Prednisone and cholesterol

Posted , 12 users are following.

I just got the results over the phone on my bloodwork. I plan to see this new DR. on monday. they said everything looked ok except my cholesterol is high and they will put me on meds for this has anyone else had this problem? I am down to 1.5 mg on the pred.

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  • Posted

    Great Eileen explanation as always.

    I know I carry from my father's side my high cholesterol even having been raised eating healthy, all natural in a time when nobody used to talk bout that as nowadays .

    For me it is s a genetical thing.

    All is perfect with my heart, circulation .though according to tests I asked my GP tovrequest

    So great the our chance to have these discussions here!

    Good health to all

    • Posted

      Please read - so great our chance.....

      And ......my GP to request...

      Sorry. Thank you xxxx

  • Posted

    statins are powerful anti-inflammatories so you should not have a problem.  
    • Posted

      Antiinflammatories don't all work in the same way so it doesn't follow at all.

      I know quite a few people who have developed PMR-type symptoms while on statins and PMR is even listed as a side effect in one data sheet - I can't remember which statin it is off-hand though, simvastatin I think.

    • Posted

      I also got terrible pain (in my legs - mostly in my thighs) when I took statins for high cholestoral. I refuse to take them these days.....I thought that they may have contributed to the perfect storm which led to PMR developing.

      ......although having been on the 'worse than paleo' AIP 'diet' my cholestoral has dropped from 7.6 to 5.6 in six weeks! You tell me......?

      My guess is that this AIP 'diet' is just a step further than what you are already doing Eileen.....and given I'm so fat from the pred and a year of sitting on my butt I need all the help I can get. lol

  • Posted

    my cholesterol wasn't particularly high. But "they" moved the goalposts and adjusted the risk factors. Nevertheless I decided in favour of individual health rather than the broad brush statistics based public health. Arguments about reducing the cost of health care to state or insurance companies do nothing for me and I think I know too much about how a single individual data point may be represented in a statistical population. So no statins.

    I hadn't discovered is that there is increased risk of coronary events associated with pmr. About the same increase as from diabetes.

    No symptoms but stress echo test followed by angiogram followed by coronary stent. Exercise in rehab was nice side effect of giving me back some fitness I'd lost to pmr.

    Now I take statins as part of my individual health plan. Cholesterol lowered.

    • Posted

      PS its at least 7 years ago I tried diet and exercise simultaneously to reduce cholesterol. Not only couldn't I find any quantified information on how much exercise or diet change would influence my cholesterol I also found that after 6 months it hadn't changed. The diet and exercise were both very significant changes in my lifestyle.
    • Posted

      Julian, your post triggered a little internet browsing on my part, and probably this is well known, but I didn't know it before.  Cholesterol is necessary for our bodies to make all the steroid hormones.  We need it or we can't make Vitamin D.  Its role in plaque formation is even more complicated - it's likely not a villain but the body's attempt to heal inflammation from another cause....
    • Posted

      While exercise may not lower overall cholesterol, it will change ratio between LDL ( bad ) and HDL ( good)... If that ratio LDL/HDL is less then 4, it is considered as NEGATIVE factor ( reduces probability)  for heart attack.

      As it was already mentioned, cholesterol is very important for fat digestion, and plays important role in cell protection and manufacturing some hormons ( cortisol is one of them). 

       

  • Posted

    My primary doctor says she has a real problem getting people to take statins who  need it, and one of those resistant patients that very day was in the hospital for cardiac surgery.  It could have been prevented and it made her sad.

     

    • Posted

      I suspect that intuitively people may have a sense that there's something not quite right about dosing a high proportion of the population for a small individual return, where its not really known whether "I" am one of the individuals who will benefit, let alone if "I" am by how much.

      Its only after the event that the doctor knows that a particular patient outcome could have been prevented. Before the event its just a probability, which the statins can change a bit but not reduce it to zero). Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Intuitively we know that the doctor also has a number of patients who haven't, and probably won't, have a coronary event.

      Intuitively we suspect the doctor really doesn't know which patients will have a coronary event. We aren't quite convinced that giving them all something "just in case" is a good strategy for "me".

      Intuitively people know that while someone wins Lotto every week it typically ain't "me".

      I wonder if the people who don't take statins are also the people who don't buy Lotto tickets.

    • Posted

      I've had 2 lotto tickets in my life - bought for me by my accountant! I'd rather have an ice-cream with the money redface

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