[Discussion] can we stop arguing about lipids until somebody posts a number
Asking properly rather than in a comment on somebody else’s thread: can we stop arguing about lipids until somebody posts a number. Substantial weight loss independently moves lipids, liver enzymes and several other markers. Attributing a change to a compound while losing weight is confounded by design. My ApoB moved…
Left up. It is a question about how to compare panels, not a request for interpretation.
Draw at the same point in the week now, fasting, same lab. The noise dropped enormously once I standardised.
Disagree with reading anything into that. One value, one morning, and you changed two other things in the same window.
nothing on this board interprets your results for you
The confounding problem, stated plainly, because this board keeps stepping on it.
Substantial weight loss moves lipids, liver enzymes, insulin sensitivity markers and several others in its own right. If you are losing weight while taking something, any change in those markers has at least two candidate explanations and you cannot separate them from your own panel.
What you can do is standardise, take a baseline, keep the series long, and be honest in your posts about what is and is not attributable. The threads that say "this compound did X to my triglycerides" almost never have the design to support the claim, mine included.
The confounding problem, stated plainly, because this board keeps stepping on it.
This is the sentence to read before anybody panics about a single value.
How to make a panel worth comparing, which is most of the value people leave on the table.
Standardise the conditions: same lab, same fasting state, same rough time of day, same point in the week, similar hydration. Take a baseline before you change anything. Repeat any surprising value before acting on it. Change one thing at a time if you want to attribute anything to it.
Do that and a year of panels is a trend. Skip it and a year of panels is a collection of unrelated mornings, which is what most of the alarmed posts here are actually describing.