Just about everyone who takes a statin drug has at least a 10 percent reduction in muscle strength and more muscle pain after exercise due to muscle damage (called myopathy), Golumb says. Some people may not notice it, but others, especially athletes, will find it troubling.
I dropped statins a little over a year ago and my blood work is improved by diet alone. Even my doctor has drastically changed her opinion on statins. Based on the change in tone from the research community I bet within 5-10 years statin use will plummet. Side effects appear to be subtle in most users but far more widespread than previously portrayed. Benefits appear to be slim to none except in limited populations.
I was on 20mg of simvastatin for a long time and tolerated the statin quite well, until my PCP decided he wanted my ldl < 70, so he upped my dose to 40mg and it made me feel lousy. At the next appointment I told him that the 40 is causing me problems and I stopped taking them, so he switched me to Crestor. I took the Crestor for about a week and it also made me feel like crap, so I went back to the remaining 40mg simvastations that I had left, but split the pills in half and also started to take some plant sterols. Had my recheck with the Dr the other day and my ldl is now < 50. Additionally, I have been taking fish oil and CoQ10 for quite some time.
Based on what the plant sterols seemed to do for me, I am wondering about ceasing the low dose simvastatin and just relying on the supplements. My hdl is also quite low, so am considering adding niacin.
Everyone I know who has dropped carbs way down has had HDL go up sigificantly and triglicerides come down. Both DW and I had HDL rise about 25 and triglicerides come down even more. The change was rapid -- tested after about 2 months. We did drop carbs to around 50g/day initially. Studies show the change is persistent for many months even after carbs are resumed. I have added back a significant amount of carbs (potatoes and rice, a little bread, probably 150g/day, but who is counting anymore) with no affect on weight or the blood chemistry. This is a well known and documented affect, not some outlier.I was hoping you were going to say that your HDL was higher since you started taking fish oil and CoQ10. For the last 10 years my HDL has been sinking until it hit 38 last spring. 15 months later it is over 50. The only thing I have changed in my diet/exercise was the addition of those 2 supplements and eating oatmeal religiously. So I dunno, maybe it had nothing to do with it and body just decided it was time to produce more HDL after years of neglect.
Everyone I know who has dropped carbs way down has had HDL go up sigificantly and triglicerides come down. Both DW and I had HDL rise about 25 and triglicerides come down even more. The change was rapid -- tested after about 2 months. We did drop carbs to around 50g/day initially. Studies show the change is persistent for many months even after carbs are resumed. I have added back a significant amount of carbs (potatoes and rice, a little bread, probably 150g/day, but who is counting anymore) with no affect on weight or the blood chemistry. This is a well known and documented affect, not some outlier.
Everyone I know who has dropped carbs way down has had HDL go up sigificantly and triglicerides come down. Both DW and I had HDL rise about 25 and triglicerides come down even more.
When the Dr recommended it since I was slightly high.....my response was "Huh?
Based on what the plant sterols seemed to do for me, I am wondering about ceasing the low dose simvastatin and just relying on the supplements. My hdl is also quite low, so am considering adding niacin.
I'll have to look into the plant sterols. Do you have any suggestions for reading? I'd love to get off the statin.
Just fyi, everything I tried for raising my HDL (low carb, exercise, weight loss, etc) either didn't work or was such an insignificant change it wasn't worth mentioning, until I tried niacin. My HDL was <25, and with niacin it has jumped up to ~40-45. Definitely significant. But the niacin (for me at least) has to be the regular stuff that causes the flush. Slow release/no flush niacin didn't seem to work. But to have that big an increase in my HDL makes a slight hot flash well worth it.
I'll have to look into the plant sterols. Do you have any suggestions for reading? I'd love to get off the statin.
Just fyi, everything I tried for raising my HDL (low carb, exercise, weight loss, etc) either didn't work or was such an insignificant change it wasn't worth mentioning, until I tried niacin. My HDL was <25, and with niacin it has jumped up to ~40-45. Definitely significant. But the niacin (for me at least) has to be the regular stuff that causes the flush. Slow release/no flush niacin didn't seem to work. But to have that big an increase in my HDL makes a slight hot flash well worth it.
What level causes the flush How long does it last
It might be something that I would try.... statins so far have not been tolerated by my body.... sometimes in a big way.... My doc is more concerned with my low HDL than my high normal LDL...
My husband doubled his niacin about 4 months ago and occasionally gets flushed as well. One other side effect is that he has far fewer night time muscle cramps.
Agreed 100%Fact: statins lower blood cholesterol levels.
Conjecture: Elevated blood cholesterol levels are a leading cause of heart disease and heart attack.
There has never been a credible study linking elevated blood cholesterol levels to heart disease and heart attack.
Prescribing statins to women is even more so dangerous. They are even talking about statins for children ... absolutely criminal.
zedd
Just some personal observations here about LDL and diet. Both my brother and I dropped our LDL and triglycerides significantly when we reduced Fructose consumption. Carb consumption (baked potato, oatmeal, rice) and Glucose consumption remained normal. Being wheat free had no effect.
In my case, I kept my fructose consumption below 25g daily for 3 months. Triglycerides dropped from 92 to below 43. The best part is my SDLDL was confirmed to be Pattern A (large buoyant) (Sorry, no before test). SDLDL is the bad player in heart disease.
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