I have HIGH cholesterol and I'm HEALTHY.

Hola, amigas!

I am so excited to share with you my experience on getting a lipid profile, and of course the RESULTS! Last week I was obsessing over getting my body tested for a bunch of stuff just to see if living a high fat and low carb lifestyle is really doing my body good. It's also been years since my last physical exam, so it's about time for a check-up. First and foremost, I wanted to know my cholesterol numbers after a year of eating high fat and low carb through a lipid profile. A lipid profile (otherwise known as a lipid panel or cholesterol test) is a blood test that measures your total cholesterol level, HDL, LDL, and triglycerides.

In all honesty, half of me was anxious to get the test. I've been taught all my life that eating fat will cause heart issues and high blood pressure. Sure, I've been feeling the great effects of keto, but I guess I just wanted to put all my doubts (from years of brainwashing by the media and the government) to rest. I also wanted to be assured that I am on the right path to wellness in terms of eating.

I called Healthway in Shangri-La Plaza Mall to inquire about getting a lipid profile. Apparently, a 10-hour fast is needed before extracting blood—and it must be strictly and exactly 10 hours of no food before getting the test. NO more, NO less. The test costs P1,800. I was told there was no need to "book" for a slot and I can just be a walk-in patient. I was also advised to show up a few minutes before the 10th-hour mark of fasting just in case I had to wait for my turn for the blood test.

I decided to go yesterday, August 2 (Wednesday).

On Tuesday night, I had my dinner at around 8:30pm. Usually I'd eat my dinner at 7pm because of intermittent/intelligent fasting. For that night, my 16:8 fast wouldn't matter anyway since I had to eat a little snack before going to bed, so I made sure that my stomach was on a fasted state for just 10 hours (6 hours less than my usual). I ate a few pieces of raw almonds and some kale chips at 11:15pm as I planned to be at Healthway at around 8:45am. This gives me 30 minutes of waiting time in case someone went ahead of me.

Because I'm me (LOL), I snoozed my alarm and ended waking up past 8:45 (oops!). I rushed to Healthway and I got there before 9 (I teleported! Just kidding, I live nearby). I was asked to fill up a form, pay for the test, and then proceed to the blood extraction area.

The nurse that collected my blood did a great job, ang gaan ng kamay niya. I was done in less than 5 minutes!

I was advised that my results can either be picked up after 24 hours, or can be requested to be sent via email. Of course, I chose the more convenient option. (Let's take advantage of the perks of living in the 21st century! LOL.)

I got my test results today at around 10:30am.

Now before we get to my cholesterol numbers, a few disclaimers (this is a lie, it's a LOT).

I did not consult a local doctor to interpret my results. Partly because the reading/analysis wasn't included in what I paid for (IKR?!), and truth is, it's so hard for me to trust a doctor these days. I have a lot of valid reasons, and one is, doctors here in the Philippines are so misinformed about FAT. Whether it's fat in relation to health, cholesterol, or the fat we consume, majority of the people in the medical industry have just been heavily brainwashed to vilify it. Predominantly are fatphobic while very few are body positive. The ones who are fatphobic do not do enough tests or ask the right questions to really get to the bottom of what causes a patient to feel sick. It's like the moment they see a fat body step in their office, their "one-size-fits-all" version of a cure is automatically weight-loss.

I find this unfair because there could be a hundred other factors why a person is suffering from (for example) back pain, not just the excess weight. But like I said, most doctors would be quick to point out that weight-loss would alleviate the pain more as a biased assumption, rather than an objective conclusion.

My sister had similar experiences with her PCOS. Doctors would hastily prescribe her Metformin or birth control, despite the depression, mood swings, uneven heart rate, nausea, and other terrible side effects that come with it. They were quick to tell her a simple "medical advice:" lose weight. Now, IF these doctors really took the time to listen to my twin sister and try to truly address the issue, they wouldn't rashly say, "just lose weight." IF these doctors researched and updated their studies enough, then they would've told Danah to cut back on the sugar and the carbs instead, as it is the main culprit of inflammation and insulin resistance that worsens PCOS (and could even lead to diabetes). See, there's a difference between telling someone to merely lose weight, versus quit the sugar and carbs. (My sister's period returned to a regular cycle just 2 weeks after living a high fat low carb and zero sugar lifestyle—a very good sign that the PCOS symptoms are slowly being eliminated—NO thanks to her old OB-GYNE.)

Another reason why I am not keen on believing most doctors is because the health industry has stopped being about health a long time ago. Today, it's just about making money. It's about fulfilling the greed of the industry at the expense of our health. And how do they do that? By making customers, of course. And how do they make customers out of us? By making sure we're sick with the help of the food industry, and then falsely providing "cure" that never does what it promised. And worse, these "cures" often have negative side effects or cause another illness to develop! How will they earn millions (if not billions) of pesos annually if they cured a patient right away? Of course it's better to have a consistent customer. Hence, a lot of patients being put on "maintenance medications" when there are BETTER ALTERNATIVES AND PERMANENT CURES. They don't want us to be well.




Another way they do this is by manipulating the "standards," "ranges," or "numbers." In the video below, Dr. Eric Berg exposes the reason why A LOT of people are on Statin (cholesterol-lowering drugs) nowadays. It's because a group of doctors changed the healthy range of LDL to a much lower one, altering the acceptable count for LDL. Why did they change it? For money of course! They probably had an agreement with a drug company of how much dollars they'll get in exchange of prescribing pills to "lower cholesterol" to the masses. Therefore, people automatically resort to Statins (Lipitor and such) to treat their "high cholesterol" (which Dr. Berg contends as nothing to be worried about).

