Originally Posted by
livedarklions
That article also exposes something consistent with my experience--when I was fat, I had high bad cholesterol. As I was losing weight but still obese, I was being very strict with my diet such that I'm sure my cholesterol intake went way down, but my cholesterol levels didn't budge. When I started working out and dropped the additional 40-50 pounds, I also increased my protein intake, primarily by increasing the amount of meat I eat. Definitely jacked up the consumed cholesterol by a lot. Guess what? I ended up with textbook perfect bad/good cholesterol levels.
The research is all showing pretty much the same thing--cholesterol levels are almost completely unrelated to the cholesterol content of the foods you eat, which makes sense since your body makes 80% of the cholesterol, and only 20% comes from the foods. It's much more related to weight and activity level.
I was offered statins when my cholesterol was borderline high at one point, btw. Very glad I didn't take them.
For some people, some statins have a negative effect. I was offered a "natural" statin: red rice yeast. Had horrible effects - leg pain and such. But there are other statins. Switched to Pravachol, which works great with few noticeable side effects. For most folks with high non-HDL (bad) cholesterol, statins have allowed them to avoid heart attacks, strokes, incapacitation, and death.
What is very dangerous is for folks to read someone here state negative views about a class of drug, and to conclude that they're bad for everyone. Statin's aren't. If your non-HDL cholesterol is high, you have an increased risk of heart attack or stroke and death and incapacitation. Certainly its great if you can lose enough weight and change your lifestyle to get the cholesterol numbers down to where they're not a risk factor. But some people have hypercholesterolemia due to genetic factors, and other just aren't able (or willing) to achieve the diet/exercise/lifestyle changes to lower cholesterol enough. For these people, statins can save their life.
I'm not an MD, but I currently do research on hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia. If you have lab work showing that your lipids profile puts you in a high risk category, CAREFULLY CONSIDERING FOLLOWING THE ADVICE THAT YOUR DOCTOR SUGGESTS. If that includes a statin regimen, do it. Do research on the web, ask your doc questions, sure. Report any side effects you notice, absolutely. But its' kind of their job to be able to offer you EXPERT medical help in the context of your health situation. I mean, it's not like they spent 4 years in pre-med getting excellent grades, and years in med school, and more years in practical training. And it's not like they're familiar with how drugs affect different people differently. And gosh, they haven't done a physical exam and an interview with you to get your specific situation. And they haven't ordered specific tests and reviewed the results... Oh, wait a minute...
I don't ask my doc for the proper torque values for my stem clamp. Don't make the mistake of depending upon a bunch of bikies (me included) for advice on modulating a specific thing (cholesterol) in a complex system.
