Help to understand blood test results...

Yas

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
Hello!

I've just done some blood tests and I wanted to share with you and also check if there's any useful information that I can get from them... :P

Here are my cholesterol results:

Total cholesterol: 240 (high)
Triglycerides 40 (normal)
HDL 60 (at the borderline)
LDL 172 (high)
VLDL 8

I say they are high, normal or at the borderline according to the chart provided by psyche here:

From the Life Without Bread thread:

Psyche said:
Mrs. Peel said:
I'm not doing something right, obviously. :/

Your triglycerides and HDL sounds enviable. It is your HDL, your "good cholesterol", which is contributing in your high cholesterol levels.

Your LDL doesn't look bad either, it was not too long ago when the range was lowered to a ridiculously low because supposedly high cholesterol means a heart attack and a good reason to prescribe a statin drug. Check out your ranges of cholesterol here:

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/medicine/cholesterol-range.htm

Your ratio is good!

The other tests do point out to inflammation, and perhaps you can talk about your symptoms and brainstorm with people here. I would check vitamin D levels which I suspect might be very low as well.

Your "caramelized" protein levels (HbA1c) are high though your levels are still considered in normal range depending on the country. This could be because either you are having too many carbs (too many "safe starches" and "safe sweeteners"?) or too much protein. This is explained very well in a synthesized way on Primal Body Primal Mind, and some think that the verdict is still out for this one (i.e. Dr. Kruse in his Cold Adaptation series), but here is a synthesis of the setbacks of too much protein FWIW:

Protein: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
By Dr. Ron Rosedale | Published: November 21, 2011

http://drrosedale.com/blog/2011/11/21/ron-rosedale-%E2%80%93-protein-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

This is why it is recommended in PBPM to eat a high fat, moderate protein and restricted carb diet.

I've also calculated the ratios using this web site: http://www.hughchou.org/calc/chol.php

And it says:

Your Total Cholesterol of 240 is HIGH RISK
Your LDL of 172 is HIGH RISK
Your HDL of 60 is NORMAL
Your Triglyceride level of 40 is NORMAL

RATIOS:
Your Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio is: 4.00 - (preferably under 5.0, ideally under 3.5) GOOD
Your HDL/LDL ratio is: 0.349 - (preferably over 0.3, ideally over 0.4) GOOD
Your triglycerides/HDL ratio is: 0.667 - (preferably under 4, ideally under 2) IDEAL

So I'm wondering...


Other results are:

Hb1Ac: 5

TSH: 1.25

Ferritin: 178

And the doctor also wanted to check for celiac disease... :lol:

so..

IgA Negative
IgB Negative

--

Basically my food consists in meat (mostly cow and pig), eggs, avocados, some green veggies (but REALLY only a bit sometimes), and a lot of lard since it is the only fat that I can get from reliable producers.

I have been eating like this for 3 months or 4 now, so I guess I'm still in the transition phase. I realized that I have been eating a lot of proteins, so I'm reducing them now.

I have been feeling well for the last months. Only last week I started feeling a little tired and having some other inflammation symptoms that I've reported in the Homchromatosis post. I think they were related to food allergies, concretely, cayenne pepper, because I ate something that had it and I had all the symptoms after that.. Now I feel OK again, still a little tired with a mild mind fog, but generally good! :)


EDIT: Title spelling
 
Re: Help in undertanding blood test results...

Acid Yazz said:
Here are my cholesterol results:

Total colesterol: 240 (high)
Triglicerides 40 (normal)
HDL 60 (at the borderline)
LDL 172 (high)
VLDL 8

[...]Other results are:

Hb1Ac: 5

TSH: 1.25

Ferritin: 178

And the doctor also wanted to check for celiac desease... :lol:

so..

