I'm discouraged

[adventure]

I was doing so well - radically changed my diet and began regular exercise.

____________02/01/16________03/10/16_______04/22/16_______05/27/16
TOTAL______334____________266____________234____________251
LDL_________222____________162____________143____________149
HDL_________86_____________82_____________82_____________93
TG__________127____________65_____________54_____________89

Well, I see the cardiologist on the 13th. I know he will want to put me on a statin but I don't want to take one.
If I remember correctly, I read somewhere that if ldl and tg are above 100 than hdl is not protective. Does this mean my hdl is useless?

I was doing so well and now the last test has my total at 251. All this hard work - bummer.

I think I know what I did wrong. My suspicion is that the rice I had a few times and the sandwhich bread I had a few times drove my ldl and triglycerides up. I have been trying to stabilize my weight so I also ate more walnuts and avocado.

[circular]

(((Adventure))) I understand being discouraged when you work so hard and find you there's just more hard work ahead

But let's do it this way instead:

____________02/01/16________05/27/16
TOTAL______334____________251
LDL_________222____________149
HDL_________86_____________93
TG__________127____________89

WOW! Huge improvement! You may be right about the bread and rice. Once all I ate was 8 piece simple salmon sushi roll, and about an hour later my glucose was at 170! I was shocked that such a small amount of rice (maybe they sweeten it lightly too) would do that.

So you have a great improvement overall and a good hypothesis about what needs to be tweaked going forward. If your doc wants you on a statin and you don't want to be on one, ask for more time given the overall trajectory.

I read somewhere that if ldl and tg are above 100 than hdl is not protective. Does this mean my hdl is useless?

I don't know anything about that, but your tg are <100 and your LDL's not terrible. I think your increased HDL is probably your friend here. I wish I could get mine close to that.

[Stavia]

Adventure, Circ is correct. The trend is excellent.
I don't know of any evidence that HDL is not protective in your case. And look how much yours has improved (and dont forget that HDL contributes to total so a higher HDL means a higher total. The latter is hardly ever used today except in special circumstances.)

[KatieS]

Adventure, I know how difficult it is to have patience, but you have sustained a major decrease in your LDL & TG while maintaining your high HDL. At 63, you mentioned another plus, very low CRP. Have you ever had a carotid ultrasound or calcium heartscan? Unless you have evidence of disease, other risk factors like hypertension or high lp(a) like me, I'm not sure your doctor will automatically prescribe a statin.

Don't want to incite the statin wars again, but I've been on a relatively low-dose statin this past year and as my SNPs predicted had a dramatic response without side effects. If you are a 3/4 male, the cardiovascular risks tend to exceed the AD risks.

[Russ]

Adventure, I don't put a lot of stock in traditional lipid tests, but I find the strongest argument of any to be TG/HDL ratio. You're <1.0 now which is excellent. You shouldn't be discouraged - seems to me you're doing great.