to now I have had no problems with them and they have not given me anything to regarding any problems with my body but heart problems is in the family and rather than not having any problems with mine I have taken them since I started them and I have had a good chance that my heart won't end up being needing a operation
 
I hope you are also being prescribed CoQ10 to take alongside the statins to protect your heart and all your cells.
 


You're still only 4 months on your journey so still probably in weight loss mode hence higher LDL and a genera l skewing of numbers ..
Your trig/HDL is 1.06 which is pretty good ... 0.87 or lower is great so you are getting there and it certainly hasn't worsened.. in 6 months time I bet your numbers will be better.
 
I'm on them and a lot of pain killers and they are mixed in when I take them at night but you have to watch that you don't go anemic or your potassium gets too low as you will be on tablets for both of them and I believe it if your doctor never told you about them as well so watch as the cholesterol levels may not be the only thing that you have to worry about if you get both of these as I have and the medication is not the same as you have to use the potassium for your cholesterol levels as well and that you may not know of but that is what happened to me a few years ago
 
Thank you - I know we discussed this a couple of months ago and equally I know the doctor is going to try and press statins on me. He can't make me swallow thm though can he? I was hoping to see a lower overall/LDL number by now but want to press on wth LCHF rather than medication. Thank you for your input yet again. It's so good to have on hand experts to talk with.
 
zand said:
I hope you are also being prescribed CoQ10 to take alongside the statins to protect your heart and all your cells.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reminder about Q10 - I have some but keep forgetting to take them!
 

Just try the old "Oh 6 months won't be a problem and I may have lost all the weight I want to by then?"

Then give them the link to this study and say "Are you sure?"

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dmrr.3189
 
Resurgam said:
I gave the last nurse I saw a printout from BMJ open about the almost 80,000 cases analysed where age at death tended to be higher where the LDL was also higher. She looked at it and read it as the reverse case - and then went rather quiet.
Click to expand...
I read that wrong to start with too. Having read comments on here and sone some of my own rsearch about cholesterol, I'm not really worried any more. I just need to convince my HCP!
 
bulkbiker said:
Just try the old "Oh 6 months won't be a problem and I may have lost all the weight I want to by then?"

Then give them the link to this study and say "Are you sure?"

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dmrr.3189
Click to expand...
Thank you for this link. I knew statins would increase my blood glucocose levels and this, blood pressure and weight are by far more important health concerns for me than is cholesterol. I only have 3 kilos to go before I'm at my ideal weight now so I'm nearly there.
 
I recall your last set of results mainly because the cholesterol readings were not so different to my own. I had an HbA1c test just a week or so ago but no other checks were done so I cannot compare. I am hoping they are continuing to be favourable.

BTW. Your weight loss stats are impressive. And only 3 kilos to lose to achieve your target weight. Fantastic.

My weight is not coming down nearly as quickly, but then again it is coming down and I do eat lots of fat.

My GP who is a LCHF convert, did talk Statins with me a couple of years ago. But he doesn’t anymore.
 
Cholesterol schmesterol. In my opinion the entire conversation has always been nonsense. Personally I wouldn’t worry about it.
 
Thank you. I am very pleased with my weight loss, which has all happened surprisingly quickly. I had been struggling with my weight for years and beleiving that the low fat diet I was then following was the right thing to do. Sems obvious in retrospect that low fat/high carb was contributing to my weight problem. We live and learn eh?

I think I' mentally prepared now to discuss the pros and cons of the statins -vs- cholesterol argument. This thread had helped no end.
 
Agree with the rest and would point out that your 16 hour fast will have increased the amount of ldl traffic in your blood as your body broke down your own supplies to send energy to your cells. Cholesterol and fatty acids travel on the same lipo protein boats.
See Dave Feldman for more on how this works. Or Ivor Cummins!
 
Hi LindsayJane,
I have not got as far as you on my T2D journey, so I too am hoping that my LDL levels are not elevated too much when I have my next set of Glucose and Lipids tests. However I can only agree with @bulkbiker and @NicoleC1971 and others that (in theory) Fasting and 'weight-loss mode' mean that your body is consuming stored fat deposits and thus in the short term increasing your LDL

So an elevated LDL should only become a concern after you have exited 'weight-loss' mode, and after a normal 8hr fast rather than a 16hr one.

I hope that for both of us it works out that way in practice!
 
Thank you and good luck with your journey x x
 
I wondered if that might happen - thanks for confirming my suspicions x x
 
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