Did My Anti-Cholesterol Gameplan Work? YES!

Posted on by BJJ Caveman

Anti-Choelsterol Gameplan 4

Last week I introduced my 12 pronged gameplan to bringing down my stubbornly high cholesterol.  I followed these 12 steps rigidly for 4 weeks and did a follow up NMR Lipoprofile.  I was literally BLOWN AWAY by the results.

My LDL-P, which has been stratospherically off the charts for the past 3 years has finally come down to Earth.

Something I did worked.

Since I have readers that are just finding this site, I’m going to go into some of the background behind my journey up to this point.

If you just want to find out what my latest results were, feel free to skip ahead.

Background

I’ll start 5 years ago in 2010.  At that point I was struggling with my weight, having gotten up to around 210 lbs while following the Standard American Diet, trying to count calories, while eating low fat.  My LDL-C back then was pretty much ideal at 93, with my Total Cholesterol at 160.  If you were to just look at my lipid panel, you’d think I was pretty healthy, but if you saw my face and my body, you’d see a chubby tired dude constantly fighting with his weight.

Later on that year I stumbled across Tim Ferriss’  The 4 Hour Body, which emphasized the importance of glycemic control in his Slow Carb Diet.  I became super-inspired by him, followed his diet, and promptly lost weight and inches off my body.

Things were going well and I would check my lipids every once in a while to see how things were.  On 8/30/2011 my LDL-C went up to 157 after 8 months of the Slow Carb Diet.  I wasn’t sure what to make of this, especially since I had been losing weight and feeling healthier, so I just made a mental note of it and kept on trucking along.

I checked my labs again on 2/7/2012 and saw that my LDL-C came back down to 124, so I stopped worrying.

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A few months later I started listening to podcasts and learned about Jimmy Moore’s experiment with Nutritional Ketosis, read The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance, and was convinced by everything I learned to try it for myself.

I started playing around with eating more fat and even less carbs than what I was already eating on the Slow Carb Diet and decided to do a pre Nutritional Ketosis lipid panel.

On 11/16/2012 my LDL-C went even higher to 176.  I started to get worried, but everything I read at the time told me that Nutritional Ketosis would surely improve my numbers, so I figured that this would be a good way to illustrate it.  I have my before ketosis lipid panel showing a high LDL-C and I could do another lipid panel after being in ketosis showing a dramatic improvement.

I wanted to document everything which lead to the birth of this blog (here is my embarrassing first post from 12/12/12).

After 60 days of Nutritional Ketosis I showed that I lost more weight and inches and I tested my blood after 72 days of nutritional ketosis on 2/21/2013.

I was expecting to see an improved set of numbers, but to my astonishment, they got worse!  This was around the time I first learned about the NMR lipoprofile so I checked that also.  It showed an LDL-C of 213 and an LDL-P of 2800.  I didn’t know what to make of it, and the internet consensus at the time was all over the place… the prevailing thought was that whether or not your LDL levels are out of control, as long as your inflammatory markers are low and you’re not inflammed, things should be ok.  Again, there was no science to back this up, this was just the general thinking floating around the message boards and blogs at the time.

I wanted to look into things further, so I did my own literature search (The Effect of a Ketogenic Diet on Cholesterol Part 1) where I concluded that:

It seems almost universal that following a ketogenic diet leads to an increase in HDL and a decrease in triglycerides.  What happens to total cholesterol and especially LDL is unpredictable since both can either go up, go down, or stay the same with no clear explanation as to why this happens.

In the second part of that series, The Effect of a Ketogenic Diet on Cholesterol Part 2, I went over my numbers and came up with 4 possible explanations to what the hell was going on:

  1. Increased consumption of saturated fats leading to increased LDL synthesis
  2. Deficiency in certain micronutrients like copper and choline
  3. Natural response to weight loss leading to more cholesterol being shuttled around the blood
  4. Ketosis leading to hypothyroidism which causes a decreased expression of LDL receptors, leading to increased LDL in the blood.

