I'm just wondering if anyone doing low carb on this board has their cholesterol numbers checked? I haven't started a low carb diet yet because I'm a bit worried about my cholesterol going up. I've heard that if you follow some of these lo carb diets correctly your cholesterol numbers should go down. Does anyone have any experience with this? My cholestrol is already high so I am wondering if starting this diet is at all worrisome for me. I guess I'm looking for some longer term low carbers to post on this. Is your cholesterol lower in any way? Thanks Pete

I think i'm the rarity on this forum. My cholesterol sky rocketed to dangerous levels. My doc put me on 15 mg of lipitor and in 3 mo, my cholesterol plumeted 100 pts.

I still take my lipitor, i'm still low carbing, and i'm healthy, and have no side affects whatsoever from my lipitor.

I'll find out on Monday, but I know I've seen other members who list their before and after lipid numbers. Perhaps if you do a search on LDL or another of the common terms you might find it. Or, hopefully they will write in themselves. From what I've seen, PilotGal is extremely rare. (and special, of course!) The vast majority of people that have reported say that their number definitely improve.

From some people you get a report of the LDL seems to go up a little bit, but HDL improves tremendously and triglycerides drop drastically. The literature seems to suggest that even though the LDL increases, its mainly the larger LDL molecules rather than the more dangerous small, dense LDL.

I'll post my numbers once I find out what they are on Monday.

Plane Crazy

im on maintainence and my numbers are awesome.

HDL:78
LDL: 80
Tryglycerides: 80 something.. cant remember
CRP: 0

My cholesterol and triglycerides are wonderful. the cholesterol total is 148. HDL=77 LDL=59 and triglycerides = 59. I am on the later stages of OWL.

By taking my net carbs down to 20 and calories around 1200 to 1400 I brought my triglycerides down 100 in 3 weeks. I also switched to lower saturated fats and more grapeseed oil, olive oil, etc. Some people can run on more saturated fats but I seem to have a problem with that. Everyones body runs on a different fuel mix I guess. I include more salmon (Pacific without the mercury) and less beef and pork.

Since 9 months into Atkins:
HDL 51
LDL 101 (was higher)
Total 162 (was 220)
Triglycerides 46! (was 200+)

Cholesteral went down slightly overall but triglycerdies dropped 25% in 9 months.

You'll probably see more discussion of it in the Cholesterol and Heart Disease forum.

My recent lipid profile, though I didn't get the numbers, was fine.

There are many people in my family with high cholesterol, and all are thin & healthy. I last tested at 199 total cholesterol prior to starting low-carb, after less than three months on low-carb, it has gone down to 172! Low-carb works!

LL

Mine dropped to 170-something - the total came up again when I went back to school and fell off the wagon (but not totally). HDL is still up, enough that even a cholesterol of 211 does not worry my doctor (she is very thorough and I trust her).

Triglycerides went low and stayed low - 50's and 60's.

good luck! best to get it tested to see how it works on your own personal body.

Thought I'd throw another one in here. My mom has been doing her own version of low-carbing for a little over a year now. She still eats whole-grain toast in the morning, but that's the only grain or sugar she eats. The rest is just meat, veggies and very little dairy. (just some cheese)

Before she started eating like this these were her stats:

HDL 32
LDL 215
Tri 308

Her doctor put her on Lipitor. She's cut herself down to only 30mg a week, whereas the standard dose is 20mg a day. I tell her to just stop taking it for three months and see what happens. I feel confident saying this because her numbers last week were:

HDL 59
LDL 104
Tri 57

I think she has some wiggle room to stop taking the statins for a period and see what her blood levels do. She seems to definitely fall into the group whose blood is drastically improved by the way of eating whereas I seem to fall into the group where it is helped a bit by having better ratios, but overall it doesn't have a huge effect. But if the AHA was correct, I should be a walking cardiac arrest with sky-high numbers. It just ain't so.

On the other hand, my dad's doctor just wrote on his chart that he is suffering from the Metabolic Syndrom and therefore is pre-Diabetic. We tell him, we show him, we ask him, but he's just not ready yet. I hope he gets ready before he become diabetic.

So, now my Mom teases him and tells him to go ahead, eat all the sweets because she's going to live to 200 and the sooner he's gone, the sooner she can find someone to spend the next 135 years with. Parents, whatta ya' gonna' do?

Oh, and for me, I posted my numbers elsewhere but I said I'd post them here.
HDL 43
LDL 164
Tri 140
I don't have my old numbers yet (sent away for them from my old doctor) but I do remember that my HDL was 29, my LDL was around 190 and my Tri were around 200. Not a huge improvement, but an improvement nonetheless.

Plane Crazy

Not huge? That is huge! Getting your HDL up like that is very hard, it seems, for men. It seems to me you're doing great.

I don't have exact stats, but my mother had high cholesterol and dropped it 60 points in the first five months.

I didn't have my cholesterol numbers done at any time, but my blood pressure has gone from the high side of normal to "optimum."

Likewise my husband's blood pressure has gone from borderline high to "optimum." He dropped twenty points, upper and lower.

I don't have the exact break down, but after 4 months of low carbing, my total cholesterol went from 179 to 164. It was ok before, but better now.