Hi Bailey
It’s really great to hear how supportive your nurse was and fantastic to think they’ve got copies of MM’s book and Jason Fung’s. Isn’t that something!
I was just reading what you were saying about your cholesterol concern and being retested in 3 months and thought I’d mention my experience.
When I was diagnosed with Type II, my cholesterol was 6.2. I started the BSD, and at my first follow-up meeting with my nurse (4 months later) my bgls were normal again (hurray!) but my cholesterol was up at 6.7 which caused a bit of concern all round. I was offered statins but declined, and decided to wait and see. Next time my cholesterol was taken about 8 months later my cholesterol was 5.6 – lower than when I started BSD.
I researched it and found that this can be a quite typical response when you’re losing weight on a low carb diet. While you’re losing weight, the cholesterol circulating through your system increases. Then when you’ve stopped losing weight i.e. your weight stabilises, your cholesterol reduces again, often ending lower than it was initially. That’s exactly what happened with mine.
Here’s a video clip where either Phinney or Volek (can’t remember which one is which – but both well-respected) explain what’s happening. It’s not a brilliant recording (mind, I’m slightly deaf so could be perfect!). I put the words up, but there is also a summary page at the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNfjkTyBUdQ
nb. I’ve just re-watched it and it mentions it happening when people are losing increasingly large amounts of weight, so this may not apply to you, (or happen to you), but I thought it’s worth mentioning because my healthcare team definitely didn’t know anything about it . Forewarned, etc.
Glad to hear you’re going well too, Gill
Jenny xx