• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Tryglicerides/HDL significance to Insulin Resistance

M

Muddling Through

Active Member
Messages
26
Location
England
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
I didn't want to hijack another thread, but I saw the above mentioned saying the ratio between the two can show a link to IR, does anyone know anything else about this?

Since my recent blood tests, I'm on a mission to find out as much as I can, especially as my triglycerides were quite low, but this was my only 'health warning'.

Many thanks.
 
Diabetes of all sorts are in a basic sense a metabolic disorder. So it will play havoc with your metabolism. A lot of guff was written in the 80s and 90s that eating fatty food caused raised cholesterol. I understand from medical friends in the area that that is old thinking, and the new thinking is metabolic issues lead to cholesterol issues. So start back at the beginning - metabolism is king. So the answer seems to be that you'd prefer triglycerides and LDL to be low and HDL to be higher. Your liver plays a major part in this. You may want to talk to doctor about statins if s/he thinks your cholesterol is troubling.
 

Just a guess here, but high cholesterol, diabetes, non alcoholic fatty liver disease, high blood pressure and obesity fall under the "Metabolic Syndrome" umbrella. I ticked all the boxes save for high blood pressure. Going low carb and thus lowering my blood sugars, impacted all of the other MetSyn issues. So yeah, they are interconnected far as that goes, but I don't have numbers for you, sorry. https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/cholesterol-basics might be of interest though?

Mind you, statins can do more harm than good. They can raise blood sugars, so not the ideal medication for T2's, and can have a plethora of other side effects like joint pain, and dementia. I had a rather adverse response to them 4 years ago, but because I tackled my T2 with a LCHF diet, my cholesterol ratio's stabilised too. (As did basically everything else.)

Hope that helps.
Jo
 
Trigs being low is a good thing..
 

Hi @Muddling Through,

Yes, I believe that a high trig/HDL index often goes together with insulin resistance. Just based on personal observations, since starting low carb and normalizing blood sugar levels (and hopefully insulin resistance), I have consistently seen much improved results for this index, which now is in the ideal range.

Ted Naiman, a GP and low-carb advocate from Seattle, WA, advocates the triglyceride-glucose index as a measure for insulin resistance. If you interested, here is a link: http://www.burnfatnotsugar.com/TyGIndexCalculator.html

Btw, very well done on the low trigs.
 
bulkbiker said:
Trigs being low is a good thing..
Click to expand...
Apparently they were 'too low', the optimum range is from 1.6 up, mine were 0.6 and I was given some advice on the usual 'do some exercise and eat a healthy diet'. So maybe these would raise slightly.

Overall my cholesterol total was 3.9 so I'm not too concerned about it, but I do have a lot of weight to lose.
 
Thank you, I seem to be worrying over nothing then as I now know it is high trigs influence IR. Still I'm trying to learn as much as I can and be as proactive as I can with my health.

I'm keen to avoid statins at all cost, whilst I know they help with cholesterol, the side effects can be awful. I've seen it first hand with a family member, so I want to avoid taking them where I can.
 

Are you taking statins or any other cholesterol medication?

Did they tell you why they thought 0.6 was too low?

Edit to add.. according to my last one the ideal range is 0.5-2.5

 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2020-08-14 at 11.05.30.png
    26.6 KB · Views: 127
bulkbiker said:
Are you taking statins or any other cholesterol medication?

Did they tell you why they thought 0.6 was too low?

Edit to add.. according to my last one the ideal range is 0.5-2.5

View attachment 43332
Click to expand...

I'm not on any medication at all currently and would like to keep it that way.

I feel rather foolish now, I just checked my blood test results and it's not my triglycerides which are low, they are perfectly fine at 0.9 , its my HDL which is low.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20200814_111246_com.android.chrome.jpg
    426.2 KB · Views: 113
Muddling Through said:
I'm not on any medication at all currently and would like to keep it that way.

I feel rather foolish now, I just checked my blood test results and it's not my triglycerides which are low, they are perfectly fine at 0.9 , its my HDL which is low.
Click to expand...
Ah no worries its so easy to get them all mixed up..
What had you been eating n the weeks leading up to the blood test?

Edit to add monitormyhealth.org.uk look very reasonably priced for private tests.
 
Last edited:
I found them the cheapest, but also quite like they are NHS labs. Customer service was excellent when I had a query and despite daily finger prick tests, I was in a right flap using their lancets (I hate needles), my child was more level headed than me about it all.

My diet has mostly been all low carb and following the Fast800 for the weightloss and quick reference for meal planning from the associated cookbooks. Although I wouldn't say I've stuck to 800 calories though as I have had mildly larger portions than the 'diet' but all sugary snacks, biscuits and all types of bread/pasta/rice have been avoided. I did test my BG after trying the cook-cool-cook method on 25g of pasta but sadly that caused an elevated level for quite a while after that.
I've discovered a love for cauliflower rice!
 
Ideally you want to have a lower rate of trigs to HDL and for that ratio to be lower than 4.... ~~And above 1.6 for a male is ideal so if your HDL was 1.0 and you swapped cauli rice for the real thiing and saw your trigs rise to 4 that would be an issue for example.

From Ben Bikman's book (Why We Get Sick) on insulin resistance (the root cause of metabolic disorder including type 2 diabetes), a high trig level is an indicator of too much glucose (from carbs) having to be converted into these lipids by the liver. Your HDL then becomes problematic when your natural HDL gets depleted by having to sweep up the excess trigs. This is why a poor ratio is much more strongly linked to cardiac events than having a high LDL cholesterol.
However there are no drugs to treat either a low HDL or a high trig so there is no commerical incentive to focus on this medically.
Yet you can both reduce your trigs (yours are low right now) and increase HDL by eating low carb and high fat as you've been trying to especially as the trigs are susceptible to the amount of carbs you are having. You may find that eating this way increases LDL but don't rush to take a statin if this happens but do keep looking at that ratio.
 

Personally I'd be very careful with restricting what I eat too much as it can lead to metabolic slow down.

I used intermittent fasting then eating until satiated without limiting calories ( or at least not deliberately) to lose weight. Lind of a fast/feast regime.
Eat healthy low carb higher fat foods within a limited time window - I tend to gravitate towards a 20 hour fasted to 4 hour eating window these days. but 18:6 can work just as well.
 
This is what I do too, I've been so pleasantly surprised to not feel hungry any more. I mostly use a 20:4 window, but sometimes do 18:6 on days when we are out and I'm joining in with the family for a meal. The Fast800 was only meant to be for limited time, of which I 'finish' next week anyway. But some of the recipes will be staying, I had thought of going to an ADF style to keep my body guessing so as to prevent metabolic slowdown (as read in Gin Stephens recent book Fast Feast Repeat)

Another positive side effect, before I went low carb higher fat (haven't used margarine in years or any 'diet' yoghurt, we are a full fat Greek yoghurt house) I had my gallbladder out 10 years ago, but would still get the odd rush to the nearest toilet if I had something fatty. Since I have been LCHF, I've had no issues at all and in fact my digestion has improved.
 
Thank you very much, I might get a copy of that book and have a read.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…