Low Carb and cholesterol rising

[Mikey869]

I have been successfully following LCHF WOE since mid-April. I have taken to it very well with no cheats or cravings. I do occasionally use ThinSlim Foods bread products - but mainly I am comfortable around the 15 - 20 Carbs a day range.

I had blood work done a couple of weeks after starting this plan and cholesterol numbers were a bit high. I figured I would wait until the next scheduled test to see - since I would have been on this plan exclusively for three months. BTW - my A1C skyrocketed to 19.5 prior to changing my WOE and had dropped to 7.2 after about three weeks on the plan. I just got the latest blood results and was shocked to see a huge increase in Triglycerides and overall - an increase in nearly all numbers. The A1C, however, dropped to a normal range of 5.2. I had also cut my glucose meds in half. (See numbers below - sorry could not figure out a way to display them better).

My concern is obviously if I should continue this plan (I've also lost about 30 pounds.....) or move away from the fat? I am not expecting any medical advice, just hoping to solicit some thoughts and opinions from folks who have been doing this WOE much longer than myself. Sincere thanks in advance for your thoughts.....

5/29/15 8/28/15

A1C 7.2 5.2
Cholesterol 212 219
Triglycerides 149 232
LDL 147 135
VDL 30 46
HDL 42 58

[emily1965]

It' s very common for cholesterol to spike up and then fall back down after starting low carb. Your numbers at 6 months should be much different.

But, also read up on cholesterol. The medical section of this board has some great info and links about how little our cholesterol numbers actually matter.

[Rayanne]

My cholesterol also went up while low carbing. I've been for about a year now. How can I reduce my numbers. Worried thanks every one

[ChelePA]

Mine doubled hdl and ldl. Trigs very low. Changed my diet. Hoping to see some improvement.

[Eugaea]

Good idea for a thread.

My cholesterol and LDL were already high before starting the diet - 270 and 162. I get blood tests monthly, so it'll be interesting to see what the first round of results are after starting the diet this month.

Anyone also have high lipoprotein (a)? Mine tested at 69 last month, and I wonder if I'll see any changes in that with the diet. I started taking niacinamide this month for the Lp(a), so I expect to see some change... hopefully for the better.

[wallycat]

For those who are concerned, remember, cholesterol USED TO BE suspected in CVD, but these thoughts are changing. It is inflammation that causes the plaque...cholesterol on its own is not dangerous. Some studies indicate low cholesterol was a better prognosticator of early death (and dementia) than higher cholesterol.
As an aside, I (and co-workers of mine) had patient consults with people with low/normal cholesterol who had heart attacks and patients (as dietary consults) with very high cholesterol that never (as far as we knew) had a CVD event.

Have you had your c-reactive (inflammatory markers) checked?

Also, it is more telling to look at your "ratio"...the older method was to do a total chol. to HDL ratio (optimal less than 3.5) but thinking is now trig/hdl ratio (less than 2 is ideal) for insulin resistance (which is more inflammatory).

[Eugaea]

Thanks, wallycat. My inflammatory markers and ratios are checked each month, I'll take a look.

[ChelePA]

Since stopping the use of coconut oil on a daily basis...my overall cholesterol dropped 75 points in 3 months. I was always low 200s before. Now I am in the 300s so we'll see with my next check.

[ouizoid]

Yep, coconut oil seems to be the culprit in a lot of these cases

[Avocat]

This is an older thread but I wanted to pitch in my $0.02. My husband has been LC/HF for about one year now. At the six month mark his cholesterol numbers were not "good" according to conventional medicine (see below). However, he just had his fasting cholesterol done the other week:

Feb. 2016:
Total Chol.: 197
HDL: 71
Trig: 55
LDL: 115

May 2015:
Total Chol.: 261
HDL: 62
Trig: 71
LDL: 185

So it can take more than a few months for cholesterol numbers to stabilize. In particular, if you're still losing weight (he's stopped losing a while ago but was still actively losing in May) the numbers will be artificially skewed.

[saltnpepper]

Thanks for sharing Avocat. His numbers are improving, good news.

I always wonder about all this......

[Avocat]

Originally Posted by saltnpepper

Thanks for sharing Avocat. His numbers are improving, good news.

I always wonder about all this......

Oh, I totally get it. We are so heavily indoctrinated in the low fat paradigm that the idea of eating fats actually being healthful seems counter intuitive.

I truly believe that, barring any other health conditions, if you give your body what it needs it will "self correct".