Yes, but changing your diet to include a LOT more fats (the sausage
worries me!), after having heart problems, would be risky in my mind.
As for me, Lipitor seems to be working well, so I can enjoy Zweigels
white hots, a Rochester signature "food". I balance everything with
salmon and red wine.... more of the latter.
Earl
Chuck Norcutt wrote:
>Earl Dunbar wrote:
>
>
>
>>Chuck, I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that you should do
>>what you did, but I'd say that after having a triple bypass it was a
>>pretty amazing, even courageous decision, and I applaud you ... and am
>>really glad for the results.
>>
>>
>
>I didn't view it as courageous... just the wise thing to do. The major
>component of my cholesterol score was triglycerides. On a high carb
>(low fat) diet my triglycerides were above 900. Switching to low carb
>dropped my triglycerides to 200. The way total cholesterol is computed
>is HDL + LDL + (triglycerides/5) so the 700 point drop in triglycerides
>was a 140 point drop in the total. However, since my total cholesterol
>was still "too high" I was put on a 20mg dose of Lipitor as well.
>
>Amazingly enough (rest his soul), my physician did not understand the
>role of triglycerides in the overall cholesterol score. This despite
>the fact that he was an internist on the staff of the Harvard Medical
>School at a teaching hospital.
>
>
>>One thing I noted was that you said, "good red meat" ... with the
>>emphasis on "good" for me. IOW, it's the same "old" story: quality is
>>very important.
>>
>>
>
>Wish I hadn't added "good". Today I am no longer afraid of cholesterol
>or saturated fat. I don't care how much fat is on the beef or how much
>butter is on the (green) veggies. The Inuit (eskimos) and Maasai don't
>die of heart disease. They eat an extremely high fat diet and don't
>even eat their veggies for fiber. :-)
>
>
>
>>I do agree with Garth about it not being a "diet" for everyone. It
>>likely wouldn't work for me. At one point in my life when I lost a lot
>>of weight, I ate plenty of carbs. My cholesterol issues are genetic, so
>>meds make the difference. I haven't tried an extensive regime of
>>dietary control and herbs, etc., to see if I could replace the Lipitor,
>>but I might look into that.
>>
>>
>
>I have been on 20mg Lipitor since 1998. Ever since then I have been
>plagued with muscle pains which have been gradually spreading from my
>pectorals to my thighs and knees and now to other parts of my body.
>Standard liver function and CPK level tests (check for muscle damage)
>have never indicated anything wrong. However, recent research shows
>that statin drugs are capable of causing muscle damage that does not
>show itself in CPK tests. I've also been having memory problems with
>the *names* of people and things. Maybe just old age but there is
>growing suspicion that statin drugs can also cause memory problems.
>
>Anyhow, after reading the book "The Cholesterol Myths" by (well
>published) Swedish physician Dr. Uffe Ravnskov (three times now) I have
>decided to stop worrying about cholesterol entirely and have taken
>myself off Lipitor two weeks ago. Ravnskov's book basically says that
>the cholesterol emperor has no clothes and he takes you into much of the
>original research to show you how it is flawed and, in many cases,
>downright dishonest. I found this very hard to believe until I
>personally pursued two randomly chosen cholesterol related papers on
>medline and discovered that I couldn't find the data in the body of the
>papers to support the conclusions. I finally realized that the
>cholesterol myth in now so powerfully embedded that, if you don't toe
>the line, you don't get any research money.
>
>I should make it clear that Ravnskov does not actually recommend going
>off statin drugs. On that subject he concludes that statins are
>actually working to reduce deaths from CHD by a modest amount. But he
>maintains that the effect is most likely from reduction of inflammation
>or some mechanism other than cholesterol reduction. The reason I went
>off Lipitor is because of my own muscle and memory problems and growing
>evidence that taking statin drugs, while reducing deaths from CHD,
>increases the death rate from other causes. I've decided I'd much
>rather go out with a massive heart attack than assume increased risk of
>cancer.
>
>Am I worried? Not at all. After you've read Ranvshov's work you will
>understand that elevated cholesterol has never been shown by *any*
>research study to be a risk factor (let alone cause) for CHD in men over
>the age of 50 and has never been shown to be a risk factor for women of
>*any* age. Furthermore, there's plenty of evidence to indicate that
>reducing cholesterol in the elderly is contraindicated.
>
>I'm trying to convince my father now to stop taking the Gemfibrozil that
>his doctor recently prescribed for him. The doctor told him he was
>borderline diabetic and he was prescribing the Gemfibrozil to help lower
>his blood glucose level. In fact, Gemfibrozil is an old line
>cholesterol lowering drug which has a side effect of *increasing* your
>blood glucose level. The message is do your own research and think for
>yourself. I'm upset that an 84 year old man who appears to be as
>healthy as a horse and has never taken drugs is now having some
>"intervention" worked on him which is likely to harm him rather than
>help him.
>
>On a related note of do your own research; at the same time I quit
>taking Lipitor I also took myself (slowly) off a large dose (100mg) of
>atenolol which had been prescribed by my cardiologist (also Harvard Med
>School) to slow my heart rate (not to reduce blood pressure which was
>already low). Sometime after starting on the atenolol about two years
>ago I developed inverse psoriasis which has been growing progressivly
>worse. The psoriasis was diagnosed by my dermatologist (also Harvard
>Med School). While I was researching Lipitor I also decided to do some
>research on beta blockers (atenolol). Turns out that beta blockers have
>a side effect of exaccerbating psoriasis. Since stopping the atenolol a
>week ago the severity of the psoriasis has subsided significantly. It
>has been completely controllable using only over the counter
>hydrocortisone cream instead of the prescription mometasoue furoate I
>had been using. It seems to be continuing to subside and I have hopes
>that it might even go away completely. Neither the GP, cardiologist or
>dermatologist (all on the Harvard teaching staff) picked up on this or
>warned of possible side effects.
>
>Don't trust your doctors. Even the best educated ones. Do your own
>research.
>
><http://www.thincs.org/>
>
><http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0967089700/qid=1125063510/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-9279265-7494304?v=glance&s=books&n=507846>
>
>Chuck Norcutt
>
>
>
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