I've been eating low carb since July 2002, but in 2007 I got seriously off track. I had a lot of stress in my life and little time. I started eating junk and not exercising routinely.

I decided to get back in shape for 2008. The stress is still present, more than ever, but I decided that I have to put me first and I'm dealing with it by exercise and soaks in a hot tub. On January 1, I took a home cholesterol test, just to check on how I was doing. My total cholesterol had always been around 200, not great but not horrible either. I was shocked when the test went way over 300, beyond where it could measure. It had been about 200 only 6 months earlier, but I had eaten especially poorly during the holiday season.

This home test only shows total cholesterol. I wanted to know more right away. I’d seen the CardioChek home meter on sale at the pharmacy; it can measure total cholesterol, HDL, triglycerides and other things in separate tests. I web searched and found it has good accuracy so I went back and bought it. While the meter was about $90, it’s actually the test strips at about $4 each which are the expensive thing long term, since each type of measurement requires a separate, different strip. But, I figured my health was worth it.

I felt that if I was going to fix this by diet and exercise that I needed to monitor my blood lipid levels on a fairly routine basis (more than could be done affordably by a doctor). And, I don't like the side effects of statin drugs, so wanted to give diet and exercise a try before seeing a doctor.

Here are my CardioChek measurements from January 2, 2008:
Total Cholesterol 339
HDL (good cholesterol) <25 (too low for the meter to measure)
Triglycerides 492
Calculated LDL (bad cholesterol) >216
Total Chol to HDL Ratio 13.6
LDL to HDL Ratio 8.6
Triglycerides to HDL Ratio 19.7

And, my weight was 195 lbs
Waist 38.5 in
Blood pressure 130/77


Needless to say, that was very terrible. I was shocked!

Today, after only 1 month of healthy eating and exercise, here are my values:
Total Cholesterol 216
HDL (good cholesterol) 34
Triglycerides 219
Calculated LDL (bad cholesterol) 138
Total Chol to HDL Ratio 6.4
LDL to HDL Ratio 4.1
Triglycerides to HDL Ratio 6.4

Weight 187 lbs
Waist 36.4 in
Blood pressure 105/64

These cholesterol numbers are still not great. None of the readings are in the healthy range yet, but they’re much much better--and it's only been 32 days. I'm measuring once a week. My triglycerides are still dropping a lot each week and I think they will be in the normal range soon. My HDL has a long way to go but I’ve read that it is the slowest to respond and normally takes 3-6 months to increase significantly after a lifestyle change. At least the meter can now measure my HDL level, which it couldn’t do for the first 2 weeks.

In this month of healthy eating, I did not cut down on eggs or fats. Most days I had at least one egg and sometimes two. I made no attempt to cut dietary cholesterol because I suspected (rightly so, it turned out) that dietary cholesterol wasn’t my main problem. I totally stopped eating refined carbohydrates–specifically sugar, white flour, rice, corn, pasta, and potatoes–although I do eat many non-starchy vegetables, as well as meats, cheeses (of all sorts), nuts (too many nuts!), and occasionally high fiber whole wheat bread or crackerbreads or cereal and berries. (I haven't had fruit juice or milk in 5 years, although I do have an occasional V8.) I haven't cheated at all and have not feel the urge to cheat. I've also cut way back on my formerly beloved Diet Coke with Splenda (6-8 cans a day last year) and now drink primarily water and Diet Rite Grape (no caffeine). Plus, I started to exercise by walking almost every day and doing the Leslie Sansone walking DVDs. About two weeks ago, I started to take krill oil capsules (which is type of fish oil that is very rich in heart healthy omega-3 fatty acids).

Of course, most people’s cholesterol levels don’t respond so rapidly to diet and exercise. However, I am a type 2 diabetic (and my blood sugars are also dropping, but still higher than normal, especially upon waking.) Actually, the fact that dietary changes to reduce carbs are dropping my cholesterol levels fast shows that hyperinsulinism is causing my problems. That is what I’d suspected. I am very insulin resistance. You can tell that just from how thick my waist is and that I am very apple-shaped. Because my cells don’t respond well to insulin, my pancreas cranks out a lot of it and its level in my bloodstream was undoubtedly high. But, since it takes dietary carbohydrates before the body makes insulin, reducing carbs reduces the insulin circulating in my blood stream, which in turn is starting the trend towards better blood lipid levels.

