General Chat

Also Rollo, people like me who have bowel disease cannot absorb or process certain 'good' or 'bad' fats. I have my liver and kidney function tested regularly and I am deficient in vits B and D.

I eat a really good diet, lots of olive oil and fish, I cook 90% of meals from scratch. We eat home made pasta (hubby makes it) with prawns and varied types of small specialist tomatoes cooked in olive oil but have small quantities of sauces. If we make a bolognese sauce I have just a couple of dessert spoons only.

Lots of salad and vegetables, I do struggle with fruit TBH. The occasional splurge with doughnuts (naughty but nice). I hate sugar in drinks, don't drink pop or alcohol apart from the very, very odd glass of wine.

All of the above and still I suffer with high cholesterol levels without statins.

One size doesn't fit all and I have no idea if any of my aches and pains would be eased by stopping them but heart consultant wasn't keen to change any of my meds.

Oh for the days when I wasn't shovelling pills down every hour and a half :-|

Across a stretch of water from England known to the French as "The Sleeve" live 60 million Frenchmen and women plus another five millions from here and there. Oh yes and half a million Brits.

Now focussing on northern France which is freezing cold in winter wet in summer and has nothing like a Mediterranean "healthy" diet. They eat lots of stuff whatever they fancy such as steaks, french fries, lovely patisserie full of cream, buttery croissants, any amount of red wine, creamy cheeses, Belgian beers and so on and on.

There is no health fashion for statins neither do they worry very much about high cholesterol. A perfect storm from the point of view of nutritionists in the UK, USA and Canada.

Yet life expectancy is years better than the UK, heart disease half as prelevant ( and survival rates after an attack way better than the UK) and you don't see half the population looking like Mr Blobby.

How so ?

Despite having much better productivity at work than the three countries mentioned the French tend not to snack between meals, comfort eat, drink without eating and above all they cook and eat real food inc lots of fish and fresh veg. French Sunday lunch takes at least two hours. Burger bars and the like exist but are pretty thin on the ground.

Recent research highlighted by the respected BBC science program "Horizon" suggests that the effectiveness of many types of medicine is highly correlated with the patient's DNA such that what works fine on one person fails on another and can even be harmful. This is a rapidly growing research area and of course rather puts the kybosh pn big pharm trials as their basic tenet is that all humans are much the same.

They are not.

Ron, my mum had terrible side effects from Statins.
In the end it came down to - do you want to live like an invalid for the next 15 years, or stop the statins and live a 'normal' life for 10?

Mum was born with a heart defect, told she would be dead by 14, then told she should never have children - it would kill her. She had 4 children.
When she was 75, she had the operation on her heart that she would have had soon after birth, had she been born nowadays.
This left her on Warfarin.
Then she was put on Statins.

These caused her muscle pain. Then she got gout. Gout is quite often associated with Statins. Mum stopped the statins, but was told to continue the medication for the gout. Her doctor never told her about the side effects of the gout medication.

It was the medication for the gout that attacked her weakened heart and killed my mum, aged 83.
So, you're an adult, you know how you feel, if what you're doing makes you feel good - go for it!!

Recent research has shown that lung cancer in smokers is greatly increased if the smoker is exposed to high levels of Radon, but even so, 15,000 to 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the US are due solely to Radon exposure - and this research doesn't take into account the lung damage/cancer caused by car pollution.

yes, well


I've also read recent reports regarding the "cholesterol myth"

If we're not careful there will be reports soon telling us that smoking is good for you :-D


Actually, I'm not kidding, at least not much ............

.......... in the early 1970s I was told by an unimpeachable source that the cigarette industry had done research and had the scientific evidence to produce statistics that proved the opposite of what everyone was then being told by the no smoking lobby


Statistics don't lie, you know :-D ;-)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/the-cholesterol-myth-that_b_676817.html

JoyLouise


Thank you :-)

Sylvia, I agree with everything you've written.

Ron, of course the decision is yours. However I would urge you to see your doctor because the problem you have, if it is not arthritic pain, may be alleviated by a different strength and dosage of a statin. I say this, not from personal experience but from the experience of a delightful in-law now gone because she thought and did as you are doing now. She is missed terribly.

I can only urge you to see the doc but I know it is your choice.

Ron

I am also on statins, and yes there are also a lot of discussions about statins here, especially if you take one or two certain other drugs with them.

The important thing is that you pay attention to your body and any NEW aches and pains, without becoming obsessed.