At this time I had jumped head first into ketosis and was dousing everything with butter and coconut oil, and making all sorts of fat bombs, so I decided to test things out by cutting out all coconut oil and butter.

Three weeks later, on 3/11/2013, I checked my lipids again: The Effect of a Ketogenic Diet on Cholesterol Part 3.  My LDL-C jumped even higher to 231.

It was around this time that I started really trying to deal with the Keto Rash, and the only thing that made the rash go away was eating carbs and jumping out of ketosis.   After a few weeks of doing this, I checked another lipid panel on 5/9/2013 (The Effect of a Ketogenic Diet on Cholesterol Part 4) and lo and behold, my LDL-C came down to 168 AND my thyroid numbers improved.

I now had a working hypothesis:

Chronic low carb -> Hypothyroidism (low T3) -> Decreased expression of LDL receptors in the liver -> Higher serum cholesterol

Some more research (Low Carb and High Cholesterol from Around the Web) unearthed data showing that a lot of other folks were experiencing the same thing.

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In this study where 12 physically active and healthy subjects ate a ketogenic diet for 38 days, there was both a bump in the LDL-C from a median of 116 pre keto to a median of 157 post keto.  There was also a corresponding change in TSH from 1.56 up to 2.33.  This lead the researchers to say:

Interestingly, subject 11 who took a thyroxin substitute experienced the least dramatic rise in LDL levels. Furthermore, positive associations between TSH and LDL as well as total cholesterol levels have been found in cross-sectional studies in euthyroid healthy subjects, and the strength of these associations seems to depend on an individual’s insulin sensitivity.We therefore hypothesize that the KD has diminished the production of T3 from T4, thereby reducing the number of LDL receptors and thus reducing LDL particle clearance which might be further impaired due to the missing stimulating effect of insulin on LDL uptake into cells.

In the next few months, my life got busy, The BJJ Cavewife and I did some traveling, planned our wedding, and then got married, so my diet was all over the place.  I tried to eat low carb and bounced in and out of ketosis depending on how active I was.

On 10/4/2013 I checked my lipids and thyroid (The Effect of a Ketogenic Diet on Cholesterol Part 5) and found that my LDL-C stayed at 172 despite my TSH improving to 1.23.

Now this threw a wrench in my hypothesis about hypothyroidism and cholesterol.  If my TSH improved then my LDL-C should also have improved, but that wasn’t the case.

After listening to more podcasts and discovering Kiefer’s work, I was convinced by his research and explanations in the Carb Nite Solution, and decided to try it out for myself.  This is essentially a cyclic ketogenic diet where you eat super low carb and keto during the week and then give yourself one cheat day where you throw down as many simple carbs as you can.

In theory this will provide all the benefits of going keto without any of the hits to the thyroid and other hormones.  I completed a 10 week trial following the Carb Nite protocol and drew another set of labs on 12/16/2013.

I was certain that science was on my side and that my weekly carb refeeds would optimize my thyroid levels which in turn would bring down my cholesterol.  To my dismay, this wasn’t the case.  Both my thyroid numbers actually got worse (Cyclic Ketogenic Diet and Thyroid Hormone) AND my cholesterol numbers also got worse, with my LDL-C jumping to 206 and my LDL-P rocketing to 3009 (Cyclic Ketogenic Diet and Cholesterol)!

I moved on to playing around with Kiefer’s Carb Back-Loading, which is essentially Carb Nite, with additional carbs allowed after heavy resistance training, and thought this would be a good opportunity for me to further explore the relationship between arbs, thyroid, and cholesterol.

On 4/8/2014, after 8 weeks of Carb Back-Loading, I saw an improvement in my thyroid numbers (Carb Back-Loading and Thyroid Hormone) AND a drop in my LDL-P to 2694 and a nominal drop in my LDL-C to 196 (Carb Back-Loading and Cholesterol).

