| enm
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this is my first post of disappointment. I have otherwise been happy with the results of this WOE- today however I received the results from my most recent physical and my cholesterol actually went UP 8 points. Im confused by this as I had read that one of the benefits of this WOE was cholesterol levels lowering. Has this happened to anyone else? The only thing I can think of is that I eat more PB/eggs than I used to....I think Im going to now cut out PB and look into eating more eggwhites. I really am racking my brain and food choices and these are the only 2 I come up with.
Has this happened to anyone else and if so what have you done about it? |
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Wed Sep 26, 2007 5:16 am |
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| RedRox
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I don't know why the PB would raise cholesterol. It's high in monounsaturated fats which are the best kind to improve cholesterol. (ETA: Actually omega oils are probably the best kind, followed by monounsaturated (good) and polyunsaturated (mostly neutral) as the good kinds of oils/fats that help improve cholesteral numbers.)
I switched to egg beaters (egg whites) though when after several years of declining numbers they started to reverse and I was eating a hard boiled egg a day for a snack.
What were the breakdowns between HDL, LDL and triglycerides? Maybe you raised the HDL (good cholesterol) more than you lowered the LDL and tri-g's, so it isn't as bad as it might otherwise appear? What about ratio of HDL to total cholesterol? (I think that is the one they use to assess coronary risk) Total cholesterol is not an overly meaningful number by itself. The composition is important too.
How long have you been in P2? Perhaps more soluble fiber in P2 from fruit and whole grains like oats and barley might help bring it down over time as well. FWIW, someone at work had their cholesterol shoot up from P1 and they stopped eating SBD and switched to LAWL. Still overweight and I don't know how his cholesterol is doing, but pretty sure he is on meds for it. Sometimes you do the best you can, but just can't overcome genetics.
Sorry it was discouraging. I had great improvment for a couple years and slid back a bit this year and started a prescription for niacin. We'll see how it goes. |
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Wed Sep 26, 2007 5:45 am |
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| Reignking
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| How long have you been on SBD? |
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Wed Sep 26, 2007 1:24 pm |
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| enm
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I have been on this WOE since April and on p2.5 for the past couple of months.
My good cholesterol did go up, which I was happy about- but the bad kind is about 25 points higher than it should be. My MD said that my total cholesterol is only 'mildly' elevated, but she still sent me a list of foods to eat/avoid. Peanuts were on the avoid (except occasionally) list. I think the main thing that let to my disappointment had been my own expectations. |
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Wed Sep 26, 2007 6:10 pm |
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| RedRox
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| I hear ya! I just went through a lipid profile from Berkeley Heart Labs that takes the analysis down to a more detailed level and now am on a prescription strength level of Niacin to address some of the risks identified and my total cholesterol is like 175 and the various components are all excellent or good. Thought I could avoid the lifelong meds thing, but either too little too late in terms of changing my diet and exercise habits or just bad genetics. sometimes life gives you lemons... it still goes on and beats the alternative as they say! |
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Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:36 pm |
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| bluenoser
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| I had borderline cholesterol which I did initially correct with diet and weight loss. However, despite the weight loss and addition of exercise, my cholesterol went back up. My doc explained that for some people diet is the issue, but for others, particularly if you have had a parent with high cholesterol, it is common that at some point you have a reduction in the production of the enzyme which gets rid of the cholesterol. So the options are usually to take medication of some type, diet will not really change things. I did opt for taking a popular type of cholesterol reducing medication, it did the job for a while then had a significant and rare side effect. Now I add half a teaspoon of cinnamon to yogurt because I had read it might help. So far, very little change, but It has been only a little while. Perhaps you might look to naturopathic or homeopathic sources if diet alone is not the answer. Good luck. |
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Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:05 am |
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| enm
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| Thank you for both for sharing your experiences with me. As always it helps to know that Im not alone in this. I do believe I have a family history of this as well. Maybe I'll check in with my doc to see what else she recommends besides diet. Ahhh, the pleasures of getting older huh? ;) |
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Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:19 pm |
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| Kimboroni
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Total cholesterol really isn't a useful number. The breakdowns and ratios are the thing to look at it. Many doctors are unfortunately behind the times and still looking at the total and telling people to avoid fats (all fats). That's way behind the times.
Can you post your breakdown from before and after? And the list of avoid foods? |
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Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:02 pm |
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| luvs_torun
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enm wrote: Maybe I'll check in with my doc to see what else she recommends besides diet. Ahhh, the pleasures of getting older huh? ;)
Since your doc knows you "best" (and none of us have access to your medical records, family history, allergies, etc.) ..... that's probably the best idea.
You could also test again.... occasionally false/positives occur in testing.
(or sometimes like red said, it can just be bad "genetics".... even with eating right and exercising.) |
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Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:01 pm |
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| RedRox
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| I thought I remember reading somewhere that we can affect about 20% of our total cholesterol number (as poor an indicator as that is) with diet and exercise, the rest is genetics. This fits with my own experience. Although individually I brought the tri-gs down by 70%, they got offset by the increase in HDLs and you only count 20% of the tri-g number in total anyway. Reallly all my improvement was in the tri-gs and the increase in the HDLs kind of offset the decrease in the LDLs. The Berkeley HeartLabs testing is interesting in further identifying coronary risks if you want to see if your health insurance covers it and your Doc thinks it would help. My Doc has been through a lot of this himself and so is a big proponent of it, which is why I had it done. End result is long term meds which I wouldn't have thought I needed with just the breakdown in numbers I have, but the BHL tests found some things that increase my coronary risks, so there I am! |
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Sat Sep 29, 2007 2:48 pm |
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