I wondered if anyone here has managed to successfully improve their cholesterol and how they've achieved this?
HDL - 0.99 (>1.2) LOW
Triglycerides - 1.89 (<2) BODERLINE LOW
Cholesterol - 3.9 (<5)
Non HDL - 2.89 (<4)
Hba1c - 31 (20-41)
HDL is low and triglycerides are borderline low. The combination is apparently a bad mix. I also have PCOS and that seems to be linked.
I spent all of last year addressing my diet. I followed AIP and have gotten to a good place of following this 80/20 with the exception of gluten, caffeine and alcohol. I started levothyroxine as well which made a huge difference to my energy. I lost 17 lbs but this has crept up slightly over Christmas.
I've had a less active month or two over Christmas and my dogs been sick which has meant i haven't been on my usual walks daily. I've recently discovered reformer pilates which i love. I prefer less intense exercise because i have to watch my cortisol due to PCOS and the thyroid issues.
I'm gutted that my markers have worsened - the only previous time they were checked was 2020 when i was undiagnosed, untreated and going through a horrendous time - so diet was appalling!
Have people found exercise has significantly improved these markers? I'm still waiting on tsh, t3, t4, folate, b12 and iron panel to come back, but my TPO has gone up a bit as well.
Written by
katyy94x
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
Gosh, I’d love to have cholesterol of 3.9 and an HbA1c of 31! You also want your triglycerides to be below 2.
Why do you want them all lower than they are? Your brain needs cholesterol. Has a doctor told you to reduce it.
See what happens when your thyroid results come back but without knowing why your doctors want things to be lower or what other meds you are taking the results you’ve shown here look fine to me although I’m no medical expert. I would love to have results like that.
As for improving your HDL I would avoid trans fats and junk food and eat a nice healthy diet umassmed.edu/nutrition/Card...
Yes, I started to wonder if the person meant they were too low because the cholesterol is low - but the triglycerides look fairly ok. My triglycerides are actually lower than that and my cholesterol levels constantly have the doctor on my back which is annoying and which I ignore. Hopefully she will get back to us and explain a bit more. She can’t go wrong with eating a nice healthy diet and avoiding trans fats and junk food though.
katyy94x You can improve HDL by eating more seeds and nuts, as well as oily fish such as salmon, mackerel and herring.
You don’t want to increase your triglycerides. Lower is normally better (although I suspect zero is probably not ideal, but not sure) - reduce saturated animal-based fats, trans fats, and refined carbs. Increase fibre. Stop smoking, reduce alcohol, and exercise more
You're more likely to have a heart attack with low cholesterol than high. Because, believe it or not, cholesterol protects from heart attacks and strokes.
Cholesterol levels have little to do with diet. It's made in the liver and the liver keeps levels steady by making more when you consume less and vice versa. I have never been able to discover why some people have naturally low cholesterol, unless there's something wrong with the liver. But my cholesterol is too low, and there's nothing wrong with my liver, so I don't know.
Watch this Zoe video, but watch to the end as some of the language early on is woolly/ambiguous and only gets cleared up towards the end - youtu.be/euSd9bsFwxc?si=Bz4...
It’s important to distinguish between LDL, HDL, triglycerides, ApoB and ApoA, rather than just talk about cholesterol as one thing.
It’s certainly not the best explanation, but key things that it covers are that not all cholesterol is the same, that LDL is better when low, HDL when high, and that diet makes a difference contrary to a number of recent posts in this group, whilst also explaining the process by which the liver creates triglycerides (and hence LDL), and talking about the LDL receptors
As I'm a 'Grumpy Grandma' I've lived through many discussions - read books - studied websites and watched videos... as I did my best as a non medical person to learn about the workings of our bodies - including cholrsterol...Somewhere I read about inflammation in the arterial system and how cholesterol acts as a sticking plaster protecting the inflamed/ damaged area until healed. Also gut inflammation is being linked to many conditions. So when the gut is inflamed the liver can also be affected along with other bodily systems including arteries and even the brain. No mention of inflammation in the video.
So it would seem plausible that when arteries are inflamed the liver will produce more LDL to calm things down.
I appreciate medicine progresses - (one death at a time !) - but as Cholesterol is a chemical it cannot be both good and bad -ooops - good PR for us little people from Big Pharma.
I think it was Dr Myhill who mentioned the biggest effect of a statin was anti-inflammatory and mentioned VitD would also do the trick ! This suggests inflammation in the arteries as a possible root cause of raised cholesterol. At one stage VitD was added to a generation of statins - so I guess 'they' knew....
Then the elephant in the room is Homocysteine - rarely mentioned but was also found in Plaque when they were researching the causes of atherosclerosis. (?) The research was quickly buried - raised homocysteine is a better marker some say for heart issues and stroke. Usually linked to low B Vitamins but very rarely tested in the UK - ??
The video had some good points but I'm not sure it would persuade me to invest in Zoe and wonder who is behind the company along with co-creator Tim Spector ? I do believe we should let food be our medicine and medicine be our food...but those oh so complicated tests 😥 ?
There's also the statement: The HDL, on it’s (sic) own, represents how well your liver is producing the useful and healthful HDL-cholesterol. But if you have high TG, your HDL usually drops. Conversely, as you move toward a healthier metabolism, your TG will reduce and your HDL will go up.
