So what's the truth about Cholesterol

[Paul1976]

Can one of the moderators please split the thread, as this has now gone from a debate about cholesterol, to weight loss!

I didn't know that was your call to make in all fairness.

 

[Defren]

I would have thought weight loss would contribute to lowering cholesterol, but there again, what do I know?!?!

 

[Paul1976]

Like 'Manuel' in 'Fawlty Towers' would say.."I Knowa nothinnng" :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Can I ask a supplemental question about Ketosis (it was mentioned at the top of this page, honest).

What are the benefits of being in 'deep Ketosis' as described if you've already achieved all the weight loss you want?

 

[Defren]

Can I ask a supplemental question about Ketosis (it was mentioned at the top of this page, honest).

What are the benefits of being in 'deep Ketosis' as described if you've already achieved all the weight loss you want?

Stephen may be able to answer this better than I can. As far as I am aware, a ketogenic body is more efficient than an ingested food for fuel body. More energy, sleeping better and waking refreshed are two of the main things I noticed and would not want to change. Also as you mention, easier weight loss. I prefer a ketogenic body, just because I feel better.

 

[SouthernGeneral6512]

Do you lose the visceral fat before the body fat Defren?

That's my understanding - yes! It's hard to know what happened in my case as I had a bad reaction to Metformin and couldn't eat. My daily calories were about the same 500 - 600 the same as the ND. However, I do know that the benefits derived from the ND are worth the restrictiveness of the diet. I lost a lot of weight, and my BG control while on the ND was really tight, and although raised slightly post diet is equally as tight.

I'm glad your BG has been good post diet :clap:.

On the visceral fat the guy who made the Beeb's The Men Who Made Us Fat was scanned and told he had a lot of it now someone apparently slim like him would never think of going on a diet but perhaps that's the best thing he could do to get rid of that

 

[Defren]

Do you lose the visceral fat before the body fat Defren?

That's my understanding - yes! It's hard to know what happened in my case as I had a bad reaction to Metformin and couldn't eat. My daily calories were about the same 500 - 600 the same as the ND. However, I do know that the benefits derived from the ND are worth the restrictiveness of the diet. I lost a lot of weight, and my BG control while on the ND was really tight, and although raised slightly post diet is equally as tight.

I'm glad your BG has been good post diet :clap:.

On the visceral fat the guy who made the Beeb's The Men Who Made Us Fat was scanned and told he had a lot of it now someone apparently slim like him would never think of going on a diet but perhaps that's the best thing he could do to get rid of that

Yes, I saw that. 4L of visceral fat seems really high. The test subjects on the Newcastle diet did have their visceral fat measured pre and post diet, sadly those of us who did the diet on our own didn't have that luxury, but it would have been nice. I think that the initial four weeks are the weeks that shift the visceral fat, after that it's about weight loss and getting your BG into a non diabetic range. So, technically I suppose you could do the ND for 4 weeks if visceral fat is your concern. I will do the ND each January to clear my system following the expected Christmas excess. :lol:

 

[SouthernGeneral6512]

Sounds a good idea for the whole country in January :lol:

 

[babs m]

Hi, has anyone heard or suffered from Transient global amnesia and could it be related to taking statins.

 

[catherinecherub]

Hi babs and welcome to the forum.

You might like to read these two articles.
http://www.spacedoc.com/transient_global_amnesia.htm
http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/29/f ... tes-risks/

Both support that memory loss can occur with statins. I know of two people who had memory loss but once they stopped the statins their memory problems vanished.
There might be a forum member that has experienced this and will post more information for you.

 

[Grazer]

Don't know too much about this. I know statins have been linked to memory loss, but not specifically to transient global amnesia. Here's what the Mayo clinic said:-
"The underlying cause of transient global amnesia is unknown. There appears to be a link between transient global amnesia and a history of migraines, though the underlying factors that contribute to both conditions aren't fully understood.

Some commonly reported events that may trigger transient global amnesia include:

Sudden immersion in cold or hot water
Strenuous physical activity
Sexual intercourse
Medical procedures, such as angiography or endoscopy
Mild head trauma
Acute emotional distress, as might be provoked by bad news, conflict or overwork"

Epilepsy is also thought to be a possible trigger.

 

[Sue Morton]

One of the major side effects of satins is on the muscles and your heart is a muscle. Personally I am against satins and believe that they can in fact do more harm then good. But this is my own opinion. I stop taking them when I was getting cramp and it then stopped. I also looked on Google re satins and there are cases for it and cases against it. I think we all have to make up our own minds on whether to take them or not

All the best to everyone
Sue

 

[babs m]

Hi babs and welcome to the forum.

You might like to read these two articles.
http://www.spacedoc.com/transient_global_amnesia.htm
http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/29/fda-warns-statin-users-of-memory-loss-and-diabetes-risks/

Both support that memory loss can occur with statins. I know of two people who had memory loss but once they stopped the statins their memory problems vanished.
There might be a forum member that has experienced this and will post more information for you.

thank you so much for your reply, especially from spacedoc.com. I recently suffered a TGA, which scared me to death but because of other symptoms before the attack I had my suspisicions about statins. Since that attack I have not taken symvastatin and the improvement has been 100% so I am very relieved to read this article, thanks once again. Babs.