For people new to the Paleosphere, there was a brief craze where raw potato starch became the newest superfood, purported to help people normalize blood glucose, sleep better, and improve their cholesterol.  I too jumped on the band wagon, eager to see if it would help.

On 4/24/14, after taking the ‘magical’ Bob’s Red Mill Potato Starch for 2 weeks along with some probiotics, I checked my lipids and found no change in my LDL-C which stayed at 202.  This wasn’t the magic bullet I hoped for.

On 10/23/14, after a few weeks of travel and reattempting Carb Nite, I checked another set of labs (Cholesterol, CRP, Fasting Insulin, and HbA1c Update: October 2014) which again showed an LDL-P of 2718 and LDL-C of 213.  This looked to be the new norm for me.

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In the next few months, I improved my sleep by changing jobs (How I Finally Fixed My Sleep Issues as a Shift Worker) and started training BJJ regularly and weight lifting 1-2 times per week.  I increased my carbs to 100 gm, cut back my saturated fat to 60 gm, and rechecked my labs on 3/16/2015 (My Health Test Results from March 2015).

All my thyroid numbers normalized and there was a slight drop in my LDL-P to 2470 and LDL-C to 166.  This confirmed to me that there was definitely some relationship between my thyroid and my cholesterol… but not enough to explain the whole story.

I then experimented with cutting my saturated fat down to around 50 gm and increasing my carbs slightly to 120 gm, while doing a better job of taking anti-inflammatory supplements (Athletic Greens, Thorne Curcumin, Thorne Omega 3, Lemon Berry, T3 Fuel).  More labs were drawn on 5/7/2015 (Cholesterol Update from May 2015: What did taking anti-inflammatory supplements and increasing my carbs do?).

There was no improvement.  LDL-P stayed at 2494 and LDL-C bumped up to 192.

It started to really feel like I was treading water.  I really didn’t know where to go from here.  All I could think of was to tinker a bit more with my macros.  I nudged my carbs up to 146 gm and my saturated fat down to 44 gm, and on June 9 2015, did another test (Cholesterol and Thyroid Update from June 2015: Increasing Carbs and Decreasing Fats).

Again, there was no real change.  LDL-P stayed at 2434 and LDL-C stayed at 197.

This was when I decided that I had taken things as far as I could on my own and enlisted the help of an expert.

Here are links to the recent posts documenting my consultation with the lipidologist:

After considering the recommendations of the lipidologist and other research, I formulated My Anti-Cholesterol Gameplan, and followed it for 30 days.

Here are the results after those 30 days.

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Results from 8/17/15

Anti cholesterol gameplan results 1

Anti cholesterol gameplan results 2

To give you a better sense of these results in the context of the long winded history I provided, here is the data in a tabulated format (click on it to make it bigger):

Anti cholesterol gameplan results 3

As you can see, there was a dramatic improvement.

LDL-P fell to the lowest it’s ever been at 1489.  While this still puts me in the “Borderline-High” risk category, it’s still better than being in the “off-the-charts-ludicrously-High” risk category that I’ve been in since 2013.

Small LDL-P also fell dramatically to 592 which is only 65 points higher than the normal limit of 527.

LDL-C fell to 125, the lowest it’s been since 2012, bringing me into the “Above optimal” range which is much better than the “Astronomically high” range I’ve been bouncing around in the past two years.

Thoughts on My Anti-Cholesterol Gameplan

1. Reduce Saturated Fat

I thought I did a great job of this, but now that I’m looking back at the numbers, it wasn’t that impressive.  I managed to cut my average intake from 44 gm in the period leading up to my blood draw in 6/2015, down to 43 gm in the 30 days leading up to this test.

It’s strange, but I really remember feeling like I was crushing it in this department… but that’s not what the numbers showed.  If you want to see what the hell I was eating during this time period, you can add me on myfitnesspal.com.

2. Eat More Beans

I know I did a good job of this since I typically get Chipotle a few times a week, I made sure to ask for beans each of those times.

