I have been on what's labelled a "high quality fish oil for optimal heart health" (cod oil) for the past six months and taking the maximum recommended dose of two capsules daily. However, it seems to have done nothing for my triglyceride and cholesterol levels; my triglycerides came back out of range for the first time ever, and my HDL/LDL ratio shows my HDL has dropped. My total cholesterol has also gone up compared to last year's labs. There are no reference ranges except for triglycerides (mine came back at 166 mg/dL, ref <150; last year 71 which is supposedly ideal), the lab report only says that the treating physician will have to evaluate the results in light of the patient's medical condition. However, my HDL is down compared to last year, and both my LDL, total cholesterol, and non HDL cholesterol are up. That's worrying. The only dietary change I've made is to include more eggs in my diet (I eat 2-3 eggs daily). But I thought the myth about eggs raising cholesterol had been debunked long ago..?!
I eat fish a couple of times a week but often prefer white fish such as tuna or cod to fatty fish. So, what I'm wondering is if it would be a good idea to switch to salmon oil capsules instead (from wild, not farmed salmon)?
I don't know anything about fish oils of various types and which one is better or worse than any other. But I thought you might like this info on cholesterol and statins :
There are lots of links in the first post in that thread, and then others can be found scattered throughout the remainder of the thread.
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Triglycerides are affected by how much sugar and carbs you eat. A high carb diet will raise triglycerides. So if you are worried about your triglycerides you would need to lower your carb intake and replace the calories you no longer get from carbs with a higher intake of fat and a bit more protein. Note that you need to eat healthy fats, not artificial ones that need a laboratory and a blast furnace to create! So, if you want to know if a fat is healthy you would need to consider if it occurred in people's diets 150+ years ago, somewhere in the world. If it did, it will be healthier than any of the artificial fats and oils that so many people eat now.
Thanks a lot, Human Bean, I am embarrassed to admit that was news to me as I grew up being told that high cholesterol and clogged arteries and coronary disease were caused by fat, in particular saturated fat, not carbs. I've never even made the connection between carbs, blood sugar issues, and high triglycerides.
Yes, I've been more or less abusing carbs in the past year, after going off high doses of steroids. Of course, the more (bad) carbs you eat, the more you crave them, so it's truly a vicious circle.
I was brought up believing that fat (and to a lesser extent, protein) was bad for me and carbs were good. Also cholesterol was bad etc. The fact that I'd been brainwashed started to sink in over the last 10 years. And I've only really managed to find out what I should have been taught in the last five years or so. So you aren't alone!
That's always good to know...looking back on how I ate when growing up (and everyone else around me): margarine, low-fat cheese, low-fat milk, low-fat yoghurt with cornflakes, starch with every meal...that was the nutritional advice given back then. I hardly ate any saturated fat at all growing up and overindulged in carbs. I don't think extra virgin olive oil was available back then, only salad sauce from the supermarket full of bad fats and fast carbs. I've been overweight since my early teens. True, hypothyroidism made that even worse, but the fact is that I started dieting in my mid-teens. And all the low-calorie, no fat diets I tried to lose weight only made matters worse in the long run. I read recently that yo-yo dieting can cause leptin resistance which, like insulin resistance, makes weight loss almost impossible. Not only does it interfere with your hunger and satiety signals, but also blocks fat burning on cellular level. A true nightmare caused by well-meaning people who believed fat was bad and carbs were good for us.
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Another semi-tragic, semi-funny story is the one about the school nurse who suggested I be put on a diet at age 14. Yes, I was chubby back then. Not fat, but tended to gain weight easily. Looking at old school pictures, I can see that I was jowly and "well-built".
Anyway, I was supposed to eat three "healthy" meals a day, with hardly any fat, moderate protein, and lots of carbs, and only fruit between meals. I remember complaining about how fruit tended to make me hungry again very quickly...the school nurse then told me, in no uncertain terms, that by overeating, I had distended my stomach to the point of no longer being able to feel full. In order for it to go back to its original size, I should just try to "think of something else and then the hunger would go away"...all while my distended stomach miraculously decreased in size.
I could tell a hundred stories like that. And, during all this time, I simply believed it was a question of calories in-calories out so, basically, hardly any fat and lots of carbs (I cannot even remember anyone mentioning protein as I was growing up...the focus was all on fat and carbs - the former bad, the latter good).
Unfortunately, many doctors still order cholesterol labs and, if they end up high in or above range, tell you to eat less fat and exercise more...to date, I have not met a single doctor who did not link high cholesterol to fat...but this article really proves them wrong. Plus, in my case, it's not so much the fat intake that has gone up in the past year but the carb intake, so what Human Bean says also makes a lot of sense.
Yes, but she's not saying anything different to me - it's all in that link I gave, and I see she gave the same. But, once again, triglycerides are not cholesterol. Two entirely different things. And triglycerides don't cause heart attacks any more than cholesterol does.
I wonder if you are eating to many eggs, as far as I know 2-3 per week is supposed to be a safe amount.
There is a cholesterol forum on here that might be better for you.
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That is what I was told growing up, but many people who eat a low carb diet eat two or three eggs daily. In fact, on lc blogs, eggs are always mentioned among the first foods to eat more often and in larger quantities.
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The only way you will find out for sure is by cutting eggs from your diet.
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Hmmm...that would cause withdrawal symptoms, I fear, as I have come to love my daily eggs so much...every time I consider going low carb, I tell myself that at least I can continue to eat my beloved eggs...!
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I just read that it's OK I'm most people but a small amount of people can get a small increase in cholesterol. Maybe you are OK.
My cholesterol nurse never mentioned cutting out eggs, just saturated fats and carbs.
