OT - Statins and You

Here's my latest NMR lipoprofile after restarting Statins in May. My LDL-p has been reduced from 1979 in April to 954. See here for previous NMR: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=77373&st=0&sk=t&sd= ... 60#p710772. My diet continues as low Carb which has reduced my triglycerices from 188 in January to 100 now and increased my HDL from 33 to 40. It would appear that in my case LDL-c and LDL-p are concordant and that LDL particle size tends toward smaller rather than larger. This could indicate greater risk from elevated LDL concentrations.

Sounds like you are on the right track, Jay. For you, statins are doing what they are supposed to. Good job learning and exploring instead of just accepting. Too many people would rely on statins and toss the low carb approach, thinking the statins would "cover" them.

Just wanted to post my latest lipid panel--following a low carb paleo style of eating with plenty of saturated fats for 1 1/2 years now:

Total cholesterol: 223 down from 235 January 2012
Triglycerides: 42, down from 71 in January 2012
HDL: 89 up from 79 in January 2012
LDL-C (Friedenwald) down to 126 down from 142 in January 2012.
And the NMR lipoprotein profile showed that my LDL is mostly pattern A (light, fluffy--the good kind).

I just finished reading The Great Cholesterol Myth by Bowden and Sinatra and my numbers are excellent according to their theories. I'm right where I should be for a woman of my age. No statins required.

Those are some really good numbers, Jan. Congrats!
My wife just had her blood work done and she is really happy how her numbers improved. She was exposed to the Paleo type diet because I'm the chief cook and she pretty much had no choice when I started it. Now, she's a believer.
I'm still waiting for Dr. Attia to finish his cholesterol series with a piece on medications. He says he's going to, but I'm thinking maybe he doesn't want to get into it.
J

Here's a link to one of several articles refering to a recent report of findings by UC Berkeley reseach team:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/246368.php

UC Berkeley scientists published a report this week in the journal Nature Communications saying that they have isolated a type of stem cell that causes heart disease in later life.

Some suggest if the research is true that current treatments to lower cholesterol are only treating symptoms, not the cause of heart disease.

Some suggest if the research is true that current treatments to lower cholesterol are only treating symptoms, not the cause of heart disease.

Someone compared lowering LDL to reducing the number of firemen responding to a fire. It's as crazy to treat the symptom (elevated LDL-C) when it is not the cause of heart disease as it is to assume the fire fighters cause the fire.

Interesting. My doctor has had me on 5mg of simvastatin (generic zocor) for some time, and my total cholesterol was 176 this last time. I think that most of the lowering was due to a change in diet, from a fairly regular bad diet to an "anti-inflammation" diet ("The Abascal Way"), which is composed of more organic, less processed foods. Plus added exercise. My doctor suggested going off the statins if my cholesterol is that low next time. I was happy to agree with him. Taking statins worries me, I started doing it since my cholesterol levels were way up and my doctor pointed out that raised my risk of heart problems. But I've heard a lot since then, so I'm ready to try life without them. Hopefully I'm still alive either way *smile*.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20130206 ... table-fats?
Diet Guidelines Favoring Vegetable Fats Refuted

Enduring dietary wisdom -- that polyunsaturated vegetable fats are better for your heart than saturated animal fats -- may be turned on its head by a fresh analysis of a nearly 50-year-old study.

And so the news continues...

Since starting my low carb diet about a year ago, my cholesterol has stayed about the same with help from statins (see previous posts), but my Triglycerides have dropped from 188 to 83 and my HDL increased from 32 to 46. My TG/HDL ratio as gone from an unhealthy 5.9 to a much healthier 1.8

My "diet" consists of not eating processed foods, which includes the vegetable oils refered to in this article. I do make an exception for EV olive oil.

EV olive oil is primarily a mono-unsaturated fat--73% (all fats are a mixture of types of saturation, but you look at the predominant component), so it's all good. The polyunsaturated fats tend to be less stable, and therefore highly oxidized and inflammatory by the time they reach your table. Those are the vegetable oils, nut, and seed oils (some exceptions in the chart below).

I found a nice chart here: http://www.balancedbites.com/PDFs/Balan ... ndOils.pdf and the accompanying articles here: http://balancedbites.com/2010/07/fats-w ... ditch.html and http://balancedbites.com/2011/09/faqs-w ... -oils.html explain it.

I like that the chart tells you which fats are OK to cook with--some of them are not safe at higher temperatures, including EVOO. We used to cook with EVOO, now I add it after cooking and use ghee, butter, coconut oil, and occasionally chicken schmaltz or beef tallow we've rendered during cooking. Even butter has to be used carefully, at the point where it's smoking and brown it can become inflammatory. Ghee can withstand higher cooking temperatures. I make my own.