IgA Negative
IgB Negative

From the chart quotes and with your levels and diet, it is the ratios that give the best guide. Your triglycerides (related with all kinds of problems and usually high on a carb rich diet) are pretty low, so that is good! Your HDL is high, which tends to be so on a low carb diet (good!) and judging from those parameters, the components of your LDL cholesterol seem to be anti-inflammatory. The trick of the LDL is that it doesn't have to stay around in the blood for long so it won't get oxidized. This means that its receptors have to be working smoothly. It also helps when it is made up of "resistant to oxidation" components. This is very hard to know by lab measures alone, but that your TG are low and HDL is high is an indication that your LDL cholesterol is of good quality.

That IgA and B were negative for celiac disease means that you probably have been gluten free for some months now, hence, you are clear from making antibodies against gluten. They are only positive when you are eating gluten and actively reacting to it. There are those whose immune system is so busted that they might not even react even when they are sensitive to it though.

HbA1c is among the lowest I've seen, though I've read that some on a keto diet manage to bring it down to 4 or so. HbA1c is a marker of "caramelization" of the body, or at least a guide to get an idea.

According to the hemochromatosis thread (research), your ferritin is high. Do you have high Hb and Ht? Perhaps some research and eventual blood donation or decanting is at hand.
 
Re: Help in undertanding blood test results...

Thanks a lot for answering psyche! :)


Psyche said:
From the chart quotes and with your levels and diet, it is the ratios that give the best guide. Your triglycerides (related with all kinds of problems and usually high on a carb rich diet) are pretty low, so that is good! Your HDL is high, which tends to be so on a low carb diet (good!) and judging from those parameters, the components of your LDL cholesterol seem to be anti-inflammatory. The trick of the LDL is that it doesn't have to stay around in the blood for long so it won't get oxidized. This means that its receptors have to be working smoothly. It also helps when it is made up of "resistant to oxidation" components. This is very hard to know by lab measures alone, but that your TG are low and HDL is high is an indication that your LDL cholesterol is of good quality.

Good to know! :D

Psyche said:
That IgA and B were negative for celiac disease means that you probably have been gluten free for some months now, hence, you are clear from making antibodies against gluten. They are only positive when you are eating gluten and actively reacting to it. There are those whose immune system is so busted that they might not even react even when they are sensitive to it though.

Yes! that's exactly what I thought when he wanted to do the test. I have stopped eating gluten for more than a year now so I told him that it was useless since, most probably, my body won't be reacting to gluten if I'm not eating gluten... But he wanted to do it nevertheless...


Psyche said:
HbA1c is among the lowest I've seen, though I've read that some on a keto diet manage to bring it down to 4 or so. HbA1c is a marker of "caramelization" of the body, or at least a guide to get an idea.

Yes, I read that it should be around 4 and according to Robb Wolf over five would be bad, so I wanted to re-check here. ;)


Psyche said:
According to the hemochromatosis thread (research), your ferritin is high. Do you have high Hb and Ht? Perhaps some research and eventual blood donation or decanting is at hand.

Yes it is high... As I mentioned in the hemochromatosis thread, there's a blood donation campaign going on here so I'll check if I can donate some blood. The problem is that my weight is less than 50 kilos... so I'll see what I can do.

Thanks a lot again! :flowers:
 
Re: Help in undertanding blood test results...

Psyche said:
Do you have high Hb and Ht?

Actually, the results before were sent to me by my father through text :P

Now I've got the papers in my hands to check in more depth... It seems a very complete test by the way...

Hb is 12.7 g/dL so it seems within the normal range.
Ht is 38% so it's also within the normal range.

Total Iron in blood is 119 ug/dL (The paper says that it should be between 60-160, so it seem alright, tending a little to the high side)

---

They didn't give a number for PCR... It just says "Under 6 mg/dL"

There are some cetone bodies in the urine...

Amongst the other items tested there is phosphatemia marking 5.7 mg/dL an it says it should be under 5.6... I don't know if that means something.

The Magnesium in blood seems to be perfect, tending to the high side.

And there are lots of other stuff that are all within the established ranges. :D


So I guess that's all... fwiw

Thanks again for answering!

I'll see the face of the doctor when he sees the cholesterol levels... :P
 
hello, I also have laboratory tests. The results are quite similar to those of Accid Yass.