As it is, I think you are very wrong in saying that a doctor is there to "advise" you ............... he is there to treat you and you pay attention to that.

Otherwise, one is assuming that you know as much as, or more than, someone who has been trained for at least 6* years.


I actually had an interview with a pharmacist during my last visit to the doctor ............... the clinic we go has a pharmacist on duty at all times to help inform the doctors and to discuss with patients.

The pharmacist showed me some charts resulting from massive amounts of research that indicated just how important it was to take care of your body (ie, stop smoking, drinking too much, exercising, etc), AND the differences that taking various drugs can make.

He actually told me that I COULD opt to stop taking the 20 mg dose of Simvastatin that I was taking .......... but I prefer to continue, and check regularly with the doctor that there are not any adverse effects .......... shown by having a blood test of liver function.


How do you know that your aches and pains were due to the statin and not to your arthritis???

I also suffer from arthritis, and my husband is now basically my carer as I can do so little ................. and I couldn't tell you whether the ache in my thigh, my knee or my ankle is from the arthritis or not. That's why I depend on the blood test.


But I want to live as long as I can ............. and statins are helping with that.



*6 years = 4 years of medical school to get the MD, and at least 2 more years of Residency to become qualified in an area.

I'm assuming that the UK is similar to here where a GP or Family Practitioner has to do 2 years Residency in Family Practice before being able to get their license to be a GP.

SylviainCanada. What others do is up to them but there has been a lot of discussions in UK newspapers, online etc etc about pros and cons of statins.

I understand a lot of people in UK have stopped taking them due to some nasty side effects. One side effect I had was that at night my left ankle became swollen and of many colours, another was headaches, cramp, serious muscle pain et al I've enough pain due arthritis etc so why should I add to my troiubles?

Just in case anyone thinks I'm slow to pick up on threads - I only come online from around 6pm daily but sometimes later that that but I do catch up on events

Thanks for all the contributions - one lives, one learns. Have copied some of the ideas.. bob - no doubt the leg man at my local hospital wouldn't be happy knowing I've stopped statins BUT he'd be happy at lower chol levels - cant have it both ways. Docs there to advise. If mine said I had to continue with statins I'd say No as the oats doing the job without any side effects. Statins caused a mate of mine a hell of serious pain (he started taking some of the first ones available) and in the end he lost the will to live - no pansy he was ex rugger player and served regular army. Can remember quite a few "Letters to the Editor" in Daily Telegraph from GPs complaining of pain and other side effects some years back. I'm nigh on 75 and reckon lived long enough to decide my own fate.

Ron

I appreciate that you are seemingly being watched by a nurse, but I do hope that you are NOT advocating that others should follow your lead, and abandon taking statins.

It is a dangerous thing to do, unless done under the supervision of a Medical Practitioner

Here is my daily breakfast, for what it is worth. Three tablespoons of oats, one of oatbran, one of ground almonds, (or flaked). Four dried apricots, chopped, and about a tablespoon of sultanas. Add soya milk, about half a pint. Leave all this to soak while I shower, dress, walk to the shop for paper. By the time I am ready to eat it the oats/bran have softened nicely. No added sugar, no preservatives, no salt, no chemicals. My doctor still wont let me stop statins. Last blood test showed LDL 1.7, HDL 1.6.

Lavender, my dear mother-in-law used to sprinkle bran in soups, broths and even gravy. She was physically fit to the end.

Lavender, i will try that .. :-)

Something else to try is oat bran.

Apparently it's even better than oatmeal in lowering cholesterol. I sprinkle it over sliced banana and milk for breakfast or a late night supper. It can be added to soups or sprinkled over anything you like, I guess.

Cheap too and if you look around can find it 'organic'.

JoyLouise. I attend the diabetics clinic headed by a Nurse Practitioner so no GPs involved. She has watched over me for 13years and is quite happy with the situation. She did mention porridge for breakfast in mornings but I quite like the Betavivo (tho not the cost lol) and its certainly worked quicker than described in the leaflet. I shall keep on with it. Statin's just ain't for me. Too many serious aches and pains etc

Emma, you always crave something you can't have :-(

Sue my OH like yourself misses grapefruit.

I am on statins and my level last month was 4.7

Hubby eats porridge every single day and his level when last tested (he hates needles) was 4. Doctor told him to keep on eating it.

The only thing I miss is grapefruit :-( but will stay on them.