I don’t know if this will reassure you, but I’ve got similar stats – female (46 yo), normal weight, fairly healthy despite some of the medical care I have received, except my total chol is a bit higher at 261 as is my LDL at 183 (by calculation, not actual measurement); HDL is also 68, Trig are a bit lower than your at 52. VLDL is quite low, but I can’t remember it, might have been 12. My ratios are excellent, which is probably why my various doctors have left me alone about blood lipids (my endocrinologist was more concerned, but when I told him I thought the lipid hypothesis was flawed and I gave him a list of addition tests he could run to gather more specific information *to reassure him*, he said it didn’t warrant that and dropped the subject).

I actually find this lipid pattern *reassuring* (I would worry far more about lower cholesterol totals, because that is associated with other issues like dementia and cancer, especially in females, and certainly about higher triglycerides). I also recently had my vit D level tested (25 OHD) and it was 44 after about 9 mos of supplementing at 2000-4000 units/day plus getting a bit more sun than in the past decade (I live in So Cal so that is easier for me). My endocrinologist was happy with the level, but it just told me it must have been rather low before supplementing and I’m going to try to get it up a bit higher. You might consider checking your Vit D level.

I consider my LC lipid pattern of the past few years a huge improvement over my high carb days a decade and a half ago when I had what was then considered great lipid numbers – my total chol was under 200, but my HDL was too low, and Trig were creeping to 200, and I was gaining weight. Also at that time, I probably was mildly hyperglycemic a lot of the time, but didn’t know it (but I now see there were lots of mild symptoms that were brushed under the carpet or attributed to other causes). I now know I was headed straight for T2 diabetes (I also had gestational diabetes in ’98, well-controlled with a LC diet), which would greatly increase my risk of heart attack later, unless well controlled. With low carb I have stopped that progression to full-blown diabetes ( at least for now) without meds. Now I get normal or nearly normal glucose levels with a careful whole food LC diet & self-glucose monitoring (but really abnormal levels with high carb foods), so I shudder to think of what my health would be like if I hadn’t gone LC and read up on how glucose metabolism works and instead followed the same advice my family members follow. I figured this out without the help of my doctors, in fact, they were most unsupportive (and clueless about the post-natal glucose issues, actually, because LC was already treating it and keeping my labs in the high normal range).

Like you, I have many family members, especially the females) with numerous progressive health problems who worry a lot about their “abnormal” lipid numbers. They have spent years on strict low fat-high carb diets, taking statins (incl a younger sister who started on them in her early 30s! and had to stop nursing her infant – I think it was actually undiagnosed post-natal hypothyroidism). None of them ever see any “improvement” in their numbers without statins, and from my perspective they have a lot of health issues that I think are directly caused by the things they do to “correct” their lipids, but they don’t see the connection. Like many other people, my extended family members have a hard time accepting that the medical and nutritional advice they get is flawed, unsubstantiated, or even plain wrong and they tend to separate medical issues and treat the symptoms, instead of looking at the big picture and getting to the root cause. There is just no way I could do what they are doing – from my perspective following the conventional advice has just made their health worse.

I’ll bet your blood work doesn’t look as much like your unhealthy family members as you think, once you get beyond the high total chol and LDL. They probably don’t have good ratios, high enough HDL, nor low triglycerides. If they are eating low fat and high carb, they probably have the numerous small dense LDL particles that are worrying. I think Dr. Eades is right, determining your particle size and number might reassure you. Keep in mind, stressing over your labs isn’t good for you either, either . I’m not suggesting you have to see things my way, but I am pointing out that we have a lot of similarities, both follow a LC WOE, yet we have a very different perspective what the labs might mean or not mean. Everything about my health improved when my numbers got “worse” (by worse I mean by the lipid theory standards). It sounds like your paradigm hasn’t quite completed shifting yet.

I know that you cannot comment on this, b/c I am not your patient, but I simply have to post it, b/c I am so upset I am on the verge of tears. And I have to put this out there, in the hopes that someone can tell me something good about this.

I got my most recent round of labs back today in a letter from my Dr.

Total: 230
LDL: 154
HDL: 64
Tri: Not shown, will call for them on Monday (have to assume normal/LC low, b/c no comment was made)
Everything else (diabetic studies, electrolytes, kidney, liver) all said “normal

18 months ago:

Total: 199
LDL: 126
HDL: 58
Tri: 73

Both on low-carb, clean food (no grains, legumes, limited high-casein dairy), moderate protein intake (right around my PP requirement), only “good” fats (meat, butter, cream, olive oil, nuts, avocados, etc).

The letter says that she doesn’t think I need medication at this point, but I should respond to a low-fat diet and exercise.

My entire family has some combination of horrible blood values, heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, diabetes and they all take statins. (I’m 43 yo female, very healthy, at healthy weight).

For some reason, I have been in deep DEEP denial that this was going to happen to me, I believed that my numbers were going to stay “normal,” b/c they have always been normal up till now, and I started LC/PP in the mid 1990′s.

Shocked does not begin to describe how I feel right now…devastated, however, does.

Yes, I’ve read everything I can get my hands on about ratios, which are all fine, I think. About the lipid hypothesis being wrong. About elevated LDL being nothing to worry about.

