Benecol

[cugila]

For those of us that have or have had Heart conditions Cholesterol is very important. I've seen what Kendick says about the matter and as far as I am concerned he is in a minority. Doesn't make him wrong, neither does it make him right. My opinion.

For those who want to know a little more about cholesterol and how it can be lowered to levels which you feel are prudent, here is a link:

http://www.bhf.org.uk/keeping_your_hear ... terol.aspx

and another:

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/hearthealth/ ... g/fats.htm

Cholesterol treatment and diabetes
The most common drug that is prescribed is a statin. Statins should be prescribed as primary prevention in all diabetic patients over 40 years old with a TC of more than 4mmol/l or and LDL-cholesterol of more than 2mmol/l.

Statins may be prescribed to younger diabetic patients if there are additional risk factors for cardiovascular disease or there is evidence of diabetic eye disease (retinopathy) or diabetic kidney disease (nephropathy).

All diabetic patients with a history of heart attack, stroke or cardivascular disease should be prescribed a statin to preven further attacks (secondary prevention).

Some people find they are intolerant of statins and experience side-effects, such as muscle pains, fatigue and nausea. If that occurs, there are a number of prescribable alternatives - such as ezetimibe or fibrate drugs, which may not cause these problems.

This is the medical advice which obviously people can ignore, but it pays to know that there are two sides to the so called, Cholesterol Con...... I suggest that you read copiously and see what is best for you after weighing up ALL the available evidence. Not everything in life is all about Diabetes either.......

Ken

 

[Ardbeg]

Great thread this one guys, thanks.

Altho' my readings were ok when I last visited the DN, she mentioned that she wanted to put me on Statins when I go back to see her in October. As I recall this was because of my age and the risk of heart disease in the future.

I'm not happy about going on any meds, so will try either the dairy free Benecol or that plant sterol supplement.

More expense every month...

 

[anniep]

I must be the odd one out here
I drank a bottle a day for 6 months and my cholestrol level was no different at all, sorry folks but i was very disappointed with Gloria Hunnifords tv advert claims for the Flora drinks.... never again! so afraid i take simvistatin and my cholestrol has halved, i'm happy with that. goes to show our bodies are all different. good luck with those that do drink their daily bottle.

You are not the only one, I took one of the drinks for months with no effect, I stopped taking them and stopped eating starchy carbs and my cholesterol droped from 5 point something to 4.2 in three months! And some brands had quite a bit of sugar in them.

My doctor explaind to me in a way that made sense to me, that for diabtics, statins have a secondary effect of protecting against heart conditions even for those with low cholesterol anyway. So I decided to give them a try, I haven't had a check up since taking them to see what effect they have had.

I don't believe that something is automatically better jsut because it comes from a plant.

 

[lovinglife]

just proves once again we are all different - anniep I was the opposite! mine went from 4.6 to 5.7 when I reduced my carbs when diagnosed - I have kept my carbs reduced but taking the benacol has brought my levels back down to 4.6

A few snippets of info Arberg (or anyone else wanting to give them a try) - The non dairy ones are very chemically tasting and although lower in carbs (about 3 g lower at 1.??)for me they were too yuck to justify taking them.

benecol "ordinary" are 4.5g carb per bottle (says on the pack) - NOT 9. ?? as their website states (I contacted them about this)

The light are about 5.?? carbs - be wary of own supermarket brands - a certain very large store their own brand is 14g carb per bottle! :shock:

I am not against taking statins and know that they work for lots of people - I don't really think things from plants are necessarily better/worse for you - after all that's where all drugs originated from - and would you make an apple and deadly nightshade pie?? :lol: - but wanted to try every avenue first - I was quite willing to go for statins if this didn't work for me - but they seemed to have for now - if that changes it will be statins for me too