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Side effects of cholesterol meds are scary. Do we really need to lower cholesterol if we eat right and exercise? Aren't drug companies pushing their products to doctors? I am confused about all this. My cholesterol is 240, doctor says it's too high and prescribed a cholesterol lowering med. I do not wish to take it anymore. Too me it's too risky. Tell me your opinion or experience please.
I have taken Lipitor for a number of years and had zero side affects. It has kept my cholesterol numbers good. If your numbers are high you need to do something about it. If you do not want to take meds then change your diet to low fat and you should be ok.
You know normal cholesterol back in the days before they came up with drugs for them used to be much higher. NO you don't need the drugs. You can lower Cholesterol on your own and with natural supplements. This companies products have been proven six ways from Sunday to work with double blind studies galore but the FDA won't let them put the studies on their website. But I'd sure they could produce them if you asked for them. I heard a spokeman from the company on my Naturopath's radio show and he was talking about them. Their products are great. Sounds like the 107 would be good for you. If you already started taking the meds, maybe you should continue but take the Kyolic also and then in a few months gradually take less and then go off the meds. Tell your doctor that is what you want to do. Don't let him tell you the Kyolic won't work. If he does, I'd switch doctors.
Some people can lower their cholesterol without the help of medication, but many others cannot. In my case it seems to be hereditary as my mom has a level of almost 400 and she has never weighed more than 130 pounds)! Mine was 287. I went on Crestor and I even though I only take 10 mg. three days a week (I would be on 5 mg. each day but my insurance company will not pay for 5mg, only 10), in six weeks my levels dropped to 168. When I lost 30 pounds and was working out at the gym regularly, my doctor took me off and my levels shot back up to over 270, even though I was still working out 5 to 6 days a week and keeping the weight off. You may just have to play around with it a bit to see what works for you. I do think some doctors though start people off at way too high of a dosage. My mom's doctor started her off at 80 mg. of Lipitor and she had bad headaches and some other side effects. She got it lowered to 10 mg., the side effects stopped and her levels still dropped significantly.
dawren, I would try it on my own before ever resorting to drugs.But, you need to be serious about changing your diet and exercise habits. Four months ago,my husband had a reading of 238.His doctor did not suggest drugs,he just said "you have to change the way you eat." My husband was a big fast food guy because of his job of traveling a lot. He has taken it very seriously and has completely revised how he lives. I was pretty much already eating healthfully so I just kicked it up a notch more.The kids complained at first, but I explained it was for Dad's health, and they understood. I knew we had made progress the day I saw one son snacking on an apple and the other on a banana! My husband now runs 4 days a week, and we even pack him food to take when he travels places where it's hard to get decent meals. We will find out in a couple months what the numbers are, but he diffinately has lost some weight[he was not overweight to begin with] and looks very fit and healthy.He is committed to a healthy lifestyle for life.
Side effects of cholesterol meds are scary. Do we really need to lower cholesterol if we eat right and exercise? Aren't drug companies pushing their products to doctors? I am confused about all this. My cholesterol is 240, doctor says it's too high and prescribed a cholesterol lowering med. I do not wish to take it anymore. Too me it's too risky. Tell me your opinion or experience please.
There are natural remedies for high cholesterol.
My 78 year old friend uses red yeast rice for example.
However .... check this out. Red Yeast Rice and Cholesterol
So, i dunno.
I haven't done enough research.
I imagine it's possible to find an effective red yeast rice supplement but probably not easy.
Thanks FDA.
I refuse to take statins. The brain NEEDS cholesterol. My levels have been stable in the 210 - 220 range since the first test was ever done on me. The documentation is out there of how statins are almost statistically insignificant for people who have not had a heart attack.
Here is a big clue. I have a friend who bragged about always having a cholesterol level down around 100. He just naturally has low cholesterol, always has had low cholesterol. A few months ago he called and let me know he had been in the hospital and had stents placed in arteries because of plaque build-up. Hmmmm, low low cholesterol, plaque build-up... hmmmmm. Can we agree it WASN'T caused by high cholesterol? Dig deeper, you'll find that A LOT of the plaque build-up is not caused by high cholesterol.
A lot of the dangerous plaque shows up on scans because of the calcium content. FWIW, I'm aware that a LOT of people don't get the proper mix of magnesium to balance out the excess of calcium in their diets and supplements (often taken to ward off osteoporosis). Minerals have to balance each other in the body to be fully effective, and low magnesium is devilishly hard to diagnose, because the body needs it so much that it pulls last stores of it to keep some in the bloodstream. To me, bottom line is not to follow medical fads, but try to keep a balance of minerals, foodstuffs, and vitamins.
Statins are a cash cow for drug companies. Some studies indicate that good old cod liver oil works as well, if not better at doing the job statins do.
i've been on lipitor for 4 years or so now, zero side effects. it's expensive because there is no generic, which is annoying. I'm not crazy about it either but I'm just trusting my doctor on this. It will lower your cholestorol almost instantly. Mine went from 240 ish to 115 ish quickly. But if you don't take it, it will bounce right back up.
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