I had requested a copy of my bloodwork- to forward a copy to my neuro and for my records- and I am glad I did.

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. My most offensive eating move that might have influenced this was consuming a giant container of cashews in three days. This was the week before the test. I do try and have olive oil in/on something on days avacado is not on the menu. Since my last blood test, with how I eat, my wife and I upped avacado to ~3 times a week.

My daugher learning to love them made me believe in their cost effectiveness.

He brought up a statin. I couldn't have been more diplomatically adamant no if I tried.

I am keeping a food journal again, I guess.

It has warmed up to 37 degrees, hot dog.

Hi Jon,

What did your doctor say about your abnormal levels? (Your ordering physician.)

Diet is only one factor in cholesterol. Your body MAKES cholesterol.

Some people with very little cholesterol in their diet may have VERY high levels of it and vice versa.

From what I have learned, it is not your total cholesterol that is problematic. Of much greater importance is your HDL and LDL levels. You want your HDL to be HIGH and your LDL to be LOW.

I understand the reluctance to go on statins. You did not mention how high your levels, but it might be worth having a discussion with your physician about ways to improve your numbers, beyond diet alone, but not necessarily through the use of statins. There may be other ways and factors involved.

I would also discuss your calcium levels. If they are just one tick above "normal" range as defined by the laboratory performing the test, I would not be too concerned. If there has been a large increase since your last prior test results, it is worth investigating further with additional blood tests and maybe a bone scan.

Hi Jon,

Forgot to ask in prior post...... How were your triglyceride levels?

I am bad with abbreviations. What does ALA refer to in your post? Sorry if I am dumb.

Are you taking any Vitamin D supplement? (Too much Vitamin D may be a factor in elevated serum calcium)

Are you staying well hydrated?

On any diuretic medication?

Were all other basic metabolic panel blood test results within normal levels?

Are you able to exercise, and if so, do you get enough exercise? (Exercise may lower cholesterol levels.)

Hi Jon.
I'm not sure what "ALA" stands for. I would like to see all your numbers in reference to cholesterol. I'm not sure what you are referring to when you wrote that it shot way up.

My doctor just ordered a VAP cholesterol profile for me to assess risk for Coronary Heart Disease. "This test includes measurements for Total Cholesterol, LDL, HDL, VLDL, Triglycerides, Lipoprotein (a), Apolipoprotein B, HDL and VLDL Sub-classes, as well as a breakdown of LDL Density patterns."

High levels of calcium in your blood could be a result of an overactive parathyroid gland.

What did you doctor say besides pushing statins?

The "dietary" causes of cholesterol elevations have just been thrown out:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...ol-limits.aspx

This is no surprise because the whole cholesterol myth is being embraced now by many researchers and doctors.

Cholesterol is made by the liver when people don't eat foods providing it.

What were your numbers? I'd have a homocysteine test to see if that is elevated too. This is inflammatory to the blood vessels, and more dangerous as a trigger for vasculitis and then athersclerosis.

We might be seeing a new push for the new injectable agents that are trying to replace statins. These will be aggressively pushed to doctors.... they are mucho expensive and injectable.

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.

okay, here are thenumbers

cholesterol- 209 reference range 125-200
hdl 56 > or = 40
chl/hdl ratio 3.7 < or = 5.0
ldl chl calculated 127 <130
triglycerides 132 <150


my calcium was 10.7 with a ref range of 8.6-10.3

I do not directly supplement that, but my doctor wanted me to every other day my d3 because he felt it was reading high from my overall results....

My bloodwork overall is rather sharp. I am hinting for my last results that were sent to me as I am sure cholesterol was nowhere near that high.

Can pain and discomfort ie:stress increase cholesterol? I have had that increased a lot. Changes on the way to address it. I just really don't think going another drug off of one test is the move.

Who told you this was high?

The drug companies keep changing the values (and lowering) for treatment to continue making money.... your levels are far from high.

I had the lipoprotein tests that madisongrrl mentions, and mine were low. So I don't worry about my numbers, which vary from 220 to 245 for total.

If your cholesterol was not fasting, it will also be a bit higher than a fasting level would be.

Don't worry... be happy!

Hi Jon,

Even though your trigs are within range, they are still very high. Your diet could be playing into this. Are you eating lots of grains or fruit? You really want those under 100 or 75 to be safe. I've written a little about this here: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...27#post1164227

Also if you take vitamin D you will want to take it Vitamin K - the current thinking on this is that all these fat soluble vitamins have to be in a certain balance and the K will help keep the calcium out of places where it doesn't belong, like your arteries. I use a product by Thorne http://www.amazon.com/Thorne-Researc.../dp/B0038NF8MG

I eat a banana a day for the potassium. Other than that due to the sugars I really don't, save avacados.

Grains, more than I should but less than most people. I try to stay with whole grains too. Hmmm.