<p>CJane:</p>
<p>My doc has done two different cholesterol panels for me. The first one was very limited: just total cholesterol and HDL (“good choleserol”). That doesn’t tell you much, but if your total cholesterol is low and you HDL is high, then there might be little reason to dig deeper.</p>
<p>The next two times (six and twelve months after the first one) he did a slightly more extensive version, including a test for triglycerides. This is really key, because knowing the triglycerides along with HDL and total cholesterol lets you calculate a value for LDL (“bad cholesterol”) that will appear on the report. The calculated value is accurate enough unless you have very very high triglycerides or very very low triglycerides.</p>
<p>If you can get the test that gives you just those basics: total cholesterol, HDL, triglycerides, and calculated LDL (there are LDL calculators online if it’s not on the report you get), then you will have a pretty complete picture, especially if everything is in the good range.</p>
<p>There are tests for insulin resistance that involve drinking a glucose solution and then drawing a series of blood samples at intervals over a few hours to measure insulin levels in response to the blood sugar. But, that’s unnecessary as an initial screen. If your Triglycerides/HDL ratio is 3 or higher, you are likely insulin resistant, probably have metaboic syndrome, and likely have the more dangerous small dense LDL – the three symptoms move in lockstep. Under 3 is “all clear” on those things. Low Triglycerides and high HDL is a classic result of low carb/high fat diets. In fact, low triglycerides is an almost universal result of going low carb since the primarly source for triglycerides in the blood stream is carb metabolism. High HDL is the result of high fat diets, especially olive oil, fish oil, and so forth.</p>
<p>I went to a storefront lab for a VAP lipid panel, a specialty product of a company in Birmingham, AL. For very little money (I think it was $79 minus a $20 new customer coupon), you get a very comprehensive cholesterol panel that includes total cholesterol, HDL, a direct measure of LDL (instead of calculated), triglycerides, VLDL, and the particle size of your LDL. </p>
<p>[Atherotech</a> Diagnostics Lab. The VAP Cholesterol Test. Your Heart Partner](<a href=“http://www.atherotech.com/vapcholtest/]Atherotech”>http://www.atherotech.com/vapcholtest/)
[How</a> To Interpret The Vap Cholesterol Profile | LIVESTRONG.COM](<a href=“http://www.livestrong.com/article/38446-interpret-vap-cholesterol-profile/]How”>At What Level Is Total Cholesterol Dangerous? | livestrong)</p>
<p>If you can get your doctor to order this one, fantastic, but I doubt that they are going to go outside their normal local channels unless there is a good reason to. My conversations with my doc were so monosyllabic that it was just easier to pay the $59 and go to the storefront lab test location to draw the blood sample. They overnight it to the lab in Birmingham and fax or mail you the results a day or two later.</p>
<p>My situation was interesting. I have very very low triglycerides and high HDL – both typical healthy indicators from eating low carb, but I had very high LDL – possibly from my high fat diet, possibly from low thyroid, etc. My low triglycerides and high HDL almost guaranteed that I would have the safe large fluffly LDL, but I wanted to confirm that, which the VAP test did – although my LDL was still high, several months after taking the replacement thryoid. I never even shared that test with my doctor. He did his standard cholesterol screening three months after that in September. Tryglycerides still low. HDL still high, but my LDL had fallen significantly. It’s still high-ish (as you would expect from the amount of animal fat I eat), but not high enough to be in the range that suggests Lipitor or any other treatment according to the guidelines. Maybe it feel because the thyroid meds had kicked in more at six months than at three months. However, I have since read that it is quite normal to see elevated LDL during active fat loss because you are releasing so much stored fat into the blood stream. I had stabilized and quit losing weight for this last test – the first time I had been weight stable in 18 months. </p>
<p>Who knows? The upshot is that none of this may matter to you, depending on the results of the first round of screening. With your diet, you will in all likelyhood have low triglycerides, high HDL, and your LDL could be anywhere from average to high-ish. If you have low triglycerides, high HDL, and acceptable LDL, then that’s pretty much all you need to know.</p>
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<p>I believe that fasting blood glucose and probably fasting insulin levels would be part of the standard initial screening tests. That’s how they screen for diabetes. As for a thyroid test, I don’t know what made my doc run that. It’s no big deal, just a simple add-on test from the same blood sample. In retrospect, if I had known that my crazy dry hands and feet and being perpetually cold last winter were classic symptoms, I would have already known. The fact that you have not lost weight with heavy exercise and restricted diet would probably justify running the test. I think it is a pretty typical test for women, not quite so typical for men.</p>
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<p>BTW, you have to ask for a copy of the results. My doc printed them off when I asked. Since then, I’ve just called and had the nurse practitioner print them for me the next day after the test. The results aren’t that hard to figure out: the test report has the normal range for each test and a marker for any result that is out of the normal range.</p>
The greatest thing about a home treadmill is one can do more than running on it. I walked backwards for about 10 min, and it seemed to help. I don’t know if it is possible for me to walk backwards around my house safely wihout running into any hard objects and causing more damage to my body. 
I was very impressed that hubby hopped on his stationary bike and pedaled for 45 min without me by his side. I used to nag him to get going, but it looks like he got in the game and is really enjoying it. Now I know what to get him for Christmas - a small TV so he can watch his stupid Cramer while exercising. Our exercise room TV is slowly dying. </p>