Anyway, I’m very excited about my one month results. Also, I'm dropping inches and my energy level is so much higher. I feel much much better, too!

Thanks for reading.

Carolyn...Congrats on achieving much better numbers! It's such a great feeling to know that we are doing so many good things for our health by low carbing! I wish you continued success and hope you post your results to compare the next time you have tests done. Keep up the good work!

Never heard of a home test for cholesterol. How does it work? Do you draw blood?

EDIT: Yep, a finger prick. I wonder how accurate it is.

http://www.healthchecksystems.com/bioscanner.htm

Thanks for you kind words and support, Charran.

______________________________________

The CardioChek meter is CLIA Waived, which means:

Waived Tests are defined to:

* Employ methodologies that are so simple and accurate as to render the likelihood of erroneous results negligible; or
* Pose no reasonable risk of harm to the patient if the test is performed incorrectly;
* Are cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for home use.

I also websearched and found various forum posts from people who compared CardioChek readings to values obtained from blood drawn the same day in medical labs. The results were very comparable, so I felt good about buying the meter. Plus, I've been taking measurements every week (and have 5 sets so far) and each week I see a consistent trend of total cholesterol and triglycerides dropping and HDL rising. The readings aren't jumping around. And, I don't plan to use the meter to replace doctor's tests, just to supplement them.

There's also a fancier model from CardioChek, with printouts, that is marketed for doctor's offices. But, both models make the measurements in the same way, with reflectance photometry. (By the way, I have a PhD in analytical chemistry and specialize in biochemical analysis so I even know what that is. )

As for fingerpricks, I'm a type 2 diabetic who measures my blood sugar several times a day, so I'm used to them.

Carolyn- you are doing great! What amazing changes in 1 month. I no longer believe in the cholesterol theory of heart disease, but I think your numbers reflect a dramatic improvement in whatever is underlying. Inflammation, perhaps?

As you are a scientist, I would be very interested in your take on the Tabes book. Have you read Good Calories/Bad Calories and what do you think of it?

Keep up the good work-
E

Thanks for your support, Enomarb. I also no longer totally believe in the cholesterol theory of heart disease, specifically with regard to total cholesterol and LDL, although I do believe that lowering triglyercides and raising HDL contribute to better health.

High insulin levels causing "silent" inflammation is also my theory of what's going on with me. I suspect it's as Barry Sears describes in this article:

http://www.cbn.com/health/NaturalHe...lentkiller.aspx

Dr. Sears also mentions a genetic component to silent inflammation. My father is a type 2 diabetic, as was my paternal grandfather (who basically died from it). My mother is a major apple shape, suggesting insulin resistance, and her brother was a type 2 diabetic (even though he was never overweight a day in his life). Diabetes and insulin resistance are rampant on both sides of my family. Ironically, heart disease and strokes are not, with the major exception being my father. (But, he's also never eaten healthy or exercised much.)

I received the book about 2 weeks ago. I've only read about 20 pages. I definitely want to read more, but haven't had much free time this month. What I have read is right on the money, however.

Many of the biochemical processes that occur during carbohydrate metabolism are still surprisingly unknown. I'm co-investigator on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to study the action that chromium takes in the body. Chromium supplements can lower blood glucose levels in many (but not all) diabetics, but no one knows exactly how the chromium works or even the structures of the molecules that are involved. I'm the analytical chemist on the project and we've tried for three years to determine the structure of chomodulin, the body's chromium-binding peptide; we still don't know, but we're getting closer.

Last week, there was a news item in Chemical & Engineering News (the professional magazine of the American Chemical Society) which said that some diabetics may be C-reactive peptide resistant in addition to being insulin resistant. C-reactive peptide was thought for years to be a by-product of insulin action and of little direct importance itself. I was talking about this with the biochemist who's the project leader on the NIH grant. He said that this just goes to show that the body is amazingly efficient and doesn't waste anything and that we still have a lot to learn about how our bodies work. (By the way, zinc binds with C-reactive peptide, which is probably why zinc supplements sometimes help blood sugar.)

