Thu, Jul-17-03, 14:29
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Forum Founder
Posts: 37,415
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Plan: LC, GF
Stats: 241/190/140
BF:
Progress: 50%
Location: Eastern ON, Canada
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Keep eating lots of fish  Omega-3 fatty acids from fish and monounsaturate fats in olive oil, avocadoes and raw nuts (especially walnuts and almonds) will help keep that nice HDL at protective levels.
According to your profile, you've been low-carbing for a month. That's really too soon to say how the diet is affecting your blood lipids. 3 months would give a more accurate picture. In fact, some people will experience a transient rise in LDL after they switch to LC, but it goes down eventually to lower levels. The Drs. Eades of Protein Power explain it thus:
Quote:
I’ve been on the plan for awhile and feel better than I ever have. I’ve lost weight, my blood pressure is down and my sugar levels are now normal. My most recent lab tests show that my cholesterol and LDL went up. What am I doing wrong?
First of all, be aware that you are not doing anything wrong. The most consistent finding after people go on our program is that triglycerides drop and HDL, the "good" cholesterol increases. This indicates that your insulin levels have dropped and you have stopped converting excess amounts of sugar into fats as trigylcerides. Cholesterol is a number that is composed of both good and bad fractions, therefore we don’t tend to track it nearly as close as more specific levels of HDL, triglycerides and LDL. LDL cholesterol is made up of different particles that vary from person to person. Depending on the type of particles that predominate, one is said to have either pattern A or pattern B. With pattern A, the LDL is light, fluffy, and relatively large. This pattern is actually thought to be beneficial. With pattern B, the molecule is heavy, dense, and relatively small. This pattern is thought to be detrimental. Pattern B is a partial consequence of excessively elevated triglycerides. When triglycerides go down after the Protein Power Plan has been adopted, a phenomenon called the "beta shift" occurs where LDL is transformed into pattern A. So, paradoxically, even though the level of LDL appears to increase, the type of LDL that is being formed is usually much healthier. The difficult part is that the lab testing to determine your levels of LDL "A" and LDL "B" can only be done in a research laboratory with electrophoresis methods. While we cannot be 100% certain that this is what happened in your case, the research strongly supports this view.
The most important thing is to look at the overall picture. With the Protein Power approach we look at the triglyceride/HDL ratio as one of the best measurements of risk for heart disease. An upper limit of 5 is considered desirable, with anything over that indicating an increased risk. Some measures to help bring down your cholesterol and LDL levels are: stay on the plan (some people panic and feel that the plan is causing the opposite effect), take a "no-flush" niacin 500 mg 2-3 capsules per day, increase your fiber intake with perhaps psyllium seed powder-1-2 TBS mixed in water per day, and avoid excessive saturated fats and trans fats (fried foods and margarine.)
http://eatprotein.com/answers11.htm#11e
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VLDL's are more closely linked to triglyceride fat, and are more the bad guys than LDL. Normal levels are 10 - 31 mg/dl .. I'd say your level of 11 is nice and low ... and one can also infer that your triglyceride levels are nice and low too.
I highly recommend for you to get your hands on a copy of Protein Power Lifeplan, by Drs Michael and Mary Dan Eades, pub. 2000. It's very likely that your library will have a copy you can borrow, so no need to buy anything. The whole book is very readable, and the Eades devote several chapter to cholesterol, triglycerides, fat, antioxidants etc etc and the role of low-carbing to ensure good health.
hth,
Doreen
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serious cholesterol question!
Thanks, Doreen!
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