Lab Tests – BJJ Caveman

Dr. Cromwell’s Take on Low Carb and High Cholesterol from Robb Wolf’s Wired To Eat Bonus Material

Posted on April 13, 2018April 12, 2018 by BJJ Caveman

As a pre-order bonus to Robb Wolf’s latest book, Wired to Eat, he provided access to an interview with Dr. William Cromwell, a lipidologist who is the Director of Cardiovascular Disease at LabCorp where they discuss the ins and outs of various blood tests.

Their discussion naturally made its way to lipids and LDL-P which is of particular interest to me given my own history of having high LDL-Ps.

When Dr. Cromwell encounters a patient with an elevated LDL, he first likes to understand why it’s elevated. … Read More

Cholesterol Update Late April 2017: Intermittent Fasting, Cut Out Red Meat and Eggs, And Drank Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted on October 16, 2017October 15, 2017 by BJJ Caveman

After my most recent cholesterol blood test in the earlier weeks of April 2017, I learned that despite taking both Berberine AND Bergamot, my LDL-P and my Small LDL-P both bumped up after enjoying a week of my mom’s home cooking while she stayed with us.

When I retested a week after my folks left and I was able to get my diet back on track, while continuing both Berberine and Bergamot, my LDL-P came back into the 1700 range while my Small LDL-P ticked higher to almost 800.… Read More

Using the Breezing to measure my metabolic rate during a fever

Posted on October 12, 2017October 11, 2017 by BJJ Caveman

I learned in medical school that during a fever the body generates heat by revving up it’s metabolism so that for approximately every 1 degree increase in temperature there is a 10% increase in metabolism.

When I first heard that number I was amazed. This meant that a fever of 103° leads to an almost 50% increase in metabolism! I thought of all the calories I could burn and how fast it’d be to lose weight.

I probably had an unhealthy obsession with weight loss at the time which is where this came from… I mean, I conveniently forgot how crappy being sick and having a fever actually feels: body aches all over, malaise, being too fatigued to doing anything fun like play videogames or watch DVDs.… Read More

Cholesterol Case Study by Lipidologist, Dr. Tara Dall

Posted on August 10, 2017October 13, 2017 by BJJ Caveman

I was poking around Dr. Tara Dall’s website one day and came across this case study that surpisingly reminded me of my own case (I’ve uploaded a copy here just in case her link breaks).

Dr. Dall is the lipidologist I visited to help me review my cholesterol situation. Here are links to the posts documenting my consultation with her:

In fact, it was through my meeting with her that I learned that I am both a cholesterol hyper-synthesizer AND a hyper-absorber, and that I have an ApoE 3/4 genotype. … Read More

Cholesterol Update with Berberine AND Bergamot, April 2017

Posted on August 7, 2017July 29, 2017 by BJJ Caveman

In the last episode of “Let’s Tinker With The BJJ Caveman’s Cholesterol,” I took Bergamot 500 mg 2x/day and saw that it brought my Small LDL-P to 407 which is the lowest it’s ever been and the fist time it was in the normal range of <527 nmol/L. My LDL-P remained in the high range of 1600-2000 at 1756 nmol/L.

So now we’ve seen what my cholesterol looks like with a dietary intervention alone (eating Whole 30), with Berberine 500 mg 2x per day, and with Berberine 500 mg 3x per day.… Read More

Cholesterol Update with Bergamot, March 2017

Posted on June 20, 2017 by BJJ Caveman

Moving forward with my efforts to identify non-Statin ways to lower my cholesterol I experimented with using Bergamot 500 mg twice a day. This was a component of what I did when I finally got my LDL-P to under 1500 and small LDL-P to under 600:

Did My Anti-Cholesterol Gameplan Work? YES

Most recently I’ve been testing the effects of various dosages of Berberine, here are links to my most recent posts:

Cholesterol Update September 2016 – My only intervention was eating Whole 30
Cholesterol Update with Berberine, January 2017 – Taking 500 mg of Berberine twice a day
Cholesterol Update after Increasing the Dose of Berberine, February 2017 – Taking 500 mg of Berberine three times a day

Next, I wanted to see what using Bergamot alone would do to my cholesterol. … Read More