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Cholesterol
- Thread starter bczoom
- Start date
Sorry no help here. My blood is tested several times a year and my cholesterol levels are always very good. My rheumatologist asked what I eat to keep it like that and I told him "White Castles" and "Slim Jims." He told me to keep it up, it is working!
Not sure if you have White Castle Hamburgers in Pennsylvania, but its worth a try!
Not sure if you have White Castle Hamburgers in Pennsylvania, but its worth a try!
No White Castle's around here. I try my best to live on beef, potatoes and milk but will occasionally slide in some bacon, eggs, sausage and ice cream.
Mrs. Zoom puts these green things on my plate. I keep telling her I don't need a garnish.
That what the Slim Jims are for
Mine had always been pretty low, but when I had a checkup about a year and a half ago, the numbers were a bit higher than what the doctor liked. I just watched what I ate (cut back on the burgers, etc. and upped the good stuff--nuts, etc.). The next test showed everything ok. I would rather avoid the meds route if possible.
Brian,
My levels were pretty high at one time. But since I developed heart issues at the same time my levels went up, I went into a drastic diet change. Levels dropped some but I needed to go on meds since the cholesterol my body produced itself seemed to be the biggest problem. They dropped well into an acceptable range. I am able to keep them in that range with diet and of course meds.
Low fat, exercise, lower carbs. Triglycerides are now good with the lower carb diet. Try to limit white flour foods, switch to wheat and whole grain. Limit starches, such as potatoes and pastas
. Nuts are good, protein and some fat, but it's a "somewhat better" fat. Oatmeal, eat oatmeal for breakfast...
My levels were pretty high at one time. But since I developed heart issues at the same time my levels went up, I went into a drastic diet change. Levels dropped some but I needed to go on meds since the cholesterol my body produced itself seemed to be the biggest problem. They dropped well into an acceptable range. I am able to keep them in that range with diet and of course meds.
Low fat, exercise, lower carbs. Triglycerides are now good with the lower carb diet. Try to limit white flour foods, switch to wheat and whole grain. Limit starches, such as potatoes and pastas
. Nuts are good, protein and some fat, but it's a "somewhat better" fat. Oatmeal, eat oatmeal for breakfast...
Try diet first. Up the whole grains and leafy greens for a week, cut out the greasy meats (fish, chicken = OK) and see if it makes a difference.
IMO, The drugs suck and other than adjusting you to a statistical norm the truth is that family history and BMI have a greater indication on your lifespan (excluding bad habits like smoking) than cholesteral and high blood pressure.
I suspect you have crappy (yet very manly) eating habits.
IMO, The drugs suck and other than adjusting you to a statistical norm the truth is that family history and BMI have a greater indication on your lifespan (excluding bad habits like smoking) than cholesteral and high blood pressure.
I suspect you have crappy (yet very manly) eating habits.
Ya' think?
I'm going to assume chicken is good for you but I was at a party on Saturday and there were a lot of "no shows". Well, there was lots of chicken left over. It's the only thing I've eaten for the last 3 days. 3 pieces for breakfast and the same for lunch and dinner. 
Thanks for the info on the Omega 3. After checking with the MD, I may get some but I'm terrible at taking meds or vitamins. I guess that'll have to change.
No potatoes?
That's going to be a tough one but I guess I'll have to cut back. Switching breads will probably be an easier switch. I do eat a fair amount of nuts (which are cholesterol free) but there's a lot of fat so I've cut back on those as well.Has anyone tried Lipitor or other meds to lower it? If so, what are the side effects?
So far, 3+ years on Lipitor and no effects on the liver functions which are tested every three months. I tried 3 others before that and none helped.
P
Pigtails
Guest
I was on Liptor for 3 years or more. Can't remember when the Doc told me to start taking them. But I would have my blood work done yearly. Then last year I went to a different Doc and he did some testing. He took me off Liptor and put me on Zietia. He said I have some things going on with my liver. So here I am.. No BEER.. Zietia is suppose to be easier on your liver.
Zietia is suppose to be easier on your liver.FWIW--my FIL's doctor recommended he take Red Yeast Rice (found with dietary supplements in wallymart) to lower his cholesterol. According to my wife it helped him.
