Hi all,

I am a newbie and in the process of induction. The main reason why I wanted to do low-carb is because I have a history of high cholesterol in my family. I am female and 34 years old. My mother has just stopped taking statins for high cholesterol and I don't want to take them as she had a lot of problems with her muscles because of the statins.

Anyway, I just got my test results back but I don't know how to analyse them. I live in the UK so they may be different to how they are shown in the US or elsewhere. If anyone could help me analyse them I'd be very grateful. Here is my breakdown of my blood test results (I am not a medic so some of it may not be relevant to cholesterol).

Serum TSH level 1.2 mu/L
Serum total bilirubin level 11 umol/L
serum alkaline phosphatase 77 iu/L
ALT/SGPT serum level 27 iu/L
Serum total protein 76 g/L
Serum albumin 47 g/L
Total cholesterol: HDL ratio 5.1
Serum cholesterol 6.1 mmol/L
Serum triglycerides 1.6 mmol/L
Serum HDL cholesterol level 1.2 mmol/L

I think translating the numbers into the values we use in America (multiply by 18).

Triglycerides are 28.8 ... never have seen any so low. That's good.
HDL is low, very low. That's bad. That's 21.6 in US. You should have that at least 40, ideally around 60. Do you smoke?

Total cholesterol doesn't really mean much so I wouldn't worry about it.

Just keep working on your healthy new lifestyle and hopefully the HDL will come up. Don't smoke, don't drink too much, get exercise, take vitamin D3 and things should look better.

As far as the other tests go, generally they're flagged on the report if they're out-of-range. What I do is google for the bloodtest online and read up on it.

Oh, your TSH looks good. That indicates your thyroid status.

Thanks for replying. I don't drink or smoke. My thyroid is fine thank fully.

Are you sure about the conversion? That would make ALL her numbers really, really low, like 120 total. Really low total cholesterol, really low trigs AND really low HDL?

Edited to add: I just found this conversion table:

Conversion from mmol/L to mg/dL
Serum triglycerides
Convert from millimole per liter, mmol/L

Conversion factor
multiply by
1/0.01129
= 88.57
to get values in
milligrams per deciliter
mg/dL
Example
1.90 mmol/L
= 1.9 x 88.57
= 168 mg/dL

But now that makes her numbers REALLY high.

and this one...


http://www.onlineconversion.com/cholesterol.htm

Aha! Soooo, to us Yanks, the new numbers are:

Total: 235

HDL: 46

Trigs: 141

Not too bad, really, but your doc probably will want you on statins because the total is over 200. Trigs could be lower, but that will come with time. Trigs to HDL ration is about 2, which is pretty good per Eades, IIRC.

i doubt it. Most docs won't put on statins unless way over 5 for total.

Total cholesterol: HDL ratio 5.1

That's 197 US I believe.

Her total appears to be 6.1
Total/HDL ratio is 5.1 right?
46x5.1=234.6

A little on the high side, to modern sensibilities, but probably nothing to worry about.

isn't this it?


When I used the calculator, it gives 197.
Then I plugged in my own numbers and it's right.

here's another converter

http://www.employees.org/~alokem/cholesterol.html

Ok, thanks for figuring that out! I thought the conversion for blood glucose was the same for cholesterol.

It looks like if you're just doing it in your head you can multiply by 40. Or 38.6 if you're really good.

is the US the only country that uses the other system? (Like still on Imperial?)

I see where the confusion is. The OP wrote:
Total cholesterol: HDL ratio 5.1
Serum cholesterol 6.1 mmol/L
Serum triglycerides 1.6 mmol/L
Serum HDL cholesterol level 1.2 mmol/L

Her TOTAL cholesterol is 6.1
Her HDL is 1.2
Her total/HDL ratio is 5.1 or, to put another way, 6.1/1.2=5.1

Anyway, the point is the numbers don't look too bad. HDL is pretty good, trigs are a little high, but her Trig/HDL ratio is right in the ballpark.