3. Eat Low Carb but not Ketogenic

My average carb intake was 161 gm, but if you factor in all the fiber I was eating from the beans and the bionic fiber which averaged 58 gm, my net carb intake came out to around 103 gm, which is right smack dab in the middle of the 50-120 gm range I was shooting for.

4. Reduce Coffee

I did a good job of really cutting this back and only drank 1 cup per week on Sundays.

5. Grace Liu’s Bionic Fiber

This consists of:

I also rotated in some of the following:

I started taking off taking two doses per day for the first two weeks and then brought it down to one dose per day for the next two weeks.

I’ll write a separate post on my thoughts on bionic fiber.

6. Probiotics

I took one dose of this in the morning and one dose at night.

7. Berberine

I used Thorne Research Berberine 500 mg once in the morning and once in the evening.

8. Citrus Bergamot

I used HP LifeScience Citrus Bergamot 250 mg once in the morning and once in the evening.

9. Omega 3

I took 3 tsp of Exos Lemon Berry Omega 3 each day.

10. Other Vitamins and Minerals

I was generally very good about taking these thing regularly, but forgot to take them on occasion.  I wasn’t as strict with these as I was with everything else.

11. Optimize Oral Hygiene

I did a good job of maintaining my regimen of

12. Maintaining My Exercise Regimen

I still trained BJJ regularly but had to cut back on weight lifting because things started to get really busy at work.

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Final Thoughts

It’s obvious that something I did worked.  At this point it’s hard to say if it was just one thing, some of the things, or all of them combined that made the difference.

While I’m not out of the woods yet because my LDL-P still isn’t at an optimal level, I’m at a much better place than I was in the past 2 years.

My hunch about what’s going on here is that a lot of my issues are gut related.  It just doesn’t make sense that all of my cholesterol issues are genetic, especially since my numbers were normal in the past and are almost normal after these 30 days.  I still have the same genes I did 30 days ago.  I’m still an ApoE 3/4.  Maybe I did something to change my epi-genome?

I really suspect that the gut is the source of all of this.  Somehow when I went Slow Carb and then Ketogenic I altered my gut flora, which in turn altered my cholesterol metabolism causing me to become a cholesterol hyper-synthesizer AND hyper-absorber.  Now that I’m taking steps to address my gut, things are finally starting to normalize.

Can I prove this?  Of course not… but this is the only explanation that makes sense to me.

I’m definitely open to any other ideas out there.  Since a lot of you guys are great about chiming in with your thoughts, I invite you to keep them coming.

My plan is to slowly remove each of these supplements and retest at regular intervals to see what changes come about.

The first thing I’ll stop is Citrus Bergamot, simply because it’s so new and there’s so little data on it.

*Image found here (I love Johnny Drama, he was my favorite character on Entourage)

Category: Cholesterol, Lab Tests

57 thoughts on “Did My Anti-Cholesterol Gameplan Work? YES!”

  1. Nice work! I think you are spot on with regards to the gut microbiome. Gives me hope for my numbers as they look virtually identical to yours since eating keotogenic. So much we still don’t know. Keep up the good work!

    1. Thanks!

      At this point it’s still too early to say if it was only gut biome stuff… I mean who knows, it could’ve been simply removing the coffee or maybe just the berberine for all we know.

      I hope to get to the bottom of things by tinkering a bit more, removing one thing add a time.

        1. Have not done Ubiome yet… I’m not sure it’s ready to be used as a diagnostic tool at this point. I’ve read that the results can vary day to day, and even the time of day.

          You can get one result in the morning… and then a different result that same evening.

          Not sure how I’d use data that’s this variable at this point.

  2. I’m in a similar boat with high LDL-C after following a Perfect Health type diet, so learning from your blog is super helpful.
    I’d note there’s a very thorough guy who blogged similar LDL-P problems to yours at resolvingthecontroversies. He ended up needing to raise his bean intake to get slow digesting carbs that in turn lowered his LDL-P.

