help! triglycerides THRU THE ROOF!

[That Girl]

i need some help here...here is my ? my tryglycerides are double what they are supposed to be..dr wants to put me back on zocor, i tried before, didnt like the side effects.. i asked her what would make them go up so high, was it too much meat, cheese, cream? she said no, too many carbs. period. i said i have lost 60 lbs on atkins, i am not eating too many carbs, 20-30 per day... she looked like a deer in the headlights when i pressed her for specific ideas to handle this w/diet. should i stop eating meat, cheeses, dairy??? she never did answer my question, just wants me to take the meds.. any help would be so appreciated.....thanks..

[shespeaks]

How is your blood sugar?

[MarblesLongGone]

Do you keep a food journal? There can be fractional carbs that add up fast. Also take into account that if you eat too much protein all at once, that can be converted into sugar. What is the fat % of your diet? Can you post a few days menus?

[Chasintrail]

How long have you been on Atkins?

Dr A said that you should have your checkup prior to starting and then again at 6 months. What may be happening is that the fat being mobilized by your weight loss is driving your tris up. What are your HDL/LDL numbers?

Personally, I'd stick with low carb and test again in a few months. If there's no improvement, then start looking for a culprit.

[shespeaks]

[QUOTE=MarblesLongGone;11478594]Also take into account that if you eat too much protein all at once, that can be converted into sugar. QUOTE]

I think it's really uncommon for that to happen to non-diabetics, but I could be wrong.

I'm really interested in this one...

[sugarless4life]

What are triglycerides?
Triglycerides are a type of fat found in your blood. They are a major source of energy and the most common type of fat in your body.

When you eat, your body uses the calories it needs for quick energy. Any extra calories are turned into triglycerides and stored in fat cells to be used later. The excess calories are stored as fat regardless of what kind of food you eat—fat, carbohydrate, or protein. If you regularly eat more calories than you burn, you may have high triglycerides.

In normal amounts, triglycerides are important to good health. When triglyceride levels are high, it is not clear whether these high levels directly increase your risk for heart disease. But high triglycerides are often part of a group of conditions called metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is the combination of high blood pressure, high blood sugar, too much fat around the waist, low HDL ("good") cholesterol, and high triglycerides. This syndrome does increase your risk for heart disease as well as for diabetes and stroke.

Triglycerides are measured as part of a blood test that measures your cholesterol. Normal triglyceride levels are below 150. High levels are 200 or above.

What causes high triglycerides?
Conditions that may cause high triglycerides include:

Obesity.
Poorly controlled diabetes.
An underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism).
Kidney disease.
Regularly eating more calories than you burn.
Drinking a lot of alcohol.
Certain medicines may also raise triglycerides. These medicines include:

Tamoxifen.
Steroids.
Beta-blockers.
Diuretics.
Estrogen.
Birth control pills.
Certain types of high cholesterol and high triglycerides are caused by genetics.

What are the symptoms?
High triglycerides usually do not cause symptoms.

Sometimes high triglycerides have a genetic cause. But this is not common. In this case, high triglyceride levels may occur along with visible fatty deposits under the skin called xanthomas.

In rare cases, people who have very high levels of triglycerides may develop inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis). This can cause sudden, severe abdominal pain, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, and fever.

How can you lower your high triglycerides?
If you are overweight, losing weight may be the best way to lower triglycerides. You may be able to lower your triglycerides by eating fewer calories and increasing your activity. Other diet changes that might help include limiting fats and sugars, and limiting or not drinking alcohol.

If increasing your activity and watching calories do not work, you may also need medicine. Medicines called statins are commonly used to lower LDL ("bad") cholesterol. [COLOR="Red"]But drugs called nicotinic acid (or niacin) and fibrates seem to work better for lowering triglycerides. [/COLOR]If you have high triglycerides, high LDL cholesterol, and low HDL ("good") cholesterol, you may take more than one type of medicine that lowers cholesterol.

