Apparently thyroid dysfunction can do that. Also, your triglycerides are still kind of high. I'd expect a good low carber to have them down well under 100. Like 60ish.

Do you have diabetes and/or pre-diabetes? I think that can be one cause of highish triglycerides too. Oh you must be, you were on metformin.

You might want to look into some of the postings Awriter has been making about her thyroid and how taking some thyroid meds has decreased her cholesterol levels, like 100 points in one month.

When delving into thyroid issues keep this in mind: The lab range is pretty wide and what is represented as normal may not be optimal. So it is important to get your lab test results. Also, it seems that some people create a lot of RT3 and this isn't normally measured. That can mess up things because RT3 and T3 bind to the same receptors but only T3 is active.

Anyway, these are some ideas for you.

How are your D3 levels and do you take fish oil? Both help a lot with the heart, not necessarily cholesterol.

Read up Dr. Davis's blog, he's really good. http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com

If you're concerned enough about this, I'd join Dr. Davis' Track your plaque program and follow his recommendations. But his program is directed towards people with actual arterial plaque, not just high cholesterol numbers. But if you don't want to do that, read his blog and follow his recommendations for supplements for Vit D3, getting your thyroid in optimal order, fish oil, possibly niacin (use slo-niacin, not no-flush) and his dietary recommendations -- low carb diet, no wheat, no corn starch, etc. He gives an overview of all this in his blog but you'd probably get a better idea, faster by joining the program. Ralph, one poster here, is pretty happy to be on that program. But he actually had a heart scan and it showed he had plaque and stuff developing.

Nancy, I was pre-diabetic with impaired fasting glucose. My D3 levels will be tested in this next round of labwork. My last D3 level was 43. I have been taking 5000 IU of D3 daily before and since then. I take two capsules of fish oil each day. I haven't tried the niacin but I would consider it. Is there evidence that the no-flush niacin is effective.

My doc is going to do some thyroid testing in the next round, but he refused to order Free T3 and RT3 tests. He said that they are unreliable; I think that is what he understands from the endos. I will take a look at awriter's posts.

--Melissa

43 isn't bad for D3. Depends on the lab, some lab numbers are highish due to the way they're measured. You might want to look into the D3 testing issues at http://vitamindcouncil.org.

It's unfortunate your doctor won't order those tests, however you probably can get them still if you want, you might just have to pay for them out of pocket. There are a number of places you can self-order tests.

Here's what I go by for establishing what was a good level for myself: http://www.grassrootshealth.org/_do...hart_101608.pdf
I tested 60 ng/ml using the ZRT test, which uses the most accurate testing available. I had been on 50,000 iu a week for quite some time.

Here's info about the testing: http://preventdisease.com/news/08/090308_vit_d.shtml Some of the labs use a method that inflates the numbers by 25% or more!

VAP isn't useless. Medium and small particle LDL are bad and you can have low triglycerides and still have a lot of small LDL. So it's a good idea to get it checked. What you're hoping for is Pattern A. Pattern B is bad. It usually goes along with low HDL too.

Definitely get the thyroid tests done as well. I haven't heard anything about how/if the thyroid affects the production of small LDL so it could perhaps do so.

I wanted to be sure to post this. It's a really, really good article at Men's Health about cholesterol. It explains why having a higher than advised LDL might be perfectly fine, or might be worrisome. Please be sure to read it before resorting to statins.

Before you swallow what your doctor prescribes, we suggest you read this article

Thanks for the link Nancy, it's a great article except for their equivocating on saturated fat. I have absolutely zero desire or willingness to take statins since they have never been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack or mortality in women. I don't mind my LDL going up a little if it meant that HDL and triglycerides were moving in the right direction..I just don't like seeing LDL double itself in a year. I am hoping that the next round of testing will show that it's benign, as I suspect. I will let you and Lisa know when I have results.

--Melissa

Here's an interesting posting about why insulin resistance makes triglylcerides worse, thus why so many people with Type 2 seem to have high trigs.

http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2...experiment.html

I don't mean to junk up this thread with somewhat unrelated posts, but I wanted to say thank you for making this a sticky. I've been a lurker on these boards for a while now and was panicked when my LDL went up. Reading through this thread, including the various articles posted, and doing research on my own, has made me realize that what happened to me was typical for low-carbers. I also now realize that cholesterol is far more complicated and less settled than many people (including me until recently!) realize.

Thank you to all who contributed to this thread, and particularly to those who posted links to articles.