    1. I’m glad you’ve found this helpful!

      I’ve tried to look for the resolving the controversies page, but haven’t been able to find it. Do you think you can provide a link? I’d love to read more!

    2. Hi Peter,

      I am just getting started on the Perfect Health Diet. would you please share with me your experiences with this protocol?

      Thanks,

      Jim

      1. I had been doing low carb paleo for a few years and it improved my mood tremendously (also my digestion) to add back safe starches per the PHD.
        But now, because of my high LDL-C over the last 2-3 years, I’m dropping the saturated fats (eggs, cheese, butter) that are in the PHD.

          1. Yep – but need to find a new M.D. first as my previous M.D. fired me when I declined to take a statin for high LDL-C and asked instead to test APOE status and get an NMR Lipoprofile!

          2. Awww jeez.

            I just received word from my lipidologist that she would be happy for me to share her name and contact info. She is also willing to do virtual consultations.

            Will put it all in a post soon.

  3. Great job and I am having the same issues. However, you did not discuss your Lp-PLA2. That is a big number and may be more important than CRP per some literature.

    I know…. one step at a time.

    1. Yup, that’s my thinking. If my LDL-P is normalized… it doesn’t matter too much what my Lp-PLA2 is. The lipidologists I’ve spoken with don’t seem to put too much credence in it, especially if there aren’t any other risk factors.

      It’s an expensive test, running about $160 a pop, so it’s not something I’m willing to do on a regular basis, seeing as how I’m already spending $99 on each NMR test.

      I do plan on testing it in the future, so we’ll see how things go!

  4. Have been following your posts since the beginning. You’re doing great! I had similar issues (didn’t list and label them as accurately as you though lol) and noticed that since re-introducing some whole rice and oats my numbers have improved greatly too (LDL especially). Also I no longer suffer from legcramps at night….thx for your blog, keep posting!

    1. I want to thank you for following me since wayyyyyyy back!

      You’re one of my earliest subscribers, so I want to express my appreciation for that!

      I’m glad the rice and oats have improved your LDL! Have you tried adding other fibers and prebiotics back too?

  5. There are 18 bottles in your drug cabinet; it sure looks like a shelf in Rite-Aid. Happy to see the game plan works.
    Just be aware of your body dependency of these bottles.
    Go back to the diet that works; cave men did not have these supplements; and is your diet in conflict with Paleo diet ?

    1. You’re correct in that my cabinet and counters are starting to look a little ridiculous with all of these supplements. My plan is to cut back and reduce things by as much as possible… but until then, the experiments will keep continue.

      You’re right cavemen did not have all of these supplements… but cavemen also didn’t have to deal with pollutants in the environment, man made toxins, refined foods, antibacterial this and that, antibiotics, etc…

      Cavemen also didn’t work at jobs for 10 hrs a day sitting in front of a computer…

      We’re now living in a different world.

  6. How long do you plan to take VSL#3. Most people seem to consider it a temporary measure to get your gut in order.
    Ben

  7. Really great you sharing + informing.
    Glad to see your LDL-P dropping – but what do you think is the explanation of the HDL-P as your sat fat remained constant + HDL dropped nearly 20%?
    Have you discussed results with lipidologist?

    1. The lipidologist I spoke with wasn’t too concerned about my HDL. You can see in my history, my HDL will do whatever the hell it wants to do and will bounce around between the high 40s and low 60s. Honestly, I think that’s just lab variation, and don’t put too much stock into it.

      Besides, there’s nothing I can do to bring it up even if I wanted. The main recommendations out there are to exercise more and to eat more omega 3s…. which I’m already doing.

      The lipidologist was primarily concerned with the sky high LDL-P.

  8. Why drop the bergamot now? Why not continue for another 3 months and test again to see if the numbers improve further?

    1. I decided to drop it now because I’m not comfortable taking it for such a prolonged period of time given the lack of data out there. I just drew my set of followup labs today so we’ll know shortly how things are going.

