Does how we eat change cholesterol profile? - PaleoHacks.com

Does how we eat change cholesterol profile?

2012-09-26T14:56:26Z

. Been paleo since May. Strict paleo... Just got blood work... Vap test Total cholesterol 220, hdl 47,ldl 139, tri 137 crp 0.6. Lost about 20 pounds.
Prior lipids: tc=187, hdl 37, ldl 118, tri 138. Crp unknown. Prior diet SAD. Clean sad. Lots of p90x insanity etc through out. I feel great but was surprised at still high tri and was expecting hdl to be greater

Answer by Jean for Does how we eat change cholesterol profile?

2012-09-26T15:11:17Z

I believe even Ancel Keys was quoted as saying that dietary cholesterol has no bearing on blood cholesterol.

Answer by CD for Does how we eat change cholesterol profile?

2012-09-26T15:28:51Z

Obviously what we eat affects our cholesterol. What we have found is that dietary cholesterol does not change our cholesterol levels.

Just look at http://20potatoesaday.com/ -- Cholesterol dropped 60 mg/dL. Is that all from a 20 lbs drop in weight? No, it is from the dietary make up. There are countless other studies that show this.

Magnitude of myristic acid has shown strong causal effect to increased total serum cholesterol -- http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/17/5/281.short

The larger question is whether, and to what extent our cholesterol numbers matter. Is magnitude important? Is it the ratios? Is it just a complementary metric that has no cause/effect relationship?

I suggest you read Petter Attia's "Straight Dope" series, here's Part 1 -- http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/the-straight-dope-on-cholesterol-part-i

Answer by Paleodude for Does how we eat change cholesterol profile?

2012-09-26T16:33:33Z

Your liver makes the majority of cholesterol for your body. Very little comes from the food you eat. I'm afraid the only way you are going to lower your LDL and triglycerides is by taking a statin. I'm on the lowest dosage 10 MG and my LDL and Tri's are optimal. Without the statin, I'm just like you. I really don't like to take a statin but it's the lesser of two evils because no matter what diet I tried, I couldn't get my cholesterol down. So I'm a firm believer that your liver mostly controls the output of cholesterol not your diet. My cholesterol was little bit better on Paleo VS. SAD. I was taking 10 MG of statins on both diets.

Answer by PaleoRocks for Does how we eat change cholesterol profile?

2012-09-26T20:42:14Z

How much oily fish are you eating (or fish oil supplements)? how many carbs?

Answer by Janknitz for Does how we eat change cholesterol profile?

2012-09-27T17:05:49Z

Rob Wolf's most recent podcast is a very good interview with Chris Kresser and he goes into great detail about cholesterol--I highly recommend you listen to that, very informative and understandable for the lay person.

Based on what Chris said, you should ask your doctor to test you for familial hypercholesterolemia.

Answer by Janknitz for Does how we eat change cholesterol profile?

2012-09-29T14:46:23Z

Bringing LDL-C down may be meaningless as LDL-c is NOT correlated to cardiovascular risk. New studies indicate LDL-P is the measurement that helps determine risk. It's important to treat the problem (if you really have elevated risk in the first place) not the symptom.

Treating LDL-C with statins is like treating pneumonia with Tylenol. Yes, it will reduce the fever (a symptom) but will not treat the underlying cause (infection) or cure the patient.

Also, the thing that keeps tris up is carbs. Have you tried dialing them down a little??? That may improve ratios and risk.