Cholesterol

[Gardengirl]

Very interesting reading all the views and links. My husband was put on statins about 5 years ago, following a heart attack. But he didn't have high cholesterol levels, still doesn't. Mine are higher than his, but I've never been on statins; don't think I would take them, but would fully discuss the pros and cons with my GP first.

I was on digoxin for my heart for about 30 years; came off it temporarily because of a false 'tick' on a stress test machine, found I was fine for that time, so stopped taking them altogether, following discussions with the heart specialist. Since then I distrust many of these drugs, but especially statins after reading a lot about them.

[Théière]

The last airing of this subject I got in contact with Powerdesal and bought the recommended book and studied it. Unfortunately suffering cancer shortly afterwards meant more important issues had to be addressed.  I am thin, active and eat a reasonably balanced diet in which I have tried reducing sugar intake and reduced carbs for a while as I was told I had elevated cholesterol which put me at a greater risk than my slightly taller 21 stone friend who had the correct cholesterol level and who couldn't run upstairs like I could. That really got me looking into the subject as I simply couldn't accept that.

The only problem is a nutritionist recommended dumping the afternoon choc snack in favour of healthier nuts and fruit mixture which I really began to enjoy and now I have a little fat belly [:)]  I will increase the exercise to burn off said Buddha belly in favour of a six pack ready for summer (ok that may be a lie [;-)])

GP's have to follow the directions given and sadly they are either out of date or sponsored by drug companies, it just doesn't follow that 1/4 of the population of the world are having to take these statins when the mortality rate hasn't fallen.  It's the same in the pool industry, the pool shops will sell you tablets, potions and additives and Poolguy and I have proven (with Chemgeek too ) that they aren't needed but we haven't seen a reduction in the people selling these unnecessary add ins.

Even the Oncologists have to follow the regime or risk all sorts of trouble.  Take my chemo treatment, during the treatment I got oral thrush rather badly and was told not to take over the counter mouthwash as it was alcohol based, the nice people (pun intended) had passed a mouthwash for use in these casses (£18 bottle for the NHS) but when I read the label it was also alcohol based and had sugars in it. I am no doctor but if you give sugar to a yeast infection it will go crazy and alcohol is what yeast produces????   I stuck to the tried and tested bicarbonate of soda, doesn't taste good I'll admit but it cleared the thrush infection in 3 days and the oncologist couldn't believe it. The comment was it will never be clinically trialled unless a charity does the research because no one will make any money!  Do they actually want to cure cancer I asked, it's a multi multi billion pound industry for all who take part.

Yes I am sceptical but I wouldn't turn my back on medicine and peer reviewed studies but when does the message get through to GP's, Where is DaftDoctor when we need them?

http://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2012/05/latest-thinking-controversial-statins-cholesterol-and-heart-disease-risk

[Alan Zoff]

There is invariably more than one way of interpreting medical data.

For example, my doctor said my BMI index showed that I needed to lose weight. Whereas I read it as showing that I was two inches too short.

[NormanH]

This may have come at a good moment:

A Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil fish and nuts can significantly reduce cardio-vascular problems

That has been said before but this is a new study:

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1200303?query=featured_home&#t=articleDiscussion

[sid]

[quote user="Alan Zoff"]There is invariably more than one way of interpreting medical data. For example, my doctor said my BMI index showed that I needed to lose weight. Whereas I read it as showing that I was two inches too short.[/quote]

[:D][:D]

[Salty Sam]

Go back to the 1950's where there was no such thing as cholesterol, fast-food was the corner chippy, meat was meat, milk came in bottles, and things got cooked in lard.

By rights if we believed all the hype regarding "Healthy Foods", none of us eating in that era should have survived past the age of 35![:D]

[idun]

You missed one big thing out of that Salty Sam and that is excersize, which everybody did in the 1950s. Yes we cooked in lard, but in fact most of us didn't have all our food cooked in lard and it was a very healthy diet, some meat or fish on a plate, and lots of veg and potatoes, maybe a pudding too, but no snacking or fizzy drinks and if you wanted to get somewhere it was shanks's pony, and if you were lucky a bus, but there had to be money for that little luxory. We were thin and fit back then.

My Dad was running in international competitions and winning in his 80's and still cooking in lard, and he was thin and fit.

[NormanH]

As I said earlier I  stopped my statin prescription a little while back.

I was put on them in Spring and the first test for cancer markers that I did after was rather over the limit, so my consultant said that although it was not yet urgent it was something to watch.

It is also not specific to cancer; this particular marker can be raised in the case of Pancreatic or Liver irritation.  I stopped taking the  statins in November, and in my latest test a week ago the levels are back well below the limit.

I am not for an instant making a link between cancer and statins, but I wonder if they were responsible for irritating the pancreas?  I know they can lead to a greater chance of developing diabetes which was one reason I decided to try to do with out.