Had my annual physical today so thought it might be fun to throw these numbers at the T-nation brain trust to see what opinions are circling around out there.
Prior to last year’s numbers I was eating a large amount of veggies, nuts, seeds, eggs and maybe 1-2lbs of red meat a week.
After getting a kidney stone I cut out all nuts/seeds/grains and the only veggie I eat is carrots. I also increased red meat intake to 3-5lbs a week and started eating a lot more cheese and fruit. Made these changes around December last year.
I’m not too concerned with results from the blood draw considering my triglycerides and HDL are pretty good. From my understanding theres more specific LDL tests that can be done that are more predictive of risk than total LDL
Thought it was interesting to see such a drastic swing in the other numbers, curious if anyone else has experienced something similar.
I found the Quest CardioIQ panel informative. My insurance covered it as part of my annual blood work, but if you want it and your insurance won’t cover it because you already did annual blood work, directlabs has it for not a lot of money.
The changes in your numbers are significant and seem to show just how much of an impact diet can have on them. Unless there’s an ongoing medical issue you’re trying to solve by eating the way you are, were I in your shoes I would consider moving closer towards the way you were eating last year.
To get lipids back in line with what’s considered normal, because eating no vegetables aside from carrots doesn’t seem like a great idea and because generally speaking nuts are great tasting and great for us. Edit: Again assuming no ongoing medical issue that leads OP to continue eating the way he is now.
The normal ranges in the chart he posted. I’d be leery of having LDL that is as high as his is. Then again, I’ve got a family history of heart disease.
Probably a few things that someone smarter than me can identify.
Main issue is wanting to avoid kidney stones so avoiding high oxalate foods which knocks out most nuts and seeds. I can, and maybe should, add back in some low oxalate veggies.
With 15ish lbs of fruit a week and +3lbs of carrots I don’t think fiber is an issue so it seems like the lack of unsaturated fat and increase in saturated fat are the only real culprits for the changes.
There’s so much mixed information about lipid levels and CVD risk. I’ve seen some arguments that higher cholesterol is neuroprotective as you get older. There’s also some interesting mechanistic arguments that polyunsaturated fats aren’t great due to ease of oxidation and integration into the lipid membrane of cells.
My grandpa has had a few strokes and my mom just had a stent put in this year so may be worth looking into some of the labs mentioned above. High blood pressure runs in that side of the family which I suspect is more of the culprit.
I’ve thankfully never had a kidney stone but I’ve heard they are effing awful. So modifying diet to try to avoid that makes a ton of sense to me.
My grandfather, uncle and my mom have all had heart attacks. After my mom’s heart attack I got a more detailed lipid panel and discovered I have super high LP(a). I have no idea if my relatives who had heart attacks also had it, but one’s levels are genetically determined so perhaps they did. In any event, the CardioIQ panel from Quest will give you tons of information that you can then discuss with your doctor and make a decision on what, if anything, to do in your specific situation.
I find the amount of conflicting information that is available on lipids, CVD, nutrition, etc. very frustrating to try to parse through. Making decisions about it really should be between patient and doctor. I should have clarified that in my original response to your post.
I’ll have to go down this rabbit hole over the weekend but it looks like my lab numbers fit the bill.
What throws me off is it looks like that’s common with low carb diets and I eat far too much fruit to be considered low carb. Maybe I’m metabolically flexible enough that my body went from sugar as a fuel source to fat as a fuel source during the 12 hour fast prior to the blood draw (although I would think I’d have plenty of glycogen to not have a drastic change like that)
Will have fun overthinking this and learning about the mechanisms behind LMHR for weeks to come
