Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives NSD and diet-related; My Cholesterol is 531.

Wow, that's pretty high.

When i eliminated the starches, i didn't want to replace them with bad fats and too much protein, so i focus on lots of veggies, some fruit, healthy nuts, fatty fish, limited meats (more chicken and turkey than beef and pork) and limited eggs.

My LDLs are still a bit too high, but my triglycerides are great and my HDLs are pretty good as well.

Taking daily fish oil (3000 mg of Nordic Naturals) has also helped both my blood sugar and lipid profile.

Thanks John and sue...both good ideas to look into

I have a friend who has extra high triglicerides from genes. His doctor had him try statins _twice_ and both times he ended up getting really sick from them (well-known statin syndrome with severe muscle aches and I forget what else). Then he figured out that statins were just not going to work out and ended up with "prescription strength fish oil". I guess that's been working ok without the horrid statin side effects.

Eating too much meat on the NSD did me in too. Meat is very acidotic and terrible for you in large amounts. It sent my bad cholestersol throught the roof. And I still felt terrible. The diet was not healing my gut although you cant argue with the results some people have with the diet.
just proves there is a different pathway for AS. It's not that cookie cutter.

a statin gave me terrible edema. also made me very nauseated. but it did wipe out the cholesterol.

now however, when i eat a very low carb diet (no starches, very little sugar), eat my nuts, take my fish oil, and walk, my triglycerides are excellent and HDLs are pretty decent too. think the only way i'll lose the LDLs is to lose the weight.

My three bacteria are:

H Pylori
Campylobacter SP.
Blastocystis hominis

It's worth mentioning that I tested negative for H Pylori in a blood test only a month before the stool test, which then showed I have 7x the threshold amount.

I just finished antibiotic treatment. Good god, when I increased the dosages of Flagyl and added Amoxicillin, it started to get hairy. I'm glad to be off of them. Did they work? I don't know. I haven't had a stomach attack yet, but I also haven't eaten anything too dicey. My stomach has given me some mild discomfort after eating, which is discouraging. I also flared this morning after eating too many carbs (or was it the goldenseal root?) yesterday.

I've been able to eat yogurt the past two weeks, and I'm hoping that's here to stay. As for my ridiculously high cholesterol, I switched fish for pork, starting using some seaweeds, am incorporating intermittent fasting, cutting back on cheddar cheese and butter, and am in general eating less. I don't imagine it will have a profound effect on lowering it, but I can't just disobey my body's tolerances. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to tolerate more veggies soon, which will help me not rely so much on high saturated fat ALL the time.

But I gotta say: I feel AMAZING on the high fat diet. So it's a bit of a conundrum...

Hey Steven_Smiles,

I am new to this blog (I am a newly diagnosed Undiff SponArth.), but I have been a reader of paleo/low carb stuff for some time.

I think you should check out the following website, if you have not already. It addresses this concern. Please do read other posts by Paul at Perfect Health Diet Blog, as well. He is a wealth of good, unbiased info.

http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2011/03/low-carb-paleo-and-ldl-is-soaring-%E2%80%93-help/

http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2011/03/answer-day-what-causes-high-ldl-on-low-carb-paleo/

Basically, too low of carb can cause elevated LDL, not because of too much sat fat, but because of too low copper and/or iodine, in particular. Or even just a bit too low of carbs. Do what you're doing if you're feeling great doing it; but, in time, you may want to slowly add back non-starchy carbs up to ~50-100 per day from easily digested/absorbed sources (raw honey, raw orange juice, tomato juice, and other low fiber and no starch sources).

This actually worked for me (before I was diagnosed, just experimenting around). I was eating about 200g protein from meat/eggs/fish/whey per day; plus about 200g fat including extra butter and coconut oil. I was only eating leaves and marinara for carbs (about 30g 'net' carbs per day). My cholesterol went up within a couple months to ~250 from 160 (I have always tended low). Then, when I added some kelp tabs (for about 250 mcg supplemental iodine per day) and added marinara to everything, I got to about 75g 'net' carbs per day, and my cholesterol dropped to 170. My HDL and triglycerides were great throughout, of course; adding these carbs just lowered the LDL. In fact, my HDL has also always tended low, so adding the sat fat (which raised my HDL-c from about 40 to about 80) and keeping that as a mainstay in the diet is a good idea. Especially if the sat fat is from good sources, like butter from grass-fed cows, and from organic extra-virgin coconut oil.

My suggestions for copper and iodine, if you need it:

Copper from Arsenic-free, grass-fed beef dessicated liver:
http://www.radiantlifecatalog.com/product/Radiant-Life-Desiccated-Liver-Capsules

And iodine from kelp:
http://www.iherb.com/Nature-s-Way-Kelp-660-mg-180-Capsules/1934

I recommend these products because they have no fillers and they shouldn't make you react. Just good ole' fashioned liver and seaweed.


I hope this helps.

Hey CelticPhoenix,

Thank you. I actually came across the PHD site before reading this post and recently had my thyroid levels checked. Sure enough, the Free T3 and T4 look fine, my TSH is slightly low, but my RT3 is high (which is predicted re: the hibernation cholesterol theory).

I've been experimenting some with iodine, but so far, don't know what to make of it. I got pretty wildly high one day from it, but of course that was taking 6 mg. I tried adding dulce back into my daily diet, but ended up in a flare, and I'm not sure if it was from the dulce or other bad tguys, but I cut it out to come back down from the pain. I plan to re-introduce it again soon.

Meanwhile, my new naturopath thinks all of this may be related to my pituitary gland. He gave me Pure Encapsulations Adrenal Support, and a homeopathic tincture with Adrenalinum 12c, Thyroidinum 6c, and Anteria Pituitarum 6C. He also recommended I try supplementing trace minerals. I've been doing all of this for a week, and I feel great. I wonder if it's helping my LDL lower, too.

I've been eating quite a bit of "safe starch" carbs per PHD. I'm up to about 400 calories (100 g) of carbs from white potatoes per day. But I do get really tired after eating them (so therefore I eat them at night), and I'm still undecided on how they are or are not contributing to my AS. Surely they don't knock my [*bleep*] out like some other starches, but I also don't feel like I do when I go Very Low Carb.

Greens continue to be a problem for me, sigh. They hurt my tummy.

Anyhow, thanks for the info! I'm really looking forward to Jaminet's new PHD book in December...

How are white potatoes considered "safer" starch? I would *LOVE* for them to be safe, but I started to get eye irritation (the kind I have learned is early sign of iritis) last time I tried an ordinary serving of potato. Are you doing anything special to prepare them?

Hey SJLC,

White potatoes, white rice, and some other goodies per the Jaminets are considered safe b/c they digest to glucose right away, instead of hanging around and fermenting in your gut. I've been able to eat both russet potatoes and white rice. I always bake my potatoes, and I eat them right away and on their own (hours apart from other foods). If you allow them to cool at all, some of the starch turns to so-called resistant starch, and that stuff will hang around in your gut (and thus the AS monster will have more time to find it!). I've started to flare when I've eaten potatoes that have cooled. I also notice that I flare if I eat the potatoes too close to bedtime, so I try to finish them at least 3 hours before sleep.

I've been eating more potatoes than rice over the past two months, but am now experimenting with the latter to see how I do...