But I am still terrified beyond words, when you’ve watched your family drop like flies, and your bloodwork is beginning to look just like theirs…with no LC doctor to help me sort this out.

Thank you for listening.

If you’re this worried about it, spring for the bucks to get the test showing LDL particle size. If you have a predominantly Type A (large fluffy) pattern, you should feel a lot better.

http://www.octanmen.com/articleDetail/124/Beneficial-effects-of-Beans-on-one%E2%80%99s-health.htm

Is it really so???

Can anyone tell me…

I can tell you: No, it ain’t really so.

There are links on some of the other comments that will take you to the videos, blogs and articles about this experiment. I think it is great, and I will predict a huge improvement in health.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/DietNutrition/tb/8663

If I understand it correctly, its saying that a low-fat diet improves arterial dilation, while a low-carb diet makes it worse. Unfortunately, I’m not a doctor and don’t have the training to interpret the results to know if this is yet another spurious attempt to prove the researchers assumptions. Any analysis you can provide to calm them down would be appreciated.

I may post on this study later. It’s a real non starter as far as I’m concerned, and I almost hate to waste the time. Just remember, even if valid, it’s only one study. It has to be considered along with the dozens of other studies that show the opposite effect. The medical data needs to be considered as a whole, not just by individual studies.

And, due to the nature of this study, I doubt seriously that your wife and well-meaning friends have a clue as to what this study really says. They are simply parroting what the press says, which is often as ill informed as anyone else who is not a scientist.

Yes, this is my favorite defense against the “moderation” people, though you’ve articulated it better than I usually do. I don’t really talk much about what I eat outside the blogosphere unless someone asks. But if people do comment on my food choices, I say, “Look, I’m eating exactly what you’re eating, except I ordered a salad instead of fries and got extra vegetables instead of the hamburger bun. What’s the problem here?”

Now, this defense doesn’t work on the extremists, because they’re going to point to that big hunk of delicious juicy red meat. So here’s how I try to handle those people. In response to a comment from a vegetarian/fishatarian who thought Atkins was “the craziest thing” she’d ever heard of, I invited her to a dinner party where I didn’t serve a single thing I would not, myself, eat. (She is a very good friend, in spite of her soy-eating ways.) I used a Provençal theme. We had tapenade served in endive leaves; bouilliabaisse with rouille (I cut down drastically on the amount of breadcrumbs – about a tablespoon versus the usual whole slice of bread); a giant salad with fennel, red bell peppers, and homemade vinaigrette; and for dessert a plate of several varieties of sliced oranges sprinkled with a little lavender and homemade crème fraîche on the side. No sugar, no grains (other than a few breadcrumbs), no potatoes. Piles of seafood, piles of veggies, piles of healthy fats, and a small amount of fresh fruit.

Unfortunately, I never got the opportunity to say, “So, do you still think Atkins is the craziest thing you ever heard of? Because you just ate a 100% Atkins approved meal!” In a way, I’m glad I didn’t – I was nervous planning this meal that people would balk at its lack of bread and sweets. But if anyone noticed, they weren’t rude enough to say so. If I’d pointed it out, I might have become that person who feeds her friends weird food. Never mind that the food was nearly restaurant worthy (restaurants can get better seafood than I can); I would’ve still been a weirdo for failing to serve bread.

If that’s a definition of weirdo, MD and I are weirdos in the extreme. We never serve bread at dinners we put on – not even at large, non-diet dinner parties.

MRE

Sure. Read here.

It’s called “My Big Fat Diet” and will be aired on CBC television on Tuesday evening, March 11 at 10pm ET. The film is about Dr. Jay Wortman’s year-long dietary intervention program with the Namgis First Nations people of Alert Bay, BC. He promoted their going back to the ancestors’ way of eating – basically low-carb.

Unfortunately, this broadcast won’t be available to most viewers in the U.S., but there are now a few web pages about the film on the CBC web site at:
http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/index.html
Menu links at the right of the article include a clip from the film and more info about Dr. Wortman and “the diet”.

There are also 3 short clips on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/mybigfatdiet

Dr. Wortman’s new blog is now active at
http://www.drjaywortman.ca

Barbara

MRE

In short, I *am* moderate. It’s the American diet that is wildly, suicidally immoderate.

My response to “It’s natural” is “So are rattle snake venom. Death angel mushrooms. Tobacco. Cocaine. Heroin.”

Let’s not forget another popular assertion: “You need a balanced diet.” So far as I can tell, this simply means “A diet like my parents and grandparents ate.” No one suggests that a tiger needs to balance his diet with plenty of grains and salad. No one suggests that a rabbit needs to balance his diet with plenty of muscle meat, organ meat, and bones. Why, then, should we assume that the proper diet for human kind consists of this arbitrary ideal of a “balanced diet?”

Oh, and one more: “Any diet that calls for you to omit whole food groups is a fad diet.” So, low fat diets, vegetarianism and especially veganism are fad diets? So glad we agree.

Indeed!

If you’re not already taking it I would add some magnesium, potassium, acyl-L-carnitine, arginine, alpha-lipoic acid and vitamin D3. All under your physicians supervision, of course. Your objective is to remain asymptomatic, which it looks like you’re doing with your current regimen.

MRE