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Diet or statins dilemma

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popps

Well-Known Member
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Hi all, saw my GP today after first round of blood tests since diagnosis and almost everything is fine. A1c = 5, kidney and liver functions are good. The only negative result is the cholesteral level of 5.8, which he says should be below 5.

He's a good GP (and is actually supportive of a reduced carb diet) in that he'll listen to me, give advice without being condescending and won't dictate what I need to do. So therefore, on being offered statins to reduce my cholesteral I chose to see if I could tackle this by diet and exercise only, with another blood test in three months time.

However, on doing some research on the subject today the additional restrictions to diet concerns me. I already exercise a relatively low-moderate carb diet, and to reduce my intake of cheese, eggs, red meat etc. seems to be excessively restrictive. I've heard of products such as those from Benacol as being good in reducing cholesteral, but don't they include sugars? My main priority is to minimise my blood sugar levels and so this may not be an option.

So the dilemma is: having warded off metformin this time around, should I accept statins in order to reduce my lipids instead of restricting my diet even further or actually compromising my blood sugar level control?

Once again.thanks to everyone who has given advice in the past. It's certainly worked for me thus far, and I hope that I can direct any "newby" in the right direction. Cheers.
 
A one a day yogurt drink of Benecol doesnt do too much to bg levels. I think they are about 5 grams of carb per drink.

What was your cholestrol level before you started the low carb approach?
 
Hi Popps,
The Benecol dairy free fruit and soya drink, only contains 2.1g carbs 1.3g sugar I don't think thats to bad.

Regards Graham
 
Hi I think there are now low fat versions of benecol type products but not sure what sugars they have in them. Admire your stance in trying to get sorted by diet alone :!:
Chris
 
Hi, my cholesterol level before low carbing was 6.6 so ther is a downward trend.
 
My chol was 7.6 on diagnosis 8 years ago.

Benecol/Flora plus oat bran, with the NHS diet reduced it to 5.4 in 3 months, & it stayed in the low 5s since. I started reduced carb in May, & the chol dropped to 4.3.

That's a reduction of 40% just on diet.
 
My cholestrol was also 5.8 when first diagnosed with type 2 and was also offered statins to which I also declined stating that I wanted to do this as naturally as possible.

The trouble is I hate those drinks as I have never been able to touch yoghurt, soya, cheese or buttermilk. So any help on other products or even supplements will be very helpful. I already ditched the butter in favour of flora but as yet I am stumped.

Dont want to go down the statins route if possible as my father has had severe reactions to all that they have diagnosed.
 
Thanks Eddie

Them **** carbs out to get you whichever way they can. Well I have more than halved my intake of carbs and the thought of real butter is now making me drool. Well I will stick to my mix with some macademias thrown in ( off to Morrisons tomorrow)
 
I am taking simvistatin to prevent heart disease. my cholesterol levels are normal but the consultant recommended I take it to prevent heart disease. He did tell me to research the product and see what I thought. I thought it was for the best.
Not had any side effects at all which is strange for me.
 
I've just bought some Benecol strawberry yoghurt drink. The dietary information on the carton states that each bottle contains 4.2g of carbohydrates, of which sugars 3.1. The product includes fruit concentrates, fructrose, glucose syrup and suctrose. As it's just the stanol ester content that helps reduce cholesterol why do we need all the other stuff?

So on surfing the net I found a product called Higher Nature Red Sterol Complex. This is supposed to provide 1,000 mg of sterol ester per 4 tablets as opposed to the Benecol's 2g per bottle. Has anyone tried this or similar natural supplements, and if so does it work? And is it more effective (or less) than Benecol?
 
Statins are fine for some people but the side effects are not good if you succumb to them. Memory loss and painful muscles sem to be the most prominent.
Americans are suing the drug companies because of the side effects. Google "suing and statins". Your doctor sounds as though he is a good one letting you make an informed choice and as some people on this thread have said you can lower them with diet and supplements such as benecol and flora. As you have three months to go until your next test why not try to do it with the diet and then if there is no marked improvement go back and express the concerns you have about the statins.
 