Total Cholesterol: 219
HDL: 59
LDL: 153
TG: 51

Are they ok? :huh:

Next, Iron:

Serum Iron: 85
Transferrin: 294
Transferrin saturation: 29%
Ferritin: 203

Should I get more tests? I understand that ferritin may be high.

What worries me is that the value of glucose gave me 106. Does this value should not be lower considering I'm doing low carb diet? :shock:

Edit:
I forgot: I'm a little disappointed because ketone bodies in urine are 1.5 mg / dl. I'll have to check my diet. Perhaps I'm not getting enough fat. :(
 
I have my Ferritin levels at 190 ng/mL and Transferrin at 236.0 mg/dL, went to do a donation and felt way better after two days.

Cholesterol is at:

Total - 311 mg/dL
HDL - 77 mg/dL
TG - 101 mg/dL
LDL - 213 mg/dL

Which seems a bit low on HDL and a bit high on LDL.

Glucose is at 82 mg/dL with a reference of 55 - 99 mg/dL, which I don't know if its an indicator of not actually being in ketosis.
 
Re: Help in undertanding blood test results...

msante said:
hello, I also have laboratory tests. The results are quite similar to those of Acid Yazz.

Total Cholesterol: 219
HDL: 59
LDL: 153
TG: 51

Are they ok? :huh:

Psyche said:
From the chart quotes and with your levels and diet, it is the ratios that give the best guide.

From my understanding, checking the ratios for Cholesterol, triglycerides and HDL/LDL is more useful than checking the numbers by themselves.

I've calculated my ratios here: http://www.hughchou.org/calc/chol.php

msante said:
Next, Iron:

Serum Iron: 85
Transferrin: 294
Transferrin saturation: 29%
Ferritin: 203

Should I get more tests? I understand that ferritin may be high.

According to what is being said in the homocromatosis test, yes! your ferritin is high, as mine too... For what I understood it should be under 50!

I can't do recommendations, but maybe decanting (donating some blood) will be useful.

First of all, you need to read the homocromatosis thread. ;)

Regards :flowers:
 
Re: Help in undertanding blood test results...

Acid Yazz said:
From my understanding, checking the ratios for Cholesterol, triglycerides and HDL/LDL is more useful than checking the numbers by themselves.

I've calculated my ratios here: http://www.hughchou.org/calc/chol.php

My ratios seem to be ok:

From http://www.hughchou.org/calc/chol.php :

Your Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio is: 3.71 - (preferably under 5.0, ideally under 3.5) GOOD
Your HDL/LDL ratio is: 0.386 - (preferably over 0.3, ideally over 0.4) GOOD
Your triglycerides/HDL ratio is: 0.593 - (preferably under 4, ideally under 2) IDEAL

Acid Yazz said:
According to what is being said in the homocromatosis test, yes! your ferritin is high, as mine too... For what I understood it should be under 50!

I can't do recommendations, but maybe decanting (donating some blood) will be useful.

First of all, you need to read the homocromatosis thread. ;)

Yes, I'm on it ... :D
 
msante said:
What worries me is that the value of glucose gave me 106. Does this value should not be lower considering I'm doing low carb diet? :shock:
Psyche said:
Acid Yazz said:
[...]Other results are:

Hb1Ac: 5

HbA1c is among the lowest I've seen, though I've read that some on a keto diet manage to bring it down to 4 or so. HbA1c is a marker of "caramelization" of the body, or at least a guide to get an idea.

I was researching a bit more and found table to transform glucose to HbA1c http://www.continents.com/diabetes49.htm. To my values (106), HbA1c is equal to 5.15%. It seem to be ok, although it may be lower.
 
msante said:
What worries me is that the value of glucose gave me 106. Does this value should not be lower considering I'm doing low carb diet? :shock:

I think that as you unload your iron stores and continue with the diet, blood sugar will drop.

