Adrienne Smith wrote:

>In a message dated 7/17/03 9:38:18 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
>
>
>>"The cholesterol values of both subjects were high. K.A. had a maximum of
>>800mg/100cc on one occasion. This did not persist after the meat diet was
>>discontinued and is therefore attributed to the large quantity of ingested
>>fat. A visible lipemia was likewise noted." (The latter refers to a
>>"cloudiness" in the drawn blood.)
>>
>>
>>
>
>Why do they say both subjects had high cholesterol?  VS certainly wasn't high
>for a man his age.  800 seems high but perhaps KA had familial
>hypercholeseralemia -- which is NOT diet related.  Notice how where is no reading for him
>prior to the experiment.  Also, they just mention that the 800 reading did not
>persist after the diet was discontinued -- they did not say how low KA's
>cholesterol actually dropped.  Anyone know if 800 cholesterol as actually harmful?
>Any thoughts as to why the men had such different cholesterol reactions?
>
>

I've always wondered about this.  As I recall, KA's cholesterol went
down to something close to 200 after the conclusion of the experiment.
Ray Audette thinks the explanation is that KA was drinking a lot of
unfiltered coffee, which contains compounds known to elevate
cholesterol.  This is a conjecture, but may be true.  On the other hand,
unfiltered coffee (such as percolated coffee) was pretty standard in
those days.  We'd have to have good reason to believe that KA started
drinking filtered coffee after the experiment, or stopped drinking
coffee altogether.  At any rate, familial hypercholesterolemia doesn't
seem to be the explanation, since if that were so his cholesterol
wouldn't have dropped at the conclusion of the experiment.  As I recall,
VS's cholestrol gradually rose during the course of the year, and then
began to fall again, but I don't remember the start and endpoint
values.  This pattern is also consistent with what Wolfgang Lutz
published, i.e., that people who go on a high-fat, low-carb diet often
have an initial increase in cholesterol over a period of six months or
so, then it begins to fall.  In younger people, I believe, the
cholesterol level at the end of a year would tend to be lower than the
starting value.  In older (>45) people, it tended to be about the same.
It has often been pointed out that virtually all the charges that these
diets "raise cholesterol" have been based on short-term studies (6 weeks
or so), but longer term studies suggest something like a cholesterol
"setpoint" that one returns to.

I have no idea if a cholesterol reading of 800 is dangerous, but my
hunch is that if it's so elevated as to render the blood cloudy,
something is wrong.

Todd Moody
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