My cholesterol (lipid) results came back and we have to talk.
Have you been following along on instagram stories? I've been sharing a ton about my latest bloodwork, what labs I asked the doctor to order and why, my results and what I'm making of it all. It's been a regular party! HAHA.
One thing I asked the doc for was an extended lipid panel. The standard lipid panel just doesn't tell much of a story. My total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides came back first and they were all great.
Then the "special" lipid panel results came in.
I really wanted to see my Apo B as that is a better indicator of risk of heart disease and atherosclerosis than LDL. My Apo B was good (65). But this is one of those things that can always be better, as far as I'm concerned. So I'd like to work on that even though it's "normal" and "very good".
LP(a) was one I was very curious about as it's the one that's not quite as modifiable with lifestyle and is more genetic. I have a very strong family history of hypercholesterolemia, so I wasn't sure what to expect here. Mine was very good at <10. If it wasn't, I'd really drill down on the other aspects of my lipids that I could improve to help offset this. Also, I would potentially consider medication if I believed it was the lesser of the evils here. But it's low. Great!
But I also asked to see particle size. My small, dense LDL particles are elevated. This isn't cholesterol itself but the little carrier molecules that transport cholesterol around. Cholesterol isn't water soluble, so it needs something that IS to carry it around our body. Lipoproteins it is! These are water soluble on the outside, so they can move around our bloodstream but they can hold cholesterol inside of it. Think of them like little Uber drivers for our cholesterol. LDL + HDL stand for low density lipoproteins and high density lipoproteins. They are lipoproteins and these actually seem to matter a lot more than the actual cholesterol contents inside of them when it comes to risk factors. So while I don't have a lot of LDL, I do have too many of the troublesome kind. Small, dense LDL particles are the ones that tend to lodge themselves into our blood vessel lining and cause trouble.
As with everything, I plan to take in all the information, formulate a plan, carry it out and retest in a bunch of months to see how my plan is working. Here's my plan:
I am still having my typical breakfast of 1 full egg with the egg yolk plus a cup of egg whites and all my veggies and other stuff because I don't eat much cholesterol at all and this is pretty much my only source ... plus (and most importantly) when we test for cholesterol we're getting information about what our body is making and degrading, not what we took in through food. So lowering cholesterol through my food intake isn't part of the plan.
I just switched from cooking my breakfast eggs in coconut oil to cooking in another oil instead (olive, avocado). This is because coconut oil is one of the only plant sources of saturated fat and it has quite a lot per serving! I don't take in a lot of saturated fat otherwise, though I do believe some is important. High saturated fat intake does affect the amount / types of lipids we make. I won't avoid coconut oil altogether or anything, just removing it from my daily breakfast will be a great experiment.
I will continue to monitor my blood sugar. Blood sugar issues can actually cause 3 problems here. For one, elevated blood sugar will raise triglycerides, LDL and Apo B. It can interfere with us using up / degrading of the cholesterol we have already made. And then, it can cause damage to the blood vessel lining which then attracts these harmful lipid particles in order to use them as a bandaid of sorts and spackle up the damage. This is great to prevent bleeding out in the moment but eventually leads to build up, plaque, blockages, and things like heart attacks or strokes. My recent blood work showed my fasting insulin is very low (yay ... no insulin resistance currently) and my blood sugar was fine (not prediabetic) but higher than I've gotten it down to before and higher than I'd like it to be. Since there is no insulin resistance, I suspect stress to be the cause currently. So, I'll be doing all the things I mentioned in last week's newsletter for that. I will also make sure I don't drop my carbs too low as that can increase stress and potentially make my blood sugar worse in this case! This is why it's so important to get fasting insulin done so we can play detective here. Finally, I will monitor my blood sugar sporadically with finger pricks as I do but also plan to get another continuous glucose monitor soon and keep it on for a few weeks for more data.
Things I'm already doing that should help and I plan to continue to do:
NO smoking
Very little alcohol intake
Sleep
Sunshine
Grounding
Exercise
Maintain healthy body composition
Maintain healthy blood pressure (big deal with lipids as poor lipids plus high blood pressure encourages more plaque build up)
Red light therapy
Some of the above helps us rebalance our lipids in a more healthful way. Some of the above is to help protect blood vessel lining. We don't just want healthy lipids, but also healthy blood vessel linings so as to not need to use the cholesterol to "spackle" up the damage and then be left with plaque. Sunshine and grounding, for example, each help us to restructure some of the water in our body into 4th phase water -- a gel-like substance that lays down like a protective layer over our blood vessels and takes some of the damage we accumulate through -- life. Getting enough sun and plenty of contact with the Earth (standing barefoot in the grass, sand, swimming in an ocean or lake, etc.) are 2 ways we can help our bodies create and maintain that protective layer.
So, that's the plan! And I hope that by sharing this long and nerdy story with you, it might help you know what to ask your doctor to test for and / or formulate your own plan. Of course I'm happy to help you if you need it! TRANSFORM: Body + Mind is my 28-day metabolism-boosting and health optimization course and TRANSFORM: 1:1 is my 1-on-1 coaching program where we dive much deeper and also discuss your individual needs, including lab work.
XO,
Tara