Heart Attack Support Group
Heart attack is a serious, sudden heart condition usually characterized by varying degrees of chest pain or discomfort, weakness, sweating, nausea, vomiting, and arrhythmias, sometimes causing loss of consciousness. It occurs when the blood supply to a part of the heart is interrupted, causing death and scarring of the local heart tissue.
I'm a bit torn right now about what the right goal is for me to set regarding taking my statin drug, Lipitor? The question is whether I'm better off with or without it? (I had a ruptured plaque cause a 100% blockage in my LAD artery which was stented and they saw 50% blockage in another part of that LAD w/ light plaque in two other vessels)
I had my heart attack on 1/28/14 at age 46 (less than 4 months ago) I never took medications before, not even aspirin. Now the health pros have me taking aspirin, Lipitor, blood pressure med and Plavix for the one stent they installed which saved my life. My question is...
My lifestyle change, plant-based diet, lowered my LDL tremendously but in combination w/ the 40 mg Lipitor, I think it's lowered my cholesterol TOO MUCH! I convinced the health pros to half my Lipitor a couple months ago since they refused to let me stop it. I now take 20 mg but get this...my LDL from my latest blood test is again SUPER SUPER LOW AT ONLY 32?!!!
Since I know I can keep my LDL low without the Lipitor since I'm able to embrace this plant-based diet for the rest of my life, do you think it's best for me to try and get off the statin or is it better to take a low dose (10 mg) for the rest of my life? The nurse practitioner thinks that the Lipitor "is like tape being laid over the plaques" to help keep them from breaking off and causing problems. I've never heard of such a benefit from Lipitor? I know the health pros' job is to prevent us from having another "event" again but I also know it's up to the patient to decide as well what's best for himself/herself in the "big picture". I feel like the health pros see the medications they prescribe us as these "you can't live without them" pills but I've read enough to feel like that's not 100% the truth in all cases. Is this really a gamble to know which way to go at a certain point after your heart attack whenever you feel you are really doing great w/ your diet, exercise, sleep, etc? Have any of you gotten your statin drug's dosage lowered or even stopped taking it with or without your doctor's blessing? So curious how you see this issue. Thanks in advance for any feedback you might be able to share. - Carl
I had my heart attack on 1/28/14 at age 46 (less than 4 months ago) I never took medications before, not even aspirin. Now the health pros have me taking aspirin, Lipitor, blood pressure med and Plavix for the one stent they installed which saved my life. My question is...
My lifestyle change, plant-based diet, lowered my LDL tremendously but in combination w/ the 40 mg Lipitor, I think it's lowered my cholesterol TOO MUCH! I convinced the health pros to half my Lipitor a couple months ago since they refused to let me stop it. I now take 20 mg but get this...my LDL from my latest blood test is again SUPER SUPER LOW AT ONLY 32?!!!
Since I know I can keep my LDL low without the Lipitor since I'm able to embrace this plant-based diet for the rest of my life, do you think it's best for me to try and get off the statin or is it better to take a low dose (10 mg) for the rest of my life? The nurse practitioner thinks that the Lipitor "is like tape being laid over the plaques" to help keep them from breaking off and causing problems. I've never heard of such a benefit from Lipitor? I know the health pros' job is to prevent us from having another "event" again but I also know it's up to the patient to decide as well what's best for himself/herself in the "big picture". I feel like the health pros see the medications they prescribe us as these "you can't live without them" pills but I've read enough to feel like that's not 100% the truth in all cases. Is this really a gamble to know which way to go at a certain point after your heart attack whenever you feel you are really doing great w/ your diet, exercise, sleep, etc? Have any of you gotten your statin drug's dosage lowered or even stopped taking it with or without your doctor's blessing? So curious how you see this issue. Thanks in advance for any feedback you might be able to share. - Carl
body and blood vessels. Most experts think inflammation is what causes the plaque to rupture [causing the HA ]. I was able to cut my
Crestor dose from 10 mg to 5 mg due to extreme low cholesterol.
10mg of Crestor is equal to 20 to 25 mg of Lipitor, so even a 5mg =
10 to 12.5 mg Lipitor. My TOTAL cholesterol on 5mg of Crestor is 95.
I went from taking 1 pill [BP med] to 6 or 7 immediately after the HA..
If you're not on a beta blocker, consider yourself lucky because they are the worst of the post HA cocktail.
Beta blockers are known to have the side effect of making people very tired. Some but not all of this may subside once you get used to it.
The benefit, beyond lowering BP, is they slow your heart rate so your
heart doesnt have to work as hard. Because my resting heart rate is very low , it would be dangerous to lower it more.
Other heart meds like blood pressure meds can make you tired also.
Just happy to have avoided the worst of the "make you tired" drugs.