6-Month Lipid Panel Update On My Nutritional Ketosis N=1 Experiment « Jimmy Moore's Livin' La Vida Low Carb Blog
So what about my latest test results from my fasting blood draw on October 25, 2012?
Some of the numbers shouldn’t be a surprise knowing that I’m eating a very strict high-fat, moderated protein, low-carbohydrate diet with a fat/protein/carbohydrate ratio of 85/12/3:
HDL-C is 65 (down slightly from Berkley but still over 50)
Triglycerides are 46 (virtually cut in half since Berkeley)
Small LDL-P is 221 (just 6% of my total LDL-P number)
VLDL was “too low” to measure exact number (A GOOD THING!)
LP-IR Score was 11 (means I’m no longer insulin resistant)
As amazing as all of these numbers were, the ones people will likely be most interested in are the “high” ones - let’s take a look:
Total cholesterol is 359 (not a relevant number at all)
LDL-C is 285 (again, this tells you nothing really)
LDL-P is 3451 (ideally it’s supposed to be below 1000)
Apo B is 238 (parallel to LDL-P and should be under 80)
What I want to know is how I can simultaneously have outstanding insulin sensitivity, an A1c score of 4.5, average blood sugars around 81, a heart scan score of zero, undetectable inflammation, 94% of my LDL particles are the large, fluffy kind (Pattern A), a microscopic triglyceride/HDL ratio of 0.7 and active weight/fat loss AND a greater susceptibility for atherosclerosis because of an extremely high LDL-P and Apo B.
The answer is out there and I’m bound and determined to uncover it for my book next year.
But this is more than about some book I’m writing…this is my life. I wholeheartedly believe my healthy high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb diet is vastly improving my health in ways that no other eating plan could even possibly touch.
And yet the jury is still out on whether or not there should be concern about the direction my numbers have been going.
I did an Excel spreadsheet showing how although my total cholesterol, LDL-C and HDL have all remained relatively constant for the past 4+ years, LDL-P has gone precipitously higher and higher (will it ever stop going up and what’s making that number continue to rise?):
Interestingly, before I started on the Atkins diet in January 2004, my highest total cholesterol was only about 230. Of course, my doctor put me on both Lipitor and Crestor to lower that number and it did get down to 130 at some point (don’t know what the breakdown was of HDL and LDL nor do I know what my triglycerides or LDL-P were at the time either).
But people have claimed I have familial hypercholesterolemia because my total cholesterol is now over 300. But I disagree.
Something has happened since I began eating high-fat, low-carb and I can’t help but wonder if there is a purpose for that extra cholesterol in the body since we know there are benefits to higher levels of cholesterol in the body. The jury is certainly still out on this.
If there’s one thing you know about me, it’s this: I won’t stop seeking the truth about this and sharing with you what I find. Dr. Dayspring has already invited me to visit him at the Richmond, VA-based Foundation For Health Improvement And Technology to see why despite all my incredible lipid numbers the LDL-P and Apo B seem to be out of whack.
It will be interesting to see if these numbers are found to be less important for people on low-carb diets than those eating other kinds of diets. Now that’s some research that could help a whole lot of people. In preparation for my book, I’ll also be interviewing various health professionals from cardiologists to practitioners and everyone in between to get to the heart of what matters most. I’m anxious to get going on this project and can’t wait to see where my journey takes me on this.
Got any comments about my latest lipid numbers? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Feel free to share any knowledge and experience you may have on this subject.
So what about my latest test results from my fasting blood draw on October 25, 2012?
Some of the numbers shouldn’t be a surprise knowing that I’m eating a very strict high-fat, moderated protein, low-carbohydrate diet with a fat/protein/carbohydrate ratio of 85/12/3:
As amazing as all of these numbers were, the ones people will likely be most interested in are the “high” ones - let’s take a look:
What I want to know is how I can simultaneously have outstanding insulin sensitivity, an A1c score of 4.5, average blood sugars around 81, a heart scan score of zero, undetectable inflammation, 94% of my LDL particles are the large, fluffy kind (Pattern A), a microscopic triglyceride/HDL ratio of 0.7 and active weight/fat loss AND a greater susceptibility for atherosclerosis because of an extremely high LDL-P and Apo B.
The answer is out there and I’m bound and determined to uncover it for my book next year.
But this is more than about some book I’m writing…this is my life. I wholeheartedly believe my healthy high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb diet is vastly improving my health in ways that no other eating plan could even possibly touch.
And yet the jury is still out on whether or not there should be concern about the direction my numbers have been going.
I did an Excel spreadsheet showing how although my total cholesterol, LDL-C and HDL have all remained relatively constant for the past 4+ years, LDL-P has gone precipitously higher and higher (will it ever stop going up and what’s making that number continue to rise?):
Interestingly, before I started on the Atkins diet in January 2004, my highest total cholesterol was only about 230. Of course, my doctor put me on both Lipitor and Crestor to lower that number and it did get down to 130 at some point (don’t know what the breakdown was of HDL and LDL nor do I know what my triglycerides or LDL-P were at the time either).
But people have claimed I have familial hypercholesterolemia because my total cholesterol is now over 300. But I disagree.
Something has happened since I began eating high-fat, low-carb and I can’t help but wonder if there is a purpose for that extra cholesterol in the body since we know there are benefits to higher levels of cholesterol in the body. The jury is certainly still out on this.
If there’s one thing you know about me, it’s this: I won’t stop seeking the truth about this and sharing with you what I find. Dr. Dayspring has already invited me to visit him at the Richmond, VA-based Foundation For Health Improvement And Technology to see why despite all my incredible lipid numbers the LDL-P and Apo B seem to be out of whack.
It will be interesting to see if these numbers are found to be less important for people on low-carb diets than those eating other kinds of diets. Now that’s some research that could help a whole lot of people. In preparation for my book, I’ll also be interviewing various health professionals from cardiologists to practitioners and everyone in between to get to the heart of what matters most. I’m anxious to get going on this project and can’t wait to see where my journey takes me on this.
Got any comments about my latest lipid numbers? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Feel free to share any knowledge and experience you may have on this subject.