      If my LDL-P sky rockets again… then we’ll have a better idea that the bergamot was the primary factor and I’d have to consider adding it back in to my stack.

      If my LDL-P stays the same or goes down more, then the Bergamot was a non factor.

      Ultimately my goal is to take as few things as possible… for costs reasons of course, and also to minimize unwanted side effects.

  9. Very interesting! I’ve been reading your cholesterol posts for years, but have not visited your blog for a few months now, so I appreciate this thorough synopsis. Since going paleo five years ago, my total cholesterol, LDL-C, and LDL-P have been sky-high, while my HDL, triglycerides, and all ratios have been in the very-low-risk range. LDL is pattern A and my insulin sensitivity is good. While I haven’t been an avid or organized experimenter like you, I have tinkered some (notably with potato starch, which I believe messed up my gut flora considerably).

    My recent changes:
    Gave up my teaspoon of coconut oil in my morning coffee
    Replaced my coffee with black or green tea
    Slowly introduced small amounts of oats and lentils
    Cut back a bit on cheese, butter & cream

    I plan to re-do my basic lipid panel in a month or so. I’m grateful for your thoughtful and systematic N=1!

    1. I’d love to learn the results of your followup lipid panel! Hopefully your numbers will improve too!

      1. I finally got around to getting my lipids checked, and the results kind of blew my mind. My LDL dropped by 100 points!

        The changes I made:
        • Eliminated the 1 tsp of coconut oil I had every morning in my coffee
        • Cut way back on my coffee consumption, from 3-4 cups a day to 3-4 cups a week
        • Added small amounts of lentils, beans, and oats to my diet

        I didn’t really cut back on dairy fats much at all.

        Results:
        • Total cholesterol dropped from over 300 to 229
        • LDL dropped from 209 to 109
        • HDL stayed about the same, very high, now at 117
        • Trigs stayed about the same, very low, now at 24

        I just had the standard lipid panel, so I don’t know what may have happened to my unnervingly high LDL-P of 2151. However, all my other numbers indicate very low risk, and to chase one parameter, even if it’s the risk factor du jour, seems unnecessarily paranoid – especially given the uncertainty of the science. I’m pretty thrilled!

        1. Wow, glad to see such amazing improvement!

          I wonder if you’re an APO E 3/4 like me also.

          Did you make these changes on your own? Or was it because you came across one of my posts?

          I’d be interested to see how you decided upon the changes that you made!

  10. Had the same problem – I’m not sure if it’s upping the carbs that does it as it is upping the carbs with soluble fiber and reducing the butter which is missing a key ingredient found in other full fat dairy.

    My own thinking on the subject:

    1) Eat leaner meats and reduce butter intake: Butter doesn’t have MFGM (a globule that surrounds butter) that has been shown to help with ldl. Cheese, heavy whipping cream etc. do. The churning process used to make butter does away with MFGM.

    2) Use olive oil for cooking – it’s been shown to improve lipid profiles.

    3) Add soluble fiber to the diet – oats/legumes etc.

    4) Focus on nuts – almonds, walnuts, macadamia etc. for your fat.

    I normalized my lipids by doing the above but then as an experiment dropped the carbs and started supplementing with soluble fiber in my smoothies.

    LDL-P stayed the same.

    There’s good research behind beta-glucan (in Oats) improving LDL. Most of the research on “whole grains” is really showing a benefit for oats, not wheat.

    Anyway – great post. Glad you figured it out!

    Personally – I think lower carb meditterrenan with an emphasis on mono/pufa type fats is the way to go.

    1. Sounds like you independently arrived at the same solutions I came on… diet wise (except for the nuts part.. I haven’t been eating much of those)

      What sort of Oats are you eating?

  11. Great post. Having done similar experiments and being Apoe4 here is my take.
    Potato Starch shot my LDL-P about 10% (over 2500) and make me gain weight.
    20g of Fish oil for a month did the same without the weight loss.

