I have been on the carnivore diet 5 and a half months.I feel great and have lost 25 lbs.The downside is that I had my cholesterol results today, Total 315. HDL is 59 and triglycerides are good-145. I would like reduce total cholesterol without stations and also staying on my carnivore diet. If anyone else has faced this problem,I would be interested to hear how you dealth with it. Thanks  DAN

3 hours ago, Dan o said:

If anyone else has faced this problem,I would be interested to hear how you dealth with it.

Welcome Dan!

What you are going to find is that many of us in the keto/carnivore space don't consider it a problem. A lot of new research has shed some light on cholesterol and LDL that sheds light on this not being the issue that mainstream medicine has had us believing since the low-fat craze of decades ago. 

Bascially, you want your HDL to be up over 40, and if you can get it higher that's even better. You want your trigs to be equal to (a 1:1 ratio) or at least no more than double (a 2:1 ratio) of what your HDL is. For example, if you had an HDL of 75 and trigs at 150, that would be good. The lower the trigs, the better. And then we don't generally care much about the LDL reading.

Sooooo many factors go into that cholesterol reading. You can literally not eat for several days, go get a lipid panel, and it will have shot up. If you are actively losing weight, it's going to rise because cholesterol is stored in your adipose tissue. They say you should wait until 3-6 months after weight loss has stopped before you can trust your lipid panel results. They just get too skewed when losing wieght.

Yeah, what Bob said. 
Most of us have higher cholesterol while on carnivore including me, especially in the beginning. The reason as Bob already explained. 
I heard one doctor say ( I’m not sure but it may have been Dr. Berry) that you should get a blood test before you start carnivore and then wait a year as it can take a year or more to start stabilizing. I did one ate the six month mark and mine was high and my doc wants me on a statin but that ain’t happening because I know the truth about statins. I also know the truth about cholesterol so I’m not the least bit concerned as long as my HDL to Triglycerides ratio is good, which mine are. 
Modern medicine has been brainwashed by false studies disguised as science and by the pharmaceutical industry to push a false narrative on cholesterol for profit. 

 

That was my next question. Can you be on statins  while on the carnivore diet? If once on statins,are you locked in and unable to stop taking them? Have you heard of anyone else having a total cholesterol of 315 ? Any advice how to lower cholesterol and remain carnivore? I apologize for all the questions. Thanks again.   Dan

52 minutes ago, Dan o said:

Can you be on statins  while on the carnivore diet?

Yes you can but there is no need to be on statins for any reason. Unless maybe you’ve already had a heart attack. In that case they may provide some benefit but not much. The side effects far outweigh any benefit that you may achieve. The most you will get out of taking a statin is 3-5 days, yes I typed that correctly, 3-5 days of extended life. The side effects last as long as you are taking them and can cause permanent harm. 

 

58 minutes ago, Dan o said:

If once on statins,are you locked in and unable to stop taking them?

Absolutely! In fact, if you are on them you should get off of them as soon as possible. I was on them for years until I learned the truth and I quit them immediately.  It’s quite possible that some of my issues may have been directly related to my taking of statins. 
 

 

1 hour ago, Dan o said:

Have you heard of anyone else having a total cholesterol of 315 ?

Sure, plenty of people. If I’m remembering correctly (I’m old so who knows) Dr. Ken Berry is over 300.  Stop looking at the overall cholesterol. It’s not important.  LDL cholesterol is an essential building block if our bodies and is a good thing. 
The only markers you need to focus on is the HDL to Triglyceride ratio. If you want to break it down further you could have a CAC test run on you and see what your score is and maybe get a profile done on your LDL particle size. Those are much better indicators. 

 

1 hour ago, Dan o said:

Any advice how to lower cholesterol and remain carnivore?

Yeah, eat 12 Oreo cookies a day. Guaranteed it will lower your cholesterol better and fast than a statin will. No joke, it’s true. 
Look, there is no reason, unless there is something totally out of wack (like Bob has) for you to be concerned about your elevation cholesterol. 
You can test it three times throughout the day and get different results. Stress with cause it to change. The fact that your eating carnivore will cause your liver to release more cholesterol for your body’s energy source. It perfectly normal. 
At one time we were all brainwashed to believe that high cholesterol and high fat was killing us but the truth is, they were killing us with their lies. 
My total cholesterol at my last test four months ago was 299. I don’t care. There is plenty of evidence to show that at my age especially, I’m going to out live someone who has low cholesterol, on a statin and eats a low fat diet. 
Just Keep Calm and Carni On. 
 

Check out these videos from a heart surgeon and go down the rabbit holes studying him and others like him. 

