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ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

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ORIGINAL: Level

A lot of good info in your post, T.

I love T. He posts interesting posts.  :-)

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ORIGINAL: CatWhoWalksAlone

Wow! This is an amazing thread! I came in because of the subject... my carbs are high and doc's been after me for 2 years to get on statins (has given me 3 prescriptions so far). Last year I did a LOT of reading, and decided low carb high fat had merit when I started reading articles and research that bear out what is being said in the thoughtful posts above. I also joined a gym, but with sacral spine stenosis and no cartilage in my left knee, I'm very limited in what I can do physically; even so, that is still mobilizing the metabolism. I've lost 41 pounds as of 3 days ago, and... get this... my triglycerides have dropped in HALF! The carbs are coming down but much more slowly which puzzles me given the dramatic drop in trigs, and my doctor is still on me about the statins. I agree about the food pyramid... the biggest scam perpetrated on humanity since organized religion :( oh and don't EVEN get me started on artificial sweeteners!!!!

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I cut my triglycerides from 352 (baaaad!) to 88 (excellent)

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ORIGINAL: juliaoceania

My mom is going to wing herself off all pharmaceuticals. I could not be happier.

I think the best thing one can do is eat well, get exercise, and hope for the best

[/quote

I tried this a few times. A few meds- I need... well- life is more bearable with them. However- I could reduce down. i have cut back.... not reaching for an rx at every turn in the road....  I hope it works for your mom. -regards-

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proud wrote:

That's great Level.  My triglycerides are 36. below the  "normal" range according to the print out the doc sent me.  I'm wondering why there even is a lower limit. Here's from my print-out, normal range is in parentheses.




CHOL/HDL RATIO
2.6
(1.5-5.0 RATIO)


TRIGLYCERIDES
36
(40-250 MG/DL)

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SOO wrote:

im going for my annual poking and prodding and probing and smushing tomorrow......so far, my dr hasnt wanted me on cholesterol lowering drugs, but if this time it is brought up, were going to have a long talk, and i doubt she will win the argument.

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julia wrote:

My mom is going to wing herself off all pharmaceuticals. I could not be happier.

I think the best thing one can do is eat well, get exercise, and hope for the best

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fangs wrote:

I'll never take cholesterol medication. How many extra years does it really give anyone? What makes it worth the money and side effects?

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Beverly wrote:

Also because of stuff I've been reading here...I started looking more closely at my diet, started on a high protein, mod fat and low carb diet (mostly Atkin's, I'd say) and lost 15 pounds before I even got the damn diet down right!  LOL  However, in reading about Ketosis, I tried for a little pee-test very early on and instead of finding a purple marker for that, I found a very odd marker for my liver.  I'm done with statins!!!  
 
oh, and I can finally sleep the night through!  yippieeeeeeeeee
 
Thank you sooooo much, Level...yer a peach!

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ORIGINAL: LeMis

More people need to be proactive in their health care and not just blindly accept what the doctor's say, after all doctor's are human too. 

[:)]

I'm not putting down doctors, just saying... 
yanno?   [;)]

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ORIGINAL: LeMis

More people need to be proactive in their health care and not just blindly accept what the doctor's say, after all doctor's are human too. 

[:)]

I'm not putting down doctors, just saying... 
yanno?   [;)]

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I tried this a few times. A few meds- I need... well- life is more bearable with them. However- I could reduce down. i have cut back.... not reaching for an rx at every turn in the road.... I hope it works for your mom. -regards-

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I received a comment today that I feel compelled to post in its entirety as a cautionary tale for anyone contemplating going on statins (or any other drug, for that matter) for no good reason. This reader describes in much more detail than I ever could the agony of drug therapy gone wrong. And the realization that it was unnecessary drug therapy in the first place makes the experience even more devastating. I hope enough of you who are readers of this blog now realize that simply having an elevated cholesterol level is no reason to go on a statin.
The comment below demonstrates in vivid detail what happens thousands of times per day all over this country.

People are prescribed drugs for the flimsiest of reasons. These drugs cause side effects. These side effects are treated with more drugs, which themselves cause more side effects. Which are treated with yet more drugs.
When patients go to a doctor for symptoms, the doctor feels the need to treat the symptoms. Often the symptoms can be treated by having the patient discontinue the drugs that caused the symptoms in the first place. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a variation of what happened to this unfortunate commenter. The symptoms are simply treated by prescribing another drug designed to quash those symptoms.

Let the story below be a warning against taking any drug for minor symptoms. And don’t take a drug for a lab value that’s a little out of the ordinary and not even causing you symptoms. Remember, in the vast majority of all people, statins have been shown to provide no benefit in terms of decreased all-cause mortality. And in those where some benefit has been shown - men under the age of 65 with a history of a heart attack - the benefit isn’t all that great. Don’t let yourself in for a lot of trouble by taking a drug that provides you with no value.

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Despite the fact that statin drugs are the best-selling medications in history, accounting for some $40 billion plus in sales world wide last year, they had a very bad week this past week. And it looks like their scrutiny is going to pick up a little.

The Vytorin trial that finally came to light late last week kicked off the cascade of bad news. It appears that the combination of a statin and Zetia, despite lowering cholesterol levels by 40 percent more than a statin, was no more effective than the statin alone in preventing problems. Which would lead anyone with critical thinking skills to wonder about the hypothesis that LDL-cholesterol is really a problem.