I posted this under another tread I was reading by mistake. I'm posting again because I would like to hear from some of you knowledgable medical people dicussing where I really stand and how much I really need to worry. I've been eating the CAD plan D. Basically a 0 carb breakfast and whatever I want for an early dinner with a big salad first and all within an hour.

They are still not good enough to make the American Heart Assoc. happy but they are going in the right direction. The first column is my 10 year average minus the readings while on Lipitor. Even a 10mg every other day ran my liver enzymes into the red. The second column is my new test results while on CAD.

Total---263---242---should be under 200
HDL-----44----46----should be over 39
LDL-----182---180---should be under 130
Trig-----194----95---great - should be under 150
Risk-----6.0---5.3---should be under 5

I’m going to try some of the supplements that didn’t work for me in the past. With my body in this new state they might work now. One of these is called Cholerest. It seems to be the best of the natural supplements I've tried.

By the way, my 99 year old grandfather died a few years ago had high Cholesterol. He didn't die of heart problems just of a broken heart missing my grandmother. He always ate cookies for breakfast and his favorite meal was a chily cheeze dog. I know my love of deserts came from him.

One striking conclusion, adding all the fat and Cholesterol in my new diet actually lowered my Cholesterol. In the past I was eating a fairly low fat diet. I had a rule that I would eat one meal per week that was anything I wanted (like my daily RM is now), but overall I was high carb and low fat. What I have done with the low carb diet is not worry about fat. I don't want to stop eating this diet!

I know this is a pretty small snapshot for this test. Do you think the numbers will improve with more time on CAD? All of my experiments over the last nearly 10 years show my diet has little to do with my Cholesterol results.

Larry

Hi Larry,

I'm afraid I can't pretend to be a guru, but I'll tell you what I think anyway.

First up, have you looked at the sticky thread at the top of this forum called something like Cholesterol: understanding its numbers? I think you'll find the info there greatly reassuring.

Basically, if you have a high HDL and low triglycerides (which you do) you're doing fine. Better than fine.

I too, have a highish LDL, but as I also have a high HDL and low trigs, I am happy. My GP would like me to take Lipitor (as I was before low carbing) but I think I've actually read up more on this than he has.

I do take fish oil capsules, which also help my arthritis as well as psyllium husks. Well, I don't take the psyllium every singe day, but I try to.

Cheers, mate, HTH

Rosebud

After 5 years of being mostly on LC, my recent blood tests showed a highish LDL but the ratio was 3.5 which is below average risk. And the triglycerides were 74. So you seem to be heading in the good direction too. even my GP said that I shouldn't worry about the high LDL as the ratio was the most important indicator.

There are some opinions in cardiology circles that the low triglyceride number is much more important than the cholesterol numbers as an indicator of heart health.

Thanks for the info. The way I look at it my Total/HDL is 5.3 or .3 into the danger zone and my LDL/HDL is 3.9 or in the normal range. These are compared to the info from Doreen in the sticky. So am I ok or not?

Larry

I think so. In fact your total is fine. It's only the LDL that's a bit high, and it's better than mine. And I'm pretty happy with mine.
Something I should have mentioned, when I had my first LC results last year and my GP was upset that I was refusing to take more Lipitor, I showed my numbers to a cardiologist at work (I'm an ICU/CCU RN) and he agreed that they were great numbers. High HDL, low triglycerides along with high LDL. (I don't have the exact numbers here)

Rosebud

Rosebud is an RN and experienced in reading the numbers. she said above that having higher HDL & lower triglycerides are considered indicators of protective against heart disease. So you are on the good side.

On my lab report, it said:
triglycerides: desirable range is less than 2.30 (You are away under this)

cholesterol ratio: less than 3.5 is below average risk
3.50 - 5.00 is average risk
5.00 - 10.00 is above average.

So you are doing great. Look at it as "only .3 into the average risk range. you are almost "under" and will probably continue to go farther into that range.