Lower HDL, higher triglycerides after 9 months' Peating

[dd99]

Hi all, I had a blood test in my last days of intermittent fasting / Paleo and have been ever since, for about 9 months.

I just got my latest blood test results back today and most look okay. But my cholesterol numbers seem weird. Total cholesterol and LDL are down, from 267 to 236 and from 189 to 159, respectively, but my HDL has fallen from 62 to 35 and my triglycerides have risen from 80 to 213(!).

Perhaps my HDL is lower because I'm not eating anywhere near as much PUFA as I used to? And aren't triglycerides usually elevated in high carb diets?

They tested my testosterone, but omitted estrogen! Androgen level, glucose, ferritin, prolactin, kidney and liver all normal. My TSH is 1.5. I wasn't tested before, unfortunately.

Here are the main numbers:


I try to eat every couple of hours or so. My most commonly eaten foods are:
- 0% goat's milk, full-fat enzyme-free cheese, eggs
- OJ, grapes, melon, papaya, persimmon
- Chicken liver, beef (steak or stew), lamb, scallops, venison, chicken breast, oysters
- Potato, zucchini, carrot salad, kale, leeks, broccoli
- Coffee
- Sugar, honey, salt, coconut oil
- Homemade jelly, milk chocolate
- Once or twice a week, pasta or rice, made in homemade broth

Here is my 3 month Cronometer nutritional summary, with and without supplements (sorry for the small font).




My metabolism has improved dramatically. Morning temp is usually 36.5C with a pulse of 70ish, rising throughout the day to just above 37.0C and 75ish.

I would appreciate your help in analysing my cholesterol numbers!

 

[natedawggh]

I just had tests a few weeks ago and had this exact same phenomenon as well. My doctor told me that my high triglycerides were from eating too many fried foods and animal fats. I told her I haven't eaten fried foods in a year, but that I eat a ton of full fat dairy and some coconut oil and butter. She said those are not the reasons for high triglycerides, and insisted that I was eating fried foods, which of course I am not. She then wanted to prescribe me fish oil to bring down the triglycerides, which does that by damaging the liver (of course I said no thanks to that, especially since I am feeling so much better finally).

I did some reading of Ray Peat and other sources, and this low cholesterol/high triglycerides is a good sign. It means that you're getting healthy but that your metabolism is still a little slow and is still is in a bit of a fat burning metabolism instead of a sugar oxidizing one, and that it takes most of the food you eat, both carbs and fats, and creates triglycerides. Ray Peat said this is absolutely harmless, and actually helpful if they are made of saturated fat, which if you are eating a diet low/no PUFAs, they would be. I'm assuming the next step in my recovery is that my body will become more oriented toward sugar oxidation as I continue getting healthier, and the triglycerides will come down naturally.

 

[dd99]

Thanks, natedawggh, that's interesting and comforting. Any idea how long the reorientation towards sugar oxidation takes? Are you planning on having another blood test in, say, three months' time?

 

[dd99]

Bumping

 

[kineticz]

triglycerides are elevated in low carb diets. They are essentially fatty acids.

Hi trigylcerides is not healthy from what I understand, is shows that adrenaline is a key player in liberating and trying to support energy demands.

It can cause a sluggish liver, and a sluggish liver will further raise triglycerides.

 

[dd99]

When I was on a hybrid Paleo Leangains, so low carb most days and three high carb (starch) refeeds a week, I had much lower triglycerides. I was definitely running off adrenaline with all my fasting and black coffee.

But why would I have hgh trigs now on my high carb diet? Perhaps nate is right upthread and it's an adjustment.

 

[kineticz]

Triglycerides will lower if they successfully gain entry to the mitochondria.

It may be the case that with increased calories you're running an energy surplus, hence fatty acid build up in liver.

 

[dd99]

Yeah could be. I've definitely packed on some pounds on my gut.

 

[burtlancast]

natedawggh is right about triglycerides being harmless, as long as the they contain only saturated fatty acids.

Saturated fatty acids terminate the stress reactions, polyunsaturated fatty acids amplify them.
When we eat more protein or carbohydrate than we need, the excess can be converted to fats, to be stored (as triglycerides),

As long as those triglycerides are made of only saturated fats, they won't prevent normal glucose oxidation, since once the free fatty acids are liberated, they will terminate the stress reaction, instead of amplifying it.

The physical and functional properties of saturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are as different from each other as day is from night. The different fatty acids are directly involved, very often with opposite effects, in cell division and growth, cell stability and dissolution, the organization of cells, tissues, and organs, the regulation of pituitary hormones, adrenalin and sympathetic nervous activation, histamine and serotonin synthesis, adrenal cortex hormones, thyroid hormones, testosterone, estrogen, activators of the immune system and inflammation (cytokines), autoimmune diseases, detoxification, obesity, diabetes, puberty, epilepsy,

Maybe you should try increasing your muscular mass a little, as muscles are known to burn preferentially fatty acids when at rest.

 

[dd99]

Thanks, burt. I did weights regularly for years but stopped about a year ago. I now do a double kettlebell session once a week. I guess I could ramp that up.

 

[burtlancast]

Here's an extract from his 2011 interview on Cholesterol and saturated fats, transcribed by Amazoniac:http://www.raypeatforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=6093

I've known people who were eating 2-3 pounds of meat a day and who were getting sicker and sicker as their free fatty acids and free amino acids increased. That started me reading more about the free state of fatty acids in the blood. Just about everything that goes wrong, involves free fatty acids increase. If they're totally saturated fatty acids, such as from coconut oil and butter, those are less harmful, but they still tend to shift the mitochondrial cellular metabolism away from using glucose and fructose, and turning on various stress-related things (by lowering the carbon dioxide production, I think, is the main mechanism).

What he's talking about here is the Randle competition, where a relative increase in free fatty acids ( saturated or unsaturated) inhibit glucose oxidation.

Ray endorses extra-carbohydrate feeding, because the body will transform them into saturated fats, which will lower the relative body's proportion of PUFAS.

The equivalent of just about a teaspoonful of unsaturated fat per day is enough to show a threshold increase in the incidence of cancer. When we eat natural foods, were're always getting some of the unsaturated fats. On a normal diet it's hard to get down to that threshold of about 4g of fat per day. It's hard even eating coconut oil and butter fat, and beef fat, and so on ( they only have about 2% of unsaturated fats). So, besides eating the most saturated type of fats, that’s one of the arguments for using carbohydrates as a major part of your energy supply. Because if we have some extra carbohydrates more than we need to burn at the moment, they'll turn into saturated fats and extend the proportions. So that in effect you can lower the unsaturated proportion below the threshold of carcinogenic fats.

 

[answersfound]

Could be a cytomel deficiency.

 

[mgrabs]

triglycerides are elevated in low carb diets. They are essentially fatty acids.

Hi trigylcerides is not healthy from what I understand, is shows that adrenaline is a key player in liberating and trying to support energy demands.

It can cause a sluggish liver, and a sluggish liver will further raise triglycerides.

I actually had very low triglycerides when i was low to moderate carb intake