Well I didn't see a more appropriate place to post this but let's see if I get any response. I am in my 4th week of Atkins. I did not get my blood tested before I started however, yesterday I had some tests done because I needed my thyroid rechecked.

Heres how it came out

Total Cholesterol 178
HDL 57
LDL 87
Triglycerides 172 (according to my lab it is High-Normal range is 39-149, but according to these posts, Under 200 is good? )

I go to my doc on Tuesday to discuss, I got a copy of these from work, but I'm freaking out about it. I want to make sure I am not doing anything to hurt my body!

Help!!

High triglycerides are normally caused by eating excessive carbs. They will lower the longer you are on low-cal. Four weeks is too soon to get your blood levels checked after changing your diet. Get a retest in three more months, and you will see a significant drop in the triglycerides.

You HDL is good and is protective from problems.

Looks pretty good to me.....but I don't believe cholesterol is any indicator of heart disease. Are you on any meds? supplements? Do NOT let your total get under 160 if you are.

"Desired" is mainly total under 200. High HDL...the higer the better, 57 is definitly on the high side. LDL should be low, under 100 I believe is the latest "desired" level. Remember tho....only about 1/2 of the people with heart disease have elevated or undesirable levels.

Last I heard Tri's should be below 200. The lower the better. The best way to lower this is to stick with LC and make sure you have a full fast prior to having blood draw. Non-fasting levels are useless.

Ask your doc to check your CRP (C-Reactive Protein) and Homocystine levels. Folate and B Complex is the treatment of choice for elevated levels. According to the latest research homocystine causes inflammation of blood vessels, so should be kept low. CRP is an indicator that you have inflammation going on in your body. This can be elevated for other problems, but it's believed now that inflammation anywhere in the body can cause heart disease. (I find this a little hard to believe...we'll see).

Taking B Complex and Folate is the best thing to get and keep these two low. Statins apparently also lower these, but cause some nasty and sometmes irreversible side effects in many.

The other thing that you can do to keep your cholestol levels good is to stay as far away from trans-fats as possible. Here's a good web-site about trans-fats: http://www.bantransfats.com/index.html. Weston A Price has lots of good info too.