I think they would be the very last people I would seek advice from about diet and nutrition
Yes, as with so much of the 'old' advice about eating, keeping eggs to a max of 2-3 weekly has been overturned, and become more like 3 per day, with some riders to that.
When I had cholesterol of 3.2 I was eating 6 egg omelettes most days. It just doesn't work like that. Read Peter Attia's articles on what cholesterol actually is, how it is produced and what HDL and LDL actually measure: peterattiamd.com/category/c...
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I eat a least 2 a day.
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Your cholesterol is OK?
It can be different for us all though.
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To be honest it hasn't been checked in over a decade so I don't know. For me, personally, I'm not concerned - to me lowering my risk of diabetes is a higher priority. (So I shouldn't be eating all the bread I am, but I'm trying to get ready for a celiac test...)
If you have an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism), treatment may be delayed until this problem is treated. This is because having an underactive thyroid can lead to an increased cholesterol level, and treating hypothyroidism may cause your cholesterol level to decrease, without the need for statins. Statins are also more likely to cause muscle damage in people with an underactive thyroid.
When did you last test thyroid and vitamin levels?
The results are confusing. Over the past few months, I have had to decrease NDT from 5 to 3 grains daily without much result, unfortunately. My symptoms have been a strange mixture of hyper and hypo - weight gain, profuse sweating, racing heart, increased irritability and moodiness, insomnia, increase in appetite and especially carb cravings...I attributed many of them to menopause (despite being on HRT for the past few years).
Some claim that there is no such thing as T3 pooling (mentioned on the STTM and other websites). Dr. Durrand-Peatfield, in his book "Your thyroid and how to keep it healthy", talks about T4 toxicosis, and describes EXACTLY all the problems I have been having since going off short-term treatment with extremely high doses (up to 1000 mg daily) of corticosteroids last year. His suggestion is to go off all thyroid meds for 7-10 days (so far, all I've done is go back on T4 only), then add 50% of the previous dose and also treat the adrenal glands at the same time. I am currently waiting for the results of my diurnal cortisol saliva test (sourced privately) but, I have to admit that everything points to adrenal fatigue. Which would explain why, all of a sudden, I seem unable to handle the T3 in NDT. Because I feel much better since going off NDT and back on T4. Which in turn would make it illogical to talk about "T4 toxicosis" since I seem to do better on T4 only than NDT...which has never been the case before.
Anyway, these are my labs from earlier this week (still waiting for some results); on 3 grains of NDT:
No, vit D came back at 30.9 and should be above 30. How to tell if it's still low? It was much lower last year but I have been taking cod liver oil since which is said to contain 100% of the recommended daily intake of vit D.
Yes, I have Hashimoto's, diagnosed 19 years ago. Spent 10 years on T4 only before switching to NDT in 2011. Did great on it until last year, after taking high doses of steroids for six weeks for another autoimmune condition(autoimmune encephalitis).
I have been supplementing vit B12 sublingually after my vit B12 levels came back low in range six months ago. I read that can be caused by the drugs I was given with the steroids to protect the stomach (Losec). Now, my levels seem to have climbed up. Someone (I think it was SeaSideSusie if not mistaken) wrote a post the other day about people needing to have their B12 levels >1000 so I think they are currently looking good.
My doctor put me on a prescription drug called Losferron a couple of years ago but it did nothing for me so I switched to dried beef liver which I have been taking for the past year along with a vit C supplement. Obviously, it has not done much for me...
For the time being, I simply seem unable to handle any amount of T3. The only reason I can think of is low cortisol. I feel much better on T4 only ATM. I'm sure that won't last as I have proven to be a poor converter in the past but, right now, my body seems to be rejecting the T3 somehow. The sweating, racing heart, and nervousness all disappeared within 48 hours after going off NDT and back on T4 only. Unless my poor conversion miraculously improved, something else is going on, and I cannot think of anything except low cortisol.
Ok, seems there is room for a raise there. Thanks!
The ironic thing is that I have always had trouble eating a lot of fat (which tends to make me queasy), and that is the main reason I have not gone lc so far. I'm 90% vegetarian and, when I eat meat, prefer poultry or fish to red meat. When told a couple of years ago to eat red meat a couple of times a week to raise my iron and ferritin, I started making sauce bolognese using ground beef with 5% fat. I hardly ever eat cream or sour cream. So, apart from a couple of eggs a day, my diet consists mainly of monounsaturated fat (on my daily salad, I alternate between extra virgin olive oil, hazelnut oil, walnut oil, and macadamia oil). Which should disprove the theory that saturated fat is what causes high cholesterol and triglycerides.
Thanks especially to all of you who suggested hormonal imbalances as the culprit! It makes sense to me - I take high doses of steroids for a short period of time, start to gain weight at an alarming speed, and then both my fasting blood glucose, insulin, triglyceride and cholesterol look worse than ever before. At the same time, I have been forced to first lower and then go off NDT completely after suddenly being unable to handle T3, despite being a poor converter having done great on NDT for years. So I will definitely have to explore the hormonal imbalance angle further (especially the cortisol-thyroid connection)! Hopefully with the help of my hormone specialist, although I tend not to expect too much from doctors. Which makes forums such as this one invaluable!
High triglycerides are a result of eating a lot of carbs, so shouldn't be affected by fish oil. In most cases, what you eat in the way of fat doesn't really affect cholesterol levels, as the liver just makes more if don't eat much. However, being hypo means you don't recycle/clear it correctly so if you are not optimally medicated your cholesterol levels will rise
Yes, I see what you mean! Decreasing and finally going off NDT has not been good for me, that's clear. I just need to figure out what caused my sudden intolerance to T3, so that I can hopefully go back on NDT in the near future.
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