Help, worrying blood test results! page

[JonnyH]

Hi
I would like some advice on my latest blood test results if I may, I must admit to being a little worried!

Bit of background, generally always active, used to race Triathlons etc to a few years ago, now I walk most days up to 30mins, longer at the weekends, 1 weights session a week, 1 bike ride with sprints, no running anymore.

I have a desk job, so sat around most of the day, not ideal I know. I’m 45 YO, 5’9”, 142 lbs.

I started following PB around 2 years ago, since then my cholesterol has shot up! I followed the Leptin reset last year, now I basically eat as per the post Leptin rx programme. I aim for around 25-35g protein for breakfast and lunch, with up to 50g for dinner, with around 100-150g carbs spread over the day.

Here’s what I usually eat:

Breakfast: leftover meat(see below for details) with vegetables, half sweet pot, greek yoghurt(150g), cup of milk Kefir, handful of Macamadia nuts, small apple or plum, half pint of raw milk.

Lunch: leftover meat with a couple of boiled eggs or a tin of sardines in spring water, veg, half a sweet pot, 1 small apple, a coconut flour cake, 2 squares of 85% chocolate, small cup of milk kefir. Half avocado 4 times a week.

Dinner: Weekends usually lamb or beef done in slow cooker, weekdays it’s either grilled salmon, cod, haddock, lean chicken or turkey breast, lambs liver(twice a week) 2 eggs fried in butter( once a week), All with veg, 1 sweet pot, Kerrygold butter on potato and veg.

I usually have some frozen berries with75-100ml organic double cream for desert.

Veg I have is steamed carrots, cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauli, sprouts and spinach.

I sprinkle cinnamon, turmeric and cumin and maca powder on most meals. And I also have a clove of chopped raw garlic with my dinner.

Daily Supplements, 1000mg Vit c, multivit, 5000IU vit D, 800mg Sea kelp, 1000mg Magnesium Malate 2 hrs before bed to help me sleep, I dont sleep well, restless legs, night sweats a fair bit!

I don’t snack between meals. I have a glass(175ml) of red wine with my dinner 3-5 nights a week.

I drink 1 cup of black coffee mid morning, several cups of green(decaf) tea throughout the day, rest is just water, sometimes with some apple cider vinegar.

So here’s the numbers, April 2011 figures in brackets:
TC 370 (344)
HDL 82 (96)
LDL 272 (228)
TRIGS 77 (77)

CRP Was below 1, Vit B12 was low, fasting glucose was 5.5, all other tests were ok, I am awaiting to get the actual numbers.

Sorry for the long post! I am especially concerned my LDL has gone up, with HDL gone down, something isn’t right!

Thanks for any advice, I know the daily food looks confusing, it’s difficult to know how to list it all!

[emmie]

I would not worry AT ALL. The variations can be accounted for in one meal before the blood draw--seriously. I am tested every 4 months because I'm hypothyroid, and my endo always includes a lipid panel. I've seen how my eating 24-36 hours just prior to the test can make a difference similar to your numbers.

For example, if I avoid whole eggs and eat salmon before the test, my number will be much, much better than if I eat (grass-fed) steak and eggs. From a dietary perspective, the meals are both fine, but my cholesterol reacts differently.

Keep in mind that your HDL is superb, your trigs are exellent, and your CRP, the truly significant number, is great.

Ignore the doctor if he's concerned about the LDL, OR ask for a VAP test.

My endo did a VAP test, and my LDL was 100% Pattern A (the good stuff). He told me that when he tests his patients, those with a high HDL and low trigs are almost always Pattern A. With Pattern A LDL, there's nothing to worry about at all. You numbers indicate that you very likely have Pattern A LDL.

But you may have to educate your doctor about all this.

[JonnyH]

I would not worry AT ALL. The variations can be accounted for in one meal before the blood draw--seriously. I am tested every 4 months because I'm hypothyroid, and my endo always includes a lipid panel. I've seen how my eating 24-36 hours just prior to the test can make a difference similar to your numbers.

For example, if I avoid whole eggs and eat salmon before the test, my number will be much, much better than if I eat (grass-fed) steak and eggs. From a dietary perspective, the meals are both fine, but my cholesterol reacts differently.

Keep in mind that your HDL is superb, your trigs are exellent, and your CRP, the truly significant number, is great.

Ignore the doctor if he's concerned about the LDL, OR ask for a VAP test.

My endo did a VAP test, and my LDL was 100% Pattern A (the good stuff). He told me that when he tests his patients, those with a high HDL and low trigs are almost always Pattern A. With Pattern A LDL, there's nothing to worry about at all. You numbers indicate that you very likely have Pattern A LDL.

But you may have to educate your doctor about all this.

Thanks for reply Emmie, it's very interesting as I first went to the doc on monday as I have been experiencing difficulty breathing over the weekend, couldnt get a full deep breathe sometimes. Doc has put me on Amoxcillin, and ordered the blood test.
I asked for a VAP test, he didnt know what that was, I explained about the 2 types of LDL, he didnt know about that either!
He asked me to take an ECG with a nurse, I did that today, was fine. The nurse looked at my blood test results and straight away said 'your to go on a low fat diet, lots of healthy grains etc' I said the same to her about 2 types of LDL, she didnt know either, but she did look it up while I was there and said she would looked into it.
It's a bit worrying though that a doctor and a nurse have no idea about these things. I'm in the UK, is it the same with docs the world over?

Saw my mum last week, she has lower cholesterol levels than mine, her HDL and Trigs are great, but her LDL is above the 'norm', her doctor has put her straight on Statins!

