Cholesterol Levels Surprisingly High

Nutrition
1

For the past 2 months, my diet has largely consisted of proteins, fats, and vegetables. Other than needing to carb up occasionally, I have felt pretty good overall with consistent energry levels. Libido has been strong, mood has been good and sleep has been fairly good too.

My primary protein sources have been steak, ground beef, ground bison, turkey, sockeye salmon, chicken and eggs. All of which are either grass fed (beef/bison), wild caught for the salmon, and USDA organic for the turkey and eggs. The ground beef and steak have been the most frequently consumed of the proteins.

My primary vegetable sources are broccoli, green beans, asparagus, cauliflower, and peas (in that order). I have been very physically active throughout this period.

I had my physical last week and all the standard blood work. As stated in the title, my cholesterol levels are way up… but I am trying to determine how problematic my results are as most of my ratios seem ok. That said my Totals and LDL appear to be an issue. I am 6’0, 185lb, 32 yr/old, estimated body fat 12-14%.

No history of high cholesterol or family history of heart disease (which I know is not the same, but I am not familiar wiht the fam’s cholesterol levels). All other readings in the CBC & metabolic panel were normal. Here are the cholesterol details:

Cholesterol Total 267 mg/dl----Indicated normal range 100-199
Triglycerides 47 mg/dl-----Indicated normal range 0-149
HDL 76 mg/dl-----Desireable range >39
VLDL Cholesterol Cal 9 mg/dl------Indicated normal range 5-40
LDL 182 mg/dl----Indicated normal range 0-99
LDL/HDL Ratio 2.4----------Indicated normal range 0-3.6

2

Your HDL is good at least. It could be up because of the constant ground beef and steak eating. Maybe go with leaner cuts of beef and leaner ground beef depending on what you are eating. Ever take any Flameout or any type of fish oil?

3

[quote]strungoutboy21 wrote:
Ever take any Flameout or any type of fish oil?[/quote]

Yes, I currently supplement with both Flameout and Krill Oil from Mercola. On the fats side of things, I am also going to increase the frequency of my EV Olive Oil intake while cutting back on butter (which is real butter from grass fed cows). My current plan is to cut back on the red meat & add in more poultry/fish to replace it. I am also going to make an effort to add more soluable fiber to my diet since that supposedly helps.

4

I was just about to suggest what you’re already planning on doing. Reduce the saturated fats, and eat more fiber (any idea what your fiber intake is now?). If that doesn’t make a move, consider restricting dietary cholesterol (eggs and shrimp, etc).

Do you know if the LDL was directly measured or if it was calculated from other numbers (like a formula involving total cholesterol, hdl, and trig)? If your doc wants to put you on anti-cholesterol drugs (just because they’re a pain), i’d recommend getting a ‘fancier’ test which not only directly measures LDL, but also gives a breakdown between large and small LDL types, which is apparently becoming trendy.

5

[quote]EasyRhino wrote:
Reduce the saturated fats, and eat more fiber (any idea what your fiber intake is now?). If that doesn’t make a move, consider restricting dietary cholesterol (eggs and shrimp, etc).

Do you know if the LDL was directly measured or if it was calculated from other numbers (like a formula involving total cholesterol, hdl, and trig)? If your doc wants to put you on anti-cholesterol drugs (just because they’re a pain), i’d recommend getting a ‘fancier’ test which not only directly measures LDL, but also gives a breakdown between large and small LDL types, which is apparently becoming trendy.[/quote]

I don’t know what my fiber intake is now, but I certainly not lacking for it. I am eating 2 lbs of vegetables a day (primarily broccoli, grean beans & cauliflower). All my plumbing is working quite well too. I will add some solubles though.

The LDL was a direct measurment as best as I can tell. But the VLDL was a calculation based on Triglycerides. I think.

6

More soluble fiber can only help. How often are you eating fruits, beans and nuts?

7

[quote]chillain wrote:
More soluble fiber can only help. How often are you eating fruits, beans and nuts?[/quote]

I guess green beans don’t really count as beans, at least not the ones I think you are referring to? I don’t eat them at all. I cut out fruits almost entirely during my 2 month dietary experiment. But I am going to add back blueberries and bananas this week. As far as nuts are concerned, about the only thing I eat is a sprouted Almond Butter spread from Whole Foods. The stuff costs a fortune, but it is damn tasty. I don’t eat it very often though. I can bump the frequency on that as well.