 

10 hours ago, Dan o said:

That was my next question. Can you be on statins  while on the carnivore diet? If once on statins,are you locked in and unable to stop taking them? Have you heard of anyone else having a total cholesterol of 315 ? Any advice how to lower cholesterol and remain carnivore? I apologize for all the questions. Thanks again.   Dan

Yes, you can take a statin. You may experience side effects. You may not. It's the most prescribed drug on the planet, so millions of people take them and don't have any issues at all. Other people take them and suffer aches, pains, and more. I've heard a carnivore doctor say that if you are trying to compromise with your primary care physician, you could negotiate that you would take a low dose 5g Rosuvastatin which will probably not harm you (nor help you) but will be enough to shut your doctor up, lol.

High doses (at least 1000g/day, and up to 3000mg/day) of Niacin (Vitamin B3 in the form of Nicotinic Acid) will also raise HDL and help lower trigs and LDL. Decades ago before there were any statins, this is what was prescibed. But prescription Niacin was expensive, so people just bought it over-the-counter, which is one of the reasons why new drugs were invented, because over-the-counter meds don't line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies.

My latest cholesterol reading was 411. I've had it as high as 588 several months back.

Wow. I thought a total cholesterol of 315 was extreme. Just received a text from my doctor who recommends I see a digestive health specialist. I will make that appointment. Hopefully we can agree on a path forward that doesn't require statins. I don't want to give up on the carnivore diet because in the 5 months I'v been on it, amazing transformation. I am open to modifying my diet with a few carbs,maybe a bagel with my morning coffee. I'm glad there is a site like this to counter balance the statin pushing crowd.  I didn't mention my age. I am in my mid 70s ,very healthy and active and taking no medications.  Thanks     Dan

1 hour ago, Dan o said:

Hopefully we can agree on a path forward that doesn't require statins. I don't want to give up on the carnivore diet because in the 5 months I'v been on it, amazing transformation. I am open to modifying my diet with a few carbs,maybe a bagel with my morning coffee.

There is no path that requires statins. There is no need to lower your cholesterol. It’s fine where it is and May lower of stabilize as you progress with your diet. As stated earlier, in the beginning you will have a lot of cholesterol running through your veins simply because you have become fat adapted so you are using fat for energy. This will stabilize over time and become the new normal. Cholesterol is not detrimental to your health. You don’t have any need to change your diet to try to lower it. Eat a high fat, moderate protein diet with salt and water and that is the most nutritious way you can eat. If you start eating carbs again you will drop out of ketosis and you will start storing fat again. Yes, your cholesterol may come down some but to what benefit? Seriously, what do you hope to gain from lowering your cholesterol? 
There is no benefit. The research clearly shows that in people our age, I’m 67, that higher cholesterol is very healthy for us and we live longer than people our age with lower cholesterol. 
Just like my doctor, your doctor is ignorant. He knows little to nothing about nutrition and human physiology. They are pill pushers who treat everything with a drug when our nutrition is the problem. They treat the symptoms rather that the disease. 
Do, it’s up to you to treat yourself by eating the proper human diet. 

13 hours ago, Dan o said:

Just received a text from my doctor who recommends I see a digestive health specialist.

Sounds like they want to talk to you about your diet, lol.

13 hours ago, Dan o said:

Hopefully we can agree on a path forward that doesn't require statins.

Not likely. Expect them to push it hard. Other options are high dose Niacin (nicotinic acid), fenofibrates, and ezetimibe (Zetia), all of which are less bad than statins from what I have heard. 

What are the separate values for your HDL, trigs, and LDL?

13 hours ago, Dan o said:

I don't want to give up on the carnivore diet because in the 5 months I'v been on it, amazing transformation.

And that alone should carry a lot of weight. I am in the same place. I have lost 50 lbs and reversed a half a dozen "incurable" conditions. Any pressure to go back to my old way of eating just sounds like utter nonsense to me at this point.

13 hours ago, Dan o said:

I am open to modifying my diet with a few carbs,maybe a bagel with my morning coffee.

Bagels are a grain. I would still recommend avoiding the unholy trinity of grains, sugar, and seed oils.

However, I do think a clean keto/ketovore diet (promulgated by Dr. Ken Berry) as well as an animal-based diet (promulgated by Paul Saladino) are acceptable options, DEPENDING on your personal physiology and the quality of your metabolic health at this point in your life.

I will add this Dan, you and you alone are responsible for your health. Not your doctor, your family or your friends, just you. Don’t be led by someone else’s influence or your own fears.
Make your decisions based on facts and truth by educating yourself.


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