Cholesterol lowering meds...what are your thoughts and experiences...OR..if I was a bowler these num

Cholesterol
I take Lipitor and it lowered mine from about 240 to 180. At least, if not more important is the ratio of good (HDL) to bad (LDL)cholesterol.
Regards,
John

Cholesterol
I never had a problem with that, I am normally somewhere about 105 to 115 but I don’t eat a lot of animal product mostly veggies. A lot of times hi Cholesterol is also something you inhered in your gens from your family roots.

Hope you get it under control
Hondo

cholesterol/Lipitor
Hi Stacey,
I will be NED twenty years as of the 22nd of November, thank you, and have been taking Lipitor of 10 mg per my oncologist for fifteen of those years and I remain around 190 total. I do experience some aches and pains upon awakening and they vanish within thirty seconds of movement which is usual directly to the lieu. I attribute these aches to working three days a week and and playing tennis three other days a week. My doctor says it's because I am sixty-six working on one-hundred. I am hoping he is right. I am not a fanatic about my diet but I am conscience of what I eat with my red wine. As I have stated I am active and will be as long as I can. I wish you all the best Stacey. Josh r.

staceya said:

Thanks everyone!
Thanks for all of the great responses...John I do love fish.
Is anyone on Crestor? It was suggested to me yesterday.
My diet and exercise are pretty good, weight is 105, think meds will have to be the way.
I am debating about waiting for generic lipitor to be available rather than starting on brand name and then switching. Would like to keep the med switching down to a minimum. Am currently on no meds at all and would really like to keep it that way...but oh well..Glad to see that no one was experiencing any major side effects..

Stacey

Devils Advocate here...
Stacey,

I do believe my bad cholesterol level meets or beats yours, Stacey. My GP put me on Crestor, because he said that Lipitor would not lower the levels enough. I am not currently taking it for a number of reasons. If you read carefully, all the product advertisements for Crestor and Lipitor state:

"CRESTOR/LIPITOR, along with diet, is clinically proven to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, certain kinds of heart surgeries, and chest pain in patients with heart disease or several common risk factors for heart disease. Common risk factors include family history of early heart disease, high blood pressure, age, low HDL ("good") cholesterol, and smoking."

I don't dispute that these drugs reduce blood cholesterol. I, however, have none (and I mean NONE) of the other risk factors. My weight is good, my body mass index is 20, I don't smoke, mostly don't eat red meat, love my olive oil, my blood pressure is low, my good cholesterol levels are very high, my c-reactive protein is zero, I have no inflammation issues and my cholesterol levels match those of both of my parents. My parents are in their late seventies, and neither suffer from heart issues. They are not currently being treated for high cholesterol either, and some recent research shows that in patients over 65, high cholesterol levels in the absence of other symptoms actually correlates with a longer lifespan.

So, what to do? I really don't know. All my doctors are insistent that taking the cholesterol meds is something I really really need to do. Mostly because; why have even one symptom when, with the wonders of mondern medicine, I can have none?

I am not a fan of meds. I kept the meds to a minimum while on treatment. I am concerned now that taking unnecessary medicine is a slippery slope, wherein I will start to get side effects, and end up needing even more and more meds. I also wonder if there are certain yet-unrecognised health and/or longevity benefits from having high cholesterol, absent the other symptoms.

My ancestry dates back to the earliest settlements in Maine and New Hampshire, and all those folks lived very long lives. Perhaps the high cholesterol conveyed a survival advantage? One old guy, one of the first settlers of Amesbury, MA died at age 95, by falling through the ice on his sawmill pond during an unexpected spring thaw. I plan to last as least that long.

Deb (still struggling with the question)

D Lewis said:

Devils Advocate here...
Stacey,

I do believe my bad cholesterol level meets or beats yours, Stacey. My GP put me on Crestor, because he said that Lipitor would not lower the levels enough. I am not currently taking it for a number of reasons. If you read carefully, all the product advertisements for Crestor and Lipitor state:

"CRESTOR/LIPITOR, along with diet, is clinically proven to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, certain kinds of heart surgeries, and chest pain in patients with heart disease or several common risk factors for heart disease. Common risk factors include family history of early heart disease, high blood pressure, age, low HDL ("good") cholesterol, and smoking."

I don't dispute that these drugs reduce blood cholesterol. I, however, have none (and I mean NONE) of the other risk factors. My weight is good, my body mass index is 20, I don't smoke, mostly don't eat red meat, love my olive oil, my blood pressure is low, my good cholesterol levels are very high, my c-reactive protein is zero, I have no inflammation issues and my cholesterol levels match those of both of my parents. My parents are in their late seventies, and neither suffer from heart issues. They are not currently being treated for high cholesterol either, and some recent research shows that in patients over 65, high cholesterol levels in the absence of other symptoms actually correlates with a longer lifespan.

So, what to do? I really don't know. All my doctors are insistent that taking the cholesterol meds is something I really really need to do. Mostly because; why have even one symptom when, with the wonders of mondern medicine, I can have none?

I am not a fan of meds. I kept the meds to a minimum while on treatment. I am concerned now that taking unnecessary medicine is a slippery slope, wherein I will start to get side effects, and end up needing even more and more meds. I also wonder if there are certain yet-unrecognised health and/or longevity benefits from having high cholesterol, absent the other symptoms.

My ancestry dates back to the earliest settlements in Maine and New Hampshire, and all those folks lived very long lives. Perhaps the high cholesterol conveyed a survival advantage? One old guy, one of the first settlers of Amesbury, MA died at age 95, by falling through the ice on his sawmill pond during an unexpected spring thaw. I plan to last as least that long.

Deb (still struggling with the question)

Check your Ct scans
My numbers are good, total is at 160, HDL at 48, triglycerides at 95 and LDL at 95. I take simvistatin daily. I will continue to take my medicine because of my last CT scan which indicated moderate calcification of the coronary artery. From what little I know it appears that almost all of us have this to some degree but it is alarming nonetheless. It becomes available to us as a by product of our constant scanning if your interested. This is comparable to what those places like heart check America provide only that you already have it.