**I would strongly recommend that you try flush-free niacin (available in the vitamin aisle of Walmart). I take 2 500mg a day and my trigs are perfect.

Betty

[MarblesLongGone]

Originally Posted by sugarless4life

Certain medicines may also raise triglycerides. These medicines include:

Tamoxifen.
Steroids.
Beta-blockers.
Diuretics.
[COLOR="Red"]Estrogen. [/COLOR]
Birth control pills.
Certain types of high cholesterol and high triglycerides are caused by genetics.

Notice, ESTROGEN is up there. Do you eat much soy? Soy is FULL of phytoestrogens. This COULD be a part of the problem.

[shespeaks]

Bella, can you tell us exactly what your numbers were? When you say "through the roof" what does that mean, exactly?

[That Girl]

thanks you guys for the quick response...my sugar level is also up, she wants me to also start metformin, which i am freaked out about also..... my trglycerides were ( i am sooo embarrased by this number) in the high 200's..... i think i will read the atkins book again, i thought maybe i was eating too much protein, i guess i am...so what should i eat? my total chol number was 211, which i thought wasn't so bad...should i quit atkins, do something else? anybody take metformin? ugh, i am a wreck about this...thanks.bella
as far as menu, its usually eggs/meat for breakie, hamburger, beef for lunch, dinner is about the same as lunch...thanks, i just wanna cry.....

[MarcellaSF]

How long have you been eating like that? I'm guessing for awhile, since you've lost 60 lbs.? (Congratulations, by the way!) Do you have any vegetables at all? How much fat do you eat? Do you put what you eat into FitDay?

[shespeaks]

Well pshaw, my tri's were 376 when I was dx with diabetes. You are not on the brink of disaster, I promise!

Were you dx with diabetes?

[LeanLioness]

Originally Posted by That Girl

thanks you guys for the quick response...my sugar level is also up, she wants me to also start metformin, which i am freaked out about also..... my trglycerides were ( i am sooo embarrased by this number) in the high 200's..... i think i will read the atkins book again, i thought maybe i was eating too much protein, i guess i am...so what should i eat? my total chol number was 211, which i thought wasn't so bad...should i quit atkins, do something else? anybody take metformin? ugh, i am a wreck about this...thanks.bella
as far as menu, its usually eggs/meat for breakie, hamburger, beef for lunch, dinner is about the same as lunch...thanks, i just wanna cry.....

I was in the same boat as you!!!

Eat lots of veggies...........my endocrinologist told me to limit fruit intake to 3 servings per week, no bigger than the size of a kiwi (so very little fruit).......

Lots of veggies and fat will even out the protein and should start going down.

I, too, take metformin..............

[MarblesLongGone]

Where's the veggies?

Atkins put out one book specifically for diabetics, it's the Atkins Diabetes Revolution.

[sassyuk]

My doctor took me off all flour and grains -- when I stick to that, my triglyceride number drops like a rock. I've read that advice on a couple of sites by doctors.

[poopsie2223]

I'd get retested, preferably a fasting test. Triglycerides have false positives all the time.

[jem51]

read dr bernstein's diabetes solution. get yourself a monitor and start testing. blood sugar 101 plenty of info as well as the info on when to test. this could really be your problem.

[That Girl]

Originally Posted by MarcellaSF

How long have you been eating like that? I'm guessing for awhile, since you've lost 60 lbs.? (Congratulations, by the way!) Do you have any vegetables at all? How much fat do you eat? Do you put what you eat into FitDay?

marcella, i have been doing atkins for 2 years. i am guilty of losing the weight, putting it back on...last year my tryglycerides were in normal ranges. yes i eat veggies, but probably not enough. should i keep eating more fat and less protein? thanks to all of you for helping me, it means alot to me...hubby is skinny, tries to be helpful, but doesn't know the struggle of weight at all.....btw, his chol is higher than, he blames that on heredity..go figure!

[sugarless4life]

Originally Posted by sassyuk

My doctor took me off all flour and grains -- when I stick to that, my triglyceride number drops like a rock. I've read that advice on a couple of sites by doctors.