Hi, that's what I intend to do, but I don't want to do anything to compromise my blood sugar control. Fighting a war on two fronts, so to speak, is not a viable option.
 
I have just weaned myself off of simvastatin, I was feeling very achey and lethargic, am feeling so much better,but what can I do naturally to keep my choelestral(sp?) down, without pushing up my blood sugar?? :roll:
 
Ive not had my first cholesterol/trigs test yet (next week) so not sure how my cholesterol etc is. Last time I had it checked it was 4.5 but that was years ago.
Have always eaten low fat and whilst not a carb monster, most definitely ate more than i do since dx so will be interesting to see what it is despite low fat diet for many many years. If their 'avoid bad fats' science is correct I should have low cholesterol but we'll see...

My GP recently took a baseline liver function test on basis that I will likely need to go on a statin because 'they (consultants) are fond of putting people with diabetes on statins'.
She was advised that unlesss my cholesterol/BP is dangerously high and they can prove that at a 6 week diagnosis point that bad things will happen if I dont take it then this would not under any circumstances be the case. :evil:
 
calamityjane1937 said:
I have just weaned myself off of simvastatin, I was feeling very achey and lethargic, am feeling so much better,but what can I do naturally to keep my choelestral(sp?) down, without pushing up my blood sugar?? :roll:
Click to expand...

According to our lurking dietitian, Ally, almonds contain the active ingredient of benecol & she recommends a handful a day.

I have "Minichol" cheese - without bread or biscuits, benecol or Flora pro-active, & a desert spoon of oat bran - that kept my cholesterol down to the low 5s. Reduced carb took it to 4.3. That's 40% down from 7.6 at diagnosis 8 years ago.

Have you seen my PM? My mother was Doris Day
 
Ok, I've gone for the plant sterol tablets (Lestrin, 400mg beta silisterol) as opposed to the Benecol. This will be supplemented by walnuts/almomds and garlic. Low -moderate carb diet plus exercise to be maintained. See how it goes for three months.
 
popps said:
Hi all, saw my GP today after first round of blood tests since diagnosis and almost everything is fine. A1c = 5, kidney and liver functions are good. The only negative result is the cholesteral level of 5.8, which he says should be below 5.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good GP wrecked by accountants. Your REALLY need a full lipid panel but increasingly your requests for this will be refused as the total cholesterol test is cheaper.

Reducing carbs will knock down the triglycerides. Reducing the trigs will improve the balance between HDL and LDL.

I'm still taking simvastatin but my most recent experiment discovered that adding saturated fats improved my HDL and reduced the LDL by the same amount, which was simply not happening on the Healthy High Carb Low Fat diet. This may not work for you, fat metabolism is complicated and it's probably best to concentrate on mono and polyunsaturated fats especially also increasing Omega 3s over Omega 6s.

But without the full panel you'll have no idea of the crucial trigs/HDL ratio or how the balance between HDL and LDL is changing <sigh>
 
Hi All

I have been on Simvastatin for about 3 months and im now starting to feell very stiff and aching muscles, especially in my legs and starting to find it difficult to walk for any length of time, I'm only 42 and do a lot of walking and Scuba diving. I have just been to an Electronics show today(yes im a total geek) and had a lot of trouble walking around, which is not like me. Im going to make an appoimemt to see the Docs as im sure its the Simvastatin.

My cholesterol was only 5.8 on diagnosis, which i belive is normal for Non diabetics so not sure if i even need to be concerned at those levels. Only went of the Meds as people kept saying i was being silly and must accept i was diabetic and accept the drugs, SO i did and now im paying the price. :cry:

Brian
 
Brian - no problem stopping simv at once - cholesterol will take years to block your arteries. A few weeks without it will establish that you are suffering a side effect. It took a week with me for the pains to wear off.

Include benecol & oat bran in your diet. That reduced my chol from 7.6 to low 5s. Reducing carbs then took it down to 4.3.
 
I'm on Simvastatin since about two weeks ago, no ill effects at all.

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.

I was happy to try it out, obviously if I get side effects I'll think twice.

My only complaint these days is that if I take any tablets I'll start to rattle!
 
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