cholesterol
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punkinbaby1
Posts: 36 Member
hello. i have been very successful with atkins, only to get my blood work back and have now been put on a med for high cholesterol! i am freakn out! how can i do atkins and keep losing if i have high cholesterol? My doc said he didnt think it was my diet really as much as family genes......and yes my family is full of people with high cholesterol. so, now what do i do? is there a way to do low cholesterol atkins? i dont want to stop losing the weight, but dont want to have more health problems either. ALL of my other blod work was wonderful!
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hello. i have been very successful with atkins, only to get my blood work back and have now been put on a med for high cholesterol! i am freakn out! how can i do atkins and keep losing if i have high cholesterol? My doc said he didnt think it was my diet really as much as family genes......and yes my family is full of people with high cholesterol. so, now what do i do? is there a way to do low cholesterol atkins? i dont want to stop losing the weight, but dont want to have more health problems either. ALL of my other blod work was wonderful!
Firstly, you are asking about a medical related matter thus this should never be discussed here on MFP. You need to have this discussion with both your doctor and an RD.
Im actually quite concerned that your doctor didnt recommend meeting up with a registered dietician to educate you on this. Its rather unorthodox. (***sigh, gotta love healthcare)
Your doctor is however, correct: cholesterol issues DO in fact fall into the category of "family history" where it is cardiac related. Genetics do play a role here and its good that your doctor seems to support you using the Atkin's approach - not alot of doctors do....1 -
google the Dukan diet, he actually knocks the Atkins diet due to the fat/ butter issues0
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thank u all for the info. I wasnt really asking for medical advise as much as i was for support and info about continuing my low carb lifestyle. thanks ganasha for the link
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First, do your research and know what your numbers mean. Is it the total cholesterol that is high? What are you triglycerides? Your HDL? You may want to look into having a VAP test done to determine if your lipoproteins are large and fluffy (harmless) or small and dense. (harmful)
Start off at cardiologist's Dr. William Davis' Track Your Plaque blog. www.trackyourplaque.com/blog3 -
punkinbaby1 wrote: »hello. i have been very successful with atkins, only to get my blood work back and have now been put on a med for high cholesterol! i am freakn out! how can i do atkins and keep losing if i have high cholesterol? My doc said he didnt think it was my diet really as much as family genes......and yes my family is full of people with high cholesterol. so, now what do i do? is there a way to do low cholesterol atkins? i dont want to stop losing the weight, but dont want to have more health problems either. ALL of my other blod work was wonderful!
Many of us have been at the same place. I had to tell the VA clinic No three years ago. Now they understand not to be concerned about LDL levels if other health markers are improving when eating Low Carb. Best of success in educating your doctor but more and more are starting to understand not to give meds for cholesterol levels in our LC Way Of Eating.2 -
Take a look around at this website http://cholesterolcode.com/infographic-of-prediction-experiment/
Dave Feldman is a geek who loves researching the reasons for his high cholesterol -- he is an "outlier" hyper responder who has higher than normal cholesterol after going keto. He found that if you eat really high calories for 3 days before your blood draw for a chol test, your numbers will actually DROP NEARER TO NORMAL LEVELS. Read up on it at his site. I did the protocol and my total chol fell back down.6 -
Have you researched cholesterol at all? Do you believe that high cholesterol is actually a risk factor?
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Zombie thread of 2012 and OP hasn't been around but cholesterol is always a good topic of discussion. Carry on.4
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Here are a couple short vids explaining how your lipid profile might get temporarily whacky when you're in the weight-loss phase of keto.
https://youtu.be/MNfjkTyBUdQ
https://youtu.be/mZ-deF9I31s 2 -
Same happened to me but know that losing fat and exercise will lower your cholesterol. Lots of research out there that links cholesterol to what you have not what you eat.2
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I have a family history of high cholesterol and during my last blood work up I thought it would be higher because of transitioning to LCHF diet. It was the exact opposite my bad cholesterol was lower, good cholesterol was higher, and triglycerides were considerably lower. I've always heard there is a spike in blood cholesterol and triglycerides when starting LCHF but given time with exercise and weight loss your markers improve dramatically, which looks to be happening to me.
