Cholesterol - Help?

mstorvik

I have posted this here and on my status, but wondering if anyone knows anything about this?

My blood donation yesterday indicated that my cholesterol was 179... Up 30 points from what it was all the other times I gave blood. It's still normal, but I am sure it has to do with week one of Low Carb. LC people - thoughts? is this normal? Should I be worried? Will it go back down? That's a big leap (in my eyes)!

LowcarbNY

"but I am sure it has to do with week one of Low Carb. " I'm not so sure.
1) How long since your last test? Months or years.
2) When did you have your last fasting lipid profile done? That will give you more than just TC it will give you LDL, HDL and Triglicerides. What were those numbers?
3) Did you eat a big plate of shrimp 3 hours before you gave blood?

Cutting down on carbs will definitely lower your trigliceride number. It will probably lower your LDL number and your HDL may not change much either way. One week is too short to see a change. Try after 1 -3 months.

mstorvik

"but I am sure it has to do with week one of Low Carb. " I'm not so sure.
1) How long since your last test? Months or years.
2) When did you have your last fasting lipid profile done? That will give you more than just TC it will give you LDL, HDL and Triglicerides. What were those numbers?
3) Did you eat a big plate of shrimp 3 hours before you gave blood?

Cutting down on carbs will definitely lower your trigliceride number. It will probably lower your LDL number and your HDL may not change much either way. One week is too short to see a change. Try after 1 -3 months.

I have never had all three numbers, but I get my numbers ran every two months when I give blood. Each time they were around the same number 140-150 and this one time 179. I have never had a fasting lipids profile done ever. haha on the shrimp I had almonds, cottage cheese, swiss cheese and an egg and a gummi multivitamin in the hours before the appt. (I ate that over about 5 hours).

I am going to (have) to go again in two months (gotta rack up those blood donor points for STARBUCKS cash!!) but I am thinking of making an appt in a month to do a lipid test. Doctors will do that for me, right?

LowcarbNY

Look at this.
http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/ss/slideshow-cholesterol-overview

mstorvik

Yeah I looked at that and it said a diet high in sat fat can do it... but don't we eat much sat fat on HFLC? It also said that no more than 35% of your diet should be fat - again, against HFLC. Although, I did enjoy the information that it gave... it just had some that went against the grain (haha, no pun intended) of the diet.

mstorvik

Wait!! Just saw the low-carb section!!

bluebird321

My cholesterol is high, 220 (or low depending on your information source), but my HDL is at 61, so my ratio is about 3.69 which is supposed to be excellent at my age. My triglycerides are at 89, VLDL is at 18. There was a time my triglycerides were much higher and HDL was much lower, but that was before I started going low carb etc about 14 months ago.

The whole thing with cholesterol is a bit controversial and confusing.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/89978-cholesterol-numbers-explained/

Marll

You may see an over raise in cholesterol, but where it counts is the numbers for triglycerides, HDL and LDL ratios.