Elevated C-reactive Protein (CRP)

[cldlhd]

I had my CRP checked for the 1st time back in February,didn't even know what it was at the time , and it was 1.3. This was before my BAV and aortic aneurysm diagnosis. Since then I've been eating better ,exercising more and lost over 20 lbs so when I went to have it checked again this week I was hoping it might have went below 1.0 but it was 4.5. I put the blood work off for 5 days because I had a cold and sore throat and I know that can affect the CRP level. I was just getting over the cold so was wondering if anyone knows how long it would take to "settle out " to normal. Other than that everything else seemed pretty good, total cholesterol-169 , LDL- 106, HDL- 48, triglycerides-73. Thanks

 

[Paleowoman]

I had my CRP re-checked a few weeks ago - it was me that started this thread as my CRP was 15.9 at the beginning of August. My CRP is now 8 which none of my doctors is worried about: 0 to 10 is the lab reference range for normal.

I have been getting breathless and am not so fit since having heart surgery in January. My cardiologist says this is not heart related. My endocrinologist suggested therefore that I see my respiratory consultant in case it was related to my small airways disease. I did last week and had a chest x-ray which showed air trapping which means my small airways disease is not so good at the moment. What I'm leading to is that small airways disease is an inflammatory thing and, imho, is most likely the cause of my raised CRP. Not that any of the docs mind ! But it answers questions for me.

My HDL is 139 and my trigs 44 which gives a very protective ratio even though my total cholesterol is 293 which gives me a Total/HDL ratio of 2 :1 LDL is only a calculated value and skewed when trigs are low and HDL high so can be ignored with me. I'm verging underweight, no, am underweight BMI 17 - I have to eat tons, but all healthy foods, and can't put on weight - and I do a lot of exercise !

 

[Garserin]

Wow, those are great numbers Paleogirl. I didn't realized HDL could go that high.

 

[cldlhd]

Ya I didn't know HDL could go that high. Maybe there are different CRP tests, the one I had was a high sensitivity CRP test. The AHA says that less than 1.0 mg/l is low risk, 1.0 to 3.0 is normal to average risk and above 3.0 is high risk. I'm going to look at it, conveniently I know , that the 1.3 result taken before I lost weight and improved my diet and exercise regimen is more representative and the 4.5 reading is the anomaly. The reason I think this is because the things that are known to lower your CRP have a gradual effect and the factors that cause it to spike ( cold, sore throat,flu,sprains,infections etc...) can be more sudden and I was getting over a cold and still had a sore throat. Also all my other results held steady or improved-HDL stayed at 48, LDL dropped from 133 to 105, triglycerides went from 125 to 73 and total cholesterol went down to 169 from 206.

 

[Paleowoman]

My HDL has been steadily rising over the past seven years after I began eating very low carb (due to diabetes), cutting out all grain foods, starchy vegs and sugars. It's pretty amazing I must admit. I eat a lot of oily fish, organic meat, nuts, green veg and saturated fats like coconut oil - they raise HDL. It's definitly not genetic as when I was eating a regular amount of carbs my HDL was much lower.

High sensitivity CRP is a different kind of test from CRP - from what I understand the high sensitivity one is done on people with CRP levels which wouldn't show in the regular CRP test ? The regular CRP test is done to look for inflammation and is very non specific which is probably why 0 to 10 is normal. Presumably if I had a high sensitivity CRP test it would also show 8 at the moment. Confusing.