In your case, you have an enviable HbA1c, so I don't know how, or if, your high TG:HDL ratio is linked to insulin resistance, and so maybe it's just the risk of heart disease (please don't take that as medical advice).
There should be a 12 hour fast before a test for triglycerides, but I've never had that stipulated. In fact, I've had lower triglycerides (0.88 vs. 1.55 mmol/L) when unfasted and with TSH high in range vs. 0.55.
I am certainly not qualified to refer to the various levels of cholesterol for others but I had higher that recommended levels and started to take plant sterols. I have had hypothyroidism since 1986, I am vegetarian and eat very healthily I am pleased to say that my levels have dropped significantly and are now within acceptable ranges., so for me plant sterols are the answer.
Not exactly the same, but my lipids came back recently with broadly similar results.
Asking why HDL is low and what to do about it is natural. Mine was exactly 1 with a range of 1 to 10.
Everything I found to read was poorly explained or self-contradictory. Or both.
One example:
High-density lipoprotein cholesterol. HDL cholesterol is often called the "good" cholesterol. HDL cholesterol picks up excess cholesterol in the blood. It carries the cholesterol back to the liver. After the liver breaks down the cholesterol, the liver flushes it from the body.
OK - so if cholesterol is already low, why is a higher HDL beneficial? Obviously there must be enough HDL to perform the function of transporting cholesterol back to the liver. Otherwise cholesterol would be higher, wouldn't it?
I've come to the conclusion that when it comes to cholesterol, there has been a one-track fixation on high cholesterol which has left the full picture like a half-completed jigsaw. It is positively hard to find comprehensive, useful information which applies to the likes of us.
And I want to emphasise, my lipid levels are as they are despite consumption of considerable quantities of fats - butter, cheese, meats, fried food, etc. Without a formal genetic analysis, I am as convinced as I can be that the reason is at least mostly my genetics. And when you reach that point, you ask yourself whether you should take positive action to affect the levels.
Having low triglycerides is desirable! Optimal is below 1.
Low HDL is not considered to be wonderful. It's the one that is described as "the good cholesterol". But frankly the only one I care about is my triglycerides.
The only time I've managed to make much change to my cholesterol and triglycerides (in a direction that doctors would consider good) is by keeping my simple carbs and sugars to a minimum.
The only thing I worry about with regard to fats is that I want to make sure that I use fats and oils in cooking and eating that people living 200 years ago somewhere in the world would have recognised. I avoid vegetable oils, but I do use olive oil. (I'm not convinced my olive oil is always genuine but I don't know how to distinguish the real from the fake.)
I use butter, ghee, coconut oil, olive oil, beef dripping, and not much else in terms of fats and oils. I would use lard too, but I don't like it.
Your total cholesterol is amazingly low. But remember that cholesterol is needed to make hormones and is also required in body repair work. So I can't see that having a really low level of cholesterol is completely desirable.
I have no idea if this is a good study FYI. I read this some time ago and logged it for my research and skimmed over it as I had similarities … when I was looking into my situation and noted few things… there’s pros & cons re lower Cholesterol/triglycerides.
I’m in a similar situation and approximately 10yrs ago mine were in worse state than they are now… meaning lower
Off top of my head I know my triglycerides were just below the lowest in range my total was below 4 and Doctors weren’t bothered.
As of last year age 58 Total Cholesterol is 4.2 but triglycerides are just in range 0.55 (0.5-1.7) non HDL was creeping up slightly… so will obviously change things… have to see!
I know Non HDL can be age dependent also, as younger have lower levels.
I actually almost fit the situation in the link ironically on the study - I should get my DNA tested but so expensive, but looking at this “thrifty” gene as described in link, I possibly have this, which doesn’t bode well for those with similar when we are sedentary… given my situation, for well over a decade I have had mobility problems… I should of not carried on eating as if I was as active 🫣
As I have higher end blood sugar now but didn’t when younger at all…but having a 6 month course of Decapetyl injections has just pushed me into prediabetes 😩 at 42 I was 3months before starting approx 37 I’m now working on that and try to be more mobile but that’s hit n miss still with ongoing problems… but has improved thankfully.
Ironically I eat all full fat, eggs etc …I don’t shun anything the British Heart Foundation say we should to keep Cholesterol in good shape if food is the cause I certainly should have high cholesterol high triglycerides by my diet.
My husband eats everything sugary and his Cholesterol is high and his blood sugar fine (although that was 10yrs ago) literally opposites.
So it’s not food to a point … genetics is more likely the biggest game changer other than medication or another condition and liver issues…obviously in my case having Hashimoto’s and other autoimmune hasn’t yet caused cholesterol problems to be high but may do as I age.
Actually unsure if you’re worried because you think they’re high or low… they seem ok to me what has GP said?
That link is quite good in that it discusses the issues. Even if, in time, some of the scientific details were not 100%, it gets our brains thinking and not just accepting that we should be chasing the lowest possible cholesterol number.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
UPDATE: Cholestrol and Statins (confused and irritated)
Blood result! Anyone know how to read them? Help!!!
GP wants to put me on statins but reluctant to take due to underactive thyroid and liver issues
Advice on results please.