I believe they sell home cholesterol tests in drugstores where you collect your own blood and send it off to a lab. I will probably do one of those in about a month and see if where I stand. Unfortunately, not using the same lab will interject variance issues… but I imagine it will give me a decent big picture look if my LDL is responding.

Answering an earlier question, my doctor didn’t even mention any cholesterol drugs or the need for them a this point. I told him about my diet leading up to the physical… in his mind, the result was not suprising to him. He asked me to cut out the excess red meats and butter, then retest in 1 year. Perhaps with normal BP and no other high cholesterol results in the past, he thinks it was one-off situation entirely due to my modified diet.

8

Wow, I’m just surprised about how laid back your doc is.

Another way to get an interim blood test is to check out like a health fair, it may be free/cheap. (we just had one at work actually).

9

[quote]EasyRhino wrote:
Wow, I’m just surprised about how laid back your doc is.
[/quote]

That comment gets me back to the original intent of this thread. Should I be really concerned about these readings? Or, should I reserve paranoia for later if I still have cholesterol levels that high upon retest?

Since I never had eleveated cholesterol cholesterol in the past, I am not versed in the nuances to know how scared or not scared I should be. The thing that I found odd was that for as high as my LDL came in at, that my HDL/LDL was still decent and that my triglycerides & VLDL were still quite low.

Time will tell I guess.

10

[quote]j77 wrote:
For the past 2 months, my diet has largely consisted of proteins, fats, and vegetables. Other than needing to carb up occasionally, I have felt pretty good overall with consistent energry levels. Libido has been strong, mood has been good and sleep has been fairly good too.

My primary protein sources have been steak, ground beef, ground bison, turkey, sockeye salmon, chicken and eggs. All of which are either grass fed (beef/bison), wild caught for the salmon, and USDA organic for the turkey and eggs. The ground beef and steak have been the most frequently consumed of the proteins.

My primary vegetable sources are broccoli, green beans, asparagus, cauliflower, and peas (in that order). I have been very physically active throughout this period.

I had my physical last week and all the standard blood work. As stated in the title, my cholesterol levels are way up… but I am trying to determine how problematic my results are as most of my ratios seem ok. That said my Totals and LDL appear to be an issue. I am 6’0, 185lb, 32 yr/old, estimated body fat 12-14%.

No history of high cholesterol or family history of heart disease (which I know is not the same, but I am not familiar wiht the fam’s cholesterol levels). All other readings in the CBC & metabolic panel were normal. Here are the cholesterol details:

Cholesterol Total 267 mg/dl----Indicated normal range 100-199
Triglycerides 47 mg/dl-----Indicated normal range 0-149
HDL 76 mg/dl-----Desireable range >39
VLDL Cholesterol Cal 9 mg/dl------Indicated normal range 5-40
LDL 182 mg/dl----Indicated normal range 0-99
LDL/HDL Ratio 2.4----------Indicated normal range 0-3.6[/quote]

IMO that’s a good profile (same as I just got).

cholesterol isn’t an issue for most people to even consider and is under a lot of pressure as a valid marker since evidence goes towards inflammation being the killer. processed carbs, big belly, wacko triglycerides, that would worry me a lot more than these numbers.

you should be happy with the low tris and high hdls, plus your ratio is right on. if you are really sweating it then take some fish oil 3g/D

11

What was your diet like before? I had “high” cholesterol for a while and didn’t know why, at the time. I thought I was eating good, but I wasn’t. Too much crap food for me. After I started eating only real food all of the time it started to creep down. I am not trying to say that you have been eating crap before, it’s just what happened to me, it took about 1.5 years for it to slowly come down.

That being said, I wouldn’t sweat an elevated cholesterol number, especially where everything else is fine, actually really good in some places. Cholesterol alone won’t kill you. My guess is the high cholesterol = heart disease risk argument should be something more like high cholesterol + high BP + high triglycerides + beer belly = heart disease risk.

One of the things I did though was increase my fiber intake a lot. Even if not to help your cholesterol, it is a good thing anyway.