Cholesterol and keto

[Chi17]

I’ve been Keto/low carb for almost a year, I requested a cholesterol test alongside some other bloods...my TC is 5.9mol/L, LDL 3.85, Tg 0.6, HDL 1.7, my LDL is a little higher than I’d like and I’m not sure where to go from here...I would really like to continue this WOE but I worry! Any advice or recommended reading? Thank you!

[MikePollard]

Youtube. Dr. Nadir Ali, Low Carb Downunder. 'Why LDL cholesterol goes up with low carb diet and is it bad for health?'

(Trouble with link)

[Subtle_badger in reply to MikePollard]

Let me try....

youtu.be/qXtdp4BNyOg(Not working as expected?)

[Chi17 in reply to Subtle_badger]

An interesting watch thank you!

[Subtle_badger]

bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246

In 1963-72 they did a huge - and now would be regarded as unethical - blinded study using asylum patients, leaving some on a standard diet, and for the other replacing sat fats with PUFAs. The complete results were not published at the time, because they did not like them. They were finally published 5 years ago.

Those in the intervention arm did lower cholesterol, but more of them died than those on standard care. I am going to suggest you are to complement to this: adding saturated fat to your diet may increase your LDL, but that does not mean you will die sooner.

From the study:

What is already known on this topic

The traditional diet-heart hypothesis predicts that replacing saturated fat with vegetable oils rich in linoleic acid will reduce cardiovascular deaths by lowering serum cholesterol

This paradigm has never been causally demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial and thus has remained uncertain for over 50 years

Key findings from landmark randomized controlled trials including the Sydney Diet Heart Study and the Minnesota Coronary Experiment (MCE) were not fully published

What this study adds

Though the MCE intervention lowered serum cholesterol, this did not translate to improved survival

Paradoxically, MCE participants who had greater reductions in serum cholesterol had a higher, rather than lower, risk of death

Results of a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials do not provide support for the traditional diet heart hypothesis

[lauriegraham]

it might be worth looking at dave feldman's work and his website, the cholesterol code. he has amassed a lot of data to suggest why higher ldl might be a good thing in fact. he also has a calculator where you put in your numbers and it gives risks for cardiac events compared to huge epidemiological studies . I did mine. My ldl is through the roof and i came out low risk. Many dispute the story that high cholestorol is bad. Feldman also has a facebook group for people he describes as lean mass hyper responders (LMHR), members of which generally are low carb, fit and have high ldl, they are very helpful there tooI used this to resist statins, and also there is a clear link between high ldl and thyroid issues.

Best way to check for actual risk is the calcification test, CAC. Its a bit like in the thyroid world, its the best test but not available on the NHS!

[Chi17 in reply to lauriegraham]

Thank you, I just did mine and came out low risk too. I’ll definitely do some more reading!

[Hidden]

I had a heart attack. My TC was 7.2 at the time and I was overweight. My CRP was 4 (inflammatory marker), which the medical professionals said was fine, but if you google it, it puts you at high risk of heart problems. Without inflammation, many coronary artery problems will not occur. No medical professional wanted to talk about CRP, only cholesterol.

So I started myself following NHS guidelines and started losing weight. I got my cholesterol down to 6.3 while refusing statins. But many things about this diet didn't add up, for example, avoid saturated fats but nuts are fine. Drink benecol even though it's loaded with sugar. Eat oat cakes even though they are high fat.

So I switched to LCHF and most of my health markers improved and I stopped getting hungry, but my TC hit 9.3. They are desperate to get me on cholesterol lowering drugs but I'm not going there. I don't worry about it. I do what I can to ensure low levels of inflammation and eat wholesome low carb food and nothing processed.

I hope this helps. I echo the advice of the poster to look up Dave Feldman.

[Chi17 in reply to Hidden]

That must have been a scary time for you. My CRP was 0.6, I had never considered CRP as a marker for inflammation, only infection. I have difficulty understanding the low fat dietary advice too.

On Keto I eat a lot of cream, I had considered swapping this out for non animal fat sources eg. Avocado, nuts but perhaps this is not necessary...

[Hidden in reply to Chi17]

The other contradictory thing is when they tell you that your total cholesterol needs to be lower but your HDL needs to be higher. It makes a joke of the TC number.

[AnnieW55 in reply to Chi17]

If you don’t already eat avocado or nuts, then adding them to your diet would add some further “good” nutrients and add some more variety.