Apo A1

[slayer37]

Just got some bloodwork back (see attached). Overall happy considering I've been on the biggest blast of my life for the past 13 weeks. HDL is a bit low but to be expected at this stage in my prep.
What has me more concerned is the LOW APo A1.
It's my understanding that ApoB is the bigger determining factor for potential risk of heart disease. I'll admit I'm not well versed on ApoA1 and it's role in cardio-protection.
Does anyone have any insight on why mine might be low and/or what can be done to raise this value?

 

[Type-IIx]

As a first rule: don't myopically focus on individual bloodwork results as a problem to be solved. Rather, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and thrombotic risk factors like dyslipidemia are multifactorial.

Neither Apo A1 nor Apo B are, independently, particularly great predictors of risk. Actually, the only sole factor that does significantly predict (life-time) risk is Lp(a), and it's essentially nonmodifiable (to any meaningful degree) by any current treatment.

Dyslipidemia is characterized by ↑Apo B, ↓Apo A1 (therefore, a lower Apo B / Apo A1 ratio is better). If I had to go by two and only two bloodwork testing values for dyslipidemic risk factors, I'd consider Apo B / Apo A1 Ratio & Lp(a).

What reduces dyslipidemic risk is:
- reducing body fat to healthy levels (<15% in men)
- performing more cardio (e.g., zone 2/"base" work)
- dose reduction or cessation from exogenous androgens
- statins

Other considerations: just broadly, with respect to overall morbidity (i.e., cardiovascular disease) exogenous insulin is profoundly dangerous (impaired signal transduction and in turn impaired GLUT-4 translocation; increased VLDL synthesis in liver, etc.), especially in combination with androgens and other PEDs in bodybuilding.