Hi Lisa and Nancy. I got the full results of my VAP test today. The results are as follows, with the listed reference ranges if the results were out of range:

LDL 299 (<130)
HDL 71
VLDL 24
TC 394
Tris 132
Non HDL Cholesterol 323 (<160)
apoB100-calc 195 (<109)
LDL-R (Real) -C 257 (<100)
Lp(a) 12.0 (<10)
IDL 30 (<20)
Remnant Lipo (IDL+VLDL3) 45 (<30)
HDL-2 19
HDL-3 52
VLDL-3 (small remnant) 15 (<10)
LDL Density Pattern A

So I was pattern A as expected, which was nice to see. I was about a third of the over into pattern A from pattern A/B, so there is probably still room for improvement. Do you know what any of these other numbers mean? I'm not sure what to make of the Lp(a), VLDL-3, etc. Not sure if the apoB100 number is useful or not since it seems to be calculated.

A few other tests were run. My Free T4 was 1.16, with a range of 0.82-1.77. My TSH was 2.41, Total T3 was 107 (range 83-200). Vitamin D3 was 58, which has definitely improved thanks to my 5000 IU daily. My Vitamin B12 was 712.

I feel like there is definitely something else going on here. My LC diet does not explain why my LDL has doubled in the last year, even as all of my other indicators have improved. I think I need to find a doctor who is willing to do all of the testing that I need. Any thoughts or interpretations are appreciated.

--Melissa

Oops, missed this.

HDL is great. Trigs not. Any idea why those are so high? Are you taking any supplements? Are you raising your carbs? It could indicate diabetes too. You were fasting right? You really want to be as close to 100% pattern A as possible.

Fish oil should help with the Trigs, I think. Check out Dr. Davis's blog. I suspect if you solve the Trig problem your pattern will shift more towards A. How the Vit. D3 status? Thyroid?

Some of the tests I'm not sure of. Maybe plug them into the search box on Dr. Davis's site and/or http://www.labtestsonline.org/ for a good description. Sometimes the labs themselves have a web site with really good explanations.

You've also got high VLDL too. All in all, I wouldn't feel comfortable with the results of this test.

Just googling on the test names should turn stuff up too, like this:


Given your high trigs and high APOB100 and the weakness in your pattern A... I'd probably be joining the Track your Plaque program Dr. Davis has, to work on those things. It's a non-profit thing and I think there are a lot of expert members that can help explain these tests and guide you in improving things. Ralph, from the diabetes sub-forum, is really happy with that program. I'm not a member but would join in a heart beat (sic) if I had some questionable test results from a good test like the one you got.



It's hard to know what's going on with the thyroid. 2.41 is kind of a marginal TSH number. Lisa, who can't post here any longer, would tell you you might have a reverse T3 problem, but that takes another test and it's tough to get doctors to test for it. You can however order these tests yourself if your doctor is unwilling. Just post in my journal if you want more info on testing.

There may be something to low carb making us kick out a lot of RT3. I know having lots of estrogen will do that too, so can being on birth control pills.

RT3 is what the body produces when it wants the metabolism to slow down, like if you were starving. It is an inactive form of T3 and binds to the same receptors as T3 does. T3 is the only active form of thyroid (pretty sure). T4 is like a battery, it doesn't do anything until an iodine molecule is striped off and it becomes T3. Not sure what T1-T2, T5-T7 do but they're there!

I was fasting, yes. I am not sure why my trigs are still high. They have come down since starting LC but should be farther down by now. I take a ton of supplements, including fish oil. My vitamin D3 status was good--58. I have not raised my carbs, I am eating roughly 25-30 g net per day. I think I am going to investigate the thryoid angle as that seems to be linked. My current doctor does not seem willing to do the needed testing to determine if there is an issue, so I may need to go to a doctor who specializes in thyroid and pay out of pocket.

--Melissa

Hey Melisbsmile,

Below are my VAP results taken on 12/31 2009. I too was very concerned. I've lost 32 pounds and feel great on the LC-hifat way of life. Trying to improve my HDL and tryglicerides of course. Feeling a bit better after doing some research on the whole cholesteral/ldl hype. Doc didn't have much to say other than change diet and start meds (which I'm not doing). Been to Jimmy Moore's website and exchanged some info. His numbers too were rather high (TC and LDL). Everything I'm reading is making me feel better...trygliceride/hdl ratio, cholesteral myth and even some info about higher cholesteral levels being better as you get older. Oh well, sticking to this and still learing as I go. Good luck

Nancy gave me some info on vitamin D3 level which I am going to investigate also. Good info on thyroid in your posts also. Maybe I have a 'thyroid' issue going on also. I also am looking into reasons why my TC and LDL are so high. However, I have noticed thru the past 3/4 years, the stricter I got on LC-hiFAT the higher my LDL and TC went up, my HDL went higher and my triglyceriders dropped (along with my weight.. ). The past year I have been very strict. Very interesting.

TC=417
LDL=333
HDL=60
Tri=86
LDL pattern type = Pattern A (about the middle of Pattern A) (Great!)

What's the name of a fancy cholesterol test package... is it the Princeton heart panel or something vaguely like that?

There's the NMR and the VAP cholesterol test. They both directly count particle size and I think both will tell you if you have Pattern A (good) or Pattern B (bad) cholesterol.

Nancy what do you think of my results?

--Melissa