Worried About My Low Cholesterol After Reading Dr. Peat's Latest Newsletter

lampofred

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I didn't realize how big a deal low cholesterol was until after reading this newsletter. I think it might be the root of the issues I have with focus and fatigue, since apparently low cholesterol causes excessive brain excitation and cholesterol levels are directly correlated with the ability of the mitochondria to produce ATP.

My cholesterol is at 120 with only a very small amount of thyroid supplementation, so it's not exogenous thyroid that's making it drop so low. The lower end of normal is 160 and Peat recommends at least 180-200.

I know Peat says fructose increases cholesterol, but basically all of my daily carbs already come from sucrose, so it's not possible for me to increase fructose any further.

The only other thing he mentions in the newsletter as a cause of declining cholesterol synthesis with age is excess cortisol relative to thyroid, but I already do all I can to lower cortisol (high sugar intake, occasional pregnenolone and progesterone supplementation, occasional red light exposure, regular vitamin A/D/E/K intake).

Is there any other way to raise cholesterol?

Since I have several symptoms of hypothyroidism, I'm certain the issue is that the cholesterol is not actually getting synthesized, and not that my thyroid is working so well that it's converting all the cholesterol into hormones extremely efficiently.

I already saw a physician about this and he told me I should be "proud of my healthy heart" and basically ignored all of the things I told him about the negative effects of low cholesterol. So that was no help at all.
 
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tankasnowgod

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I didn't realize how big a deal low cholesterol was until after reading this newsletter. I think it might be the root of the issues I have with focus and fatigue, since apparently low cholesterol causes excessive brain excitation and cholesterol levels are directly correlated with the ability of the mitochondria to produce ATP.

My cholesterol is at 120 with only a very small amount of thyroid supplementation, so it's not exogenous thyroid that's making it drop so low. The lower end of normal is 160 and Peat recommends at least 180-200.

I know Peat says fructose increases cholesterol, but basically all of my daily carbs already come from sucrose, so it's not possible for me to increase fructose any further.

The only other thing he mentions in the newsletter as a cause of declining cholesterol synthesis with age is excess cortisol relative to thyroid, but I already do all I can to lower cortisol (high sugar intake, occasional pregnenolone and progesterone supplementation, occasional red light exposure, regular vitamin A/D/E/K intake).

Is there any other way to raise cholesterol?

Since I have several symptoms of hypothyroidism, I'm certain the issue is that the cholesterol is not actually getting synthesized, and not that my thyroid is working so well that it's converting all the cholesterol into hormones extremely efficiently.

I already saw a physician about this and he told me I should be "proud of my healthy heart" and basically ignored all of the things I told him about the negative effects of low cholesterol. So that was no help at all.

Yes, you can eat it directly. Eggs are the easiest source, although organ meats tend to be really rich in cholesterol, too. Brains are especially rich..... but I don't know if you can even purchase brains for human or animal consumption. I think if you're on the low end of serum cholesterol, dietary cholesterol can raise serum cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol may have less of an effect at higher serum levels. You can buy cholesterol as a supplement, too, I think Life Giving Store might be the only source for that.

Here was a study that showed manipulating dietary cholesterol can lead to improved strength gains in elderly men, so it can clearly have a positive effect- http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/meeting_abstract/22/1_MeetingAbstracts/962.13

EDIT- My link doesn't seem to work anymore, this was the name of the study- Dietary Cholesterol and Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy with Resistance Training: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial
 
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TeaRex14

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You might not be getting enough choline on a daily a basis. The liver needs choline to convert fructose into cholesterol, without it that conversion won't take place. Shoot for around 500mgs daily, that's a good starting zone. If you're taking thyroid chances are you'll need to increase your sugar intake as well, because if you are responding really well to thyroid supplementation your thyroid function might be rapidly converting that cholesterol into hormones thus causing a reduction in serum cholesterol.
 

Energizer

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I didn't realize how big a deal low cholesterol was until after reading this newsletter. I think it might be the root of the issues I have with focus and fatigue, since apparently low cholesterol causes excessive brain excitation and cholesterol levels are directly correlated with the ability of the mitochondria to produce ATP.

My cholesterol is at 120 with only a very small amount of thyroid supplementation, so it's not exogenous thyroid that's making it drop so low. The lower end of normal is 160 and Peat recommends at least 180-200.

I know Peat says fructose increases cholesterol, but basically all of my daily carbs already come from sucrose, so it's not possible for me to increase fructose any further.

The only other thing he mentions in the newsletter as a cause of declining cholesterol synthesis with age is excess cortisol relative to thyroid, but I already do all I can to lower cortisol (high sugar intake, occasional pregnenolone and progesterone supplementation, occasional red light exposure, regular vitamin A/D/E/K intake).

Is there any other way to raise cholesterol?

Since I have several symptoms of hypothyroidism, I'm certain the issue is that the cholesterol is not actually getting synthesized, and not that my thyroid is working so well that it's converting all the cholesterol into hormones extremely efficiently.

I already saw a physician about this and he told me I should be "proud of my healthy heart" and basically ignored all of the things I told him about the negative effects of low cholesterol. So that was no help at all.

You could try drinking a ton of fresh squeezed orange juice and replace some table sugar with that.
 
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schultz

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The liver needs choline to convert fructose into cholesterol, without it that conversion won't take place.

I didn't know that, very interesting. I am aware that choline helps with fatty liver and all that but wasn't aware it was important for the cholesterol production.

but basically all of my daily carbs already come from sucrose

How much sucrose are you getting?

