New member intro -- Martha

[marthaNH]

Hello to all. Delighted to find this resource and community. I just ordered my 23andme test kit -- due to family history of alzheimer's and my own biomarkers I strongly suspect 3/4 status, at best. Lost 30+ pounds and lowered blood pressure dramatically during 2013 and have maintained the loss for over a year, but LDL has been persistently high despite a "primal" diet that hasn't been particularly high in saturated fat, compared to others following diets in the paleo/primal/low carb "family".

I have had four lipid tests since September 2013 including an NMR that I just got back a few days ago. All the numbers ranged from good to great except for LDL-P of 1560. In fact, my numbers look a lot like JulieGee's, except for LDL-P and a small LDL # of 155. It has been reassuring to read other people's positive responses to her numbers, and I hope I can get these bad ones in line. Hoping that the people who believe in the Single-Marker Theory (LDL-P) are not completely in the right, as I was hoping my high HDL was significantly protective.

One of my four tests came at an odd moment, when I was required to eat a low residue diet -- for a little while I ate a LOT of eggs, cheese, and pork -- and the numbers zoomed from my usual "borderline" to "high". Then they came back down. My reading led me to believe that was typical of an apoe4 response. So I decided it was time to find out for sure about my status and look into how best to respond to this.

Thinking that for the next few months (maybe two, maybe more) I'll cut out the heavy cream, cheese, and coconut butter, add macadamia and hazelnuts, and eat more EVOO. Stick with fish (trout, sardines, anchovies, mussels). Be moderate with eggs. I already eat as much as a couple ounces of nuts a day. Not really sure WHERE the calories should come from, but some of it will be chia seeds and some tahini plus I guess some small amounts of lentils and black beans. I need to make up maybe 350 to 450 calories.

I have heard advice from Dayspring, Davis, and Gundry, also Peter Attia, for people who see their LDL skyrocket on primal/paleo diets. Funny that the very first approach I tried was Parker's "low carb Mediterranean" -- I seem to be headed back that way.

I feel and look better at 59 than I have in years, my RHR and blood pressure and BP meds are way down, fitness is good, BMI 19.3, and almost everything that was physically wrong with me two years ago has straightened itself out on this diet, even down to my toenail fungus (TMI I know)!! So figuring out how to tweak myself into a better situation without losing the advantages would be the goal, I guess.

Here are my numbers from the NMR:
LDL-P: 1560
LDL-C: 148
HDL-C: 92
Trig: 49
total C: 250
HDL-P: 35.7
Sm LDL-P: 155
Large VLDL-P <0.8
Large HDL-P: 18.2
LDL size: 21.2
HDL size: 10.2
no size for VLDL
LP-IR Score: <25

Want to finish by thanking JulieGee for doing this. I was astonished that there was so little out there when so many people have this situation to deal with (and don't know it).

[SusanJ]

Martha,

Welcome! And congratulations on the weight loss and BP improvements!

The whole lipid results thing, as you found out, is not a simple nut to crack. I tend to go a bit higher in whole food carbs than most paleo/primal/Gundry/etc folks - I eat sweet potatoes, squash, celeriac, etc but no legumes (me and legumes are not friends). Like you, looking for enough calories, since I'm at a BMI of 18.

I'm sure others will weigh in, but I think your lipid markers look decent (your trigs and HDL are AMAZING) and you might just have to do your own tweaking to figure out what's right for you. I also seem to carry higher numbers for LDL-P and right now I'm focusing on my elevated small LDL particle size.

Let us know how it all goes!

[Julie G]

Want to finish by thanking JulieGee for doing this. I was astonished that there was so little out there when so many people have this situation to deal with (and don't know it).

Welcome, Martha! For the record, this website is a huge team effort. Along with my co-founders, Gilgamesh & Ski, we simply transferred an enormous and ongoing group conversation from 23andMe to this new site to become better organized- LOL (New Year's resolution.) We are blessed to have many of those originals with us still and we've picked up terrific new folks along the way. Once we learned of our APOE statuses, we were also stunned with the disappointing lack of resources for our population. I'm so happy we've been of some help to you.

Wow- huge congratulations on the weight loss and other amazing improvements. You are certainly on the right track. Trust me, I'm working on hacking lipids with you. Mine have always been much better than they currently are...but I see the slip as a great learning experience. I learned that there is an upper limit of EVOO for me FWIW, I basically agree with you, a low carb Mediterranean- type diet is where I've settled as well.