You might want to add http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com to your reading list. He has many ideas for reducing those high triglycerides and raising HDL. Of all those numbers you have, those are really the only two that matter. You could get a particle size test but if your triglycerides are low (which they aren't yet) then you can probably count on your particles being big and harmless.

Anyway, go through his archives and read up. I think you'll learn a ton!

Thanks for the link, Nancy LC! It looks very interesting.

Here's where I'm at as of Feb. 10, 2008:

Total Cholesterol 195
HDL (good cholesterol) 28
Triglycerides 184
Calculated LDL (bad cholesterol) 130
Total Chol to HDL Ratio 7.0
LDL to HDL Ratio 4.7
Triglycerides to HDL Ratio 6.6

Weight 185 lbs
Waist 36.0 in
Blood pressure 97/64

I don't think that my HDL actually decreased relative to 10 days ago. I think that it's still just so low that the meter is having trouble measuring it accurately. In reviewing my old medical exam sheets, the highest HDL reading that I've ever had has only been 38. So, this is something that I'm going to focus on with more sustained exercise and by eating more omega-3 rich foods.

Your triglycerides are still headed in the right direction

Here's a couple of links that may be of help: http://www.mercola.com/2006/jul/29/...cholesterol.htm


Can't get the stupid link to work on the above quote, it's to Dr Eades site.

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?s=why+krill+oil

Got it, I think.

The heartscan doctor has a lot to say about eating wheat: http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/search?q=wheat






And a lot more about wheat...

Thanks for the links, Daryl! I've been taking krill oil for about 2 weeks now. I see that Dr. Eades says it takes at least a month to help with inflammation. (I wonder if taking krill oil means I can stop my daily glucosamine/ chrondroitin tablet to ward off achy joints. I'll give it a try when I run out of my current supply.)

There's an interesting comment in the Dr. Eades' blog that you linked to. In response to a reader saying that she took 240 mg of GLA daily (among other things), he replied:

I take 480 mg of GLA daily; that's the level in 2 borage oil tablets. I take it in conjunction with sustained release alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) and in place of the evening primrose oil that Dr. Bernstein discusses in the 2003 addition of his book. But, the ca. 4 evening primrose oil tablets daily (2 twice daily) suggested by Dr. Bernstein would have only 180 mg of GLA. Maybe I should drop the GLA supplementation entirely.

Thanks for the info on wheat, Nancy LC. I haven't eaten any wheat in the past two weeks except for a couple of low carb soft taco shells. But, I'll even drop those from my diet and see if it helps. (Left to my own meal planning, I've never been a big grain eater anyway. My downfall was always French fries and potato chips.)

It's possible that wheat was a major contributing factor to my blood lipids getting so out of whack. I ate a lot of flour (and sugar) products in December for two weeks when I was visiting my parents and eating my mother's holiday baking.

Carolyn- please look into the effects of glucosomine&chrondroitin on the blood lipids. I was told to take it by my chiropractor and bought a bottle- started taking it and went online and saw it can increase cholesterol.
I take 2 T of flax seeds daily too- fresh ground- and know that helps with the omega 3 balance. The whole wheat thing (thanks again Nancy) is very interesting.

Dr. Carolyn, years ago, late 30s, I was determined to beat heart disease. I trained to run marathons, even. Ran two of them. A marathon is 26.2 miles, so, it requires a lot of mileage in training to be able to pull it off. My HDL never did get that good. I think the highest it ever got was 44. Of course, back then, I was entrenched into the low-fat dogma. Which is the opposite of what I should have been doing.

Anyway, my point is that perhaps aerobic exercise isn't so good. I keep reading up that it really doesn't work as promoted.

I keep coming across variations of HIIT. High Intensity Interval Training. Short bursts of all-out exercise followed by a very short period of rest. The Tabata protocol that someone tipped me off to is 20 seconds all out, 10 seconds rest. However, this is not fun to me. It's grueling. Elite athletes could only do it about six times before exhaustion.

I like to go on hikes and when I go up a steep hill, that's huffing and puffing. Then a period of ease going flat or downhill. Kind of the same thing. Point being, I will keep toying with HIIT but the Tabata thing, I dunno about that. I will try it some more, though. The good thing is you're done very quickly. 14 minutes. But that's bad in a way because I enjoy my long hikes. One to two hours regularly.