After 3+ years of eating keto for BG control, I have read more than the average person about cholesterol because that seems to be the boogie man everyone points to when they try to say this WOE is dangerous. I am not a doctor, but I wanted to share some personal results that some may find interesting.

First, like many here, I started with high triglycerides (not sure the number, just that the doctor said too high), lowish HDL (40) and borderline high LDL (109). While eating this way, my results now tend to be trigs 50-79, HDL 73-79 and LDL 150-174.

For a traditional doctor, this LDL number suggests I need to be on a statin. I have opted against this for numerous reasons I will not go into here.

However, last year, I got a coronary artery calcium (CAC) test. This shows ACTUAL disease in the heart by measuring the amount of calcium that has built up. Typically, a score over 400 is considered high risk. It is also conventional wisdom in the medical community that once calcium starts to build up, the best you can hope for is to keep the growth of that number at less than 10% per year as average growth is somewhere around 15%

My score was 68, which may not sound bad, but for my age (a month before my 47th birthday), this put me in the 90th percentile in a bad way. At average growth rate, that would put me over 400 before I was 60.

After doing a boatload of research, I embarked on about 9 months of a protocol of high fish oil supplementation along with eating far more fatty fish to increase my omega 3 intake while also cutting as much of my omega 6 intake as was reasonable. I also started taking a high dose of vitamin K2 which is vital for directing calcium to bones and teeth and away from soft tissue.

I went back to get a repeat CAC this month and also got more blood work done. For the CAC, I not only had it done on the same machine, but they same operator doing the test/scoring. He came out afterwards with the results and asked, "what was your score last year?" with a funny look on his face. I told him had been a 68. He paused, looked back down at the paperwork as he handed it to me and said, "well, now it is 52." He really seemed baffled by this.

This is important because this represents actual REVERSAL of heart disease. Needless to say, I will continue my protocol and go get tested again in a few years with the hope that I can get back down to a 0.

As for the blood tests, my cholesterol was a normal (for me) 266 with LDL at 174, HDL at 73 and Trigs at 79, so this reversal came with, what is considered by mainstream medicine, dangerously high cholesterol.

Again, I am not a doctor. This is just an n=1 experiment. I am responsible only for my behaviors/choices. I am posting this because, I know some others in this group like @RalfLott have also had a CAC test and may be interested in what I have been doing and the results I was able to get.

I may not know for years or decades if I am making the right choices, but when I look at all my other lab values, and the only ones that seem to not look "good" are cholesterol, and the reason they are considered bad are heart disease, and I have verifiable evidence my heart disease is getting better, I am convinced I am taking the right actions for me.