The doc kept wanting to put me on statins. I balked for a couple of years and finally relented.
I did not notice any big changes. However, at my next 6-month checkup, my blood sugar was out through the roof. I had been doing so well, I'd stopped testing. It was a complete surprise. I started testing, and I started doing everything I could to lower my readings. I had a grandfather that got eaten up by diabetes. I knew what I was dealing with. There really wasn't any improvement after the next visit.
That's when I started to try the lesser options. After a couple of months of cutting out various foods, vitamins, etc. I finally tried cutting off the statin drug. In less than 72 hours, my blood sugar reading was back to what they'd been a year previous. I waited until the next 6-month checkup and when the glucose reading came back, the doc was amazed. I told him what I'd done.
He was very surprised but realized there was no way I was going back on the drug.
What I can tell you is that along with the glucose readings, a whole bunch of other minor problems disappeared seemingly overnight. The prior year had been bad. There was nothing I could put my finger on. It was just a feeling of getting old and unwell. It could have been just the blood sugar, but my gut tells me the statins were making me sicker than I knew.
Go with your gut. You wee being poisoned.
Unbelievable how some folks blindly trust these internist MD's that are merely drug pushers. They are akin to a 8yr old with a chemistry set his mom got for him for Christmas, vastly over simplifying the process of trying to match certain broad based, dangerous chemicals to individual bio-physicality. A shaman in the Congo reading goat entrails could do almost as well. Side affects are barley mentioned, when actually they are more likely to happen than the desired action that the drug is supposed to produce. NO ONE talks about cures and prevention, it's just symptom masking by pharmaceuticals. Symptom masking. Period.
Cowardice is the greatest pandemic that has ever affected mankind.
Unbelievable how some folks blindly trust these internist MD's that are merely drug pushers. They are akin to a 8yr old with a chemistry set his mom got for him for Christmas, vastly over simplifying the process of trying to match certain broad based, dangerous chemicals to individual bio-physicality. A shaman in the Congo reading goat entrails could do almost as well. Side affects are barley mentioned, when actually they are more likely to happen than the desired action that the drug is supposed to produce. NO ONE talks about cures and prevention, it's just symptom masking by pharmaceuticals. Symptom masking. Period.
[quote=persiandog]i had a message from my heart doctor , he was amazed with the blood test results and asked me continue with the medications.
atorvastatin and ezetimibe/quote]
I take 80mg of the Atorvastatin and 10mg of Ezetimibe daily. Have had arthritis and shoulder problems for a number of years. Am currently doing some physical therapy for neck and shoulder. The neck pain was determined to be muscular, and now I'm wondering if it could be caused by the statins. There is a family history of high cholesterol and heart problems, so I'd rather be safe than sorry. If a little muscle pain will help me live longer, then so be it.
Well we all look forward to retirement so we can do what we want and run our own lives. By the time we get there we physically are a wreck. I'm retired now but not done working ,doing my roof right now go to bed tired, don"t eat much ,drink more water, take a break when I fugging need it. I am on rosuvastatin been for 3 years. My tot cholesterol in control. I am losing weight since tackling the roof but it's a great feeling to feel better ,eat less , keep hydrated and keep your blood moving. The sedentary lifestyle will kill you quicker than the drugs. MB
" Cheapest velocity in the world comes from a long barrel and I sure do like them. MB "
My eye Doc has a subscription to a medical research magazine that he puts in his waiting room after he reads it. While I waiting to see the Doc a few years ago I found found some research article about statin drugs and baby aspirin. The researchers recommend that people over 70 not take either because by the time you're 70 your arteries already ready have have calcium deposits and statins won't remove those deposits. The daily aspirin makes it more likely you'll have a brain bleed (killed my father when he was 70).
Since Rockefeller changed the course of medicine from a practice of curing to a practice of drug treatment,millions of people have died while making the pharmaceutical companies extraordinarily wealthy.
The carpetbagger, started by selling opium and getting lots of people addicted. He was a big time drug pusher that got into industry, making himself"respectable." The pharma companies are still pushing drugs. The Rx drugs are a far worse problem than the non approved illegal ones in my state. I've reverted into bad habits and severe stress through life and developed clogged up blood vessels, veins and arteries. Most people don't know how much more effective regular exercise, dietary changes and supplementation is!
I've reversed the same plaques everyone else gets many times over. I've got the solutions if anyone wants them.
Good question....how many people here get good, heart beat raising exercise daily? We all have stress, but we all have an ability to purposely exercise daily and cut out cholesterol causing foods. A side note- canola oil/ rapeseed oil ( blooms) will crystalize a honey bee over winter here and we consume it unknowingly.
I am highly allergic to statins. I tried them all but got real bad tendonitis and could hardly move. Now I take Preluent, an epi-pen type shot, I take in my thigh or my stomach. (Small needle). Keeps my cholesterol at about 135-150. In 72,000 people tested there were no side effects. It is expensive, but Medicare covers it (with the drug plan), so does my supplemental BC/BS. I had a heart attack in 2012 and had two stints put in. Been clear ever since I got on Preluent in 2013. (I was in the experimental group, so my co-pays are covered by Preluent). It was approved by the FDA in 2015 or 2016, ask your doctor about it if any of you guys can't take statins.
I have been taking an 80gr. Pravastatin pill once a day for several years. I had never heard of statins until I heard it here on the forum awhile back. I have never had any side effects that I know of and last week all of my cholesterol numbers were good . I will question my doctor the next time I see him to find our more about the drug.
I also have a friend the same age as me that takes the same thing and dose as I do, and he has no symptoms either.
