My LDL cholesterol went down 39 points after 2 months of altered diet

[Muse]

I don't take any medications and I'd like to keep it that way. Vitamins, glucosamine, etc. fine, but pharmaceuticals I'd prefer to avoid. So, when I got an email from my doctor mid-November telling me that my 170 LDL level was "very high" and that he recommended that I start taking a statin every day at bedtime, I emailed back asking him if I could try altering my diet and taking another test in a couple of months. He said OK. I had a blood test this morning and I already have the results and they are better than I could have hoped. My lipid panel in mid November was:

Component Your Value Standard Range
CHOLESTEROL 236 <239- mg/dL
TRIGLYCERIDE 75 <199- mg/dL
HDL 51 >40- mg/dL
LDL CALCULATED 170 <129- mg/dL


Today, exactly 2 months later:

Component Your Value Standard Range
CHOLESTEROL 197 <239- mg/dL
TRIGLYCERIDE 92 <199- mg/dL
HDL 48 >40- mg/dL
LDL CALCULATED 131 <129- mg/dL


I just sent this message to my primary care physician:
- - - -
Some difference, huh?

Component Your Value Standard Range
CHOLESTEROL 197 <239- mg/dL
TRIGLYCERIDE 92 <199- mg/dL
HDL 48 >40- mg/dL
LDL CALCULATED 131 <129- mg/dL

Best cholesterol results I've had in as long as I can remember, and this with just two months of this time really paying attention and cutting out a lot of stuff. Like I told you in retrospect (that wake up call mid-November) I realized that my butter consumption had gone up a lot since June. After the November test I cut out ALL butter and cheese. My meat consumption has been the same, which isn't a lot. Maybe 3-4 eggs in the last 2 months, the rest just egg whites (powdered).

I guess we can cancel that statin scenario, eh? I've got a new outlook, an attitude adjustment. My excercise has been really the same -- I do quite a bit, always do.

- - - -

Of course, it's possible that the difference was because of faulty testing, and that's always possible. Still, my assumption is that it is due entirely to dietary adjustments. I think I could have done significantly better. I only realized in the last week or so the possible role of saturated fats coming from nuts. I've been eating a lot of peanut butter, good "natural" peanuts, no hydrogenated oils, but even so there's a fair amount of saturated fat in peanuts.

I don't miss the cheese at all (maybe 1/2 an ounce to an ounce a day, anyway average, 2 tops was what I was eating), and the butter, well, I miss it sometimes but not all that much. I like what I'm eating fine.
- - - -
My doctor's reply today:

Thank you for the fyi, that is great!

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Did you increase/start cardio or exercise in general between the two readings? Also, how were your stress levels for before and after respectively?

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Did you increase/start cardio or exercise in general between the two readings? Also, how were your stress levels for before and after respectively?

My cardio and excercise have been quite consistent before and during this entire 2 month period. My levels are adequate. Stress levels vary for me, but I don't think there was much of a difference all in all. I really attribute the change in lipid panel figures to alterations in my diet, principally not eating any butter or cheese and almost cutting out egg yolks. Also, I was in the habit of not being particularly discriminating when eating out, and I stopped doing that. However, I don't eat out often, averaging possibly once a week.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Did you increase/start cardio or exercise in general between the two readings? Also, how were your stress levels for before and after respectively?

My cardio and excercise have been quite consistent before and during this entire 2 month period. My levels are adequate. Stress levels vary for me, but I don't think there was much of a difference all in all. I really attribute the change in lipid panel figures to alterations in my diet, principally not eating any butter or cheese and almost cutting out egg yolks. Also, I was in the habit of not being particularly discriminating when eating out, and I stopped doing that. However, I don't eat out often, averaging possibly once a week.

I just read a research article on how stress levels from no stress to moderate stress increased cholesterol readings in individuals by up to 5%. Do you remember being stressed on the day you went in? It seems you don't have to be in a state of chronic stress for it to affect cholesterol levels. I can be acute stress. I'm just curious since this seems to be a factor that may have been neglected.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Did you increase/start cardio or exercise in general between the two readings? Also, how were your stress levels for before and after respectively?

My cardio and excercise have been quite consistent before and during this entire 2 month period. My levels are adequate. Stress levels vary for me, but I don't think there was much of a difference all in all. I really attribute the change in lipid panel figures to alterations in my diet, principally not eating any butter or cheese and almost cutting out egg yolks. Also, I was in the habit of not being particularly discriminating when eating out, and I stopped doing that. However, I don't eat out often, averaging possibly once a week.