I posted a study somewhere else on the forum which seemed to suggest that you need to get over 100g of fructose a day before it starts to increase cholesterol. That would include the fructose from sucrose.

Okay I found it here and it's actually a meta analysis.

"In conclusion, it was shown that very high fructose intake (>100 g/d) increases serum LDL-C and TC concentrations."
 

yerrag

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Since I have several symptoms of hypothyroidism,
If you don't mind me asking, what are the symptoms? And how long has it been having these symptoms?

How long has it been since you've had low cholesterol?
 

ilikecats

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Im trying to raise my cholesterol too... People mentioned increasing dietary cholesterol but i just heard a clip of peat talking about a study where subjects ate up to 20 eggs a day and it didn't have an effect on their cholesterol levels! He recommended orange juice and sugar.
 
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lampofred

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Thanks for the responses. I'll try increasing my intake of eggs for the choline and dietary cholesterol. I already have pregnenolone, progesterone, thyroid, aspirin, Vit E, etc. and I'm getting pretty annoyed of taking supplements, so I'm going to try to fix this without supplemental cholesterol...
 
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lampofred

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If you don't mind me asking, what are the symptoms? And how long has it been having these symptoms?

How long has it been since you've had low cholesterol?

Poor focus, racing thoughts, unrefreshing sleep. I've had the poor focus basically since puberty but the poor sleep and racing thoughts have been there for the past couple of years.
 

Bingo

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Hello Lampofred. I am is a similar situation. I have extremely low cholesterol and a very large thyroid nodule. Starting cholesterol is 114, and down as low as 85 when taking thyroid meds. It's a terrible situation. I have tried 2 quarts milk plus 2 quarts of oj a day, tons of sugar and tons of eggs and it raises my cholesterol maybe 10 points, possibly 15 points if I am generous reading the tests. Plus a VERY high sugar diet is temporary at best, with no quality of life eating that much sugar. I have been low PUFA for more than 5 years and my dietary fat is all saturated butter and coconut oil. Right now I am in a kind of limbo. I need to increase thyroid, but I really don't want to take cholesterol down further. In the face of this, I would say there isn't that much you can do to raise cholesterol. I certainly want to be able to control everything and I am still searching for the answer, but I haven't found it yet. Here is all I can recommend: take large amounts of pregnenolone and CoQ10. Those two supplements seem to help about as much as a super disgustingly high sugar diet. Also I am using red light and this seems to help with what I believe are low cholesterol symptoms. I hope someone reads this and can shed some light on this. The more ideas and minds involved in this the better. This is certainly an area they are not researching enough. Please let me know if you do find something that works.
 

yerrag

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Poor focus, racing thoughts, unrefreshing sleep. I've had the poor focus basically since puberty but the poor sleep and racing thoughts have been there for the past couple of years.
What about your temperature and heart rate?
 
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Niacinamide can lower cortisol. Cyproheptadine can lower it too. I saw a study where the ingestion of 500 mL of apple juice (but not whole apples) increased ldl cholesterol. Do you eat a lot of fiber? That can lower cholesterol.
 

Jackrabbit

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I don’t know if the whole thing about cortisol is always true as my hdl cholesterol was low and I also had low morning cortisol levels. Isn’t eating coconut oil supposed to help raise it? Lots of seafood, too. Maybe cut back on the supplements besides e, choline and thyroid and eat more liver, seafood and spoonfuls of coconut oil until you are in a better place with cholesterol, then add in the other hormones again one at a time.
 
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lampofred

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What about your temperature and heart rate?

low mid 70s when hungry

low mid 80s after eating

high 97s when hungry

low 98s after eating

so moderate hypothyroidism compensated for by bit of adrenaline and cortisol
 
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lampofred

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Niacinamide can lower cortisol. Cyproheptadine can lower it too. I saw a study where the ingestion of 500 mL of apple juice (but not whole apples) increased ldl cholesterol. Do you eat a lot of fiber? That can lower cholesterol.

I don't take niacinamide or cypro, I don't eat a lot of fiber either
 
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lampofred

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I don’t know if the whole thing about cortisol is always true as my hdl cholesterol was low and I also had low morning cortisol levels. Isn’t eating coconut oil supposed to help raise it? Lots of seafood, too. Maybe cut back on the supplements besides e, choline and thyroid and eat more liver, seafood and spoonfuls of coconut oil until you are in a better place with cholesterol, then add in the other hormones again one at a time.

Yeah I've stopped all supplements except progesterone and occasionally Vit E

I think I have poor glucose oxidation and excess reliance on glycolysis so taking aspirin shifts my balance over to cortisol instead of adrenaline which lowers thyroid & cholesterol

I think Peat wrote it's the ratio between cortisol activity and thyroid function, not the absolute amount of cortisol per se

Currently trying to lower cortisol by increasing coffee intake to increase glucose oxidation and by meditating to increase GABA/CO2

Will try upping liver, seafood, and coconut oil as well. Thanks!
 
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Yeah, coconut oil should help raise cholesterol( I think it's because of lauric acid). Have you tried high doses of thiamine? It really helps the cells burn sugar. It should work well with caffeine.
 

Jackrabbit

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Yeah, coconut oil should help raise cholesterol( I think it's because of lauric acid). Have you tried high doses of thiamine? It really helps the cells burn sugar. It should work well with caffeine.
Thiamine is amazing, should be good with the choline. I’m still not sure why Ray Peat is against acetylcholine, and in favor of anticholinergics. Maybe just for those who have high cortisol? @lampofred your cortisol probably isn’t bad considering your temperature and pulse go UP after eating. If they were going down right after a meal that would show they were high and lowering once you ate.
 

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