I am generally skeptical about food supplement claims, but there might be something to this one. BTW, it has warnings to not take it if you are pregnant, nursing, or have liver disease. The label also advises discussing it with your health care provider.
I am generally skeptical about food supplement claims, but there might be something to this one. BTW, it has warnings to not take it if you are pregnant, nursing, or have liver disease. The label also advises discussing it with your health care provider.
My mom's dr. told her to take the red yeast rice as well. It is an herb which can take up 30 days to kick in. It has worked for my mom. Also with the fish oil garlic and cinnamon are recomend as well.(which you can get in pill form as well in the vitman/herb section) Oats are proven to lower cholesterol as well.
Well, my MD and I talked about it.
First step will be to adjust diet but no meds.
I'm not going to like this...
No butter, whole milk, pork, gravy...
Here's a couple that I can't figure out.
Meat - 1 serving is 3 ounces?!??! That's barely enough to get an aroma.
Beverages - 5 oz of beer/serving with a limit of 2. OK, where do I find a 5 oz can of beer?
First step will be to adjust diet but no meds.
I'm not going to like this...
No butter, whole milk, pork, gravy...
Here's a couple that I can't figure out.
Meat - 1 serving is 3 ounces?!??! That's barely enough to get an aroma.
Beverages - 5 oz of beer/serving with a limit of 2. OK, where do I find a 5 oz can of beer?
bigdeer2000
New member
mine was a little high also. every thing else good. i just like the foods that are high in cholesteral. no weight problem no family history of high cholesteral or heart problems. dr told me mine high from foods i eat and said i could change eating habits or take zetia. zetia only works on cholesteral from food in the stomach and not on colesteral that the body produces. so thats the story i got from the doc. now i take 1 pill a day and eat what i like and my cholesteral numbers are great.
dzalphakilo
Banned
Last year and a half, on Lipitor. No side effects whatsoever.
I used to do the Lipitor 20 ml than the Crestor 20-30-40 until all hell broke loose. Statins are a potent and dangerous form of drugs.
I started taking the cholesterol drugs about 10 years ago after visiting my Doctor. My cholesterol level was slightly high and the thought was to go on a small dosage of Lipitor to bring it in line . We tried the 10 ml and had minimal effect, so I went to 20 and that brought me where I should be. I had no apparent side effects and continued on that dosage for about 3 years. Then the medical profession had a idea to drop the level lower. So my Doctor said I should try and get to the new level. There was a new drug, just out at that time called Crestor. Crestor was supposed to be a new generation of super statins, which are stronger and supposedly less side effects than the previous statins. I started on a dosage of 20 ml for a couple of months and then had a blood test. The blood test showed that it had 0 effect on my level...to everyones surprise. Next we went to 30 ml and that had a little effect, but not enough. Then we went to 40 ml. I was taking 40 for about a month and went on the INTERNET and started reading about people using Crestor and the amount of people having problems. My problem was the side effects came about so slow that you just think it is normal and part of getting older. Hard as it is to believe here is a list of some of the side effects that struck me.
contact Dermatitis:
I had this for years before the Crestor and just after I started Lipitor.I was to my Doctor as well a a dermatologist and had a lot of tests and opinions. The Dermatologist said they could find nothing that was causing the problem but it was suggested that I change jobs as it appeared that the oil and greases that I was in contact with were aggravating the problem. This was the start to me changing careers after 22 years in my profession.
muscle pain:
I could not get out of a chair without using my two arms to lift myself up. If I used my arms for any physical activity they would just vibrate for the next 1/2 hour or so.
headache:
I was getting almost daily headaches. To some this may not seem bad, but I get headaches about every couple of years for a hour or so.
Nausea:
Generally sick squeamish feeling most of the time.
Malaise:
General feeling of "just not normal" it is hard to explain but sort of like just before you get sick feeling. This was 24/7
Dizziness:
For no good reason I would almost fall over, especially after doing physical activity.
Stomach pain:
After eating, some times I would have cramps
This is the simple list of the basic side effects. Here are the other ones
that I can't fit into categories
Carpel tunnel syndrome. I had the symptoms in both hands confirmed by a Doctor. After quiting the Crestor symptoms went totally away.
