Let 's face it, when most docs when it comes to understanding math, I mean really basic math, the overwhelming answer will be no. You do not even need. You do not have need. You do not have need. I do not have need. to multiply (thank goodness). Let me explain what this equation is and why it is important you understand it.
These are the Total Cholesterol, the HDL and the triglycerides. These three values are then then used to calculate This LDL is not directly measured from the blood. This has considerable implications when one is trying to interpret the lipid profile.
The equation states that the LDL is equal to the Total Cholesterol minus the HDL and subtracted from this is the triglycerides divided by 5 (see below).
LDL (calculated) = Total Cholesterol - HDL - TG Five
So when you give it your blood cholesterol, the HDL and TGs are placed into the equation and voila, out coming your LDL. Now look very carefully at how simple this is is. You get twenty of You get twenty of this division the same number into a lower number what you think happens? For instance, divide one hundred by five. You get twenty of Now diving fifty, a lower number, by five. Now we get ten. So dividing a lower number by the same number results in a LOWER number. It is quite simple.
So what happens when you are subtracted from another part of the equation. As an example, subtract five From ten. The result is five. Now subtract two, a lower number from ten and eight is the result. Eight is higher than five. Still not so tricky.
The total cholesterol is just that, the total cholesterol. We arrive at the total cholesterol by adding together So that equation looks like this: HDL, LDL (remember the LDL is calculated here, not measured) and the VLDL (for some reason the IDL does not get get honorable mention)
Total Cholesterol = HDL + LDL + VLDL; where VLDL = TG Five
What about if the VLDL increase? Uh huh, the total goes up. Wait a minute. What if the HDL goes up? Bingo, so too will the total cholesterol.
A very common scenario is the following; a They figures out that to the correct way to eat is to eat less fat, protein, and cholesterol. They go for their lab work and their doc notices that while the HDL went up dramatically the total cholesterol went up too.. Then Then they are checked numbers out in a few months they are sold. They wind up on cholesterol lowering medications.
The physician who advises their patient to abandon a low carb, more fat, more cholesterol, more protein diet because the total cholesterol went up, but so, too, did the HDL, is demonstrating extreme ignorance of what total But wait, it gets even worse. This is never happen, but yet it happens every day.
And when the TGs go down you wind up subtracting a smaller number from the HDL goes up the total cholesterol may go up. Well, look at the equation. What will happen to your total cholesterol when you raise your HDL? That is correct, it will go up. Again, look at the equation. subtract a higher HDL from a higher total cholesterol? And remember, the total cholesterol is higher than the HDL is higher. Let us do some math together to figure it out.
Subtract thirty-five, a common HDL to see, from a total cholesterol of two hundred thirty. You get one hundred ninety five. Now subtract fifty, a pretty common rise to see you are eating the correct way, from a total cholesterol of Two hundred sixty five. We now get two hundred fifteen. Do some more to prove it to yourself. The point, to say it again, is that when we subtract a high number from a high number we wind up with a higher number. Now When we have subtracting a smaller number from this higher number. we have subtracting results from the TGs being lower than we are our carb intake and eat more fat and cholesterol. And from the above discussion we have It is this lower number. We are subtracting form the higher number we arrived at above.
So the end result to the calculated LDL value when your total cholesterol and HDL go up and your triglycerides go lower, IS THAT THE LDL GOES HIGHER BECAUSE OF THE WAY IT IS CALCULATED! We want the fats in No, it does not happen in everyone, but it happens in just about everyone and it is solely due to the way the LDL is calculated.
Your triglycerides will be lower, your guild what happens when you are walking into your doc after your doc ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 0 The LDL will be higher if your LDL will be higher than your TGs are lower.
When your doctor reads yours or laboratory do you think that she or he is going to say, "Wow, great, everything & # 39; s fantastic!" Not a chance. All your doc sees is an elevated total cholesterol and an elevated LDL If you are cholesterol lower meds. But wait a minute; if they are so interested in lowering the calculated LDL we can do this raising your TGs or lowering your HDL: exactly what we do not want to do.
I have difficulty with this concept because I have difficulty with this concept because we are using the calculated LDL and we are not measuring it directly. Sure, the cholesterol lowering meds work, but all too often I see well trained cardiologists freaking out the same LDL below seventy, or even one-hundred for that matter. And they will just keep pushing the dose higher and higher Why? Because their patient & # 39; s TGs may be low and their HDLs may be where they should should be , so based on the calculation, the LDL will never get below 70.
They are can not do harp on these docs for what they are are doing. They apply the guidelines, do not think for themselves and they push the accepted medications for the treatment of cholesterol. Would it not be defined as ignorance, would it?? what what we we blame for the millions of people who each die due to this?
If you rises above two, be Two other diseases we will be discussing briefly. careful, because now you are looking at an increased risk of heart disease, but also diabetes and cancer.
Now on to chapter six.
Men often stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened -Winston Churchill