A good reference number according to data available is a fasting blood sugar level of less than 85. As you detox and do the diet, don't be surprised if it reaches around 70 :)
 
Psyche said:
msante said:
What worries me is that the value of glucose gave me 106. Does this value should not be lower considering I'm doing low carb diet? :shock:

I think that as you unload your iron stores and continue with the diet, blood sugar will drop.

A good reference number according to data available is a fasting blood sugar level of less than 85. As you detox and do the diet, don't be surprised if it reaches around 70 :)

Thanks Psyche :flowers:, I have a lot to think and accommodate about my diet (and other matters). :headbash:
 
Seeking to make sense of my recent blood test – confused by all the different units quoted here in this thread.

Liver function test
Serum bilirubin level (44E.. ) 23 umol/L (< 21.0) outside of range

Will search the forum for this – is it a concern, this level?

Serum lipid levels
Serum cholesterol level (XE2eD) 11.2 mmol/L
Serum triglyceride levels (XE2q9) 1.15 mmol/L (0.0 – 2.0)
Serum HDL cholesterol level (44P5) 2.60 mmol/L (0.9 – 2.2) outside reference range
Serum LDL cholesterol level (44P6) 8.1 mmol/L
Total cholesterol HDL ratio (44PF) 4.3

HDL/LDL ratio is 03.2, and triglyceride/HDL is 0.44

On telephoning for my results I was told that my cholesterol was too high! And needed to start on medication to bring it down immediately!

Serum Iron level (X76tH) 14 umol/L (14 – 28.0)
Serum ferritin level (XE24r) 98 ug/L (23.0 – 540.0)

No iron binding capacity or transferring saturation tested.

Not sure where this stands re recommended levels.

Prostate-specific antigen level (XE25C) 1.8ug/L (0.0 – 4.5)

Serum vitamin B12 level (XE2pf) 1490 ng/L (220.0 – 700.0) outside reference range

Bearing in mind my age – 67 – is it advisable to discontinue taking vit B12 at night-time?

Serum folate level (42U5) 18.5 ug/L (2.6 – 17.3)

Ditto comment re vit B12.
 
Using the online calculator here: http://www.onlineconversion.com/cholesterol.htm, we get:

Total serum cholesterol 11.2 mmol/l = 433.10131 mg/dl
Serum triglycerides 1.15 mmol/l = 101.86005 mg/dl
HDL cholesterol 2.6 mmol/l = 100.54138 mg/dl
LDL cholesterol 8.1 mmol/l = 313.22506 mg/dl

Using mg/dl, I calculated your ratios with http://www.hughchou.org/calc/chol.php:

RATIOS:
Your Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio is: 4.29 - (preferably under 5.0, ideally under 3.5) GOOD
Your HDL/LDL ratio is: 0.323 - (preferably over 0.3, ideally over 0.4) GOOD
Your triglycerides/HDL ratio is: 0.941 - (preferably under 4, ideally under 2) IDEAL

I noticed it changed the numbers very slightly because the total match doesn't fit.

Were you fasting enough hours when you took this blood test?

From all the panel, the LDL strikes at slightly higher than usual, bringing the total amount of cholesterol a bit higher than usual too. The HDL has a very good number. Generally speaking, the higher the better and yours contribute to increase the total cholesterol amount.

How does your diet look like? How many carbs do usually eat?

I would not sweat over bilirrubin. I would keep an eye on it. It has to be read and weight in within the whole context: red blood cells, liver function tests, your symptoms etc. But a percentage of the population can have it higher because of genetic quirks.

Doesn't look like you have iron overload, but you might want to consider the heavy metal chelation discussed in the Hemochromatosis thread.

I would not sweat over prostate antigen levels. It has been pretty much determined that they are useless and its raised levels as a screen test for cancer has caused millions of deaths and/or unnecessary suffering in terms of toxic radiotherapy, unnecessary mutilating prostate surgeries, etc In fact, a lot of folks have stopped asking for it.

If the B vitamins make a difference in your wellbeing, I would much rather use that as a guide than blood tests.

My two cents :)
 
Hi Prodigal Son,

I have pretty much the same lipid profile ...