I was getting my physical 4 years ago. I was 65. Doc said he wanted to do a blood test, if my cholesterol was bad he was going to put me on statins. I said "No, you are not." He said "Yes you will take them if your numbers are bad." I said "No I won't I don't trust these tests."
Doc said "Well if you won't take the meds I won't even test you." And that was the end of that.
Cholesterol is a good thing. I don't think cholesterol levels are the cause of clotting. Statin drugs are bad stuff, with a lot of bad side effects. Just my opinion.
I was getting my physical 4 years ago. I was 65. Doc said he wanted to do a blood test, if my cholesterol was bad he was going to put me on statins. I said "No, you are not." He said "Yes you will take them if your numbers are bad." I said "No I won't I don't trust these tests."
Doc said "Well if you won't take the meds I won't even test you." And that was the end of that.
Cholesterol is a good thing. I don't think cholesterol levels are the cause of clotting. Statin drugs are bad stuff, with a lot of bad side effects. Just my opinion.
Cholesterol is the cause of plaque... Clotting is a different function. Blockages occur when your LDL/HDL ratio is really high - you don't have enough HDL to keep the LDL fluid in your system. Luckily I am off statin pills. The injection works much better for me.
Have been on 80mg Lipitor since 1st stent 20 months ago. Have noticed no side effects. Did notice a slightly abnormal (for me) and increased liver numbers a while ago, but still well within range, so will see what those look like again soon.
About 3 yrs ago I got serious about losing the weight and keeping it off. But damage was clearly done. Lipid numbers were good when I got the 1st stent and before I'd been put on statins, and even better a year later. Not sure how much lower the numbers can go, but he wants me to remain on them. I considered taking myself off, until I did a bit of research and saw studies on how stent patients fare both on and off statins after stent placement.
Have gone plant based to see what that does. One of my numbers (VLDL size) was high a year ago. Only number he has found out of range for anything. Decided to go plant based and see if it helps. Been on that for a few months now. Go in for tests in a few weeks again. Guess we'll see.
Doc got a bit pizzed when I went in for my one year follow up, failed stress test ekg, and found same artery 50% clogged, just upstream of last clog. Asked what the hell I had been doing. I (not in a very happy mood after having done everything right for a couple years) snapped back "exactly what you told me to do. Did you look at my cholesterol numbers? I don't smoke. I run. I eat right. What else can I possibly do? What could I possibly do that would clog an artery to 50% in a year? I don't see how that would be possible if I ate bacon sandwiches with mayo 3x a day every day!"
I do know I don't want to wind up like the old man, with congestive heart failure. Watched what that did to him and how he went out, so whatever I can do to not put my family through that is what I'll do. Surprisingly enough, this whole plant based diet thing isn't that bad at all. But if I pop a deer this year, you can still bet it will be eaten!
Guns are responsible for killing as much as Rosie O'Donnel's fork is responsible for her being FAT.
Everyone is different. DaveR posted some great numbers and he still had blockage. There is hard plaque and soft plaque in arteries and the new soft plaque is what is going to drop you with a coronary event. All I know about the diet change thing is that I could have been the poster guy for eating poorly from 2007 until 2016. My LDL (the bad stuff) went from 115 11/8/16 down to 55 8/29/19 after the wife #2 and I hooked up and she fed me better.
My other auto is a .45
The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory
I was getting my physical 4 years ago. I was 65. Doc said he wanted to do a blood test, if my cholesterol was bad he was going to put me on statins. I said "No, you are not." He said "Yes you will take them if your numbers are bad." I said "No I won't I don't trust these tests."
Doc said "Well if you won't take the meds I won't even test you." And that was the end of that.
Cholesterol is a good thing. I don't think cholesterol levels are the cause of clotting. Statin drugs are bad stuff, with a lot of bad side effects. Just my opinion.
Cholesterol is the cause of plaque... Clotting is a different function. Blockages occur when your LDL/HDL ratio is really high - you don't have enough HDL to keep the LDL fluid in your system. Luckily I am off statin pills. The injection works much better for me.
LDL is just doing what it's supposed to do which is protecting damaged artery walls. It's like the ultimate anti-inflammatory for your arteries. The problem is damaged artery walls which has many causes. Scientists should be looking for ways to prevent damaged arteries instead of a drug to lower cholesterol levels. If you have ANY level of LDL in your blood it will attach to your damaged arteries. My Cardiologist agrees with me but if he doesn't prescribe cholesterol lowering medications he says could be sued for malpractice. I can't take statin drugs so he doesn't prescribe them for me.
Diet change has very little effect on over all numbers.
It is the only thing I could possibly contribute to my drastically better numbers. In the two months between my last high numbers, and the subsequent tests done at the hospital when I went in and got the stent, the only change was diet and exercise. In the following year I had fallen off the exercise a bit due to back and calf injury, but my numbers bettered even further (though I'm sure the statins didn't hurt those numbers). But I also maintained (and continue to maintain) the weight loss I accomplished. When I exercise less, I just eat less. Step on scale daily to make sure there are no surprises and things don't creep up on me.
Only other times I've been tested, my numbers were just flat out not great, other than a few tests when I was heavy into the low carb thing. Numbers were also quite good during that period. Not quite as good as they have been the past year, but still well under recommended levels.
Only thing I can figure is in the process of placing the first stent, there was some damage to the artery, which cause the plaque collection. To have great cholesterol numbers like that for over a year and still go 50% blocked? Doesn't make sense. Doc said it wasn't the first stent placement which caused it. I'm not at all sure about that. The new blockage was directly adjacent to the 1st stent on the upstream side.
Guns are responsible for killing as much as Rosie O'Donnel's fork is responsible for her being FAT.