Make sure you are doing a fasting blood draw otherwise it can skew results. I also get mine done first thing in the morning for consistency sake. I stay away from really high fat meals, sugar, and alcohol in the days leading up my blood draws since I've seen those things skew results as well. Try to get a running trend on your blood work especially if they are adding medication, maybe once every three months. I wouldn't let them put me on long term meds without some type of follow-up to make sure the dosage is right or that you didn't get bad results on the first blood draw (it happens, the testing agency messed up my blood calcium results one time)1 -
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According to your profile you have lost 22 lbs. Cholesterol tests are terribly inaccurate unless you have been weight stable for at least 6 months. When your body is losing weight by metabolizing fat, all that fat is circulating in your bloodstream. That process is unrelated to the method used to lose weight, so it has less to do with what you are eating, and more to do with the fact that you are eating less and burning adipose fat.
"Although research indicates that weight loss will lower cholesterol, some people may experience a rise in cholesterol as they lose weight, because as weight is lost, fat stores shrink. The fat and cholesterol normally stored in fatty tissue have nowhere to go but the bloodstream, causing a rise in cholesterol. This effect is not permanent and cholesterol levels will drop as your weight stabilizes. Medications used to to treat high cholesterol, such as Z-hydroxy-Z-Coa reductase inhibitors, are not effective in controlling cholesterol when it comes from fatty tissue stores."
https://livestrong.com/article/500114-can-losing-weight-raise-your-cholesterol-temporarily/4 -
one more video that I think everyone prescribed a statin should be required to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc1XsO3mxX8
also just check out this page as it gives the risk reward ratio of statins (and other treatments). As Dr Diamond explains in the above video, the literature describing benefit % are quite misleading by using relative risk where as the increased risk in side effects are actual risk.
Short version is that the relative risk drops by 1/3, which sound like a lot until realize the risk drops from 3% to 2%. Then they say risk of diabetes goes up by 10%, but that is an actual 10% from 10% to 20%. If they were being honest, they would use relative risk there and say that risk doubles. Or they could be honest and say your risk of heart attack goes down by 1%.
http://www.thennt.com/nnt/statins-for-heart-disease-prevention-without-prior-heart-disease/5 -
Bump.... very enlightening video.
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punkinbaby1 wrote: »My doc said he didnt think it was my diet really as much as family genes......and yes my family is full of people with high cholesterol.
Did he have you do a DNA test if not, some family members have high chol. due to their eating patterns. Low fat high carb diets do cause high cholesterol numbers.
If you have been on Atkins for under a year, you could easily have a high total chol. as others have pointed out, and directed you to explainations. Also being on Atkins, do you use lots of the bars and shakes? I didn't do well when I attempted to do those, I had to go strictly Atkins40 Foodie plan, minus the products, they have sugar alcohols and some of us don't do well with those. I slowly worked my way up the carb ladder, I have added fasting to my protocol, and I reached my original goal weight last Spring, I had set another lower goal weight and have also reached that. I had my chol. go to 220, no higher, since my ratio of tri/hdl is .8, my dr. doesn't fore see any statins in my future. She also had the NMR lipopanel done, and really liked the results from that, and we will be retesting again in 6 months.
So please don't panic, do your diligence and KCKO. All the best in your Journey.
Edited to add, no research has proven statins effect women's odds of heart disease if they have not had a heart attack, only evidence points to it can aid in treatment after an event. I'll PM you a link to some good info on all the science behind this WOE.
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@retirehappy could you please paste that link here or send me the link too? Thank you.1
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If you really want to know actual risk, see if you can get your CAC score. It is a measure of calcium build up in coronary arteries. I have a cardiology office near me that does it for $45. Insurance doesn’t cover it, but given how valuable this test is, I would pay even more for it (although I don’t mind it being cheap).
I had mine checked last summer and will get it checked again this summer. Progression, or lack thereof, is the best indicator of risk for heart attack/disease.
If you have Netflix, I would recommend watching The Widow Maker. It is well worth the 90 minutes to see this documentary.4