I just read a research article on how stress levels from no stress to moderate stress increased cholesterol readings in individuals by up to 5%. Do you remember being stressed on the day you went in? It seems you don't have to be in a state of chronic stress for it to affect cholesterol levels. I can be acute stress. I'm just curious since this seems to be a factor that may have been neglected.

Well, it was two months ago and I don't remember being in particular stress. Of course, it's not particularly comfortable to have to have fasted for 12 hours. I couldn't have my usual coffee and I had to skip breakfast and get my ass over to the lab for the blood draw. I had to do that yesterday, too though. Yesterday I fasted for an additional hour. My ass was draggin' on my bike by the time I got there (headwinds and uphill part of the way to boot). Anyway, 5% seems pretty negligible compared to the ~30% difference I had.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Did you increase/start cardio or exercise in general between the two readings? Also, how were your stress levels for before and after respectively?

My cardio and excercise have been quite consistent before and during this entire 2 month period. My levels are adequate. Stress levels vary for me, but I don't think there was much of a difference all in all. I really attribute the change in lipid panel figures to alterations in my diet, principally not eating any butter or cheese and almost cutting out egg yolks. Also, I was in the habit of not being particularly discriminating when eating out, and I stopped doing that. However, I don't eat out often, averaging possibly once a week.

I just read a research article on how stress levels from no stress to moderate stress increased cholesterol readings in individuals by up to 5%. Do you remember being stressed on the day you went in? It seems you don't have to be in a state of chronic stress for it to affect cholesterol levels. I can be acute stress. I'm just curious since this seems to be a factor that may have been neglected.

Well, it was two months ago and I don't remember being in particular stress. Of course, it's not particularly comfortable to have to have fasted for 12 hours. I couldn't have my usual coffee and I had to skip breakfast and get my ass over to the lab for the blood draw. I had to do that yesterday, too though.

Gotcha. I'm still extremely wary that this is 100% diet and I don't quite think you should preach it as such. There are a lot of factors that can effect cholesterol levels. On top of that, how should we explain individuals who eat 6+ eggs a day along with being on a ketogenic diet that sustain perfectly normal amounts of cholesterol? What about research like this, which states subjects who were on a ketogenic diet increased their HDL more and decreased their serum triglyceride levels more than low-fat diets while they both decreased their LDL levels?

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Did you increase/start cardio or exercise in general between the two readings? Also, how were your stress levels for before and after respectively?

My cardio and excercise have been quite consistent before and during this entire 2 month period. My levels are adequate. Stress levels vary for me, but I don't think there was much of a difference all in all. I really attribute the change in lipid panel figures to alterations in my diet, principally not eating any butter or cheese and almost cutting out egg yolks. Also, I was in the habit of not being particularly discriminating when eating out, and I stopped doing that. However, I don't eat out often, averaging possibly once a week.

I just read a research article on how stress levels from no stress to moderate stress increased cholesterol readings in individuals by up to 5%. Do you remember being stressed on the day you went in? It seems you don't have to be in a state of chronic stress for it to affect cholesterol levels. I can be acute stress. I'm just curious since this seems to be a factor that may have been neglected.

Well, it was two months ago and I don't remember being in particular stress. Of course, it's not particularly comfortable to have to have fasted for 12 hours. I couldn't have my usual coffee and I had to skip breakfast and get my ass over to the lab for the blood draw. I had to do that yesterday, too though.

Gotcha. I'm still extremely wary that this is 100% diet and I don't quite think you should preach it as such. There are a lot of factors that can effect cholesterol levels. On top of that, how should we explain individuals who eat 6+ eggs a day along with being on a ketogenic diet that sustain perfectly normal amounts of cholesterol? What about research like this, which states subjects who were on a ketogenic diet increased their HDL more and decreased their serum triglyceride levels more than low-fat diets while they both decreased their LDL levels?

Hell, I don't know, all I know is that my levels went way down and the only thing I'm doing differently is pushing away the butter, cheese and egg yolks.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Did you increase/start cardio or exercise in general between the two readings? Also, how were your stress levels for before and after respectively?

My cardio and excercise have been quite consistent before and during this entire 2 month period. My levels are adequate. Stress levels vary for me, but I don't think there was much of a difference all in all. I really attribute the change in lipid panel figures to alterations in my diet, principally not eating any butter or cheese and almost cutting out egg yolks. Also, I was in the habit of not being particularly discriminating when eating out, and I stopped doing that. However, I don't eat out often, averaging possibly once a week.