One thing that shouldn't be forgotten is that cholesterol measurements can vary by up to 30% up or down if taken sequentially on consecutive days. To establish a relevant picture you need to take 3 samples around 3 weeks apart, to appreciate the spread. It might be that this result is on the higher side, but the reverse might be true too.

I have decided to disregard the cholesterol issue for now and to focus on detox and chelation, as HDL and triglycerides are low and this might well change if heavy metals are reduced in the body.

The other reason is that there is not much one can do about this except cholesterol lowering drugs, and in my opinion they are mostly bad news:
- According to a study published in 2010 in the BMJ the NNT (number needed to treat, which means how many patients do I have to treat to have one patient having a benefit from the treatment) compared to the NNH (number needed to harm) was about equal in a high risk setting and around ten times worse in intermediate risk patients, meaning they do more harm than good.
- The other thing is that lots of studies show that statins do lower cholesterol very efficiently, but that this is not translated into any survival benefit in primary prevention (healthy patients with high cholesterol). While the incidence of cardiovascular events is a bit lower (NNT of around 30!), overall mortality is the same.
- Another study showed no difference in mortality and morbidity rates (amount of patients with the disease) in patients admitted with a cardiovascular event (eg heart attack) when they were stratified according to their cholesterol levels - or in other words, your cholesterol level had no bearing in whether you had a heart attack and survived it - or not.

In other words the lowering of cholesterol doesn't improve your risk of dying. In secondary prevention (patients who have had a cardiovascular incident) there seems to be a small reduction of mortality in some studies, but again at a very high price (frequent side effects and high NTT).

Bottom line is, I am never ever going to take statin drugs, so I will try to lower my LDL with other means and if it doesn't, I'll ignore it - provided my body is otherwise healthy and free of inflammation. If not, I will try to
tackle that.

Of course this is my personal opinion, based on my own research, and of course is contrary to what every GP will tell you (most of them haven't got a clue about cholesterol).

Hope this helps ...
 
Psyche said:
...

RATIOS:
Your Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio is: 4.29 - (preferably under 5.0, ideally under 3.5) GOOD
Your HDL/LDL ratio is: 0.323 - (preferably over 0.3, ideally over 0.4) GOOD
Your triglycerides/HDL ratio is: 0.941 - (preferably under 4, ideally under 2) IDEAL

I noticed it changed the numbers very slightly because the total match doesn't fit.

Were you fasting enough hours when you took this blood test?
16 hrs

From all the panel, the LDL strikes at slightly higher than usual, bringing the total amount of cholesterol a bit higher than usual too. The HDL has a very good number. Generally speaking, the higher the better and yours contribute to increase the total cholesterol amount.

How does your diet look like? How many carbs do usually eat?
Fully ketogenic for a number of years, carbs from drinking chocolate (100% cacao), and occasional amounts of chocolate only. And, from occasionally overeating protein amount.

I would not sweat over bilirrubin. I would keep an eye on it. It has to be read and weight in within the whole context: red blood cells, liver function tests, your symptoms etc. But a percentage of the population can have it higher because of genetic quirks.
Wikipedia even suggests, at my age it may be beneficial
Recent research has indicated that in the absence of liver disease, individuals with high levels of total bilirubin may experience various health benefits exceeding those with lower levels of bilirubin. Studies have found higher levels of of bilirubin in elderly individuals are associated with higher functional independence. Studies have also revealed that levels of serum bilirubin are inversely related to risk of certain heart diseases.

Doesn't look like you have iron overload, but you might want to consider the heavy metal chelation discussed in the Hemochromatosis thread.

...
If the B vitamins make a difference in your wellbeing, I would much rather use that as a guide than blood tests.

My two cents :)
Thanks Psyche for your reply and comments.

nicklebleu, Yes, your comments confirmed my thoughts on the cholesterol levels - totally ignore what the doctor wanted me to do re medication to reduce cholesterol. Interestingly it was not brought up when I went to collect the copy of the blood test results from the surgery, nor has there been any follow up since. :)


Edit: added 'overeating protein amount'
 
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