Every injury I had in my life was coming back to haunt me. I had two fingers crushed with the fence post maul. I always had good use of the digits until the Crestor. After that they ached constantly. After quiting the Crestor they came back to normal, which is no pain. I twisted my ankle 10 years ago and have minimal problem with until the Crestor. In the end it was so bad I had to take pain killers to walk. After quiting the Crestor all went back to normal.
My eyesight has always been good and haven,'t needed glasses. After a hour or two on the computer my eyes would just water,ache and have blurry vision. After quiting all went back to normal.
Physical activity: After doing my chores in the barn, which takes about an hour of hard work I had to go lay down for 2-3 hours. I also thought I was going to have a heart attack as I was out of breath and very dizzy.
When I went to bed I would be a little tired. When I would get up in the morning I was more tired that when I went to bed. Good start for the day
These are the things that come to mind without having to think too hard. As strange as it may sound I didn't know I was having all these problems until I quit the Crestor. The general feeling was that I was 30-40 years older than I was at the time. If I was to continue to take the drug I was on I would have had to apply for disability pension as I was getting weaker mentally as well as physically daily. Most of the symptoms came on so slow that I figured it was just old age coming on early.
The symptoms didn't go away right away either. I would say it took about 6 months to a year to rid most of the side effects, but some are probably never going to go away.
I quit taking the drug and went to the Doctor and told him what was going on and he immediately sent me for blood work. The blood test was not too bad but not normal. So his idea was another type of statin to see what that did. I went home with the prescription and looked at the side effects on the box as well as the INTERNET and found they were almost exactly the same as the Crestor. Now I made another appointment with the Doctor and basically told him that I was not going to experiment with another similar drug from the same family. My words were there is quality of life as well as quantity and my mind was made up it would be quality. He agreed with what I had to say but wasn't happy to just leave the cholesterol at the level it was (was OK before they dropped the level). We talked about vitamin B3 Niacin, which I was researching previous to coming to the appointment. I read it could drop the ldl(bad), triglycerides (bad) and raise the hdl(good). So we discussed taking the niacin, and he thought it was a good idea. Now I asking why didn't you suggest this in the first place as niacin the dosage required is about $6.00 per month as opposed to $200.00 plus. His reason was people don't like the flushing that can happen for up to 1/2 hour after taking the pill . Well I was not impressed that you have me on this killer statin that is poison to the system instead of a vitamin. So off I go to try Niacin to see what happens. The first day I tried 30mg and wow I almost fell flat on my face when I stood up as well as my face just getting hot and red. The niacin dilates the blood vessels which causes the red complexion as well as drops your blood pressure. I learnt to carefully increase the dosage to make sure I had minimal side effects. I now take a gram a day(500mg in the morning 500mg in the night). The flushing happens about 2 times a week, but I could care less anyways. The low blood pressure, fall on my face, never happened since the first time or two. So the next thing to do was have a blood test. The results were although not where my Doctor would like it was at the lowest level in the last ten years. As I had read; it dropped my bad, raised my good which brought my average way down. This therapy won't work if you have blood sugar problems as it can possibly elevate the sugar level. Although it is an over the counter vitamin it should not be taken in high dosages without medical advise.
Just a little more info: Too low of cholesterol sets you up for strokes and colon cancer. The medical community says that the increase in the chance in stroke or colon cancer is out weighed by the lower risk of heart attacks.
My father had triple bypass and was a diabetic on high dosages of statins to control his cholesterol. He then found out he had colon cancer(only one in family of 14 on high dosages of statins, to get colon cancer). Then last Winter while in hospital he lost all use of his legs. Found out his enzyme count was though the roof and the drugs were to blame. They had him on steroids which helped him to recover most of his use of his legs. Then they decided to take him off all statins for good.