I just read a research article on how stress levels from no stress to moderate stress increased cholesterol readings in individuals by up to 5%. Do you remember being stressed on the day you went in? It seems you don't have to be in a state of chronic stress for it to affect cholesterol levels. I can be acute stress. I'm just curious since this seems to be a factor that may have been neglected.

Well, it was two months ago and I don't remember being in particular stress. Of course, it's not particularly comfortable to have to have fasted for 12 hours. I couldn't have my usual coffee and I had to skip breakfast and get my ass over to the lab for the blood draw. I had to do that yesterday, too though.

Gotcha. I'm still extremely wary that this is 100% diet and I don't quite think you should preach it as such. There are a lot of factors that can effect cholesterol levels. On top of that, how should we explain individuals who eat 6+ eggs a day along with being on a ketogenic diet that sustain perfectly normal amounts of cholesterol? What about research like this, which states subjects who were on a ketogenic diet increased their HDL more and decreased their serum triglyceride levels more than low-fat diets while they both decreased their LDL levels?

Hell, I don't know, all I know is that my levels went way down and the only thing I'm doing differently is pushing away the butter, cheese and egg yolks.

I wonder if your first results acted as a sort of biological feedback. It's often used with people and blood pressure/heart rate. I can't find any studies about bio feedback and cholesterol, but your body can do some amazing things when you have some numbers in front of you. That would be interesting.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged


I wonder if your first results acted as a sort of biological feedback. It's often used with people and blood pressure/heart rate. I can't find any studies about bio feedback and cholesterol, but your body can do some amazing things when you have some numbers in front of you. That would be interesting.

You mean a kind of mind controls body scenario? Well if a person can make his cholesterol go down with an act of will, that's something. Is the reduction I've mentioned here somewhat more than is reasonable? Am I a candidate for Guiness? Honestly, I have no idea. My brother, who is a physician, told me he thought that altering my diet for a couple of months would have very little effect. Can you direct me to a page or study that discusses this?

 

[Muse]

Looking back in my data, I actually had better readings in 2004, but not by much:

Cholesterol: 191
Triglycerides: 63
HDL: 52
LDL: 126

But in 2000, 2002 and since the results weren't as good.

 

[eddiebravo]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Did you increase/start cardio or exercise in general between the two readings? Also, how were your stress levels for before and after respectively?

My cardio and excercise have been quite consistent before and during this entire 2 month period. My levels are adequate. Stress levels vary for me, but I don't think there was much of a difference all in all. I really attribute the change in lipid panel figures to alterations in my diet, principally not eating any butter or cheese and almost cutting out egg yolks. Also, I was in the habit of not being particularly discriminating when eating out, and I stopped doing that. However, I don't eat out often, averaging possibly once a week.

I just read a research article on how stress levels from no stress to moderate stress increased cholesterol readings in individuals by up to 5%. Do you remember being stressed on the day you went in? It seems you don't have to be in a state of chronic stress for it to affect cholesterol levels. I can be acute stress. I'm just curious since this seems to be a factor that may have been neglected.

Well, it was two months ago and I don't remember being in particular stress. Of course, it's not particularly comfortable to have to have fasted for 12 hours. I couldn't have my usual coffee and I had to skip breakfast and get my ass over to the lab for the blood draw. I had to do that yesterday, too though.

Gotcha. I'm still extremely wary that this is 100% diet and I don't quite think you should preach it as such. There are a lot of factors that can effect cholesterol levels. On top of that, how should we explain individuals who eat 6+ eggs a day along with being on a ketogenic diet that sustain perfectly normal amounts of cholesterol? What about research like this, which states subjects who were on a ketogenic diet increased their HDL more and decreased their serum triglyceride levels more than low-fat diets while they both decreased their LDL levels?

Your counter-examples really aren't counter-examples. Eggs have dietary cholesterol, but VERY LITTLE saturated fat(~1g per egg). Dietary cholesterol does not do much to alter most peoples blood lipid profile. The stigma surrounding eggs is a vestige of the past when people thought that eating cholesterol = automatically raising blood cholesterol. Now it is clear that it CAN be a factor, but in many people is not.

