My lab results:

Cholesterol -- 309
HDL -- 57
LDL -- 235
Triglyceride -- 80

HbA1C -- 5.5

I am a 64 year old male and I take one 100 mcg levothyroxine a day.

I had graves disease over 20 years ago and Mayo Clinic did a radioactive iodine treatment that was supposed to kill my thyroid gland, it didn't and eventually they put me on the above.

My current thyroid test was marked as normal, no numbers given.

I have lost 115# in three years and expect to lose 70# more this next year.

I feel OK, I just don't want to fall over dead so I am looking into ,my lab results.

You asked this just this afternoon on the Cholesterol forum -- and the answer to your questions remain the same:
======
Your lab report indicates problems of several kinds.

First, someone who has been on LC for more than a year should have an excellent lipid panel, and yours is not. Your TC, LDL and TG are too high for someone on Atkins so long, and your HDL is too low.

Second, the best marker for CHD is your TG divided BY your HDL. Low risk is .9 or lower (mine is .53 for example). Yours is 1.9, which indicates possible arterial plaque build-up at the beginning stages.

Third, your A1c along with your other numbers indicates insulin resistance. The highest it should be is 5.2 -- and lower than 5 is best.

Finally, you're taking Levo or T4, which may well be the cause of the problem. Unless you're taking it for a goiter, I suspect by these numbers that you have thyroid resistance, specifically a Reverse T3 problem. This means that instead of your T4 converting to the active T3, it's converting to the inactive RT3, which means your Free T3 is pooling in your blood and cannot get into your cells.

This one thing alone causes high TC and LDL. Once mine was diagnosed and took the proper thyroid med -- cytomel, or T3 -- my cholesterol and LDL EACH dropped 100 points in one month.

Please go to the Thyroid Disease forum and read all my posts there to learn more about this, what tests you need for a diagnosis, and what medication you will need and how to take it.

Then go to the Leptin Resistance thread in General Carb and read at least the first post, because I suspect it may well affect you.

In other words:

1: You are on the WRONG THYROID MEDICATION
2: You need some other tests done to show you that your high cholesterol is the result of thyroid resistance.
3: These results indicate a problem with your cardiovascular system, specifically you are showing the beginning of plaque build-up in your arteries.

You can keep posting your results all over this forum but the answers will remain the same: READ THIS FORUM TO FIND OUT WHAT TESTS AND THYROID MEDS YOU NEED.

Lisa

From what I know of blood lipids, you are looking good.

Your triglycerides are low and your HDL is high. Your LDL number doesn't tell us much. You want to know if you have the good "Pattern A" large, fluffy LDL, or the bad "Pattern B" small, dense LDL.

You can determine this using the following formula (from this research ):

If Triglycerides / HDL > 3.8, then Pattern B, otherwise, Pattern A.

Your tris are 80, your HDL are 57. 80/57 is 1.4. 1.4 is a lot less than 3.8. So you have the healthy kind of LDL.

Total cholesterol is easy to measure. But it doesn't provide useful information.

Read Ravnskov, Fat and Cholesterol Are Good For You.

Your HbA1c is below 6%.

You're in great shape!

Thanks, I hope your right and were not missing something.

For a recent blog post from a medical doctor, on Pattern A and Pattern B LDL, check out NephroPal. .

Sorry, but Moishe's completely wrong and missing just about everything. Everything important that is. On the off-chance that someone else might read this and believe Moishe's assertions, let's dissect them:


That doesn't appear to be much.


After three years of LC, TG = 80 is not low. It's not horrid, but it's not great either. Dr. Davis of Track Your Plaque says that truly low (and healthy) TG's are 60 or below. HDL's should at least match TG's, but higher than TG is the goal! You'll learn why in a minute. The OP's TG and HDL numbers are in fact upside down.


Yes ... and no. It's true that Pattern A or Pattern B is more important than total number -- but even so, you're using the wrong ratio number for this particular formula. And also, after more than a year on LC, TC and LDL should not be so high. These are outlier numbers that point to a metabolic problem in the liver. This is in part brought on by his taking T4, which is the WRONG thyroid medication for him, and in part because it means that T3 is pooling in his blood instead of reaching his cells.


Uh, no. The best measurement for CHD risk IS TG/HDL -- yes -- but the results for low risk are .9 or LESS. Read some medical literature on this for heaven's sake, not some guy's blog. The OP's ratio = 1.4. Again, not terrible, but at 50% higher than .9, indicative of the beginnings of plaque, borne out by the higher-than-60 TG number. Even the blogger you quote got his number to 1 before claiming success at reaching Pattern A. What the OP has is a Pattern A/Pattern B mix. This can and should be improved by lowering TG and raising HDL. But for that he'll need T3 to reach his cells again (it's the thyroid hormone that happens to carry the molecule that signals the liver to stop over-producing cholesterol).


Ahem. Every .10 above an A1c of 5 carries increased risk of heart disease from plaque, and by 6% is already well beyond mere insulin resistance and on the way to incipient diabetes. Far from being in 'great shape' the OP has some real medical issues to deal with.


And, so sorry, neither do you.

