What is High Cholesterol
Hypercholesterolemia (literally: high blood cholesterol) is the presence of high levels of cholesterol in the blood. It is not a disease but a metabolic derangement that can be sec...
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Why we take statins
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With so many people taking statins, its interesting to find out how all this cholesterol lowering business got started.
Back in the 1950's a bio chemist named Ancel Keys was convinced that cholesterol caused heart disease. Keys researched different countries and compared cholesterol levels with death rates from heart disease. This is known as the famous seven country study. The relationship of cholesterol and heart disease was undeniable. But there was just one minor problem. The world has more than seven countries. Data was available on 22 countries, but Keys kicked out the countries that did not support his theory. He left out contries like the Swiss who had higher cholesterol and consumed higher saturated fats, yet had less heart disease. The public accepted the idea that cholesterol was the villian and a new market was born. Lowering cholesterol. $$$ Today, half of all heart attacks happen to people with low to normal cholesterol, and nearly half firt time heart attacks happen to folks with their "bad" cholesterol well below the guidelines. So the reason we take statins is our perception that if we lower our cholesterol, we are become more healthy and have a longer life. But are we? I challenge everyone reading this to stop and think about it. Meanwhile, keep a tight grip on your wallets. As a retired Medical CEO once told me, "Its all about money" Posted on 03/20/09, 12:03 pm |
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My cholesterol went down to 222 but my trig. is higher 145 more then it should be. I don't like taking statins and haven't for a long time since I researched it.
Half of the people having a heart attack do not have high cholesterol. People are told this will cause heart attacks and they scare people into taking them. Liptor has been proven to cause memory problems and it is listed that some can cause depression and muscle aches and pains. I am taking cinanmon pill, fish oil and non flush niacin. The drug companies are making millions from people. It has been pushed on me for years. Ann 
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I went off Zetia last year and just tried other things except I didn't excerise. My cholesterol went up 110 points from March to Nov. I'm sure it was because I didn't exercise the whole time. I didn't tell the doc I didn't take my Zetia. She put me on Lovastatin along with the Zetia last Nov. I had blood work done this week and my cholesterol is 155, it was 291 in Nov. But I've been watching my diet and exercising 3Xs a week at the gym, taking over the counter Niacin, Flax seed, Cardio Complete, and eating Cheerios every morning! So, hard to say which was responsible for lowering my cholesterol. I also lost 10 pounds!
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Cholesterol that is lowered due to increased physical activity is a result of increased metabilism. Your body's internal furnace burns off those lipids.
Zetia simply blocks the digestive track from absorbing cholesterol in the diet, while statins prevent the liver from making cholesterol. Both of these methods completely bypass any metabolic gains, and are artificial reductions in cholesterol. The statins and zetia create a rosey lab report, and there is a perceived benefit, creating a customer for life. But is the drug really preventing a heart attack? The drug companies boast about 47% reductions in heart attacks and strokes. And when the CUSTOMERS see that, they automatically think that taking the drug will reduce their individual risk by 47%. Not so fast. Statin proponents only show the customers the data they choose, and kick the rest of the data under the rug. More about that later.
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hi Med and all... are there any recent studies showing that taking statins will prevent heart attacks? I know from past posts, that this doesn't seem to be true. It's good to have ammunition to take to those doctor's checkups where you know cholesterold meds are going to be an issue. Hope all's well on your end of the world!
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I see I made a mistake when I put on the list I was taking cinanmon pills for chlosterol. That one is for lowering sugar. I was told to stop taking the non flush nican because it interfers with my other medication. I take fish oil and flaxseed 1,000 mg each 4 times a day
Ann
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My dad has high cholesterol and the dr had him on liptor.This year when he went for his anuall blood test it showed that the liptor was destroying his liver.The dr took him off of it and told him to go to the all natural store and get a bottle of red yeast rice and fish oil..we will see in a couple months how that works for him.
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I'm new to this chat room--in fact new to "chatting" period. I have been on Lipitor for a long time. I had gained some weight and my numbers had gone up so the doctor upped my dose from 40mg to 80mg. About a week later, everything I ate tasted funny and that continued. I called my doctor and reported this and he lowered me down to 40 but the bad taste hasn't gone away completely. Reading others' comments, I also have the muscle aches, etc. I wonder what MedLab1 has to say about this.
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I have been taking Simvastatin, 80mg, since April 2003. At that time my cholesterol was 513. Last check it was 149. HDL was 38, LDL was 68, and trig was 168 (which will be lower come November). I take it cause if I do not I will undergo another heart attack. Had one in May 2003 one month after having a 5x by-pass done.
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