Diet or statins dilemma

Trinkwasser

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2,468
The Governor said:
My cholesterol was 4,7 but my GP is of the opinion that everyone should be on a statin due to her view of the long term benefits even for thsoe without a high cholesterol rating.

There's some evidence that the actual benefits of statins come not from the LDL reduction but another effect, possibly reduction in inflammation.

I'm still happily taking my simvastatin but I'm going to drop it for a month prior to my next MOT, see what my unmedicated lipids look like now I've fined down my diet
 

Jay3109

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Most problems seem to be with simvastatin. This is the statin of choice since it is the cheapest. However, there are alternates such as Atorvastatin (Lipitor) and Pravastatin. I take Lipitor and have never had any particular side effects, my father takes simvastatin and is as stiff as a board (mind you he is 78 so perhaps we can make some allowance for age). My mother is on Pravastatin and again has no great problems (as a family we like to give all options a try!! We are all on different insulin regimes too!!) :lol:
 

Trinkwasser

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Jay3109 said:
Most problems seem to be with simvastatin. This is the statin of choice since it is the cheapest. However, there are alternates such as Atorvastatin (Lipitor) and Pravastatin. I take Lipitor and have never had any particular side effects, my father takes simvastatin and is as stiff as a board (mind you he is 78 so perhaps we can make some allowance for age). My mother is on Pravastatin and again has no great problems (as a family we like to give all options a try!! We are all on different insulin regimes too!!) :lol:

YMMV, I had a weird response to Lipitor, in retrospect I think it was hammering my BG down (rare but not unknown) no detectable side effects from simvastatin.

You're right that it's the cheapest, I would have been changed to it when we moved except I was already on it! No drug works for everyone but in these cost-effective days it can be hard to change to a more expensive one without well-documented side effects. Some PCTs make doctors jump through hoops to prescribe anything not on the local formulary.
 

rogbert

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Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Insulin
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Hi Everyone
There seems to be some confusion in how to lower your high cholesterol levels. Since I first started taking these drugs some 35 years ago I was put on a low fat low sugar diet for the first year .When this had no effect my rates were 14 for cholesterol and 12 for triaglisorols(not sure I have spelt it right) .Now after all these years I'm down to 4.8 and 3.I dont believe you can lower it solely by diet and eating certain foods like benicol.I 'm afraid drugs are the only answer.I'm on Atorvastatin max dose and Fenorfrebrate max dose.I know statins do have side effects and most drugs do but the benifits far outway the effects.

Good day

Rog
 

graham64

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Hi Rog,
If you browse this forum you will find many that have got good chol levels without the need for statins, I would only go on statins as a last resort.

Regards Graham
 

Ozzie

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Quite frankly, if anybody actually reads the medicine notes on lipitor or other statins they wouldn't bother taking them in the first place.

http://emc.medicines.org.uk/emc/assets/ ... ICAL_PARTS

all it takes is a bit of common sense and a little math to work out that statins are of little use to the majority of patients.

the way I see it in a very basic form.

constantly elevating blood sugars causes Atherosclerosis.
the body produces more cholesterol to go and cure it.
Dr statin comes along and gets rid of the body's defence mechanism.