I hope I'm making sense. This is just the reality about the medical industry these days. Sadly, scientists can be bribed to control studies to get more grants. Doctors can be puppet-ed into prescribing more drugs to their patients despite the ugly side effects for more money and recognition. Quoting from this Medium.com article written by Dr. Jason Fung:

"There is a clear correlation between the number of articles they had written (or been cited) and the amount of money received. This means that these ‘experts’ are those professors and doctors at all the best universities all over the world. These are the doctors that lecture other doctors and medical students. In general, the more prominent a physician, the more money he is taking from industry."

I'm not saying all doctors are this way. There are still good doctors out there, but you must be very vigilant to see how they are as professionals. Get to know them and what they stand for. If they still believe that fat is bad and will cause heart diseases, I'd be suspicious. This has been disproven so many times. If they think cholesterol automatically means BAD, then I'd have my reservations for trusting every word they say.

One doctor that I trust is Dr. Eric Berg. I love watching his videos, because they're all highly educational yet simplified. He has taught me the specifics on how to do keto right, how to do intermittent fasting right, and today, he taught me how to read my cholesterol numbers. (DON'T YOU JUST LOVE THE INTERNET?)




That's right. I am interpreting my lipid profile results with the help of a doctor from YouTube and other health experts from the suggested videos on the sidebar. LOL! (Note: I am so happy I discovered Jimmy Moore today! He's the author of "Cholesterol Clarity" and is a very renowned person in the high fat low carb community. He's talked to hundreds of doctors and medical experts to find out the truth about cholesterol. Please watch this video.)

BUT of course, I had a "woke" doctor check my interpretations too. Thankfully, I know one that I trust enough to cross-check my results. A few months ago, Danah happened to hear Dr. Rolando "Oyie" Balburias (M.D., FPCP, AFMCP) speak in a singles' ministry event about living a healthy lifestyle. He boldly spoke on how the food industry doesn't really care about the health of the masses, how they are slowly poisoning us to make money out of our sicknesses, how fat is wrongfully condemned today, and how certain "healthy" lifestyles are far from healthy at all (juicing).

Source: https://www.facebook.com/BeOnewithGod/

Obviously, I instantly liked this doctor. He knows what he's promoting, and what I love about him is that he prescribes FOOD to heal the body. Imagine that?! A doctor who knows for a fact that food can either destroy or heal the human body, and he's made this his main approach with his patients. A "food" doctor. Amazing. Far from the typical, traditional doctor who just whips out a prescription pad and scribbles a bunch of drugs for you to buy halfway through telling him how you're feeling unwell.

I instantly became a believer of Dr. Oyie as he echoes the same principles of Dr. Berg. I've binged watched almost all of the videos of Dr. Berg online to know that he is also very credible. He busts so many myths on fat and cholesterol that's just very eye-opening, and I love that he is also exposing the fact that there are indeed doctors that are tied to drug companies. This why so many are still skeptical about high fat and low carb living until today, despite all the new data that proves that FAT is good for us!

Okay, I've said my piece (or pieces, ang dami ko na namang sinabi eh, LOL), now to show you the results!

Apparently, we use mmoL/L here to measure cholesterol. I had to convert everything to mmdg/L since that's the unit Dr. Berg is using.

Source: https://heartuk.org.uk/files/uploads/documents/huk_fs_mfsP_cholestrigly_leverlsconversion.pdf

Here are my results:


Dr. Berg's guidelines for healthy cholesterol levels:

HDL: >46 for women (>40 for men)
LDL: <130
TRIGLYCERIDES: <150
TOTAL CHOLESTEROL: Dr. Berg doesn't care much about this number, because if you're eating high fat and low carb, then most probably your cholesterol will be high. Instead, he advices to check if you're high risk or low risk for heart diseases using this formula: TRIGLYCERIDES divided by HDL (Triglycerides/HDL ratio).
TRIGLYCERIDES/HDL RATIO: <2


My results converted to mg/dL:

TOTAL CHOLESTEROL: 5.63 mmol/L = 217.71 mg/dL 
LDL: 3.36 mmol/L = 129.93 mg/dL ✅
HDL: 2.03 mmol/L = 78.50 mg/dL ✅
TRIGLYCERIDES: 0.52 mmol/L = 46.05 mg/dL ✅
TRIGLYCERIDES/HDL RATIO (AKA GOOD HEART HEALTH): 46.05 (Triglyceride) / 78.50 (HDL) = 0.586 ✅


For reference: (This chart is aligned with Dr. Berg's guidelines)



When it comes to my total cholesterol, I'm not bothered one bit even if this chart says my number is "borderline high" at 217. Again, since I've been eating high fat, obviously my cholesterol will be high as well. BUT like what Dr. Berg said, this shouldn't alarm me at all if triglycerides are low as well as the triglycerides/ HDL ratio.

Here are just some essential videos (from Dr. Berg) to watch to have a better understanding of CHOLESTEROL:

• The Cholesterol Myth
• The Truth About Cholesterol and HDL and LDL
• Bad Cholesterol: LDL IS NOT BAD!

This 45-minute lecture from Dr. John Bergman is also a must-watch.

BUT WAIT! There's more! (LOL)

So Dr. Oyie told me via text that, (and I quote) "You have nothing to worry about. Compute your TOTAL CHOLESTEROL / HDL RATIO. It's 2.77, very optimal."

AAAAAAAH!!!! MUSIC TO MY EARS!!!!!! I asked him a follow up question on the healthy range for the total cholesterol and he said it's 4.0.

(I cross-referenced above data with Dr. Berg's ranges and it matches, hence me trusting this chart.)

(Okay, that's enough internet for me for the day! I'm done geeking out!)