samhain323
New Member
I was hoping some of the more experienced members could help me figure out what happened to my blood work.
I had some issues a few years back. In hindsight, I think it was mostly gut related. I was doing keto for years, but think I screwed up mainly by eating to many nuts. Anyway, I transitioned to carnivore for a year and a half and things seem to get better. In November 2021 I started adding back carbs from fruit, honey, and raw dairy. The last 6 months or so, I’ve been learning about bioenergetics from various sources and have been playing around with my macros.
I seem to end up around 25 50 25 fat/carbs/protein. I've been upping the total calories quite a bit (and still lost weight), so that seems to be going well.
Last August, I was hospitalized with diverticulitis with micro perforations. I had recurring flareups in October and November. I held out on each of them regarding antibiotics, but ended up having to take them anyway. I traced the infection to some raw dairy (two cheese lots and a milk lot had been contaminated with salmonella….). I haven’t had any flareups since I figured that out and am doing colonoscopy prep as I type this.
Lastly, I had a huge amount of stress regarding my father’s health/affairs and ended up having to move him across the country to live with me. In addition to that, I had to deal with a rather large amount of family drama when I went to get him. We flew back on Christmas eve.
I had my most recent labs done on Jan 4th. My previous labs were from Feb 2023.
Most of the labs were decent, but I have a few concerns.
Total testosterone went from 695 to 593.
AM cortisol went from 14.5 to 17.1
Total cortisol went from 11.5 to 14.4
DHEAs went from 122 to 174
Vitamin d went from 80 to 27.
Most concerning were my lipids. I didn’t get a full NMR this time, just a cardio IQ (will get NMR in April most likely). But my small LDL count was way high, and put me in pattern B. My trigs went up 80 points, HDL was roughly the same LDL went up a bit. My last NMR was awesome for the most part. Good sizes, squarely in pattern A, best LP-IR score, etc, did have super high LDL though (coming off carnivore).
I had thyroid tested, ferritin, hscrp, fasting insulin, and a bunch of other stuff. Most were roughly the same, no sign of inflammation, was at 5.1 and could have been a bit lower but I can live with it.
So my question is, what do you think gave me the T drop and caused my lipids to go to crap.
I read cholesterol is used to bind to endotoxin. Could it be possible I have a smoldering infection (diverticulitis) combined with some leaky gut and this would cause the binding/oxidation of the ldl particles making them smaller?
Stress level? Obviously my cortisol went up. Does this affect T and lipid particles as well?
Diet? Maybe too much honey and juice by themselves? I read blood sugar spikes can cause glycation of LDL, and most of my carbs have been honey or juice since I had the infections (though when I wore a continuous glucose monitor I seemed to clear glucose really quick, even with big spikes).
Thyroid not converting the LDL to T?
I did loose some weight, and I read that can raise trigs as well.
Perfect storm? As in all the above.
Anyway, I’m still pretty new to the Ray Peat way of thinking, so any insight would be great. If you need more lab specifics, feel free to ask and I’ll put them up.
I had some issues a few years back. In hindsight, I think it was mostly gut related. I was doing keto for years, but think I screwed up mainly by eating to many nuts. Anyway, I transitioned to carnivore for a year and a half and things seem to get better. In November 2021 I started adding back carbs from fruit, honey, and raw dairy. The last 6 months or so, I’ve been learning about bioenergetics from various sources and have been playing around with my macros.
I seem to end up around 25 50 25 fat/carbs/protein. I've been upping the total calories quite a bit (and still lost weight), so that seems to be going well.
Last August, I was hospitalized with diverticulitis with micro perforations. I had recurring flareups in October and November. I held out on each of them regarding antibiotics, but ended up having to take them anyway. I traced the infection to some raw dairy (two cheese lots and a milk lot had been contaminated with salmonella….). I haven’t had any flareups since I figured that out and am doing colonoscopy prep as I type this.
Lastly, I had a huge amount of stress regarding my father’s health/affairs and ended up having to move him across the country to live with me. In addition to that, I had to deal with a rather large amount of family drama when I went to get him. We flew back on Christmas eve.
I had my most recent labs done on Jan 4th. My previous labs were from Feb 2023.
Most of the labs were decent, but I have a few concerns.
Total testosterone went from 695 to 593.
AM cortisol went from 14.5 to 17.1
Total cortisol went from 11.5 to 14.4
DHEAs went from 122 to 174
Vitamin d went from 80 to 27.
Most concerning were my lipids. I didn’t get a full NMR this time, just a cardio IQ (will get NMR in April most likely). But my small LDL count was way high, and put me in pattern B. My trigs went up 80 points, HDL was roughly the same LDL went up a bit. My last NMR was awesome for the most part. Good sizes, squarely in pattern A, best LP-IR score, etc, did have super high LDL though (coming off carnivore).
I had thyroid tested, ferritin, hscrp, fasting insulin, and a bunch of other stuff. Most were roughly the same, no sign of inflammation, was at 5.1 and could have been a bit lower but I can live with it.
So my question is, what do you think gave me the T drop and caused my lipids to go to crap.
I read cholesterol is used to bind to endotoxin. Could it be possible I have a smoldering infection (diverticulitis) combined with some leaky gut and this would cause the binding/oxidation of the ldl particles making them smaller?
Stress level? Obviously my cortisol went up. Does this affect T and lipid particles as well?
Diet? Maybe too much honey and juice by themselves? I read blood sugar spikes can cause glycation of LDL, and most of my carbs have been honey or juice since I had the infections (though when I wore a continuous glucose monitor I seemed to clear glucose really quick, even with big spikes).
Thyroid not converting the LDL to T?
I did loose some weight, and I read that can raise trigs as well.
Perfect storm? As in all the above.
Anyway, I’m still pretty new to the Ray Peat way of thinking, so any insight would be great. If you need more lab specifics, feel free to ask and I’ll put them up.
