Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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I think it's BS that my doc sent me to a cardiologist anyway. She made me go because of my cholesterol and the cardiologist agreed with her that I am high risk. I do not believe them. What do you think?

My labs (more detail in a previous post) Total cholesterol 297

LDL-c direct 136

Hdl-c 120

Triglycerides 62

I am paleo - primal for 2 years now, including a pregnancy. Grassfed and free range meats and pastured eggs, raw milk, homemade raw milk kefir, veggies, fruits (not that much) hardly any starchy things, and dark chocolate. About once a week homemade raw milk ice cream.

I don't exercise but I will soon - I shouldn't say don't because I do chase a toddler around all day. But we are moving to the beach so I will be walking a lot. Uphill a lot. I have weight to lose but I feel really healthy. Main health problem is still the migraines.

Anyway, how bad are my labs? Aren't LDL and total Chol simply calculations, and don't I have good trigs and HDL? There is no heart problem anywhere in my family. Why are conventional docs all flipped out, saying I am such a heart attack risk??

flag	asked Aug 26 at 8:47 Yaelle 41●3

Doctorsh · Answer 1 · 2012-08-26 12:39:07Z UTC

Can you tell me how your doc forced you to go to a cardiologist? Did she tie you up and drag you? Did she hold you hostage?

It's always your choice who you go o for medical care/advice!

As for your lab values. They are excellent. High hdl with low triglycerides almost always indicate big fluffy ldl's, which are good, which probably also indicates a lower particle number of LDL as big and fluffy contain more LDL per particle.

Luke · Answer 2 · 2012-08-26 10:51:43Z UTC

I'm no expert, probably not as knowledgeable as many here, but I treat having a higher LDL count as a bad thing, and you generally want LDL under 100, right? I guess the most important thing is having the higher HDL... and large number is fine, since higher HDL is an overall health benefit. Your numbers aren't that bad though, to my untrained eye.

The major thing is to ensure you're low in inflammatory foods, which are the real cause of a lot of problems (seems you are - great!)

You also might be deficient in copper, selenium or iodine, which adversely affects LDL

omatic · Answer 3 · 2012-08-26 12:28:02Z UTC

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I would want to know what size the LDLs are. Small density or large fluffy? That makes all the difference. Your trig and HDL are great!

Sorry about your migraines. I also suffer from them. They stop your life.

answered Aug 26 at 12:28

omatic
85●5

Isn't there some calculation to say whether they are large? I didn't have that separate test. Migraines suck. I do use frovatriptan as needed and I hate taking it, but it allows me to live my life and care for my kids. – Yaelle Aug 26 at 22:17

aed939 · Answer 4 · 2012-08-26 12:40:38Z UTC

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Make sure your veggies are well cooked to remove antinutrients. Make sure any seed/grain/nut-containing plant foods are soaked or germinated. Even green beans containing seeds inside should be well cooked (cooked until not crunchy).

answered Aug 26 at 12:40

aed939
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Good idea! I rarely eat nuts, some macadamia and almonds. But I was at someone's house a couple weeks ago and they had soaked raw almonds. It was like a totally different food. – Yaelle Aug 26 at 22:20

MarkES · Answer 5 · 2012-08-26 12:43:52Z UTC

Might not be a heart issue, but the higher LDL might be a sign of lower thyroid function. Adding some starch, like potatoes or sweet potatoes might help. Improving thyroid could help weight loss, too.

Another thing to consider is the CRP/HDL connection. Maybe your CRP Hs-crp 1.8 could be lowered.

Chris Kresser:

I tend to view HDL >85 or 90 in the presence of other inflammatory or immunological markers as a potential sign of infection or immune dysregulation.

I don’t have the reference handy, but I came across a study associating elevated HDL and CRP (occurring together) with INCREASED risk of heart disease….

I frequently see HDL >100 in patients with several other markers of inflammation, such as elevated CRP, ferritin, WBC, monocytes, etc.

Thanks, Mark

Cardiologist not happy with my cholesterol labs

5 Answers