Strategies for Lowering LDL

[tfudtuckerpucker]

Hi Tfudtuckerpucker, nice first post. I wonder why your PCP was not more positive? Hopefully she now will come around to believing you can continue to do this assuming your blood work is still showing good numbers.

Sometimes I wonder if doctors sometimes get kickbacks for prescribing certain drugs. But I was deterred by my neighbor, who has a physical therapy practice. He said that if a patient comes to him, complaining about muscle aches, the first thing he asks is if the person is on statins. Apparently that's a major side effect for statins. From the studying I have done over the past 10 years, I am convinced that statins are much over-prescribed in the US. I should not have been prescribed, based on my Framingham score.

By the way, I'll add an into in the "Hi, I'm" section, now that I have been "forced into early retirement". That's an interesting story by itself.

 

[obgyn65]

Didn't we have a similar conversation a few months ago where I got shot down for providing the official guidelines and related advice? I won't try this again.

I have been told to eat more almonds, cinnamon, and a host of other supposedly heart-healthy foods. Has anyone had success with any LDL-lowering "miracle food" or supplements?

 

[FIREd]

Didn't we have a similar conversation a few months ago where I got shot down for providing the official guidelines and related advice? I won't try this again.

"We" as in you and I? Because I seriously doubt that "we" had such conversation.

 

[obgyn65]

No, "we" as this online community here. I don't like giving names.

"We" as in you and I? Because I seriously doubt that "we" had such conversation.

 

[donheff]

Hi Tfudtuckerpucker, nice first post. I wonder why your PCP was not more positive? Hopefully she now will come around to believing you can continue to do this assuming your blood work is still showing good numbers.

My former PCP was big on statins but in his defense, a few years back recommendations were floating all over that driving LDL levels way below the upper end of the normal range was a sensible approach. The talk was about putting everyone on statins. Since then a lot of kickback has pushed the other way but the medical profession is divided with the establishment still, for the most part, on the side of statins. You really have to read and think and make up your own mind. The same applies to your PCP. It can be worthwhile to have a little pushback from your PCP to keep us thinking on issues like this and PSA screening where many of us elect still controversial approaches. On the other hand, if your PCP is not following any of the studies that led to the pushback and can't discuss the topics with understanding, it sounds like time to look for a new doctor.

 

[Chuckanut]

Didn't we have a similar conversation a few months ago where I got shot down for providing the official guidelines and related advice? I won't try this again.

I think the real issue is not a disagreement with any one doctor, even the wise and generous ones here, but a lack of trust in big pharma, big food companies, researchers who get $$'s from food and pharma companies, and the government institutions they are involved with. The average layperson simply does not know what the truth is and feels that he/she is being exploited for economic gain, with their health a distance second place at best.

Examples if misinformation are all over the place: they told us to eat high trans-fat margarine instead of butter, low fat foods loaded with sugar, adding some fiber or Omega-3 to a junky food to make it appear healthy, etc.

Worse of all, we suspect that our doctors are being fed the same garbage we are getting. (pun intended )

 

[Lsbcal]

...(snip)...
Examples if misinformation are all over the place: they told us to eat high trans-fat margarine instead of butter, low fat foods loaded with sugar, adding some fiber or Omega-3 to a junky food to make it appear healthy, etc. ...

We agree that there are plenty of self-interested parties out there and mixed agendas. But suppose you ate some of that trans-fat margarine -- if you just did a little in a well balanced diet it probably wouldn't have led to health issues. That's my unscientific guess and it would apply to those who are relatively healthy.

Occasionally I even eat a Big Mac.

 

[donheff]

Didn't we have a similar conversation a few months ago where I got shot down for providing the official guidelines and related advice? I won't try this again.

I may be remembering wrong, but my vague recollection was that the response was not so much an attack on you as an attack on the official guidelines. No reason to stay out of the fray. After all, there are plenty of reputable physicians who take strong issue with those guidelines. If you want to defend them you should not back off simply because people argue with you.

 

[Lsbcal]

Didn't we have a similar conversation a few months ago where I got shot down for providing the official guidelines and related advice? I won't try this again.

I understand you want to avoid snarky comments and back-forth heated arguments. I don't like those either.

I like respectful disagreements that I can perhaps learn from but sometimes people on web sites forget their manners. Also sometimes people forget we cannot see anything but the words written down here. So be careful with your words folks.

 

[braumeister]

I may be remembering wrong, but my vague recollection was that the response was not so much an attack on you as an attack on the official guidelines. No reason to stay out of the fray. After all, there are plenty of reputable physicians who take strong issue with those guidelines. If you want to defend them you should not back off simply because people argue with you.

Exactly.
After all, the conventional wisdom once was that heavier-than-air flight was physically impossible. Scientific progress is a zig-zag line, not a smooth curve.

 

[ERD50]

Didn't we have a similar conversation a few months ago where I got shot down for providing the official guidelines and related advice? I won't try this again.

I may be remembering wrong, but my vague recollection was that the response was not so much an attack on you as an attack on the official guidelines. No reason to stay out of the fray. After all, there are plenty of reputable physicians who take strong issue with those guidelines. If you want to defend them you should not back off simply because people argue with you.

That (donheff's recollection, to be clear) is roughly my recollection also. Though I don't recall an out-and-out 'attack' on the official guidelines - just some questioning of them. Again, going by memory here so maybe I'm not right on, but I think some of us felt that obgyn65 held up those guidelines as 'unquestionable'. Considering history and the complexity of these issues, questioning seems to be in order.

-ERD50