Wow, the more I read the more I get confused.

First of all it seems as if the proponents of different diets were talking about different kinds of human beings. And in my opinion BOTH sides seem to use a LOT of bogus arguments. This just by the way.

But I got even more confused when I saw the results of the cholesterol-poll on this board!!!
How can it be that some peoples cholesterol-levels rise, while they are declining in others, being on exactly the same nutritonal regime??? (Aren't they?)
Is there anything which could explain this?

The reason I'm thinking about changing my way of eating is not primary reducing weight as you can see on my stats. (I'm male, 23 years old)
What I'm really interested in is to improve some of my healthconditions.
My cholesterol was about 220 a few months ago. (Don't remember the results in detail, but triglycerides were OK. So could be better at all.
I suffer from asthma, arthritis in some major joints (partly caused by an overload of weightlifting), and sometimes severe depression. (up to now treated successfully with different medications from fluoxetine to Venlafaxine)
I also feel often exhausted (not being part of the depressive disorder itsself), although sleeping up to 10 hours a day.

So what I am actually really concerned abot, is that I could cause more damage than anything else...
I'm afraid to invest afford into a diet wich could actually do exactly the opposit of which I want it to do.

Perhaps you can let me profit of your experiences.
-What kind of diet-regime could be right for me? How much fat,protein and carbs?
-What to do to minimize risks?
-Explanations for the differences in cholesterol-response?
-What about other blood-data, for example urea, uricosuric and related dangers? (kidneydamage for example) I know that proponents of lowcarb always claim kidneys not to be at risk. But what about real life?
-Are there any people on this boar lowcarbing longer than ten years? I would be interested in their health an blood-data.

So a lot of questions for my third post...
Will appreciate evry answer.

Rolf

Humans are not all clones of each other....we each have hundreds of variables within our genetic makeup, medical history, environment, diet, etc. that could easily account for these differences. Even in the most "successful" scientific studies there are large segments of their groups that do not respond in the way the rest of the group does! That's just nature!

I have been a daily participant on this board since March and in real-life terms I can honestly say that I have very rarely seen any complaints of LCing doing "damage" to anyone's health. In fact, 99% of the time there is an improvement in 3 or 4 or more areas of a person's health. Of course, there are no guarantees in life of anything...the best we can do is research all we can and make educated choices about our health and diet. Try it out for a while, see if there's improvement, tweak, try again, read some more, try something else....etc. For me, the benefits I've experienced from LCing far outweighs any risks (which I perceive as being minimal) and certainly outweighs the risks I take on a standard High Carb diet as recommended by the FDA.

As for which plan might be best for you, I would strongly suggest that you click on the link in the upper right corner called "Which Plan Is Right for Me?" for a place to start. Research all you can, don't just take the information on this board as 100% complete and all you need to know!

You sound as if you are very concerned.... if so I suggest that you read 2, 3 or 4 different LC books until you are very comfortable with your choices and don't just rely on someone here to make that important choice for you.

Good luck!!