[Forever Young]

Putting her on statins with that info is just plain criminal!!! These drugs are very dangerous and should never be taken. You need to fire this doctor immediately!! He doesn't know jack about cholesterol. Remember that YOU are the customer here. Would you deal with any other service when they clearly don't know their business? Also why would the doctor immediately put you on an antibiotic without knowing what the problem was? This too is an outrage!! Antibiotics should never be taken except in extreme cases where there is clearly a bacterial infection that could become life threatening. I am just flabbergasted at how many people go to these doctors with a cold or a sore throat and come home with antibiotics!!

[souldanzer]

I dont sleep well, restless legs, night sweats a fair bit!

sure you are leptin sensitive...?

[JonnyH]

Putting her on statins with that info is just plain criminal!!! These drugs are very dangerous and should never be taken. You need to fire this doctor immediately!! He doesn't know jack about cholesterol. Remember that YOU are the customer here. Would you deal with any other service when they clearly don't know their business? Also why would the doctor immediately put you on an antibiotic without knowing what the problem was? This too is an outrage!! Antibiotics should never be taken except in extreme cases where there is clearly a bacterial infection that could become life threatening. I am just flabbergasted at how many people go to these doctors with a cold or a sore throat and come home with antibiotics!!

Thanks for reply, my mother is very interested in what I have learnt about diet etc from various sites, but she is still very sceptical when it comes to following my advice. when I suggested she doesnt take the statins, she said 'but that's what the doc said take, so that's what I'm going to do!' I couldnt persuade her otherwise.
As for my doctor, well he said he thought I had a chest infection, I certainly feel like I have a slight one, but certainly not life threatening.
As I said earleir, all my other results seemed ok, the ECG was fine, although the Vit B12 was slightly low, and I have just this past weekend started taking some B12 when I read it may help with sleep.

[JonnyH]

sure you are leptin sensitive...?

Hi Souldanzer, not sure I'm leptin sensitive really, when I did the leptin reset last year I posted details about myself on the big thread, several replied saying they didnt think I was LR.
Any tests to know for sure?
I really would like to have peaceful, restful sleeps, I very rarely sleep right through the night, I dont get night sweats as such, just have periods where I feel as though I'm burning up would be a better description. I have to lay with no covers on me to cool off, it lasts for anything up to an hour, then I get chilly and get back under the covers and generally go back to sleep.

[Forever Young]

JohnnyH,

yeah its hard to convince someone that is set in their ways. Many people swear by their doctors. IMO this is plain dangerous. But I am a rebel and always have been. Even as a child I could feel it in my gut when something was bullshit. I just never bought into so much of what it just accepted as fact. I am my own doctor and it works very well. The medical/pharmaceutical industries would be in dire straights if more people were like me. Not one cent spent on either in probably 25 years. Not even aspirin. It is amazing how well your body functions when you NEVER use any of these drugs. No headaches, very few aches or pains, rare colds that are mild at best. Drugs make you sicker, not healthier! They suppress immunity, mess with hormonal balances. Eliminate them and see what happens in time.

[billp]

Saw my mum last week, she has lower cholesterol levels than mine, her HDL and Trigs are great, but her LDL is above the 'norm', her doctor has put her straight on Statins!

You might want to do something about that. I learned a lot about statins from this site:How Statins Really Work Explains Why They Don't Really Work.

AFAIK statins have never been shown to even benefit woman, if you can call it a benefit, and ultimately if your disrupt your liver's ability to produce cholesterol you will ultimately die, but before you do you will lose bone and muscle, and become demented due to the essential use of cholesterol in the brain.

I am no medic but I have heard of so many cases where people have become really ill taking statins and the harm has been stopped or reversed to a degree by stopping taking them. The link suggests that the reason they "help" the heart for a while (until the muscle wastage catches up with you) is that without sufficient cholesterol the muscles break themselves down to provide food for the heart. After a certain point the muscles are wrecked and the heart is worse off than before. So statins seem pretty toxic to me.

I don't get this obsession with blood testing. Relevant if you have leukaemia, otherwise who cares? You blood has a job to do and its composition is automatically determined according to your needs.

I wrote in my blog about it, saying the same thing but longer and rantier: Palfreman.com » Blood work voodoo

[JonnyH]

You might want to do something about that. I learned a lot about statins from this site:How Statins Really Work Explains Why They Don't Really Work.

AFAIK statins have never been shown to even benefit woman, if you can call it a benefit, and ultimately if your disrupt your liver's ability to produce cholesterol you will ultimately die, but before you do you will lose bone and muscle, and become demented due to the essential use of cholesterol in the brain.

I am no medic but I have heard of so many cases where people have become really ill taking statins and the harm has been stopped or reversed to a degree by stopping taking them. The link suggests that the reason they "help" the heart for a while (until the muscle wastage catches up with you) is that without sufficient cholesterol the muscles break themselves down to provide food for the heart. After a certain point the muscles are wrecked and the heart is worse off than before. So statins seem pretty toxic to me.

I don't get this obsession with blood testing. Relevant if you have leukaemia, otherwise who cares? You blood has a job to do and its composition is automatically determined according to your needs.

I wrote in my blog about it, saying the same thing but longer and rantier: Palfreman.com » Blood work voodoo

Hi Billp
Thanks for the link, I will have a good look later.
I will definitely talk to my mum again about this, she did say she had the runs soon after staring taking them, coincidence? maybe not!

I still think my LDL is too high though, from what I've read over the last few years.
Maybe stress causing it?! I am bit of a worrier, my mind racing a lot, I find it hard to really relax.
I vaguely remember reading somewhere on this site that high LDL could be caused by high levels of stress/cortisol, something about pregnolene(think that's right!) steal? Be good if anyone has info on this.
Many thanks.