I've just had my bloodwork done,, and am very concerned as, from having a normal cholesterol level a year ago, my overall cholesterol and LDL are both high:
Cholesterol: 6.60
HDL: 2.07
LDL: 4.25
Triglicerides: 0.61

Am very worried. However, I just read a post that said this can be affected if you don't do a 12-hour fast before taking the test. I had had a breakfast of 2 (small egg) omelette and 2 slices of lean chicken, about 3 hours before taking the test. Could this have had an effect?
Abi x
PS my 'random blood glucose' was 3.8. Is that ok? Shouldn't it be lower if i'm in ketosis? More like zero, I would have thought?

was this a fasting test?.what was your triglycerides?.had you done any exercise beforehand?.these can all have an effect on the results.my levels go up if i eat too many carbs .

Yes, for accurate cholesterol testing you need to have fasted.

However, your HDL and triglycerides look excellent.

Your blood glucose is fine. With blood sugars, lower is not better. We need to be between the normal range of about 3 to 5.5.
In fact, a blood sugar of zero is incompatible with life. As diabetics and folk with hypoglycaemia can tell you, having a low blood sugar makes you feel absolutely terrible. Too low, and you will lose consciousness, requiring emergency treatment.

Cheers,

Rosebud

Actually I had breakfast about 3 hours beforehand (2 small egg omelette) and a slice of chicken. Can that have an effect on the cholesterol reading?

Thanks rosebud- what a relief! So you think that the real reading could be lower, perhaps? Oh well, my only concern is that now my mum knows the results, she'll be able to go on at me about not eating fatty foods and 'watching the cholesterol' whenever i come over for dinner. Bummer!

Oh yeah! I did mine once when I forgot to be fasting and had cream in my coffee. The results were awful. The next time they were great.

Make sure you don't eat anything after 9 pm the night before.

all the books i have read states that the tests should be done after at least an 8 hour fast or the results may not be accurate.dr. atkins says sometimes the cholesterol can go up temporarily if you are losing weightbecause the body breaks down fat ,releasing it into the bloodstream .also, check the amount of carb your having.it,s very easy to under estimate. i know i have in the past.has your dr. asked you to go back for a retest?.if not i would ask for one after an overnight fast.

Not to mention that cholesterol, however it's measured, is largely irrelevant to cardiovascular health.

too true!!!!. mind you, try saying that to a british dr.

pepsimax,

Doctors fancy themselves reliant upon valid studies. If you were to cite the defects in these studies, they would at least shut up, if not believe you. The book The Cholesterol Myths will give you the details to do just that.

i know your right. i have spoke about cholesterol and low carb diets to a few dr,s and because my cholesterol is fine, they are willing to go along with me. however, one dr said what i was doing was dangerous and i would be better off taking tablets for the diabetes and eating (normally).he implied i would die of a heart attack!my diabetes nurse had never even heard of dr. bernstein.i have had 1 high cholesterol result,the reason being that i lost my nerve with the low carb and went back to the normal diet -low fat-high carb.never again.i insisted on a retest after 1 month,went back to lc and guess what, everything fine again.i find it hard to understand why they can,t see that this is a better diet for diabetics than the standard one.

Inerita. It applies to people as well as objects. The LC WOE contradicts fundamental nutrition principles that doctors learned in school (for two weeks, anyway) and all the well-publicized studies over the past 40 years (all of which were fatally flawed or grossly misinterpreted). This is a huge paradigm shift, and it's going to take a generation to become "common wisdom." The best we can hope for in the shorter term is for doctors to realize that they don't know as much as they thought and become less absolutist in their nutritional advice.

well said!!