Thanks for the links, Jan. I like the charts.
I do use coconut oil (another exception) for occasional frying. Most things I oven roast or steam in the micro. Early on, when I was still craving the pasteries, I did some baking with almond flour. But I've pretty much given it up because it's so calorie dense and the cravings have subsided.

Serious side effects seen with failed Merck niacin drug
http://news.yahoo.com/serious-side-effe ... nance.html

The short of the story is that Merck hasn't been able to develop an effective drug therapy to raise the HDL level of heart patients.

My own HDL level has continued to slowly rise with the continuation of my “no processed foods” diet.

j

Jay Aitchsee wrote:

Serious side effects seen with failed Merck niacin drug
http://news.yahoo.com/serious-side-effe ... nance.html

The short of the story is that Merck hasn't been able to develop an effective drug therapy to raise the HDL level of heart patients.

My own HDL level has continued to slowly rise with the continuation of my “no processed foods” diet.

j

As I recall, they mixed their niacin with their own statin drug which counter-acts the benefits of niacin in raising HDL -- their original intent IMO to discourage people from just taking niacin instead of their overpriced poison. Furthermore, different people will respond to niacin to different degrees in raising their HDL. The best way to raise HDL is to avoid statins and do high intensity interval training (ie. sprints) ... oh, and eat plenty of natural organic saturated fats.

I should add ... the whole anti-cholesterol paradigm is a scam. Cholesterol is essential for a healthy brain, numerous hormones, and cell membranes. You can't live without it. The nonesense that cholesterol causes heart disease (atherosclerosis) is the scam that big pharma wants you and your idiot MDs to keep believing though it is well known that atherosclerosis is caused by inflamation as a consequence of consuming rancid (oxidated) fats (ie. foods fried in liquid industrial seed oils and trans-fats) and overconsumption of carbohydrates that promote chronic hyper insulinemia and the formation of glycated end products.

Zocor and later pravastatin has caused me considerable damage to the muscles in my hips, legs and feet. It has gotten so bad that I am unable to step off or up a low curb without losing my balance unless I walk with a cane. And standing still or walking is very painful. I have recently been assessed by a physical therapy center to whom I was referred by my physician, and their measurements confirmed substantial losses in strength, range of motion, etc. They have confirmed what I already knew - it is not my imagination and it is not "typical aches and pains" one can expect from age. It was explained to me that part of the cause of loss of balance is due to the fact that the muscles which enable one to rise up off their heels and onto the balls of the feet have been among those damaged.

I am taking therapy, stopped the statin, and am attempting to replenish the COQ10, fish oil, L-Carnitine, etc. but no one seems to know whether the damage can be reversed. As this problem kept getting worse over the past several years, I have been complaining about it and was sent to all sorts of specialists who seemed to rule out whatever other cause they specialized in. Not one of them told me to stop taking the statin, until less than a month ago, even though I always furnished a detailed list of my medications to each doctor's office I was sent to.

Be forewarned.

Regards, Nate

I decided against taking a statin due to the risk of diabetes which is already high with apnea and am on Welchol. I go back in May to get checked for the first time. There are no liver risks with it, but it has uncomfortable side effects that can be almost completely alleviated by taking a stool softener.

NateS wrote:Zocor and later pravastatin has caused me considerable damage to the muscles in my hips, legs and feet. It has gotten so bad that I am unable to step off or up a low curb without losing my balance unless I walk with a cane. And standing still or walking is very painful. I have recently been assessed by a physical therapy center to whom I was referred by my physician, and their measurements confirmed substantial losses in strength, range of motion, etc. They have confirmed what I already knew - it is not my imagination and it is not "typical aches and pains" one can expect from age. It was explained to me that part of the cause of loss of balance is due to the fact that the muscles which enable one to rise up off their heels and onto the balls of the feet have been among those damaged.

I am taking therapy, stopped the statin, and am attempting to replenish the COQ10, fish oil, L-Carnitine, etc. but no one seems to know whether the damage can be reversed. As this problem kept getting worse over the past several years, I have been complaining about it and was sent to all sorts of specialists who seemed to rule out whatever other cause they specialized in. Not one of them told me to stop taking the statin, until less than a month ago, even though I always furnished a detailed list of my medications to each doctor's office I was sent to.

Be forewarned.

Regards, Nate

The cell dmage can be reversed ... but I know you can't hear/read me so I just waste my keyboard with you. Best of luck nonetheless.