I SECOND THAT ADVICE!

Betty

[T-Dawg]

Originally Posted by That Girl

thanks you guys for the quick response...my sugar level is also up, she wants me to also start metformin, which i am freaked out about also..... my trglycerides were ( i am sooo embarrased by this number) in the high 200's..... i think i will read the atkins book again, i thought maybe i was eating too much protein, i guess i am...so what should i eat? my total chol number was 211, which i thought wasn't so bad...should i quit atkins, do something else? anybody take metformin? ugh, i am a wreck about this...thanks.bella
as far as menu, its usually eggs/meat for breakie, hamburger, beef for lunch, dinner is about the same as lunch...thanks, i just wanna cry.....

In the high 200's? Id LOVE to have mine there

A year ago my tri's were 1020, yes, 1020 and i have never drank alcohol, etc.

When I went in for new blood work just ONE MONTH into cutting out sugar and doing low carb, they dropped to 353. The dr was so impressed I was able to drop it that low on diet alone she called me right in to her office to find out how I did it.

For years they had been pushing statins on me, but i refused because I wanted to try diet first and if that failed me, then I woulda went on them.

I am VERY excited about getting blood work done again, probably in march, which will be 5 months in.

I am going to add in some flush-free niacin which is said to help lower tri's.

Excercise is also known to lower the levels and shamefully, I have done no excercise, well a walk here and there, but next week I plan on joining a gym and doing cardio for at least 30-45 min a day.

So that along with the niacin and contiuned no sugar/low carb eating, im assuming my tris will be even lower.

I wouldnt be too scared about upper 200's. under 150 is optimal, yes, but upper 200's isn't dangerous (at least from what I know).

[That Girl]

Originally Posted by shespeaks

Well pshaw, my tri's were 376 when I was dx with diabetes. You are not on the brink of disaster, I promise!

Were you dx with diabetes?

yes, she said she had to diagnose me now because my numbers were too high not to...metformin was prescribed, i am worried about bloodsugar dropping too low....we have 8 diabetics in my family, so i have witnessed the effects of low blood sugar as well as now watching my eldest sister have to deal w/insulin...which is not road i want to go down..one other sister had weight loss surgery 4 years ago and has completly reversed her diabetes.
under a tremedous amount of stress, family crap going on and one of my kids had thyroid cancer last year, she's 27 (her and husband had just become new parents) and was just told the original surgery left too much of her thyroid bed left in her and she may have to go thru the whole surgery again as well as radiation therapy again...not having a pitty party, just seem to need to vent...thank you, you guys are the best...

[Blood Sugar 101]

Originally Posted by That Girl

thanks you guys for the quick response...my sugar level is also up, she wants me to also start metformin, which i am freaked out about also..... my trglycerides were ( i am sooo embarrased by this number) in the high 200's.....

First of all, congrats on the weight loss.

Second of all, many of us, self-included, have forms of diabetes that are not completely corrected by eating low carb. That isn't what the diet doctor books tell you, but the diet doctors--and especially Atkins, are NOT diabetes experts.

So here's the good news. Metformin is a WONDERFUL, safe drug that will make it much easier to control your weight. It takes a week or two to get used to it, and those might not be fun days, but eventually most people adapt, and then there are no side effects except better blood sugars, much better triglycerides and, did I mention, you can eat more carbs (and food) without regaining.

Regular Estrogen supplementation usually improves blood sugar, rather than worsening it. However, Tri-est, in my experience, makes blood sugars much worse.

There are people who do not metabolize fat properly and some of them will see their blood sugars worsen on a very high fat/low carb diet. I have heard from several of these. They aren't common, but they exist. If that is your situation, metformin with a slightly higher carb intake and less fat might be just what you need. Metformin suppresses appetite some, too, so when taking it you may be able to eat more carbs without rebound hunger.

Hang in there. Your doctor is right to be concerned, but you should be able to do something about it. Metformin lowered my triglycerides much more than an LC diet (though mine were fine on the LC diet alone.)

