Alternate day minimum Statin/Fibrate to reduce side effects

[Wonga]

I had 2 LAD BMS stents put in 2 years ago at age 51.

I was put on 80mg Simvastatin - almost died from the side effects after just 7 days.

Eventually settled for the last year on 10mg Simvastatin [b]on alternate days[/b]: kept my total cholesterol down to 200, and LDL to 120.

Doctor told me last week to try Bezafibrate 400mg to lower triglycerides. I stopped the Simvastatin.

Cannot believe how much better I feel in heart, mind, muscles, energy etc by not being on Simvastatin! And that was just from being on the minimum dose taken every other day!

I know that Fibrates work differently from Simvastatin & do not lower CoQ10 levels.

I am tempted to do as the doctor says, but take just 200mg, also every other day.

What do you think?

[Allen1]

Hi there Wonga,

it look like you also found out about the dark side of statins the hard way too. I can't believe a doctor with any common sense would stick anyone on an 80mg dose of Simvastatin but it seems to happen quite a lot, it doesn't bode well for the medical profession though

I had problems on 10mg and when it was upped to 40mg everything went to the extremes, if you are not taking CoQ10 or Acetyl L-Carnitine at the moment, it may be advisable to do so as the statins still keep interfering with things long after they have been stopped. Some people are quicker than others for getting better after statin therapy but others have problems that keep coming back, hence the Acetyl L-Carnitine and CoQ10 which helps.

Good luck with the Fibrates, I have only heard from a couple of people who changed to these after problems with statins, they didn't seem to improve but that could have been the result of the ongoing effects of the statins as I mention above, see how you feel on them and take it from there, that's about all anyone here could say.

All the best,
Allen.

[lars999]

Hello Wonga!

Suggest that you check for bad interactions twixt statins (Simvastatin, etc.) and all fibrate drugs. My recollections is that taking both at same time is a major NO!-NO!. However, I take no statins ever again and never took or will take any fibrate drug, so, I have really not been paying attention to possible nasty drug interactions.

Best wishes!

Lars

[Wonga]

When I told my cardiologist that just 20mg Simvastatin was effecting my memory after only a few days, and that the human brain is 50% cholesterol by weight, he was amazed, saying that he had never heard of that! "The majority of doctors are [b]incredibly stupid[/b]!" as a London journalist wrote recently!

I tried 20mg of Pravastatin for several months, which seemed to have no perceptible side effects, and also didn't bring my cholesterol down [b]at all. [/b]

What currently is the current Holistic thinking as to the best way of keeping cholesterol down naturally?

[lars999]

Hello Wonga,

Many/most of us that have become severe victims of statin drugs really do not care what our cholesterol or lipoprotein levels are, at least not as regards cardiovascular issues. What we care about is what actually causes a particular class of plaque deposits -- those that actually grow to extent that they do clog arteries and, even worse, those plaque "boils" that rupture and lead to blood clots and heart attacks caused by rapidly plugged arteries.

With a doctor so ignorant as not to know that brain is full of cholesterol and other biochemicals derived from it, all required for proper function of brain, probably also does not know that plaques of all types from because of damage to inner lining of arteries. Plaque is really nature's bandaid for damaged areas in arteries, least the damage lead to leaky artery. This damage happens almost exclusively to arteries, not veins, even though both are identical in structure and composition. Basic reason is simple, arteries are subject to large pressure pulses 60-150 times per minute, all your life. Veins only see steady, low pressures. Flex artery wall enough cycles and they need some proper repair with collagen fibers (made from cholesterol). IF that repair does not happen, or if there are chemical insults to artery walls (say by homocysteine) then the body must resort to more primative methods, i.e., plaque (hopefully, only the thin, firm fiberous type (half-ass bandaids).

Here is something I wrote in another thread -- it gives a short glimpse into the three major, solidly based theories of cardivascular disease.

Your doctor may only have heard of the simplistic and erronious "cholesterol hypothesis", with its stubborn insistance that cholesterol is really bad and people need statins to lower cholesterol, etc., etc.

QUOTE:
I applaud your question "what would you take to make sure your arteries don't clog again?" I am pursuing same issue, only that mine have very little or no plaque and never did, at least based on all measurements made thus far.

At moment I am "playing the field", following Linus Pauling's approach of using large amounts (read his and Rauth's Unified Theory Of Cardiovascular Disease), Kilmer McCully's Homocysteine Theory, and the current developing ideas about inflammation in artery walls, oxidation/inflammation of lipoproteins, etc. as the initiator of damage to arterial walls, which our bodies try to "bandaid" crudely with "plaque".

RANT MODE ON
The whole cholesterol BS/CON/SCAM (pick you favoriate noun!) does not figure into my readings and attempts to understand (as you might expect from a fellow victim of statins).

As regards fats, I agree with you about transfats, at least those created by adding hydrogen molecules to unsaturated fats. Re naturally saturated fats, NOT oxidized by exposure to O2 at high temps, I find Uffe Ravenskov's treatise on fats and cholesterol (Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Are GOOD For You!!) on solid scientific footing -- recommend reading it. SO much really bad information out there about fats, especially from vegans, vegitarians and the big drug, processed food industries and their lacky nutrition experts and doctors. IF not for all that really bad information, there we would not be statin victims.
RANT MODE OFF

Lars

[lars999]

Here is reference to 7-page report giving a more accurate picture of actual biochemical and biomedical events leading to clogged arteries and heart attacks than the simplistic assertations of the cholesterol scam.
http://www.jpands.org/vol10no3/colpo.pdf

Lars