The main problems associated with low cholesterol are depression,
suicide, and violent death.  A sudden drop in cholesterol
sometimes indicates cancer.  115 is extremely low, and I've never
heard of a value as low as 49.



Hm, well, depression runs in my family... "violent death" seems like a
strange medical condition...

"yes Doctor, he was just walking along, when suddenly, he
experienced ... violent death!"

"It's too bad.  If only he had had his cholesterol checked earlier!  We
could have intervened."

My aunt (the cardiologist) prescribed lots of lamb and eggs! :) which I
love anyway, but however this doesn't seem to be helping, if in fact
this is something that needs to be helped.  At the time (the 49
measurement), my food allergies had just developed and I was basically,
starving, afraid to eat anything.  (no one knew I had food allergies,
rather, I just knew every time I ate I got sick).  This started a very
extensive battery of tests, the only things that were off were of
course, the fact I was losing weight rapidly (starving), and my
cholesterol level (maybe it was related to starving).  They even did a
brain MRI.  Finally, I was tested for food allergies (allergies, but not
food allergies specifically, run rampant in my family), which showed
that I was allergic to the entire neolithic era (and a few paleolithic
foods as well) which began my switch to the paleo diet and my slow, but
sure, return to health.  Before paleo, I literally was so weak (from
allergic reactions and starving) that I had trouble getting out of bed,
now I have no problem at all walking the 7 or 8 miles or so between here
and the mall and back, and have walked over 20 (love long walks) without
being too tired at the end to go for a swim.  This diet, so high in
protein, has given me endurance that I didn't have even before I got
sick.  I'd say I walk an average of 30 miles a week, and although I have
a car, I do not use it to shop, unless I can't carry whatever I'm
buying, so I imagine that I carry an average of a 20 pound load during
walking (keeping in mind I'm often carrying nothing which skews the
average).  In order to more closely approach the paleo lifestyle, I've
set my life up to include quite a bit of walking -- I live within
walking distance of everything -- work, school, grocery shopping and my
very paleo neighborhood Macintosh shop.

I've often wondered about cancer, but it didn't show up in any of the
(many, many, many) tests, and it's been 5 years since that measurement.
My allergist tells me that in fact my chances of (not getting) cancer
are better than the average, because extensively allergic people are
statistically less likely to ever get cancer.

Now all I have to worry about is violent death!

Erik

On Wednesday, February 20, 2002, at 04:43  PM, Todd Moody wrote:

> On Wed, 20 Feb 2002, Erik Hill wrote:
>
>> "Normal" appears to be anything below 200, so I'm not worried.  Are
>> there problems associated with low cholesterol?  Is 115 a typical
>> number
>> for all you paleo people out there?  Haven't had it checked in years...
>> I've been on paleo for about 4 years now.
>
>
> Todd Moody
> [log in to unmask]
>