cholesterol – Page 2

Cholesterol Clarity: What The HDL Is Wrong With My Numbers? by Jimmy Moore – Review

Posted on September 27, 2013February 18, 2015 by BJJ Caveman

Cholesterol Clarity

Cholesterol Clarity: What The HDL Is Wrong With My Numbers?

This was a book I’ve been looking forward to, especially since it was Jimmy’s own n=1 experiments that inspired me to get off my butt and begin my own n=1 experiments. I was also eager to see what he had to say regarding the phenomenon of elevated LDL on a low carb diet that many of us seem to be experiencing.

Jimmy is upfront right away about his lack of credentials and gives credit to all the experts he’s consulted for his information. … Read More

Links I Wanted to Share

Posted on August 21, 2013October 9, 2014 by BJJ Caveman

Despite my not posting very much lately, I’m still reading as much as I can to stay on top of things. Here are links to a few articles that caught my attention.

This is a very powerful and poignant open apology from a women’s health coach who worked for a diet/weight loss company. As we know calories are only a small part of the whole picture and it’s good to see that others are starting to come around too.

Jimmy Moore had a recent post about one of his readers who had improved cholesterol numbers (Total Cholesterol 230 -> 187 and LDL-C 113 -> 72) after she went low carb high fat. … Read More

The Effect of a Ketogenic Diet on Cholesterol Part 4

Posted on June 23, 2013February 18, 2015 by BJJ Caveman

After more than 30 days of increasing my carb intake it looks like my cholesterol numbers have all improved. At this point I haven’t bothered to check my blood ketones because I know that I’m out of ketosis. I’ve been trying to keep my carb intake to around 100 gm per day. Sometimes I go over and sometimes I go under, but on average it’s around 100 gm.

When I last left off in Part 3, I was still trying to piece together the possible causes for my sky high cholesterols despite being in ketosis. … Read More

The Effect of a Ketogenic Diet on Thyroid Hormone Part 2

Posted on June 15, 2013October 9, 2014 by BJJ Caveman

In light of the recent discoveries during my n=1 experiment with nutritional ketosis regarding my cholesterol (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), thyroid hormone (Part 1), and skin rash, I decided to take a break from nutritional ketosis to see what would happen.

We’ve already seen that the addition of carbs back into my diet made my rash go away (it’s been a few months out and still no rash, yay!).

I took another blood test to see if my thyroid hormone levels would change. … Read More

The Effect of a Ketogenic Diet on Thyroid Hormone

Posted on April 28, 2013March 29, 2016 by BJJ Caveman

During my most recent cholesterol blood work, I also checked my thyroid hormone levels in an effort to figure out why my cholesterol has gotten so high while I’ve been in nutritional ketosis.

One of the possible explanations was that:

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

Background – Here is an oversimplified explanation of thyroid physiology

Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) – This is the hormone your brain sends out telling your thyroid gland to produce more thyroid hormone.

The Effect of a Ketogenic Diet on Cholesterol Part 3

Posted on April 6, 2013November 6, 2014 by BJJ Caveman

As you can see with my cholesterol numbers, despite cutting back on my saturated fats for 3 weeks by restricting the amount of coconut oil and grassfed butter that I typically eat, my LDL-C and Total Cholesterol have continued to go up!

Here is a brief summary of potential explanation as to why LDL and total cholesterol can be elevated in people who are in ketosis from Part 2:

Increased consumption of saturated fats -> Increased liver production of fats -> High serums cholesterol
Deficiency in certain micronutrients such as choline and copper -> Through some unknown mechanism -> High serum cholesterol
Natural response of the body being in ketosis is to mobilize more fat for energy -> Higher serum cholesterol
Chronic low carb -> Hypothyroidism (low T3) -> Decreased expression of LDL receptors in the liver -> Higher serum cholesterol

So it looks like I’ve eliminated #1 as a potential explanation. … Read More