searchinginla said...
BillyBob, why are you so hesitant to go on statins. They not just lower cholesterol, but also have an anti inflammatory function. Just curious what holds you from taking an established drug.
Oh it is just my weird general aversion to prescript
ion drugs(or medical/surgical treatments for that matter) and their potential unwanted side effects. Those SEs are not uncommon- it is almost like- sort of- fix one thing break another- so if I am going to take them I want to make sure their is a darn good reason for them, a real benefit that outweighs the risk. And a benefit that I can not accomplish in some other way, such as diet and/or supplements.
That is the general aversion. As for statins, I have read about
and known of personally some very significant SEs that many friends have had. I also am not fully convinced of the benefits, again compared to what I can obtain through diet. Or for that matter the real risk of cholesterol, an essential nutrient, at moderately high levels. Again, as I think I already told about
, my doc wanted me to have that Calcium test to see what condition my arteries were actually in, and he no doubt expected less than great based on my Cholesterol numbers. But, I had a perfect score. Absolutely could not have had a better score, no one, not even a perfectly healthy 16 year old, could sore any better. Which goes to the question: how is that possible if my high cholesterol #s are really telling the story about
my cardiac risk?
And finally, when I go to an algorithm that looks at both calcium blockage scores, cholesterol #s, and I think maybe blood pressure(my BP runs a bit low without meds), if I enter either lower cholesterol #s than mine, or higher #s, it makes virtually no difference in my risk, or very minuscule difference. The Calcium score is so much more important relative to overall risk of heart attack, that it overwhelms the importance of the cholesterol #s apparently.
Hence, my doctor, who wanted me to have the calcium test, and who had told me "any other doctor would have already had you on statins", completely dropped the recommendation for me to take them after he saw the results of the test. And I have not heard another word from him about
it for 3 years. But then again, I have not seen him since then, but the last e-mail said "OK, we will just forget the Statins for now".
So, considering all of that, I am not willing to take on even a slight likelihood of SEs from statins. But that is just me, and I know I am unusual regarding that approach. I might consider them if I was actually high risk by something other than just moderately high cholesterol. And if diet, which I have used in the past to slash triglycerides from over 200 to 40 and raise HDL and lower BP, was not getting me down to a more reasonable level. I am 69 years old and even though a cancer patient, I am (knock on wood!) on no prescript
ion drugs. I prefer to keep it that way as long as possible.