bummer - keep us posted!

What values are your LDL, HDL and VLDL? What is your Triglyceride value? Fasting Glucose? Have you tried a diet like South Beach?

2 weeks ago i did a blood test

Cholesterol 280
HDL 45
LDL 204
Triglycerides 157

i have a stress test this saturday. then i will go back to see the cardiologist. he wrote on the copy of the results "will start statin after stress test."

i on the other hand have some lbs to lose and i know it.

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ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |

My whole family is on statins. I'm the exception...for now. They are all healthy, active and on drugs. They run the gammut -- Crestor, Lipitor, Vytorin, etc. I've read paraphrased NJM studies that say one day all of us will be on them because of the preventive benefit. What we have learned from years of pill popping is that there is a drug for everyone. You just need to find your drug. Once they found what works for them I've never heard them complain of a side effect.

If you think about it, statins will likely extend your life. Give you time to spend with your family, ride your bike and act belligerent on ST. That's a good thing. The alternative I see as not so good. Don't be too hard on yourself, it won't be the last drug you come to take, but likely will be one of the easiest.

I have been on statins for several years. In spite of diet, weight loss, and steady aerobic activity, my cholesterol hovered well above 260 and HDL / LDL were screwed up.

Now total cholesterol is below 200, and HDL / LDL ratio excellent. Have had no side effects - liver or muscle - and am grateful for the ability to minimize the risk of cardiovascular disease. (As I used to be a thoracic / vascular surgeon, have seen what the inside and outside of sick blood vessels look like, and am glad to avoid).

The need to give up grapefruit juice seems a small price to pay...

Good luck

"Doc says it's all hereditary and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it"

Get a new doctor. Niaspan (time release Niacin)has been on the market for years now. I take 2000mg a night and my LDL psrticle size has ballooned....not to mention it raises HDL's..my HDL is at 88...this allows me to have LDL #s over 140 and the ratio is still favorable to negative heart disease risk.....I have before and after test results to prove the drug works.

I felt the same way about having to go on high blood pressure medicine. The doc told me I could be the poster boy for hereditary hypertension in that I exercise like crazy, am not overweight or a smoker and eat healthy 9 for the most part). Both parents however died from strokes.

I'm just glad there's a little pill I can take to keep it in check. I just look at it as another vitamin.

psycholist,

I can understand your aprehension about taking medicine. And I can also understand how you might feel like there is a stigma attached to a lifelong med like a statin drug. I will preface what I am going to say by disclosing that I am not a Dr. or pharmacist, but I really have heard super wonderful things about these statin drugs. They seem to be one of those "miracle meds" that the industry has done right. It also seems that there are some other benefits outside of its cholesterol lowering abilities. You need to evaluate all of the positives of the medication and take ownership of the decision to take it. This way you will be able to think of it as a positive thing in your life that is going to make your body be better for it. Then it will be no different then taking a vitamin.

Bernie

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"Slowbern has always made astute observations."-Casey 03/10/2009
2013-2014 Detroit Lions---13-3 until proved otherwise.

Drop me an E-mail, i have some stuff that is all natural that can help with your promblem.

Cowboy

fitnessafterfifty@hotmail.com

I was on Crestor until a month ago. I started feeling fatigue and weakness. It was subtle but noticeable. I particularly noticed it during swim and weight workouts. I stopped taking them nd feel much better. I'm not saying anyone else should do this. My cholesterol was bordline and I have no other risk factors. I have made more of an effort to watch my diet. My veggie and fruit consumption has greatly increased and I have eliminated other poor food choices that I previously never gave a second thought to (Bass Ale never be given up!:) ). Aside form my concern about it's affect on my workouts, racing, etc, I was concerned about the long term effects on the liver.

hey just a thought on the diet -- have you also eliminated or greatly reduced white flour and refined sugar? my medical student friend just found out he has high cholesterol and is doing this in addition avoiding the high-cholesterol foods. white flour is quickly converted and stored as artery-clogging fat.

also, my dad takes lipitor and has reported no side effects. (luckily i didn't get his genes -- my cholesterol is 145.)

Thanks for all the replies. I find most of it to be rather encouraging.

What's up with the grapefruit juice thing?

I can't put my finger on my numbers to publish them right now. I'll get them this afternoon and list them here. I know my good cholestrol is way too low and my bad is way too high and my molecule size is all wrong. As the doc said, the scenario couldn't be more negative.

One other factor about going on statins I forgot to inquire about ... cost.

I'm on one of these high-deductible HSA health care plans. Whatever this costs, I'm gonna eat it. What do these statins cost?

Thanks everyone.

Bob C.

Grapefruit juice interferes with an enzyme that breaks down the statins, so ingestion often results in higher (unpredictably so) levels of statins than would be expected at a given dose. Not a problem with orange juice or, so far as I have seen, with other citrus fruits (lemons, limes, etc).

Cost is a bit of an issue - typically statins are Tier III drugs, which means they have the highest co-pay; on my health plan, for instance, I shell out about $5/month for my blood pressure pill - and $45 / month for my Lipitor. On the other hand, statins are pretty amazing drugs - and AstraZeneca recently completed a study of Crestor in which they actually demonstrated regression of atherosclerotic plaque. In addition to preventing plaque buildup, there is evidence that statins "stabilize" plaque, which means that the existing plaque is less likely to rupture and cause acute occlusion of blood vessels. There are even studies of Lipitor demonstrating "event" benefit (reduced incidence of heart attack, unstable angina, stroke, etc) in treated patients even if their pre-Lipitor levels were not particularly high.

