I need help understanding this...

[HAdriven]

In late April, I had the following cholesterol numbers:

Cholesterol = 237
Trigs = 1359 <--yup, that high
HDL = 30
VLDL = 272
LDL = Not calculable.

So, I went low carb, started exercising and added supplements-- mostly based on Pauling's therapy (6-18g of C, L-lysine & L-proline) with added Omega 3s and Niacin.

I'm also on Crestor and Tricor.

In 7 weeks, my numbers were as follows:

Cholesterol = 129
Trigs = 97
HDL = 41
VLDL = 19
LDL = 69

I expected some improvement, but these numbers shocked me.

Could they be wrong? Are they now too low? Is this even possible with *any* approach in seven weeks?

[LisaS]

the heartscan blog writer has his patients shoot for 60 60 60 (HDL LDL TRI) so I don't think you are TOO low. I should think your Drs will take you off the meds now and see how things even out.

[Karole]

Yes, my doc took me off zoccor when I got just a bit lower that that. So perhaps they will need to take a look at that.

[Gabriel Guzman]

It's hard to disect what's going on because the cholesterol meds may be confounding the effect of the low carbohydrate diet and exercise. So, on one hand, your triglycerides have gone nicely low and that has been shown to be one of the first effects of a low carb diet and also an effect of exercise. HDL has also increased and that too is one of the effects of low carb diets, though some studies, mainly funded by the manufacturers suggest that HDL increases a little when their meds are taken. The times at which these parameters change vary among people but I seem to remember that Mike Eades use to check his patients' lipid profile after 6 weeks on Protein Power. They wrote in one of their books that an independent study on how long did it take for cholesterol levels to normalize under Protein Power showed that it took about 4 months. Now 'normalize' means trigs under 100, HDL high and LDL comprised mostly of large LDL particles regardless of the actual number calculated for LDL.

The 'incalculable' number for LDL you had before may have been the result of your elevated triglycerides (mine were even higher... a lot higher than yours once!). The formula used to calculate LDL has many problems and it's very innacurate when triglycerides are very high or very low (as it happens with people on medication to lower triglycerides).

Now, on the other hand, the lower LDL number, I'm guessing is the effect of the cholesterol meds. Unless you have the LDL profile, that is until you know what kind of LDL particle is most abundant in your whole LDL profile, we cannot say if that was a result of a low carb diet or a result of cholesterol meds. The meds do lower LDL but a low carb diet improves the LDL profile towards more large LDL particles, regardless of the actual LDL number. The number for total cholesterol also seems very low and I would guess that's also an effect of cholesterol meds. Under a low carb diet, sometimes total cholesterol doesn't go below 200 and even at values like 250, the ratios are still stellar (very low triglycerides, high HDL and high LDL but made up mostly of large LDL particles).

In any case, congratulations on lowering your triglycerides so dramatically!!!!! If you could get your doctor order an LDL profile test, that would give you a better picture on how your low carb diet is working independently of the cholesterol meds.

[HAdriven]

Actually, I had my Lp(a) number. It was 51 nmol/L.

So what does that say?