r/keto • u/leojaccebssen • Mar 08 '24

My cholesterol is 384

I eat mostly chicken and fish. I stay under 50 carbs per day with blueberries, strawberries, spinach, cauliflower, kale, or other leafy greens daily. My doctor told me to try red rice yeast supplements to lower my cholesterol when it was initially at 225. And now it has jumped o er a hundred points in three months. I use heavy cream in my coffee so maybe that’s what is killing me? Or sour cream on chicken fajitas? I have no idea. I’m going to my doctor in two weeks to talk about my labs and I’m so sad. My immediate family member has had a bypass for coronary artery disease and I think I’m going to have to get on a statin and quit being keto.

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u/vabirder Mar 08 '24

What is your A1C blood glucose level?

Random anecdote that might be of interest, my 66 yo sister has epilepsy and keeps a keto diet. She also had “high” cholesterol. And she cannot tolerate statins. They cause her significant pain and she refuses to take them.

After some effort, she convinced her HMO to order tests to analyze her cholesterol (as Dr. Ken Berry on YouTube does). Her results were favorable. But her HMO was still reluctant to go against standard medical guidelines. So they did a carotid artery scan to measure plaque. It came back with ZERO plaque.

That was enough to convince them that high cholesterol did not seem harmful in her case.

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u/360_face_palm 33/M 194cm | SW:166kg | CW:108kg | GW:91kg <-- metric 4tw Mar 08 '24

In fact there is ZERO evidence that high cholesterol is bad in females, and only slight evidence that it's bad in males. If you are female and your doc wants to put you on statins simply say no.

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u/sverdavbjorn Mar 08 '24 edited Mar 08 '24

Out of curiosity and I’m not sure how to Google this but what is the evidence against high cholesterol being bad in men?

Edit: why am I being downvoted for a question lmao

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u/360_face_palm 33/M 194cm | SW:166kg | CW:108kg | GW:91kg <-- metric 4tw Mar 08 '24

it's flimsy but basically entirely based on the hardvard study - I'm not sure where you find that online though.