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statin seesaw

S

sunflower27

Member
Messages
24
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi,
I'm sure this is a common question, but why does anyone know why diabetes affect cholesterol levels? I was diagnosed with type2 last june (at that point I was measured at 30.1!) I managed to get my HbA1c down to 5.7 by Sept. Then I had a cholesterol test and found I was 7.3 - resulting in being put on statins. I only took them for 2 weeks. They had a catastrophic effect on my glucose levels, putting me up in double figures in my daily self testing -My HbA1c went above 6 but cholesterol was down to 3.7.My latest figures (last week) are HbA1c back down to 5.8 but cholesterol back up again to 7.3. My doctor has recommended trying a different brand of statin but can't find any info about any sort that don't affect bg levels.
Has any one else had this problem, or managed to overcome it? I'd really appreciate any comments. Thanks.
 
Hi Welcome

i have been taking statins on and off and have never found them to affect my bg

i hope someone knows the answer for you, sorry this is useless, just wanted to welcome you
 
Well maybe I'm just weird with an oveactive liver - but thank you for the reply - I do appreciate the support.
 
Don't think its you thats weird, the diabetes is definitely weird though, someone will have some knowledge about this for sure.
 
I do wonder about statins but I took them for years before I was dignosed with type 2 and kept on taking them whlist I reduced my BG levels down to normal levels. My only concern is the effect that they might be having on my muscles, not BG levels.
 
My understanding is that it's not diabetes on it's own but prolonged high bg levels that can effect cholesterol levels, however I think it's just the LDL and Triglyceride levels that come off the worse.

I've had diabetes for 32 years and since I started having a full lipid breakdown of cholesterol and taking note of the results I've not had high cholesterol and my TC is always around 4, at my last check at the end of last year my cholesterol results were as follows:

Total: 3.8
LDL: 2.1
HDL: 1.6
Trigs: 0.5
Ratio: 2.6 (?)

The following has some advice about cholesterol and treatment strategies:

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/Diabetes-and-cholesterol.html
 
Afraid I've never had that problem. As a complete guess maybe its diet related. When you got your hba1c down (excellent result btw) what dietary method did you use?

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Yorksman said:
I do wonder about statins but I took them for years before I was dignosed with type 2 and kept on taking them whlist I reduced my BG levels down to normal levels. My only concern is the effect that they might be having on my muscles, not BG levels.
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xyzzy said:
Afraid I've never had that problem. As a complete guess maybe its diet related. When you got your hba1c down (excellent result btw) what dietary method did you use?

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...

Hi, Thank you for your reply. As far as the diabetes goes, I read about Prof Roy Taylor results and just cut the calories to about 1000 (most days) for about 5 weeks. I lost a stone-ish and it seemed to do the trick. Can't say the same about the cholesterol...I've cut out as much saturated fat as poss, hardly ever eat red meat, no eggs, no cheese, eat oily fish 3 times a week and plenty of fruit and veg...lost another 2lbs in last month! But as I said, still have 7.3 cholesterol.
 
A lot of us take a different approach which is to reduce starchy carbohydrates so reduce rice pasta bread potatoes flour and cereals then increase green veg meat eggs cheese and get both good bgs as it's carbs that make bgs rise and good cholesterol even though we have upped our natural saturated fats somewhat. We up the fats because essentially at some point you have to start eating more than 1000 calories a day as for the average person that is pretty unsustainable long term. It's called a low carb regime so it might be worth talking to your gp. Mine has no problem with me doing it as so long as my hba1c and cholesterol levels are good he's fine with it.

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sunflower27 said:
But as I said, still have 7.3 cholesterol.
Click to expand...

There are several reason for high cholesterol, it's not all diet.

1. Diet
2. Weight
3. Activity level
4. Age and gender
5. Overall health
6. Family history
7. Smoking.

The two things which have reduced my BG levels significantly have been diet and level of activity. Neither have had an effect on my cholesterol levels though. In fact, as BG went down, cholesterol went up a little.
 
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