Skyhigh numbers

[robert]

Hi
This is my first post here. I recently got blood work done for a physical; needless to say the doctor freaked. My total was off the chart, as well as the LDL. He's going to put me on a statin for sure, and I am terrified; he says it going to be for life.

I had been eating a high-fat low-carb diet for about two years. I got my weight down to 156, but needed to lose 10 more lbs. I tried the Stillmans Diet, which meant I ate a ton of eggs, approximately 6o-75 over two weeks. I dropped 13 lbs in the first week. I have heard from Taubes book something called [i]transient hypercholesterolemia[/i], which is a spike in the cholesterol due to rapid weight loss. As it happens, many, many fat cells burst and release the cholesterol into the blood. I'm wondering if this is part of what could have happened.

As I said, I am terrified. My doc seems adamant about statin therapy so I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. Does anyone know if niacin therapy is as effective as statin therapy for familiarhypercholesterolemia?

I live in Western North Carolina btw, if anyone knows of good open minded doctors.

thanks for any who can help me.

robert

[marci]

First, it's my understanding that statins should never be prescribed based on just one test result. Tell your doctor that you want to follow the NIH guidelines; go on a low cholesterol diet for 6 weeks and retest. If you don't reach the target, try for another 6 weeks. My husband had a physical in January- his first in many years. His total cholesterol was 295 and his LDL alone was 197. The doctor was adamant that he begin statins immediately as he was certain, with numbers that high, that he surely had the inherited form of high cholesterol. Because of the devastation statins have caused both family and friends, my husband said he would go the diet route. He ate steel cut oats every morning, drank plant sterols and ate a diet with a target of no more than 200 mg. of cholesterol per day. At the end of six weeks he returned for re-testing- the results were remarkable. His total cholesterol dropped to 197; his LDL to 130.

My uneducated advice? Eat healthy. Try to get some sort of exercise every day. Enjoy life. Your cholesterol is only one of many risk factors for heart attacks and stroke. The Lipitor clinical trials showed that there were 3 heart attacks for every 100 people in their placebo group and 2 heart attacks for every 100 on their drug. A net difference of 1 heart attack; yet 99 people took the drug with no apparent benefit. Considering the many life altering side effects, I would choose to eat my oatmeal... Don't "drink the Kool-Aid"... if you know what I mean!