As most of the statins are similar in structure and mechanism of action, side effects in one may imply similar side effects with another, but the mechanism of side effects differs - so your doc would probably switch from one to another (e.g., Crestor to Lipitor or Zocor or ....) in the event that you have side effects on the first.

Niacin (Niaspan and other preps) is very effective in reducing cholesterol, but doesn't typically (at least in most studies) have the same magnitude of benefit as statins in lowering total cholesterol or restoring a healthy HDL / LDL ratio - but every individual is different, and you may want to try niacin first. In some folks, niacin can cause an unpleasant flushing (I tried it and found it very effective in precipitating some pretty spectacular migraines), but it's less expensive and may be sufficient to get you back in the normal range.

Lipid reduction, like BP reduction, is all about minimizing risk factors - in multifactorial diseases. You can control lifestyle - smoking, weight, physical activity, stress, etc - but can't alter your genetic makeup. If your parents / ancestors gave you high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc, you need to deal with it effectively. One interesting fact about BP - weight loss and significant aerobic physical activity can bring BP to the normal range, and eliminate the need for BP medication - for a while; in every longitudinal study undertaken, patients who normalized BP through lifestyle modification delayed, but didn't ultimately prevent, the need for medication to control. So if you've been able to lower BP enuf to come off meds (I did for about a decade), make sure your doc continues to monitor - it will come back as you age, even if you maintain or improve fitness!

There was just an article about grapefruit juice - that it makes some drugs stronger. unfortunately, it's not predictable,because otherwise it could save some serious costs.

best of luck w/the cholesterol drugs.

My BP will drop 20 points after exercise but generally creeps back up later. I had a life insurance physical a couple of weeks ago. Did my workout right before. I was 125/72. Went to chiropractor last week no workout 137/95. Bob, I'll be on both drugs soon so we can compare notes.

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

Sorry to hear about your situation.

Have you tried a glass of red wine every night? Seems to work for the French.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

i know how you feel with the "being tied to a pill" thing. i was the same way. i went in for a check up a few years ago and found my cholesterol to be high (total - 243, tri - 288, hdl - 25, ldl - 160). i hated the idea of taking a pill every day for the rest of my life, i'm 36, 32 or 33 then. i decided to go the non med way. i did everything right for a solid year, lots and lots of exercise, drastically changed my diet, etc, etc. the diet was the hardest, i'm from the south, the land of deep fried everything. the year following my check up i ate red meat maybe three times. lots of fish, chicken, turkey, fruits and veggies...and nothing fried. after all this clean living, i went back expecting to wow the doctor with my improved numbers. much to my dismay...my numbers had worsened. turns out it's hereditary and there's nothing i can do. so...i started taking lipitor. a year later my total was 153, a drastic improvement. the first couple of days after starting the lipitor i felt a little tired and a little nauseated. i switched from taking it in the mornings to evenings and have been fine since. i am concerned with the long term affects on my liver, even though blood tests show it has had no negative affect so far. i'm considering lowering the dosage at my next check up if my numbers are still good.

what makes it really tough is my wife has the complete opposite genes. she can eat whatever, do nothing, and have perfect...and i mean perfect numbers all around. hopefully our daughter gets her cholesterol genes from my wife.

good luck with whatever you decide to do.

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70.3 is the cousin to OD........ Ironman has no relatives! -Simon Lessing

I'm a doctor. I, like you, was not excited about having to go on a medicine to lower my cholesterol, but had no choice as I had maximized diet and exercise therapy. I take Vytorin. You should not experience any fatigue/weakness side effects. In fact if you do, it will nor be subtle and may be a sign of a serious problem. Do not torture yourself every time you feel tired or have a bad work out with "it's gotta be the drug" thoughts; you felt like this at times before you started the drug too. It's part of training. I've been on Vytorin for almost a year and just PR'd our local 10k by about 1:30. It will not effect your training, it will prolong your life, and I agree it does suck admitting that you're going to have to take this for the rest of your life, but what else can you do? You'll be fine.

Dang, Y'all ... you're fantastic! That's why I love this forum. I'm one who takes data with a grain of salt. I like to hear about people's actual experiences, too. (I take those with a grain of salt as well.) Y'all have really helped to educate me.

I live in South Carolina. One poster mentioned the challenge of fighting cholestrol when you live in the land of fried everything. Indeed, that's one of my greatest frustrations. Going out to eat is very annoying. Very few people have much in the way of heart-healthy choices. When I order the salmon, it's never prepared properly and it oftens seems as if they blew the dust off of it before they cooked it to death. Or you order the steamed broccoli and they set it down at the table swimming in a bowl of melted butter. And don't ever order green beans down here. They'll be simmered in fat back for hours. It's more like eating a pound of bacon than eating a healthy green vegetable.

Regarding blood pressure, thank goodness I've never had a blood pressure problem. In fact, it's very low. I was hit and seriously injured while on a training ride a few years ago. Before they could do surgery to put me back together, they had to administer drugs to raise my BP enough to enable them to put me under without my heart stopping.

Anyway, y'all have greatly eased my concerns. Thanks!

Bob C.

good luck with it, drug dependencies are a real bore. I can empathize, being on drugs for asthma for the rest of my earthly. IMO there is no drug without side effects, the trick is to find the one that works with your body chemistry to minimize the effects.

my wife and I eat the same diet, her cholesterol is consistently 220-230, mine is 140.. no fair.

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"It is a good feeling for old men who have begun to fear failure, any sort of failure, to set a schedule for exercise and stick to it. If an aging man can run a distance of three miles, for instance, he knows that whatever his other failures may be, he is not completely wasted away." Romain Gary, SI interview