Tired of being tired

[KTNIC]

Hi. I was diagnosed January 2019 & within 18 months through diet & exercise only was in ‘remission.’ However even now I have spells when I am absolutely physically & mentally exhausted. I have discussed this with mu dr several times with no response on how to improve the situation or identify the cause. I have asked for repeated blood tests & questioned anaemia & thyroid which I’m told everything is fine. It isn’t!
A new dr put me on 10 mg Simvastatin before Christmas because he wanted my cholesterol levels lower. Then after Christmas although they were at 5.5 he changed it to 20mg. Since then I have had dreadful pain in my upper arms to add to the fatigue. When I told him he said’ I really don’t know’.
Just needed a moan!

 

[Smeggers]

I had the same problems with Simvastatin and eventually was changed to Atorvastatin. I have to say, I think GPs are too willing to add statins to regimes when cholesterol lowering is better through changed diet and exercise. I understand that isn't easy for some people, but I have found that by reducing my fat intake (butter, cheese, milk and meat fats), I have managed to keep my cholesterol to around 4.0. I use skimmed milk, low-fat cheese and olive oil spreads. I also cut all the fat off my meat. I think that is the sort of advice Doctors, Nutritionists and Dieticians should be giving out.

 

[Mbaker]

I believe you would need to detail your meal choices and exercise to have comments that might help. With the exercise, aerobic exercise will increase hunger for sure quicker than resistance based equivalents. If you are omnivorous and eating non-processed meat and fish as the base of the diet should provide the building block nutrients generally. You might in rare circumstances not be assimilating nutrients fully; a friend of mine has to have B12 shots, due to a genetic issue with normal assimilation via diet - so a nutrition panel might be useful.

Regarding the statin use, this is your choice, last week I declined statins, as I have done on around 3 other occasions. My basis for my decision:

• When measured (NHANES Dataset, etc) more people die with "normal" and lower cholesterol
• The basis for statins is a hypothesis - not good enough in my view, needs to be a repeatable fact
• The hypothesis keeps changing to suit - total cholesterol, then LDL, now small dense
• When high cholesterol foods were more prevalent (more meat, cheese etc) people lived healthier
• Tribes etc that eat high cholesterol based diets have less disease
• HDL, Trigs and ratios are more important markers
• CAC results are the gold standard rather than a guess, based on the diet heart hypothesis
• Being overweight and having high circulating insulin are significantly greater risk factors for heart disease
• So many more reasons, hormones, muscle.....

This gent is one of many who treats real people:

Other Resources you might find useful Books:
A Statin Free Life - Dr Aseem Malhotra
The Clot Thickens - Dr Malcolm Kendrick

Expert with recent study: Dave Feldman

 

[bulkbiker]

A new dr put me on 10 mg Simvastatin before Christmas because he wanted my cholesterol levels lower.

Did you want your cholesterol levels lower?
Did the doctor give a decent reason why they thought it might be a good idea to put you on a drug for the rest of your life?
Have you got the results of your pre statin full lipid panel?

Edit to add did the doctor explain that the practice gets extra money for putting you on a statin?

 

[ianf0ster]

Simvastatin is notorious for muscle pain. Atorvastatin can still give them, but reputedly much less.
personally I don't like either of them because they are able to cross the blood/brain barrier and I don't want something messing with the cholesterol in my brain.

I and several other people have had experience of what appears to be statin induced 'brain fog'. It may just be a coincidence, but still I would suggest that if you don't actually need statins, then why take them?

In some ways I agree with @Smeggers about how easy it is to manipulate Cholesterol through diet, where I disagree is whether LDL at normal levels (prior to invention of Statins) is actually a good thing or not.

In my own dietary experiments I have found that all my lipid ratios have improved while my LDL has increased on a higher fat diet. I'm not too unhappy with that since it is known that people over 65 with low LDL on average live shorter life than those on higher LDL and the the original level at which it was thought beneficial to prescribe Statins was much much higher than it is today. So much so that even with my raised LDL I wouldn't meet that criteria.

Anybody interested in Cholesterol, Statins and heart disease should take the time to read the tread by @bulkbiker called 'Cholesterol and Statins'

 

[Beating-My-Betes]

I'm not too unhappy with that since it is known that people over 65 with low LDL on average live shorter life than those on higher LDL and the the original level at which it was thought beneficial to prescribe Statins was much much higher than it is today. So much so that even with my raised LDL I wouldn't meet that criteria.

This is a pervasive idea, but should perhaps be viewed through a wider lens. I've no interest in getting into any discussions about it, but I wanted to provide the counter-narrative for anyone who thinks it's important to make decisions based on all sides of the various arguments, especially when making hugely important decisions about health.

Neither of the people involved in these written works and/or podcasts is either vegan or pushing any kind of narrative/agenda other than countering anti-science and/or outright quackery.

Again, not telling anyone to outright trust or ignore their doctor. Just providing some information.

https://sigmanutrition.com/cholesterol-mortality/

https://sigmanutrition.com/episode424/

 

[johnme]

I had short term memory failures while taking statins so I don’t. Doesn't stop new gps and DN asking me to do so. It’s such a bore. I think they’re just reading an on screen script

 

[pre-predb]

Hi. I was diagnosed January 2019 & within 18 months through diet & exercise only was in ‘remission.’ However even now I have spells when I am absolutely physically & mentally exhausted. I have discussed this with mu dr several times with no response on how to improve the situation or identify the cause. I have asked for repeated blood tests & questioned anaemia & thyroid which I’m told everything is fine. It isn’t!
A new dr put me on 10 mg Simvastatin before Christmas because he wanted my cholesterol levels lower. Then after Christmas although they were at 5.5 he changed it to 20mg. Since then I have had dreadful pain in my upper arms to add to the fatigue. When I told him he said’ I really don’t know’.
Just needed a moan!

That is really deceitful/negligent of your doctor to claim not to know what is causing muscle pain, as it is a well-known symptom! Friends of mine have been through the same thing and have come off statins, with a disappearance of the side-effects. I can only endorse what others have since said about the too widespread, and often unneccessary prescribing of statins - especially when connected to financial gain for GPs. I am a big fan of doctors like Aseem Malhotra and Malcolm Kendrick. The latter's latest book 'The Clot Thickens' is well worth a read. Maybe take a copy along with you next time you see your GP!!