My Amazing "Cholesterol" Experiment!

With thanks to Ivor Cummins

I don’t usually post about my own medical goings on. This is because: a) There’s not much going on; and b) What is going on is not very interesting. But in this case, I think that what I learned might be of use to others, so I’m going to tell my story.

I’ll preface by saying that I do not believe that high cholesterol is a problem in itself. I’ve done some amount of reading on the topic, am by no means an expert, but from what I’ve seen, the whole “cholesterol bad” mythology can be traced to some very bad science that has since been repudiated.

I will refer folks to Ivor Cummins on this. Not because he is the only one who writes on this issue, he is certainly not. But because his book, “Eat Rich, Live Long” does the best job I’ve seen of laying out the reasons for thinking that the “cholesterol bad” thing IS a myth, that cholesterol is NOT the source of heart/arterial disease, and that the dietary and pharmaceutical recommendations that are based on that myth are in fact counterproductive. He also tells you what you can do instead.

I won’t go through the whole argument here. But check out his book for yourselves. In the meantime, here’s what Ivor has to say about cholesterol levels themselves:

“[The triglyceride/HDL ratio]… is the best one from the cholesterol panel for assessing real risk. (Bold mine.)

“A study as far back as 1997 came to the conclusion that this ratio is vastly more predictive than the LDL value. Nothing has since changed – for both heart disease and death risk, the trig/HDL ratio reigns supreme. Recent recommendations say that the value should ideally be below 2.0. Based on the science, the clear mechanisms at work, and all of the published risk data, we would aim lower: Below 1.2 or even below 1.0.

“…Other studies point to the extraordinary predictive power of trig/HDL for deaths from any cause.”

And:

“The ratio of total cholesterol to HDL (total/HDL)… speaks volumes. (Bold mine.)

“People who have significant insulin resistance often have a ‘normal’ LDL. But they also have low HDL and high triglycerides. The trigliceride value jacks up the total cholesterol number, which means that the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL also gets jacked up. In this way, the total/HDL ratio is closely related to the trig/HDL ratio and has similar usefulness.

“…the current guidelines suggest you should be lower than 5 or even 4.5. Achieving lower than 4 would be the ideal target. We transformed ours many years ago, from about 5 to about 3, by reducing our insulin levels.”

So here’s me:

About two years ago, I had bloodwork done, and had the following results from my lipid panel:

Total Cholesterol: 231

HDL: 27

LDL: 148

Triglycerides: 304

This gave me a triglyceride/HDL ratio of: 304/27, or 11.3. Not good.

…and a total cholesterol/HDL ratio of: 231/27, or 8.5. Also not good.

Fast forward to a few days ago, when I repeated the lipid panel. My levels are now:

Total Cholesterol: 234

HDL: 86

LDL: 141

Triglycerides: 41

This gave me a triglyceride/HDL ratio of: 41/86, or 0.47. Pretty darned good.

…and a total cholesterol/HDL ratio of: 234/86, or 2.72. Also pretty darned good.

Remember that the target for triglyceride/HDL is “below 1.2 or even below 1”, and the target for total/HDL is “lower than 5 or even 4.5… lower than 4 would be the ideal target.”

I’m obviously pretty happy with these results. And notice that both my total cholesterol and my (“bad!”) HDL went UP. But what is important is that my triglyceride/HDL ratio and total/HDL ratio both went down – dramatically.

So what did I do in the intervening two-ish years? This is the part that might be helpful to others - because it wasn’t hard at all.

1. I got a little more serious about avoiding sugar, flour, and other carbohydrates. BUT, and very significantly, I am not super, super, rigorous about this. I eat (dark) chocolate every day. Probably more than I should. And I occasionally eat bread, or rice. Sometimes even pasta. But VERY occasionally. Oh, and when there’s a birthday, we make birthday cakes – usually using an ancient grain like spelt or einkorn – and I eat the crap out of those. My point is, while I have established healthy habits, I’m not depriving myself.;

2. I’ve been exercising a little bit more. Two years ago, I was doing about two ballet classes a week. Now I’m doing between three and four.;

3. I’m thinking this may be the most significant, only because the other changes were incremental to what I had been doing before: I started doing intermittent fasting. This means that I don’t eat after (generally) 6:00pm, or before 10:00am. Again, I don’t go crazy with this, and will occasionally (rarely) make an exception.

My point in telling you all of this is this: I was able to make HUGE improvements in what I believe are the important indicators with regard to cholesterol (or, more accurately, insulin resistance), and the things I did to make this happen were NOT THAT DIFFICULT. You can do this too.

There. That’s it. I hope this is helpful to someone. Again, Ivor’s book is here.