Originally Posted by PepeM

Originally Posted by whitemax

And, high cholesterol numbers don't necessarily mean high risk for heart attacks. Seems I've read somewhere that there are just as many folks dying with low numbers as with high. Inflammation is now considered to be a key risk factor for heart attacks. I believe there is now a test to measure it.

Originally Posted by Rowan

More to the point, and apart from the pause it has given you to consider your own health, how are you bearing up? Being beside someone one moment then having them die unexpected the next is a pretty tough gig anytime.

Originally Posted by Willbird

My Dr told me the push is to get EVERYBODY on a Statin but they scare me. He said there was no dosage reccomendation. I just recently saw something about a low salt diet imposed on people who do not need it causing plaques, and causing the BP of about 15% of people to go UP. Yep 15% of people if you lower their sodium intake their BP goes up.

Originally Posted by gamby

I know there's a hubbub about "statin nation". My doc is younger and pretty progressive in his ideology, from what I've seen.

FWIW, there have been zero side effects from my statin (Simvastatin)--very low dose. My vitals are all really good. It lowered my C-reactive protein, which is something one does not want to screw around with.

Originally Posted by Stucky

But getting checked regularly is bogus.

Originally Posted by cleanton

In order to prevent calcification in your arteries take "Vitamine K2" pills. For more info read this article: 10 Important Facts About Vitamin K That You Need to Know

And also take some blood thinners to prevent clotting. (ask to your doctor)

Originally Posted by Sojodave

Here is what a world class heart surgeon causes heart disease.

I went low carb, high fat last September and I lost 50 lbs and my cholesterol has improved dramatically. Inflammation is a killer and unfortunately the standard American diet is full of carbs and sugar and causes inflammation. I just got done reading a book called "The Great Cholesterol Myth". The premise of this book is that your total cholesterol doesn't matter, what matters is your hdl to triglycerides ratio, and the size of your blood particles. I had a VAP test a few months back and my blood particles are the large fluffy kind that cause little damage. My hdl/tri Ratio has gone from 3.89 down to 1.13 in 8 months.

Originally Posted by greenlight149

Originally Posted by Silvercivic27

That's exactly what that means.

Originally Posted by icyclist

The amount of misinformation in this thread is awesome!

Originally Posted by Sojodave

my blood particles are the large fluffy kind

Originally Posted by KBentley57

@icyclistNot to risk of derailing this thread from it's original purpose, I'd invite you to start a new thread and point out the topics you can inform us on.

Originally Posted by icyclist

"My Dr told me the push is to get EVERYBODY on a Statin"
I'd like to see evidence of that claim.

Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys of 2005 to 2010, the researchers estimated the number of people for whom statin therapy would be recommended under the new ACC-AHA guidelines.1
Compared with the older guidelines, the new recommendations would increase the number of US adults ages 40 to 75 eligible for statin therapy from 43.2 million to 56 million, with most of the increase occurring among adults withoutheart disease. This equates to nearly half of the US population between the ages of 40 and 75!
Among older adults (those between the ages of 60 and 75), the percentage eligible for statins would increase from 30 percent to 87 percent among men and from 21 percent to 54 percent among women. According to the study, this drastic rise would be driven largely by risk determined solely by their 10-year risk of a cardiovascular event – a measure that has been heavily criticized by experts (as I'll discuss shortly).

Perhaps the biggest "sham" of all is that statin drugs, touted as "preventive medicine" to protect your heart health, can actually have detrimental effects on your heart. For example, a study published in the journal Atherosclerosis9 showed that statin use is associated with a 52 percent increased prevalence and extent of calcified coronary plaque compared to non-users. Coronary artery calcification is the hallmark of potentially lethal heart disease!
Even more egregious, recent research shows that statins can effectively negate the benefits of exercise, which is one of the primary heart disease prevention strategies! The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology,10discovered that statin use led to dramatically reduced fitness benefits from exercise, in some cases actually making the volunteer LESS fit than before. The results showed that:

• On average, non-medicated participants improved their aerobic fitness by more than 10 percent after a 12-week long (five days a week) supervised exercise program. Mitochondrial content activity increased by 13 percent
• Volunteers taking 40 mg of simvastatin improved their fitness by a mere 1.5 percent on average, and some hadreduced their aerobic capacity at the end of the 12-week fitness program. Mitochondrial content activity decreased by an average of 4.5 percent