my blood work

[Sd1136]

This was taking a month on atkins
Now I have nothing to compare it to.
Blood glucose is 110 (yes I am hoping this diet will help that)

Lipids
cholesterol H 228

HDL Cholesterol 50

Cholesterol. HDL 4.5

LDL cholesterol H 156

VLDL Cholesterol 22
Triglycerides 108


c- reactive Protein is H 1.6
A1C is H 6.3


I know the sugar is high, one of many reasons I want to lose weight
I need to lose it.
but a friend is telling me my blood work is so bad, I have to go off Atkins and try another diet. I have to change Drs cause mine didnt put me on any meds for the Cholesterol and high blood sugar.

[Sd1136]

Re: my blood work

anyone?

[pinkfusion]

Re: my blood work

i'm not the expert but i have heard that cholesterol should be checked 3-4 months after starting atkins to have a more accurate representation. i think your body goes through an adjustment period or something

[chauber]

Re: my blood work

Since you have nothing to compare it to I would suspect that your numbers were much higher in the beginning. I would stick with Atkins and re-check your blood work in a couple of months.

How are you feeling is my biggest question....if you are feeling better that is what really matters.

[chinadoll]

Re: my blood work

Sandi, the first three months on Atkins cholesterol levels sometimes soar. The body has to adjust to the changes in your diet. Your doctor does not have anything to compare to either but I say kudos to him/her for not putting you on meds immediately. Check your numbers again in three months then decide if you need to go on meds. In the meantime, stick to the program and do exercise. I also take fish oil and watch my trans fats.

Sounds like your friend is barking up the conventional wisdom tree. I would ditch talking about Atkins with this friend and stick with this WOE. The weight loss will prove your point.

[Sd1136]

Re: my blood work

thank you everyone,
I am notgoing off this WOE was just very frustrated with how she attacked me with how bad it was for me

[ErinB]

Re: my blood work

Sandi, take some time to read through this article. Do the risk ratio calculations. If you do that, I think you'll see why your doctor isn't rushing to push drugs on you.

This one ---> Cholesterol - Making Sense of Cholesterol Ratios, Lipid Profiles and Your Heart Disease Risk Scores

The doc also knows that weight loss is going to improve things for you in regard to those numbers.

[Sd1136]

Re: my blood work

thank you Erin
going to read it now

[bizzlekitty]

Re: my blood work

I would give it time, say nothing and let the numbers and weight loss talk for you. All my numbers improved over time. I checked them right in the beginning, then not again for several months afterward and my cholesterol dropped 40 pts and all the LDL and HDL numbers improved.

Read the book about why carbs have more of an impact on these numbers than eating protein and fats, especially when you have a lot of weight to lose.

[LageNomAi]

Re: my blood work

Sandi, take some time to read through this article. Do the risk ratio calculations. If you do that, I think you'll see why your doctor isn't rushing to push drugs on you.

This one ---> Cholesterol - Making Sense of Cholesterol Ratios, Lipid Profiles and Your Heart Disease Risk Scores

The doc also knows that weight loss is going to improve things for you in regard to those numbers.

This article is excellent and actually contains a couple calculations I hadn't seen before, all of which indicate that my numbers are quite good. Thank you for sharing.

sd - I had my blood tested back in August and my LDL came back higher than my last test over three years ago. My doctor threatened cholesterol meds as a result. Needless to say, I was pretty upset about this, particularly given that I'm young, have met my weight goal on Atkins, and am very physically active, so I started researching the heck out of cholesterol. What I've learned has surprised me, but the bottom line is this: you cannot take the numbers at face value and medicine is NOT settled as to cholesterol and what's good/bad. There is a fair amount of correlation but little proven causation between high cholesterol and health problems.

Consequently, I agree with the others who suggested you stick with Atkins and retest after about 6 months on the diet so that you have a basis for comparison.

Best wishes!

[LageNomAi]

Re: my blood work

c- reactive Protein is H 1.6
A1C is H 6.3

Incidentally, I seem to recall reading that the C-reactive protein was actually a far better indicator of potential health problems than cholesterol, but I don't have the source for that at my fingertips. I can even picture the graph I saw about this, showing a very strong correlation between CRP and heart disease but unfortunately don't have the link. Here is the NIH link on CRP, which incidentally reveals that your CRP is at the low end of average, close to "low-risk."

[niko772]

Re: my blood work

Okay, when I started back in April, my blood sugar was in the 120's. I just tested, an hour after eating, and it is 89. Atkins WILL help that!

[chinadoll]

Re: my blood work

It will help cholesterol too but not in the first three months. First you stabilize blood sugar, then your body needs time for your Insulin response not to keep churning out cholesterol. This takes weeks. And DO exercise daily.

[ErinB]

Re: my blood work

This article is excellent and actually contains a couple calculations I hadn't seen before, all of which indicate that my numbers are quite good. Thank you for sharing.

sd - I had my blood tested back in August and my LDL came back higher than my last test over three years ago. ...
Consequently, I agree with the others who suggested you stick with Atkins and retest after about 6 months on the diet so that you have a basis for comparison.

You are most welcome. I found that because I was both surprised and nervous to see my LDL come back with a high flag on it this time. My second of all time lipoprotein panel and that made me very nervous. The first one was taken before I was diagnosed hypothyroid and cholesterol total was primarily high because of my high HDL. This time the total was still high but down some. HDL is now in range, but still very high in range, which is excellent. LDL slightly out of range on the high side (about 2 points) and trigycerides had been cut nearly in half to 49 over the first panel.

I found several articles which help explain what most of those were about, but that was the only one which made it clear how to estimate VLDL and several risk ratios for heart disease. All of mine, if that article is correct, are excellent despite the high flag on LDL. VLDL, for instance, is 9.8 to 10 depending on which estimate method is used and normal range is 5-40.

My doctor is great about discussing anything with me via secure email, so I sent him a link to that article, told him why it was comforting to me, asked him if it is accurate and if my conclusions are correct. If he is in, I expect he will answer this morning when he gets into the office or after 5pm tonight. I'll let everyone know what he says.

[LageNomAi]

Re: my blood work

My doctor is great about discussing anything with me via secure email, so I sent him a link to that article, told him why it was comforting to me, asked him if it is accurate and if my conclusions are correct. If he is in, I expect he will answer this morning when he gets into the office or after 5pm tonight. I'll let everyone know what he says.

FWIW, I forwarded this article to my mother and did the calculations using her test result numbers. The VLDL ratio, which in my book is one of, if not the, biggie, was exactly the same as the number I got doing these calculations.

Let us know what your doctor says!