# Ep. 5 Why Keto Backfired: MCT Oil, APOE4, and the Cholesterol I Couldn't Fix With Diet

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/race-against-mind-an-alzheimer-s-prevention-investigation-7840812/ep-5-why-keto-backfired-mct-oil-apoe4-and-the-cholesterol-i-couldn-t-fix-with-diet
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/race-against-mind-an-alzheimer-s-prevention-investigation-7840812/ep-5-why-keto-backfired-mct-oil-apoe4-and-the-cholesterol-i-couldn-t-fix-with-diet.md
Podcast: [Race Against Mind: An Alzheimer's Prevention Investigation](https://stenobird.com/podcast/race-against-mind-an-alzheimer-s-prevention-investigation-7840812)
Published: 2026-05-15T12:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://api.riverside.com/hosting-analytics/media/d35289fa0e3ac97990896ee00b9a1aba678b83b38d2edb0b9da9e73e78404702/eyJlcGlzb2RlSWQiOiJkMWMwOWQwMi1lNDA3LTQ2MGEtODMwMy1iNTdjMzM0MTgzYzUiLCJwb2RjYXN0SWQiOiIzYzlkNzlhZi01NGJjLTQ5OTEtODk3OC0zMDFmNzY3ODIyNjMiLCJhY2NvdW50SWQiOiI2OWNlYzc2YmQ2N2JlODBlMzA1OTE5MjAiLCJwYXRoIjoibWVkaWEvY2xpcHMvNmEwNjNjYmQ3YzcyYmQwMTdhYTM1ZjkyL3NhcmFoLWt1aG5zLXN0dWRpby1Hd0NRMC1jb21wb3Nlci0yMDI2LTUtMTRfXzIzLTIxLTEubXAzIn0=.mp3
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Duration seconds: 1573

## Resource

I've had high cholesterol since I was nine years old. I know, because my mom took away my chicken nuggets and put me on a diet. Three months later it came back to normal. Problem solved — or so I thought. It took until I was twenty-seven, two years into being vegetarian, to see a normal reading again. Total cholesterol of 139. I remember thinking: I finally figured it out. That one number became my proof of concept for the next 15 years. In this episode, I walk through five years of serious dietary intervention after getting my APOE4 result and a baseline LDL of 220. High Fiber Keto. Bulletproof coffee with MCT oil. KetoFlex 12/3. Extended fasting. Paleo. Plant-based. Supplements. And as of August 2025 — after all of it — my LDL was 149. Still high. Still not where it needs to be for someone with my risk profile. So I started a statin. This episode is about what that journey revealed — about the APOE4-specific reasons keto and MCT oil backfired, about why plant-based eating barely moved my numbers, and about what it looks like when the pillar you believed in most turns out not to be the lever you thought it was. I also get into why someone who's been eating well for twenty years shouldn't expect the same results from dietary intervention as someone who hasn't — and why that distinction matters more than most nutrition advice acknowledges. Note: this is the first of three nutrition episodes. Episode 6 covers the cholesterol mechanism and why APOE4 carriers have a fundamentally different lipid problem than most people. Episode 7 covers the broader nutrition and Alzheimer's prevention research — blueberries, the Mediterranean diet, omega-3s, and what the science actually says. Show Notes

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## Transcript

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