Please look again at my post #3. I have given a link to a PubMed article, not a blog, to support the claim that the 3.8 ratio differentiates between Pattern A and Pattern B.

Since I would rather discuss ideas, than engage in ad hominem arguments, I further cite Accuracy of the triglyceride to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio for prediction of the low-density lipoprotein phenotype B.

Personally, I would rather have a healthy life than great lab values. I further recognize that good science is based on having an open mind and being capable of self-criticism. If you want to engage in reasonable discussion, I would be the first one to benefit. Please present the evidence behind your assertions.

By the way, I was not asserting that toofat2's lab values were ideal. For example, I agree with your that it would be great if he were able to lower his HBA1c even more.

I once was sure that meat was bad and low-fat eating was good. Fortunately, my mind was open enough to evidence-based discussion to change my behavior. I hope that I am still open enough to be swayed by intelligent argument. Please, let's have a civil airing of the evidence. I would be happy to have my limited understanding enhanced by the information provided by others.

So, what is wrong with the studies that differentiate Patterns A and B by using 3.8 as the cutoff?

Here, in the reality-based universe, it's rather difficult to talk about science when one of us believes that unhealthy labs can offer a healthy life and that science is related in any way to the beliefs held in one's mind.


Not being a mind-reader, I can only know what you said, not what you think in the privacy of your own mind. You said: "Your HbA1c is below 6%. You're in great shape!" My reply: No, he's not, still stands.


Cardiovascular Science has moved on since 2004. As I said in my previous note -- do some current research. You'll discover that Pattern A/B is no longer the gold standard for assessing heart attack risk as it's too broad a category. Most people are on a spectrum between the two. And you'll discover why science has moved on to using the TG/HDL ratio ITSELF rather than as a mere indicator of A/B -- and that low risk for that ratio is indeed, .9 or lower.

Citations please?

My dear, I'm paid to do research for other people. And I charge double if it's for research they can easily do themselves. PayPal is no problem.

And I have sole access to revealed truth, which I will share with any and all for the low, low price of $1,000/hour.

But, for those who want free advice, I can only give you evidence-based claims substantiated with PubMed articles.

I appreciate both of your views in this matter. I myself, although highly intelligent, am unable to decipher and understand these arguments. I do know that they are ongoing throughout the medical community and we laymen alike. Interpretation and core hypotheses play in here largely I believe. The way the Mayo Clinic doctors described it to me, and incidentally the Mayo Clinic Founders and brothers themselves first partner in the late 1800's I believe, was well studied and versed in the Thyroid Gland and it's functions and endocrinology I believe it's called. That's why he was brought on board. So Mayo is pretty imminent in this field.

endocrinology |ˌendəkrəˈnäləjē|
noun
the branch of physiology and medicine concerned with endocrine glands and hormones.

So the Mayo has been involved in this for a long time.

That said, the Mayo also has an upside down food pyramid similar to the USDA food pyramid so they too, like all of us can be totally wrong sometimes.

They recommended psychiatry for my compulsive eating disorder, never once touching on my sugar and hybrid carbohydrate addictions.

Sugar and hybrid carbohydrate addictions are complete "unknowns"!

There chart for the normal ranges and with the top portion being absolute "highs" and "bottom" being absolute "lows" with a wide range of "normals" in between for the thyroid, makes for a lot of guessing.

The T3 and T4 factors and triggers are well known and thought to be fairly well understood.

The human "Psyche" is the actual complete unknown, and the effects of these hormones and stimulants, both internal and administered and eaten, on our psyche and "beings" are even greater "unknowns"!

So the most immanent doctors and scientists in the world don't know "Jack Sh*t"!

And here we are trying unravel all this poop that is so pertinent to ours and the worlds psychical/mental health.

Thyroid elevation pills are the most over prescribed and mis=prescribed medicine in the world today and they are causing untold suffering for millions upon millions of people. -- Nobody believes this!

If your obese or don't feel good that's where they will take you in time and the window of "normal" is so wide that about anybody can fit in there and the damage potential is thought to be so small as to be insignificant.

That's what they did with amphetamines from about 1945 to about 1965 or 1970 or thereabouts. Another hormone effecting drug.

The medical community is so far out of touch, just like the political community is so far out of touch, that the earth and all of it's inhabitants is being destroyed because of there mindsets and resulting failures.

It's a phenomenon all right, it's the daddy of all phenomenon!

The "high's" and the "low's" that come with sugar and hybrid carbohydrate addiction feed all this.

You got a guy here that is saying that every single person on the planet earth(six billion people) with the exception of just a very few, are addicted to the very potent and powerful drugs, sugar and hybrid carbohydrates.

Like amphetamines our adrenal glands are effected and in turn our whole existence, profoundly.

Look at what we've done in one hundred years!

Of course were cock sure this is not happening, just like we feel on amphetamines.

We are totally sure of ourselves, even if we are doing it wrong!

Confidence and all knowing and adrenaline go hand in hand.

So, I'm curious, why did you post your cholesterol results in the thyroid sub-section if you don't believe you need thyroid hormone?

Your A1c is pretty high too. Has your doctor suggested you might have glucose issues?

I think that this is the perfect place for this discussion.