    Majority of your success came from Berberine.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15531889

    Switch to Metformin you should see similar results and I believe it to be safer.

    1. I plan to write more about Berberine later…

      I’ve heard from a few places that Metformin may be safer. It’s something I’ll have to look into more!

      Ultimately, I’d love to get to a place where I don’t need any supplements or meds at all!

      1. I have been tracking diet and LDL-P for the last 2 years, here’s what moves the needle.

        1) Everything increases the LDL-P (Carbs, Fat, Protein). The only thing I found that has direct lowering effect is mono saturated fats. The more mono fats you eat the lower you LDL-P will be.
        So in effect the more mono fats you can take in the lower your score will be. Everything else will raise it by different amounts.

        2) Stay away from meat, switch to shell fish or fish if you can.

        3) There is no correlation between LDL and LDL-P so ignore anyone who says that a certain diet helped them lower their LDL, it means nothing in context of their LDL-P

        4) Niacin will lower your LDL-P but it comes with some draw backs. If given the choice I would elect Metformin over Niacin. Metformin is one of the few drugs that extends lifespan. Robb Wolf speaks highly of it.

        5) Would love for you to try your experiment with your prebiotics and without to see how much of an effect that will have.

        1. Can you expand on this statement?

          “20g of Fish oil for a month did the same without the weight loss.”

          I am currently taking 6000 Omega 3 daily and would this cause a higher LDL-P or ApoB based on your experience?

          Thanks.

  12. Being following your progress for a while (via your blog). Outside of diet there seems a link between homocysteine and cholestrol, and in turn the MTHFR mutation.

    I’ve found that when I lower my homocysteine my LDL drops as well. I’m Apoe3/4 and I have the 667 MTHFR mutation. Have not really found that supplementing with folate(not folic) helps, but a high dose of TMG will lower homocysteine and in turn LDL.

    My CHO numbers are all over the place (I measure it once a week, it just gives me my total, but its an indicator). What you have eaten in the past 48hrs can affect what that number is, it is not a stable and/or static number! I can be 4.5 one week then 7.1 the next (sorry UK units)

  13. You changed too many things at once to be able to conclude anything meaninful whatsoever here.

    What if all of this occurred simply because you changed your mouthwash, and the rest was a waste of time?

    Good going on getting *something* done, but this kind of “data” is exactly how daft diet ideologies are born, like the vegan crowd praising McDougall’s “plant based sciencehealth” BS which helped a few people out, but also modifies 20-30 other lifestyle factors beyond eating a few leaves.

    “Oh look this guy SMASHED his LDL-P by using Oxyfresh Mouthwash! Here’s *one simple trick*…”

    1. I thought of this when I was doing it… and I know exactly what you’re getting at.

      My thinking was… If I try all of these things, and my my cholesterol was still high, meaning nothing worked, THEN I’ve learned something, namely that none of these things worked.

      But now that I know that all of these things actually PRODUCE change, I’ve learned that there’s SOMETHING in this bag of tricks that works!

      The hard part will be to tease out which individual factors or combinations actually did the trick.

      For all I know it could’ve been the oxyfresh and the no-coffee!

      So I’d have to disagree with you. I feel confident that I CAN conclude something meaningful…. it’s just non-specific.

      1. Looking forward to your next post.

        I am still astonished that you take this volume of probiotics…? It appears to me this level is greater then what the labels are indicating.

        Thanks.

        •VSL#3 – 1 capsule
        •Prescript Assist – 1 capsule
        •Primadophilus Reuteri – 2 capsules

        I took one dose of this in the morning and one dose at night.

        1. Actually it’s within the recommendations on the labels. For example, with VSL#3, they recommend taking 2-6 or maybe 8 capsules per day!

