Vegan to Primal blood test results, would love to hear your thoughts! page 2

[palebluedots]

Well, my total cholesterol has never been that high, and I know that it's not unheard of for it to be that level in this community, but the drastic jump was quite surprising. So yes, I'd like to increase my HDL. And lower the LDL. But I would also like to lower the total cholesterol. But I'm not really sure how to do that. Overall, I think the ratios were basically better when I was a vegan. I didn't really expect that, and I thought the improvement in the triglycerides would be MUCH better than they were.

[palebluedots]

i'm thinking of reading the book "The Great Cholesterol Con" by Anthony Colpo to better educate myself. Has anyone read that? I really love how I feel eating primal and I want to not be freaked out by my blood test results. But it's hard.

[bdilla]

I say again; I don't think it's about the origin of the fats you're getting. I think it's about your body's current metabolic state. Animal fat or not, I believe that your macro levels may have been keeping you stuck between two forms of metabolism, which is a known issue. Again, it's just a theory but I think it's worth a shot. You may be surprised at what you see.

Take me, for instance. The only fats I ever get are animal fats and coconut oil; I've been on Primal for a year now, and have even been off and on with junk food. My blood lipids are as follows:

Total cholesterol: 162
Triglycerides: 71
HDL: 74
LDL: 74

[magicmerl]

Well, my total cholesterol has never been that high, and I know that it's not unheard of for it to be that level in this community, but the drastic jump was quite surprising. So yes, I'd like to increase my HDL. And lower the LDL. But I would also like to lower the total cholesterol. But I'm not really sure how to do that. Overall, I think the ratios were basically better when I was a vegan. I didn't really expect that, and I thought the improvement in the triglycerides would be MUCH better than they were.

You want to lower your LDL-A (the small dense stuff). And the way you do that is by lowering carbs (which lowers trigs, which gives you more LDL-B, the good ones, and less LDL-A, the 'bad' ones).

i'm thinking of reading the book "The Great Cholesterol Con" by Anthony Colpo to better educate myself. Has anyone read that? I really love how I feel eating primal and I want to not be freaked out by my blood test results. But it's hard.

I havn't read Anthony Colpo's book, but I think that it's broadly correct. His blog is pretty juvenile though.

I have a lot of respect for Chris Masterjohn site. And if you're feeling brave Peter Attia has a very detailed exploration of what is a complex subject.

[BlissfulWriter]

Also keep in mind cholesterol measurements fluctuates. It can vary throughout the day and depends on how long after you have eaten when you take the measurements. You may need two readings and average them.

Another measurement to consider is the Triglyceride / HDL ratio (close to 1 is good, close to 3 is high risk). I did the calc here based on your numbers...
vegan: 87 / 55 = 1.58
primal: 71 / 46 = 1.54

Both about the same and seems alright. In any case, I do believe that having some animal product in your diet is a step in the right direction. I wrote about the case for animal products here.

[tfarny]

Hi folks, the hubby and I have been primal for the last ~5 months after about 13 years or so of being vegan/raw vegan. We have been very strict, no dairy, absolutely no grains of any kind (including no white rice), no potatoes, no corn, and recently we have not even been eating fruit.

So anyway, we just had blood tests done, and I think the results are interesting, especially as compared to our vegan days. Some of the numbers got worse, and some got better, and I'm trying to decipher what it all means. It's really easy to read the other posts where people advise not worrying about wacky cholesterol numbers and nod in agreement, but some of the changes in my numbers are worrisome. It's fascinating at the very least, and I'd love it if anyone wants to weigh in.

Without further ado:

Total cholesterol in January 2012 (as a vegan): 179
Total cholesterol today, Oct 2012 (primal): 251 -- ack!

Triglycerides in January 2012 (as a vegan): 87
Triglycerides today, Oct 2012 (primal): 71 -- i had expected it would be much better

HDL in January 2012 (as a vegan): 55
HDL today, Oct 2012 (primal): 46 -- how could that number go DOWN?!?

Calculated LDL in January 2012 (as a vegan): 107
Calculated LDL today, Oct 2012 (primal): 191 -- yikes!

My husband's numbers followed all the same trends mine did, except that his HDL went up where mine went down.

Any input/thoughts appreciated!

Your trigs and hdl were both fine as a vegan and didn't change that much. Also, blood tests vary quite a bit depending on the kind of week you've had leading up to them. Finally, total cholesterol and LDL are quite poor indicators of anything in and of themselves. Your dr. should know that by now, mine certainly does. Do you have VAP results (ldl pattern type) or know your CRP before / after, out of curiousity?

[tfarny]

keeping you stuck between two forms of metabolism, which is a known issue.

What issue is that? I burn glucose and I burn fat every single day and I always have. You don't have to make a choice and stick to it! Mark's whole thing is to get better at using fat for fuel, not to use only one "form of metabolism" at a time.
Where does this stuff come from?

[palebluedots]

Do you have VAP results (ldl pattern type) or know your CRP before / after, out of curiousity?

No, the doctor didn't seem to request those. I am thinking of going back and asking him to do more thorough blood tests, but I'm not sure if he will agree to or not.

[palebluedots]

I have a lot of respect for Chris Masterjohn site. And if you're feeling brave Peter Attia has a very detailed exploration of what is a complex subject.

Wow, reading this site now. Very good info, thank you!