Hi,

I fell off the wagon from my Atkins plan between September and December and gained about 20 pounds and just started again on the Atkins plan back in late December... happened to get a cholesterol check in January and was flabberghasted to find that I had a reading of 340 for the bad variety of the big bad "C"...

I've been back on Atkins since and am back down to 200 pounds and am fitting into size 36 pants, but I'm wondering how long it takes for cholesterol to return to acceptable levels in someone who has taken the correct steps like getting back into the Atkins lifestyle? I am an ex-caridiac patient and it didn't take me but one second to commit to going back to eating correctly, but this is one area I have no knowledge about... What are the standard times for someone to return to normal readings after such high readings? When should I go for another blood test?

I'm only a few months away from goal, but sure am interested in my internal health... I've promised to wear tight shorts and a tank top to some of my friends here (My incentive to keep going and to be a bit of a smart aleck <lol>!) and get my photo taken for my new forum picture, but prefer to be alive when I do that <lol>...

- Jon

hi Jon,

Sorry to hear about the unfavourable cholesterol result, that sure would be quite a shock. I'm not 100% clear if you mean that your total cholesterol is 340 or the LDL is 340? It's hard to know what's going on without the whole picture. Did your triglycerides also go up? What about HDL (the "good" chol.) If it's over 40, that's good, if it's above 60 it's highly protective, even over the higher LDL reading.

Unfortunately, using diet to correct blood lipids is just like using diet to treat diabetes. You must continue with it for life, because the risks for the disease never really go away. Diet and exercise are controls, not cures.

In Protein Power, the Drs Eades explain how someone who's been LC'ing faithfully might experience a rise in cholesterol and triglycerides. You can read about that phenomenon here. In your case however, the problem seems to have been a rebound from falling off the wagon and adding back too many carbs too fast.

10 - 12 weeks/ 3 months should be reasonable time frame to see some correction in lipid levels. Try to focus your fat intake on monounsaturates (olives, olive oil, raw nuts, avocados) and saturates from unprocessed meats, eggs and butter. Omega-3's from fatty fish and flax will be helpful as well. Avoid polyunsaturates in margarine, soy and peanut oil and corn oil.

Monounsaturates especially will help bring your HDL up, which is very protective. I've personally improved my blood lipid profile by increasing my overall fat intake and focusing on monounsaturates. All the "baddies" have come down, and the "good" has come up. Because of disability, I'm not able to do vigorous exercise, so most of the positive results for me have been from my diet

Doreen

Wow, John - that IS high, I wish you well in getting it down. My dad has serious problems with cholesterol and he's 70 now, so he's very concerned too. He has been getting better results since he started a walking routine and he really sticks to it, but he also eats extremely low fat and is real fastidious about it.

Did you discuss the possiblities of medication for your cholesterol with your doctor? There are some medications really helping people like you who have a difficult time keep their cholesterol down with diet and exercise.

There's an interesting article about statins, the cholesterol drugs, at Cholesterol and Statins

Oops. I goofed the link (sorry, not good at this stuff yet) and the edit feature won't work for me...here it is again:


Cholesterol and Statins