  14. Hi BJJ,

    I saw you landed on my blog on Oct 20. I’m very excited to have found yours here, YES!! Looks like we’re both apoE3/4, and both solved our problems with perhaps the same solution. Here’s where we’re the same:

    * high fiber (mine’s ~ 75g / day)
    * low SFA (mine’s under 5% of calories)
    * o-3 supps (I take Now Ultra Omega-3, 2x/day = 1500 mg)
    * Mg and Zn supps
    * low o-6 ( I average 6g / day)
    * no added sugar or refined/processed carbs of any kind

    Here’s where we differ. I have:
    * 1 large cup of coffee per day
    * no factory fish/meat/dairy (avoid antibiotics / hormones)
    * I monitor my FBS and only take probiotics if it starts rising

    Here’s what my lipid panels have looked like for the last 3 1/2 years:
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/96885971/Dietary%20Influence%20on%20Serum%20Lipids.PNG

    I never thought I would see non-HDL-cholesterol under 100!

    Did I get it right about what we do that’s similar and different? What do you think? N=2 is twice as good as n=1; are we on to something?

    – Dan

    1. Thanks! I enjoyed reading the post on your site and was planning on writing a comment, but just haven’t gotten around to it.

      That’s a pretty nice looking chart!

      I’m getting ready to post an update soon so I’d love to compare notes further on!

  15. Hi BJJ, I am also in the same situation as you, APOe3/4, high LDL-p – followed Ferriss slow carb then saw cholesterol numbers go up…so your experiment results are very helpful to me. Why did you cut out coffee?

  16. Hello,

    I followed your Pre/Probiotics routine for 30 days and my LDL-P,small LDL fell over 50%.

    Very surprised. Trying to maintain the same regiment to verify results vs. lab error.

    Have you had any luck isolating your routine to fine the key change in your program that produced your great numbers??

    Great blog.

  17. This still surprise me, just how a lot of pepole don’t know about Kinovelax Diet Plan (do a google search), even though many pepole get good results because of it. Thanks to my cooworker who told me about Kinovelax Diet Plan, I’ve lost a lot of weight with it without starving myself.

  18. I have not yet read the study (some bedtime rdneiag tonight..haha), Firstly, I would love to read a study of centenarians from a Western culture, does anyone know if there is such a thing? It is hard to extrapolate from the Korean study as diet is not the only thing that contributes to longevity.I note a couple of things on the table that are interesting.Calcium intake is low, suggesting perhaps a diet also low in dairy.There are no alcohol calories included. Are they teetotal?Fibre intake is low compared to amount of carbs, I wonder why that is?Retinol intake is low but carotene intake is really high. It looks like these people are close to vegetarian.Anyways.. I guess if I go ahead and read it, all of these questions will be answered.

  19. This is really helpful – a month into keto and my LDL has jumped from 176 to 315! Gonna try your approach and see if my body processes that better. Thanks!

  20. Your numbers journey looks similar to mine. I’m wondering how things have gone since you made this post? I love the ketogenic approach, but I’m not sure it’s healthy for certain genotypes. You seemed to have figured that out. My journey has led me to discover that my particular aPOE4 variant (3/4) is well documented to have problems with high cholesterol, heart disease, and a slew of other problems (not to mention Alzheimer’s). Additionally, genetic testing revealed that I was homozygous for the MTHFR gene. Maybe you have already posted somewhere on your website but I have not searched to see if you have done any genetic testing? I would venture to say you carry the same genetic traits. In which case, the zinc and magnesium as well as the reduction drastically in saturated fat should respond very well. Homocysteine, CRP? Have you ever tested to see what your inflammatory markers are? I was listening to some of Dr. Daysprings pontifications and he always throws in the warning to ketogenic folks about some people having very high particle counts and they should probably get a good number on their inflammatory markers. I’m glad I did that because I felt perfectly fine on a ketogenic diet but when I tested after several months, my inflammatory markers were very elevated, thus indicating my body was seriously inflamed. Even after reducing my saturated fat intake and coming out of ketosis, my homocystine hasn’t dropped all that much. There’s probably something else I’m missing.

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