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@plumbago, Are you taking any folate with your B12?   Folate helps regulate HDL levels.  You may try taking a methylfolate supplement with your B12.   If there's a folate deficiency because you aren't absorbing sufficient folate, or have the MThF mutation causing a functional folate deficiency (methylfolate trap), you can have a functional B12 deficiency despite supplementing, resulting in HDL levels not getting regulated, but running high or low.   Pushing the envelope in explanations, too.

Yes, well, that's what we have been told, probably ever since the different types of cholesterol were identified. It's what most of our primary care providers are still telling us, it's what the commercials tell us. But researchers (up until now at any rate) have been learning a great deal about HDL. Nevertheless, the universe of what we still don't know about HDL is vast. And since I can sustain only a 35% level of understanding when I hear lectures on HDL, I will have to nutshell my layperson's understanding, which is that at this time, it's possible or likely that HDL-C levels are best understood as U-shaped, that there's a sweet spot right there in the dip of the "U" and anything before or after is not ideal. This is why I said what I did earlier about the "good" and the "bad" being oversimplifications. The research has long since moved on. There's a lot of talk about how the focus should be on functionality, that you want to make sure that all that HDL is performing how it should be. And now, that's it, I've exhausted my ability to explain my understanding of HDL!

But HDL is considered to be the "good" cholesterol, right?

Since some time between 2010 and 2014, my HDL-C has been going up and you might even say elevated. The last time I could find in my records that my HDL was normal was in 2014 when it was 67. Last week, it was 101, and it’s been 88 and above since about 2015. A significant life event happened in 2010 when I was diagnosed with Celiac disease and in May of that year began a gluten free diet. An informal perusal of a previously posted topic on HDL on this forum shows that a lot of members responding had high normal or high levels of HDL, so it doesn’t seem to be that unusual. But because my HDL numbers have been so high for so long, I am now officially concerned enough that I will probably reach out to a cardiologist who specializes in lipids. I would like to know if I should have a genetic test, as a specific genetic mutation can be one reason for high HDL numbers. I will also ask if he/she thinks a cardiac work up including a coronary artery calcium score should be considered. I think by now most of us are done with the ridiculous good and bad cholesterol labels; the amount of what we don’t know about HDL is quite large. For me my questions include is it a matter of production or an inability to clear HDL, and are the high levels having an effect on my vasculature (or a result of a less than optimal vasculature)? My last TSH level was normal, so it's likely not a thyroid issue. I also take B12 regularly. I’ve read that niacin can cause HDL levels to go up, but B12 is not niacin, and I could find no definitive link between robust B12 supplementation and abnormally high HDL levels. Any input is appreciated! Plumbago

@Mynx, how long have you been gluten-free? I ask because many newly diagnosed celiacs react to many things, and often think their reactions are caused by gluten, when in fact, they are really caused by a combination of a sensitive gut due to damage, as well as additional food intolerance/leaky gut issues to other foods which may be temporary until their villi heal.