High Cholesterol.

Thank you very much, your comments are very helpful. I will go back to my Dr. and ask for an higher dose, if no results, I will change my Dr. Thank you for your help.

Elizabeth

If your high cholesterol is an inherited factor (familial hypercholesterolemia), reducing it is unfortunately hard work as your body is predisposed to have a higher reading. Mine is too - my test gave a result of 9.4 and my doctor used scare tactics by telling me I was a stroke about to happen! My diet is good, I'm mostly vegetarian but eat some fish, my weight was ok, my BP was good and my blood sugar normal - he said changing my lifestyle wouldnt help and only statins would reduce it. I blindly took his advice in fear of my life. Then my health just went downhill, I hurt all over, I couldnt think straight and forgot things, my liver also started giving issues and because I was too ill to move about much I started to gain weight. From being very fit and healthy but with high cholesterol, I became fat, ill and seriously unfit - a bigger risk of heart attack and stroke than just the high cholesterol alone!. Statins are know to cause liver problems, it's why it's essential to have your liver enzymes tested regularly while taking them. I did some research and was horrified at what I found out - statins may be the only option for those who have had previously heart attack or stroke but for everybody else they should not be the first choice and in fact for some they are totally toxic and should be avoided. Only you can decide what your choice will be but, best advice, do some serious extensive research before upping your dose, particularly as you have a liver issue which will definitely get worse if you increase the amount of statins you are taking.

40mgs Simvastatin is the highest dose to my knowledge. The first question I'd ask is - what is your cholesterol level?

The above advice is right. Do the research about statins. If you want a book that tells you all the relevant research, read The Pioppi Diet. Written by a Consultant Cardiologist . It gives all the research and then talks about how to change your duet and lifestyle to improve your heart health.

I was found to have a cholesterol level of 9.6 and was found to have familial high cholesterol. I do have family history from the last 3 generations. I was put on 2 different statins together to prevent heart disease. I didnt have any heart problems and all my vital signs, BP etc, were normal, so it was for prevention only.

So I took these 2 high dose statins for 5 years. Thats when I developed heart disease. The cardiologist reduced my statins to one drug and added the drugs that i needed for my cardiovascular disease.

Satins did nothing to prevent my heart disease. Then I started to do my own research on statins. I was horrified to find that statins can cause heart disease and there's very little evidence to show that they prevent it. They can also cause cataracts and I do now have cataracts. I decided to stop taking them. I read the Pioppi Diet and discussed my plan of action with my GP. I changed my diet tofollow the high fat low carbohydrate Mediterranean diet advised in the book. Initially, my LDL cholesterol and triglycerides shot up but, by following the diet, they are both coming down and my HDL cholesterol has gone up. I had also had high blood glucose and was pre-diabetic. My blood glucose is now normal. My GP and I are both pleased with my results.

I asked what your cholesterol is because there is no real normal level. The range is extremely wide but the pharmaceutical companies have been setting arbitrary levels in order to sell statins. Every tear ir so, they lower the level in order to get more people taking them. I stopped taking them 10 months ago and I now realise that the leg/foot cramps that I used to have and the forgetfulness must have been caused by the statins. They haven't gone away totally yet, I suppose because I took them for nearly 9 years.

If your GP tries to persuade you to stay on statins, change your doctor to one who will support you. Remember, it's your body and your choice but read about it. Do the research then decide.

"40mgs Simvastatin is the highest dose to my knowledge. The first question I'd ask is - what is your cholesterol level?"

No the highest is 80mg which has now been banned in the States by the FDA as a first statin due to side effects, one of them being muscle loss!!!

The average cholesterol level in the UK is 5.7. Mine was 5 and to say I'm a somewhat annoyed to have suffered all that I have when it wasn't necessary is putting it mildly.

Absolutely agree with your last paragraph.

Regards

Lea

No idea what happened to my first post losing much of the content. No edit so couldn't change it, Reported it but nothing happened.

Research! Many people suffer the side effects of statins and no longer take them and perhaps haven't for years. It is a life sentence of pain. There's a lot of sensible advice on here from those who have been there and done that and live with the consequences.

Leajay

Leajayse,

If you want the real truth about satins read about Ansel Keyes initial research and how he lied about the results to fit HIS theory. We have all this cholesterol con from his flawed research.

Absolutely true

The drug you're taking is different. Simvastatin and Atorvastinare usually given up to 40mgs but that doesnt mean that your drug should also be 40mgs. Look it up to see what a normal dose is.

Dont ask your GP for a higher dose. Do the research and then discuss with your GP if you want to stop taking them.

