Quote:
Originally Posted by KnowNothingJon
I need to figure out two things- why my cholesterol shot way up and why my calcium is pretty elevated.
Is it possible that ALA plays a roll in high cholesterol? I eat vegan.
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For the majority of the population, eating foods high in cholesterol has no impact on their blood cholesterol. A smaller portion of the population are hyper responders, but that may or may not increase their risk for heat disease depending on their medical history.
If you are eating lots of inflammatory and processed foods, even through they are considered vegan, that might be a factor; however, I've read enough of your posts to know that this is not the case.
Other things that can drive your cholesterol numbers up are thyroid issues, infections, genetic predispositions (APOE4, familial hypercholestrerima), diabetes/insulin etc. Triglycerides numbers will help give you a better picture of what is going on here.
There is also a tremendous amount of variability in the standard cholesterol test. You could take this test 2 days in a row and have wild swings in variability of your numbers (there is a study or two on this).
If your doc is pointing you to stain land, ask for something called the NMR lipoprotein panel. That standard cholesterol test that everyone takes is just a surrogate marker for actual risk; it's indirectly calculating that LDL number. The NMR lipoprotein test will show you the real story - apoB lipoproteins.
If your arteries are streets and cholesterol are passengers, then your apoB lipoproteins are taxi cabs. Those taxi cabs drive the passengers around to different destinations, which fine if you have enough road for all the traffic to drive on. The problem begins when you too many taxis on the streets. They start to bump into each other and some even get driven off the road.....and they pierce the side of the street. When you get too many apoB lipoproteiens in your blood stream, they start to pierce your arteries and that is why knowing your particle number can be important.