Well, there you go.

HDL = 52
LDL = 438

A wonderful 9 to 1 ratio.

Triglycerides = 205.

Um, holy [*bleep*]? Here it is: I've been on NSD for 9 months, and the last 6 weeks I've been eating almost exclusively meat, fish, cheddar cheese, butter, cooked zucchini, cream. All meat and dairy has been from good, grass-fed sources.

I used to eat lots of salads, but cut those out about 8 weeks ago when my stomach went to Hell and I couldn't handle food anymore. Turns out per my stool test that I've got three bad guys living in me: H Pylori, camposomething, and bactosomething. I'm taking antibiotics right now to try and kill them.

Anyhow, emotionally and mentally, I feel awesome on my extremely high fat, moderate protein, no carb protocol. I wake up clearheaded, I feel alert and attentive, my sleep is good, I don't have major energy swings, etc.

But these cholesterol numbers? I mean, eating a slab of butter on 6 oz of cheese for a snack (which I often do) is not gonna lower my cholesterol, but my ND has never seen numbers this high.

What do you guys think?

Also of importance: my C-reactive Protein was ~ 3.7 before NSD, and now is 0.6

My back has never felt better.

you are way too much into the risk zone (ldl and triglicerides...)

Hello, Steven_Smiles:


Although I am happy to hear about Your success with the NSD, I am also frustrated as You are that You may have traded one problem for another!

Although the NSD is considered a "high protein" diet, it does not need to be. And You have Your own version that has turned it into a "high fat" regimen!

Neither approach is particularly healthy, long-term, and some fasting should be done to eliminate the 'dross' of liver fats and then a diet that is moderate should be instituted.

I get the buttered cheese as a main course, but I have to continually remind myself with my little rhyme: "Butter and cheese are condiments PLEASE!"

Yes, it is first important to eliminate the unwanted guests, but replace them by "implanting" more beneficial gut flora: Use Stonyfield Farms or Brown Cow yoghurt in 'medicinal' quantities (about 2oz twice daily).

You need more enzymes to help process the foods You are eating, and these are from "live" foods especially alfalfa sprouts and bean sprouts, but very ripe fruit and especially the yoghurt has a good complement of enzymes.

Regret the high numbers, but add things like broccoli (with a teeny amount of Myzithra cheese "riced" over the top of it) as a main course. Then some protein side dishes, but important to get nuts also back into Your diet. However, after the antibiotics it is best to go easy on them and certain raw foods like salads until the gut heals.

Really, I am recommending a strict fast for cleansing after the antibiotic treatments, then study the digestive tract and add non-starchy thing to help rebuild the mucosa. And notice how the AS relents even more while taking the antibiotics, but be careful with these; they are a two-edged sword.

Please let us know Your improved numbers in future--and whether You could avoid statin drugs and maybe "guggol" could help.

But if You don't already have Carol Sinclair's book, be sure to obtain it and get some better variety back in Your diet which should be both alkalizing and laxative.

HEALTH,
John

Steven, did you get liver enzyme results?

I wasn't looking for this, but just came across it. Psyllium husk powder is the best fiber for lowering cholesterol levels.

For numbers that high, I would get a second test to confirm any problem.

hey Steve,

Hard to throw out veggies and fruits... that helps to explain the numbers.

Where do you live? Look into colonics... clear up bacterial issues in intestins much better than antibiotics.

They would probably allow you to incorporate veggies and fruits back in as well.

Tim

I'm curious Steve...what are the other bacteria you have in addition to H Pylori? My husband is having some gastritis type issues but has only been tested for H Pylori (twice) and the tests were negative.

Hey, Chelsea:

Hope Jon is doing well otherwise and can get this gut issue treated properly.

Seems like Bacteroides spp. and Campylobacter jejuni I would guess.

Hope they treat it with an anti-Kp antibiotic!

I was developing a terrible stomach thing--it was really awful in fact the smell when I burped was like rancid cigar smoke (and I HATE that stuff). I took a considerable amount of ozonated water, and some colloidal silver and this has not returned (knock wood) in over a year now.

Best to You both,
John

hi Kiwi,

I always just assumed that my gastritis was just part of my spondyloarthropathy.

But then when I found I was allergic / sensitive to casein and stopped all cow dairy, my gastritis has improved tremendously, to the point that i can have daily caffeinated tea (green, oolong, or black) and the caffeine no longer flares my gastritis.

Wonder if its something similar for your husband?

I too was tested for h. pylori, but it too was negative. We still did the antibiotic treatment (me and my husband) in 1990, but it did no good because that was not our problem(s).

Hope he figures it out soon.

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...

Seriously, eating potatoes right away and alone makes a difference?! I had just about given up on eating them again, after I found that just one serving on a holiday could spike my inflammation level towards a new flare. I had heard something about sticky rice being more digestible, so there was still some hope for someday being able have some rice after sufficient gut healing had taken place (one guy was able to reintroduce it after a few years of strict NSD). But it's really *potatoes* that I miss!!

How hot do you eat them, just barely cool enough not to sizzle your tongue? What I really want is baked with sour cream and bacon, think the sour cream would cool it off too much?