You'll find much more about the diabetes drugs and how they work at my Blood Sugar 101 web site. Though the discussion of metformin debunks some of the wilder claims made for it, it has been shown to be cardioprotective over long times, to have few if any serious side effects, and it works very well with a lower carb diet. All the research you read that makes it sound not so great is with 300 g a day high carb diets.

[That Girl]

tdawg, that makes me feel alot better, thank you and congrats on the weight loss...keep up the good work....

[Patlaf]

DH had triglycrides above 700. He is also on metaformin and statins. After two months of taking cod liver oil tablets twice a day, no other changes in his rather disastrous diet, they went down to below 260. One month later and they are 181. Cod liver oil has been a miracle worker.

Pat

[That Girl]

Originally Posted by LeanLioness

I was in the same boat as you!!!

Eat lots of veggies...........my endocrinologist told me to limit fruit intake to 3 servings per week, no bigger than the size of a kiwi (so very little fruit).......

Lots of veggies and fat will even out the protein and should start going down.

I, too, take metformin..............

so more fat and less protein? how does the metformin make you feel? ever drop too low? worried about dropping too low when my daughter has to have radiation therapy and i will be watching her one year old and having a low blood sugar episode...god, i sound like a goof everybody...i am sorry...i just don't know where to turn...i guess i need to put on my big girl panties and move on....

[Leo41]

Can you ask your doctor to give you a little more time before medication? Type 2 diabetes CAN be controlled with diet, and that should be your goal.

Since you've just lost 60 pounds, I'm surprised that your sugar is high, but mine is high (in the high 90s) because of hypothyroid--and low carb is keeping me from full-blown diabetes. Did you doctor check your thyroid? One problem is that my blood values were always in the "normal" range; I was originally medicated on symptoms alone, and you need a good doctor for that. A thyroid biopsy later confirmed that I had Hashimoto's. My point is that both your sugar and triglycerides may be because of untreated hypothyroid, but it's difficult to get that diagnosed properly.

Also, your diet seems to revolve around red meat. If you want to lower those numbers, I'd suggest that you focus your protein choices on chicken and fish, supplement with fish oil capsules, and eat a LOT of green veggies. Although you've lost weight, your eating plan tends to increase inflammation--thus those high numbers.

[BrianSCohen]

You have been given good advice, elevated blood sugars can cause your triglycerides to zoom through the room. Metformin is a first line of defense against diabetes, don't worry, it is perhaps one of the safest drugs out there. If you have trouble with metformin, ask, and your will find many suggestions. It is quite reasonable to tell your doctor that you want to see how the metformin works before leaping into cholesterol drugs. My feeling is that Zocor is unlikely to be much use anyway for high tris.

Keep in mind also that if you are actively losing weight, that can in itself cause elevated tris because you are moblizing fat. Next test, remember, fast a good 12 hours, don't skimp. Don't drink alcohol for 48 hours.

In the scope of things, your cholesterol is not your problem. It is a symptom of your problem. Your real problem is that you, like many others have a serious problem processing carbs. Your blood sugar is what really matters.

[T-Dawg]

Originally Posted by That Girl

tdawg, that makes me feel alot better, thank you and congrats on the weight loss...keep up the good work....

Thank you and congrats to you as well on your weight loss!

[T-Dawg]

Originally Posted by Patlaf

DH had triglycrides above 700. He is also on metaformin and statins. After two months of taking cod liver oil tablets twice a day, no other changes in his rather disastrous diet, they went down to below 260. One month later and they are 181. Cod liver oil has been a miracle worker.

Pat

WOW. That's fantastic!

May I ask which brand he uses or how many mg of DHA and how many mg of EPA is in them?

[That Girl]

thank you everybody, bloodsugar 101, that really makes a lot of sense... i am going out tonite to buy dr. bersteins diabetic solutions . time to get my head out of the sand and try to be more responsible for my own health and well being......hugs to all...

[electricfeel]

i take metformin and love it. no side effects or problems with it.