 

[xyzzy]

Not sure if this study has been posted about before but its a 2010 study of statin side effects on over 2 million of us Brits.

http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.c2197

This is the best summary I've found was written up in this Reuters news release

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/05/20/us-statins-idUSTRE64J7B820100520

The conclusion seems to read that statins effectiveness has been over stated and that their side effects would appear to cause more problems than they cure? My underline in the quote

In a study covering more than 2 million people in Britain, researchers from Nottingham University found that adverse side effects of statins, which are prescribed to people with high levels cholesterol to cut the risk of heart disease, were generally worst in the first year of treatment.

The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, are unlikely to affect the use of best-selling medicines like Pfizer's Lipitor and AstraZeneca's Crestor, but the study's authors said patients taking statins should be "proactively monitored" for side effects.

"Our study is likely to be useful for policy and planning purposes," said Julia Hippisley-Cox and Carol Coupland, the two professors who led the study. They said it may also be useful "for informing guidelines on the type and dose of statins."

Statins are among the most successful drugs of all time and have been credited with preventing millions of heart attacks and strokes. Heart disease is the biggest killer of men and women in the rich world and is also a growing health problem in developing nations.

In a commentary on the study, senior cardiologists Alawi Alsheikh-Al, of the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in the United Arab Emirates, and Richard Karas of the Tufts University School of Medicine in the United States, said that, like any medical treatment, statins are not completely risk free, but that when used properly, their benefits outweigh their risks.

"It would be wise to interpret the present observations in the context of the confirmed cardioprotective effects of statins and remind ourselves and our patients that these drugs, although considered safe, are, like any intervention in medicine, not entirely free of adverse events," they wrote.

Coupland and Hippisley-Cox studied data from 368 general practices on 2,004,692 patients aged 30-84 years including 225,922 patients who were new statin users and had been prescribed a range of statins.

They found that for every 10,000 high risk women treated with statins, the positive impact would be around 271 fewer cases of heart disease and 8 fewer cases of oesophageal cancer.

On the other side, there would also be 74 extra patients with liver dysfunction, 23 extra patients with acute renal failure, 307 with cataracts and 39 with a muscle weakness condition called myopathy.

Similar figures were found for men except rates of myopathy were higher, they said. They noted that some of the effects might be due to better detection rates since patients taking statins are likely to consult their doctors more often.

The adverse effects were similar for all different types of statins, except for liver dysfunction, where the highest risks were found for fluvastatin, which is sold by Novartis under the brand names Lescol and Lochol.

"All of the increased risks persisted during the treatment, but were highest in the first year," they wrote.

 

[borofergie]

If you want to read the truth about cholesterol, and about how useless standard lipid measurements are, I thoroughly recommend this series of articles:
http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/the- ... rol-part-i

 

[Defren]

I know nothing of the science of cholesterol but what I do know is; I dropped carbs to under 30g a day, often quite a bit lower and upped my fats to levels that before this forum I would have been convinced would have had my arteries clogged up and me dead by now. I got my cholesterol results back today, and for the amount of fat (good healthy fat I should add) they were insanely low. Normal infact. So, as far as I am concerned from my own personal experiment in eating loads and loads of fat and almost no carbs, the information that is out there, that we all believed, is flawed and ****. I am living proof of it, and I'm certainly far from the only one.

My own view, carbs and the unhealthy fats we smother them with to make them taste good, push up cholesterol and cause problems. Cut the carbs up the healthy natural fats and your cholesterol will drop - fact!!

 

[borofergie]

My own view, carbs and the unhealthy fats we smother them with to make them taste good, push up cholesterol and cause problems. Cut the carbs up the healthy natural fats and your cholesterol will drop - fact!!

AMEN!

 

[viviennem]

My own view, carbs and the unhealthy fats we smother them with to make them taste good, push up cholesterol and cause problems. Cut the carbs up the healthy natural fats and your cholesterol will drop - fact!!

AMEN!

And from me! My best-ever lipid profile was after 18 months on Atkins Induction.

Viv 8)

 

[Thommothebear]

This is getting surreal :lol:

... and where did I find this gem?

http://www.atownunearthed.co.uk/fol...palaeolithic-and-mesolithic-periods-overview/

a site on Folkstone in Kent :lol:

Yay, where I live! Some fantastic archaeology round here, everything from ammonites to Roman Villas all within 300 metres of my house.

 

[wizardo]

Yay, where I live! Some fantastic archaeology round here, everything from ammonites to Roman Villas all within 300 metres of my house.

A very interesting debate on statins. I reduced my carbs to virtually zero but started on a high fat diet + exercise. Blood Sugar levels have plummeted but cholesterol levels have gone up a lot. My GP who is excellent would like me to take statins. I expressed my concerns over taking statins and so he has left me to decide. I'd rather take as few drugs as possible and my research on statins seems to provide conflicting advice. On balance I probably won't take them as some of the side effects, apart from those already mentioned, are diabetes and sexual dysfunction and I can do without any more of that stuff. My missus worries about the amount of cheese that I eat, but I guess that we all have to die of something.