Thank you to every one for your advise, I will certainly read the books recommended. I live in Spain and the blood test results are different numbering than England. Mine are as follows:-

Cholesterol - 241 mg/dL (150-220)

HDL - 58.3 mg/dL (0-120)

LDL - 158 mg/dL (0-120)

The numbers in the brackets are the targets, not sure if you can make sense of these results.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth,

Your cholesterol is only 6.23 which is not high. If you start messing around with artificially lowering it you can start causing health problems in the future.

Your liver creates 75% of cholesterol in your body, you get very little from food, this is why I am trying to explain cholesterol is natural and needed by your body. It will go up and down as all functions in the body do at different times of the day.

Before I educated myself about cholesterol mine was always between 6.9 to 7.3 area, now this is true, when I added coconut oil to my diet 2 months later it was 5.3. Your body needs saturated fat to work, I stopped all oils except coconut and olive, went back to cooking with lard.

Please do not stress about cholesterol it was all a lie and reading about the 22 counties research by Ancel Keys proves it, all the high fat eating countries did not have heart diesease, it is mainly caused by modern diet as is all the 'modern' conditions.

Jen, that is very interesting, my Cholesterol is not as bad as I thought. My liver count is 141 (0.45). I do like my wine, but do you think the Statins are not helping?.

Thank you

Elizabeth

Elizabeth,

Statins serve no purpose, eating real food is the best way to go. Think about it, If your liver naturally produces 75% of cholesterol you are making it work harder to keep producing more and more cholesterol while statins are trying to stop the production, to me it does not make sense, there is no logic behind it. I personally would never touch a statin.

I lived in Spain for a long time and watched what the older ladies bought at the meat counter. They bought pig fat to cook with (lard), bones for boiling to make stock, (I had to be early to get chicken carcasses) they use every part of the rabbit, chicken and lamb. It is not all about salad and olive oil. Life there is changing there now the pharmaceutical companies have taken hold along with pre-packed and frozen food, in a few years they will not be as healthy.

Very interesting your comment about countries that eat a high fat diet not having heart disease. I saw a documentary on TV about scandinavia and in particular iceland. They eat nothing but whole milk, huge volumes of butter and cream, high fat yoghurt and mountains of cheese and their incidence of heart disease is very very low - There is now scientific evidence that consuming fat from cow's milk has no effect whatsoever on arterial health - most of it is disposed of by the body through the bowel but the vitamins and minerals it leaves behind are totally essential for good gut health. My maternal great great grandmother lived to 102, my great grandmother to 96, my grandmother to 95 and my mother 90. They all avoided 'low fat' anything and ate only whole milk, butter not margarine and cooked with lard or beef dripping - no trendy diets or super foods, just a balanced diet in moderation (rationing during the war promoted moderate eating). Modern life is the killer not cholesterol.

Loxie,

We have all been brainwashed about cholesterol and everyone thinks they know about all about it sadly they do not know the facts. There are generally reasons people have have heart problems a lot is down to life style rarely genetic, doctors these days love to put everything down to genetics as it is easy. My father ate fat every day he lived until 87 but he drank most days, most of his family were in their 90s.

Back in the 80s when all this cholesterol started for me after hubby went to a new clinic at the doctors called well man clinic, we changed to sunflower oil, skimmed milk, no fat etc., I am horrified of the damage done to our health ( hubby had heart attack last year). I now know doctors are not super intelligent and only follow orders.

Sunflower oil congeals on pans, deep fat fryers etc., I keep thinking this is in our arteries, lard does not congeal, has no cholesterol but it does have vitamin D and does protect the skin from the sun.

Brainwashing is a powerful tool and the whole country has been had.

I agree Jen - brainwashing is correct and cynically I believe most of it is just the power of money - Big Pharma manipulating health 'facts' to suit their profit margins. Not everything our forebears ate was good for them, we know that but they did apply more common sense to the matter. We are bombarded with information, misinformation, sales techniques etc., which they weren't. If we listened to every change in guidance, we'd never eat anything and die of starvation.

Sunflower seed oil really isnt a healthy option despite it being promoted as such, it is very high in omega-6 fatty acids. In some cases, the omega-6 content is as high as 70 percent! If you are currently using sunflower seed oil in your diet, I urge you to stop. It is not good for you at all. It exacerbates the inflammation in your body and puts you at risk for disease. Increasing inflammation in the body is a killer - it puts one at risk of heart disease, cancer and a whole lot more trouble. The rule of thumb in to have a diet with a ratio of Omega 3 : Omega 6 of 1:1. Many western diets contain a ratio of 1:6 - ie six times as much Omega 6 as Omega 3.