Ketogenic diets will decrease triglycerides because your triglyceride levels are determined primarily by your sugar/carbohydrate intake, not fat intake. This is why cutting back on refined flours/sugars is the best way to lower triglycerides.

Diet does have a large impact on cholesterol. Limit your refined/junk/sugar carb intake(meaning things other than whole grains, whole fruits, beans/legumes, and vegetables), eat NO transfat(that means nothing with partially hydrogenated oils in the ingredients list), limit your saturated fat intake, supplement with omega-3 polyunsaturated fats from fish oil if you arent eating fish regularly, and make the bulk of your fat intake come from unrefined unheated monounsaturated fats(ie: adding olive oil to your dish AFTER it is cooked, eating a handful of almonds, eating avocado, etc.). That along with exercise = improved cholesterol and improved health in general.

There are also a lot of supplements you can take for less serious cholesterol problems...niacin, red yeast rice, soluble fiber, garlic, etc

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: eddiebravo

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Did you increase/start cardio or exercise in general between the two readings? Also, how were your stress levels for before and after respectively?

My cardio and excercise have been quite consistent before and during this entire 2 month period. My levels are adequate. Stress levels vary for me, but I don't think there was much of a difference all in all. I really attribute the change in lipid panel figures to alterations in my diet, principally not eating any butter or cheese and almost cutting out egg yolks. Also, I was in the habit of not being particularly discriminating when eating out, and I stopped doing that. However, I don't eat out often, averaging possibly once a week.

I just read a research article on how stress levels from no stress to moderate stress increased cholesterol readings in individuals by up to 5%. Do you remember being stressed on the day you went in? It seems you don't have to be in a state of chronic stress for it to affect cholesterol levels. I can be acute stress. I'm just curious since this seems to be a factor that may have been neglected.

Well, it was two months ago and I don't remember being in particular stress. Of course, it's not particularly comfortable to have to have fasted for 12 hours. I couldn't have my usual coffee and I had to skip breakfast and get my ass over to the lab for the blood draw. I had to do that yesterday, too though.

Gotcha. I'm still extremely wary that this is 100% diet and I don't quite think you should preach it as such. There are a lot of factors that can effect cholesterol levels. On top of that, how should we explain individuals who eat 6+ eggs a day along with being on a ketogenic diet that sustain perfectly normal amounts of cholesterol? What about research like this, which states subjects who were on a ketogenic diet increased their HDL more and decreased their serum triglyceride levels more than low-fat diets while they both decreased their LDL levels?

Your counter-examples really aren't counter-examples. Eggs have dietary cholesterol, but VERY LITTLE saturated fat(~1g per egg). Dietary cholesterol does not do much to alter most peoples blood lipid profile. The stigma surrounding eggs is a vestige of the past when people thought that eating cholesterol = automatically raising blood cholesterol. Now it is clear that it CAN be a factor, but in many people is not.

Ketogenic diets will decrease triglycerides because your triglyceride levels are determined primarily by your sugar/carbohydrate intake, not fat intake. This is why cutting back on refined flours/sugars is the best way to lower triglycerides.

Diet does have a large impact on cholesterol. Limit your refined/junk/sugar carb intake(meaning things other than whole grains, whole fruits, beans/legumes, and vegetables), eat NO transfat(that means nothing with partially hydrogenated oils in the ingredients list), limit your saturated fat intake, supplement with omega-3 polyunsaturated fats from fish oil if you arent eating fish regularly, and make the bulk of your fat intake come from unrefined unheated monounsaturated fats(ie: adding olive oil to your dish AFTER it is cooked, eating a handful of almonds, eating avocado, etc.). That along with exercise = improved cholesterol and improved health in general.

There are also a lot of supplements you can take for less serious cholesterol problems...niacin, red yeast rice, soluble fiber, garlic, etc

The research is perfectly fine. Low carb, high fat, high protein diet. If you read the full article, it states:

Participants were permitted unlimited amounts of animal foods (meat, fowl, fish, and shellfish), unlimited eggs, 4 oz of hard cheese, 2 cups of salad vegetables (such as lettuce, spinach, or celery), and 1 cup of low-carbohydrate vegetables (such as broccoli, cauliflower, or squash) daily.

Many of the participants were eating things like ground beef, bacon, sausage, cheese, etc, as main sources of energy. I understand there are other components in there, but the article still applies since saturated fats were not limited whatsoever. That points to the fact that, regardless of limited saturated fat intake, these people reduced their cholesterol levels.