I'm really anxious to know your APOE status when you learn it. Please share as you feel comfortable.

[Stavia]

Welcome Martha, you seem extremely knowlegable. I look forward to your contribution.

[Hepoberman]

Welcome to the forum!
Gratz on your success in taking control of your health! I recently posted a video on how 90% of heart disease is preventable. You've taken all the right steps, keep it up.

About those eggs...I've had to quit eggs. I recently took a sterol absorption test and found I was hyper absorbing sterols. This is fairly common for us ~4's. One egg a day is too much cholesterol for a hyper absorbing Apoe3/4.

Thanks for posting, I hope to see you often!

Hep

[GenePoole0304]

Well maybe E4's should throw out the evoo as it another source of saturated fat which is good for the masses of E3''s and move on to some of the more strictly mono oils.

http://eating-made-easy.com/what-exactl ... oleic-oil/

plant sterols are plant fats and seem to be absorbed in a similar way as other fats so if one is absorbing too much of them and not clearing the fat fast enough which is the E4 problem and some are worse at it than others then one can get a 40% reduction with
"Ezetimibe inhibits the absorption of cholesterol from the small intestine and decreases the amount of cholesterol normally available to liver cells, leading them to absorb more from circulation and thus lowering levels of circulating cholesterol. The exact mechanism is not known, but it appears that ezetimibe blocks the critical mediator of cholesterol absorption, the Niemann-Pick C1-like 1 (NPC1L1) protein on the gastrointestinal tract epithelial cells as well as in hepatocytes; blocks aminopeptidase N, and interrupts a Caveolin 1-Annexin A2 complex involved in traficking cholesterol.[6]."

[marthaNH]

I just wrote a long post, then hit a function key and lost it. Darn. Short version: thank you everybody. I've been lurking and reading and now I have three questions to put to this very civil, well-informed, and skillful group (in the sense that the Buddhists refer to bad behavior as "unskillful").

1. I think I want to buy a device and start monitoring my blood sugar. I don't have any problems but want to maximize any factor I can influence. Can anyone suggest a good solid device and a monitoring routine? (I don't need the device to track a lot of trends for me or anything fancy, but don't have to have the cheapest one if a more expensive one will be more accurate. Also if it could also measure ketones, I might have occasion to use that. I thought I would look at Costco, but that will mean investing in a big supply of strips or whatever consumables are involved. Maybe overkill. Your thoughts welcome.)

2. As part of my tweaking to try to get my LDL-P down out of the "borderline/high" range, I've increased my limit for net daily carbohydrates from below 50 to below 100. (Probably averaged 35 or 40 before, now averaging 70 or 80.) The increase has been almost entirely from more vegetables including about one carrot or beet a day, brussel sprouts, green beans, tomatoes, and winter squash. If anything I'm eating a little less oatmeal and maple syrup than I was before, though that was already pretty scant. Would you expect that degree of increase to have much impact on triglycerides or blood sugar? I'm new to this.

3. I'm trying to figure out how important it is to find the right category to post a question or new topic. Suggestions welcome for instance on where this one would go. I decided to keep this one in the "newbie" spot and leap into the fray on the next one.

Thanks everybody. I've been learning a lot from all of you.

Martha

[rep]

For Hep or anyone else who may know -
What is the exact name of the test you did to determine you are a hyperabsorber of sterols? What lab was it? Thanks.

[Julie G]

Hi Martha Just jump in in which ever forum you think best suits your topic. We're pretty relaxed.

I've been happy with my Precision Xtra meter. I like it as it serves a dual function. I can check both blood glucose and ketones. I bought the meter & glucose strips on Amazon. I buy ketone strips from Canada. Here's a great link from Chris Kresser to help get you started with testing.
http://chriskresser.com/how-to-prevent- ... ase-for-16

FWIW, my carbs also average around 70-80 grams a day. I've had good luck with LDL-P (1117, 1089) when they're in this range. Re. oatmeal and/or honey, maybe consider testing your post-prandial response to see how your blood glucose reacts.

Rep, I hope Hep (or someone more knowledgeable jumps in,) but I think he did his testing via Health Diagnostic Labs.

[rep]

Regarding Parker and low-carb Mediterranean wouldn't that involve a lot of whole grains? Wouldn't it involve too many grains?

Would people eating that way please describe your diet?