I started taking the cholesterol drugs about 10 years ago after visiting my Doctor. My cholesterol level was slightly high and the thought was to go on a small dosage of Lipitor to bring it in line . We tried the 10 ml and had minimal effect, so I went to 20 and that brought me where I should be. I had no apparent side effects and continued on that dosage for about 3 years. Then the medical profession had a idea to drop the level lower. So my Doctor said I should try and get to the new level. There was a new drug, just out at that time called Crestor. Crestor was supposed to be a new generation of super statins, which are stronger and supposedly less side effects than the previous statins. I started on a dosage of 20 ml for a couple of months and then had a blood test. The blood test showed that it had 0 effect on my level...to everyones surprise. Next we went to 30 ml and that had a little effect, but not enough. Then we went to 40 ml. I was taking 40 for about a month and went on the INTERNET and started reading about people using Crestor and the amount of people having problems. My problem was the side effects came about so slow that you just think it is normal and part of getting older. Hard as it is to believe here is a list of some of the side effects that struck me.
contact Dermatitis:
I had this for years before the Crestor and just after I started Lipitor.I was to my Doctor as well a a dermatologist and had a lot of tests and opinions. The Dermatologist said they could find nothing that was causing the problem but it was suggested that I change jobs as it appeared that the oil and greases that I was in contact with were aggravating the problem. This was the start to me changing careers after 22 years in my profession.
muscle pain:
I could not get out of a chair without using my two arms to lift myself up. If I used my arms for any physical activity they would just vibrate for the next 1/2 hour or so.
headache:
I was getting almost daily headaches. To some this may not seem bad, but I get headaches about every couple of years for a hour or so.
Nausea:
Generally sick squeamish feeling most of the time.
Malaise:
General feeling of "just not normal" it is hard to explain but sort of like just before you get sick feeling. This was 24/7
Dizziness:
For no good reason I would almost fall over, especially after doing physical activity.
Stomach pain:
After eating, some times I would have cramps
This is the simple list of the basic side effects. Here are the other ones
that I can't fit into categories
Carpel tunnel syndrome. I had the symptoms in both hands confirmed by a Doctor. After quiting the Crestor symptoms went totally away.
Every injury I had in my life was coming back to haunt me. I had two fingers crushed with the fence post maul. I always had good use of the digits until the Crestor. After that they ached constantly. After quiting the Crestor they came back to normal, which is no pain. I twisted my ankle 10 years ago and have minimal problem with until the Crestor. In the end it was so bad I had to take pain killers to walk. After quiting the Crestor all went back to normal.
My eyesight has always been good and haven,'t needed glasses. After a hour or two on the computer my eyes would just water,ache and have blurry vision. After quiting all went back to normal.
Physical activity: After doing my chores in the barn, which takes about an hour of hard work I had to go lay down for 2-3 hours. I also thought I was going to have a heart attack as I was out of breath and very dizzy.
When I went to bed I would be a little tired. When I would get up in the morning I was more tired that when I went to bed. Good start for the day
These are the things that come to mind without having to think too hard. As strange as it may sound I didn't know I was having all these problems until I quit the Crestor. The general feeling was that I was 30-40 years older than I was at the time. If I was to continue to take the drug I was on I would have had to apply for disability pension as I was getting weaker mentally as well as physically daily. Most of the symptoms came on so slow that I figured it was just old age coming on early.
The symptoms didn't go away right away either. I would say it took about 6 months to a year to rid most of the side effects, but some are probably never going to go away.
I quit taking the drug and went to the Doctor and told him what was going on and he immediately sent me for blood work. The blood test was not too bad but not normal. So his idea was another type of statin to see what that did. I went home with the prescription and looked at the side effects on the box as well as the INTERNET and found they were almost exactly the same as the Crestor. Now I made another appointment with the Doctor and basically told him that I was not going to experiment with another similar drug from the same family. My words were there is quality of life as well as quantity and my mind was made up it would be quality. He agreed with what I had to say but wasn't happy to just leave the cholesterol at the level it was (was OK before they dropped the level). We talked about vitamin B3 Niacin, which I was researching previous to coming to the appointment. I read it could drop the ldl(bad), triglycerides (bad) and raise the hdl(good). So we discussed taking the niacin, and he thought it was a good idea. Now I asking why didn't you suggest this in the first place as niacin the dosage required is about $6.00 per month as opposed to $200.00 plus. His reason was people don't like the flushing that can happen for up to 1/2 hour after taking the pill
. Well I was not impressed that you have me on this killer statin that is poison to the system instead of a vitamin. So off I go to try Niacin to see what happens. The first day I tried 30mg and wow I almost fell flat on my face when I stood up as well as my face just getting hot and red. The niacin dilates the blood vessels which causes the red complexion as well as drops your blood pressure. I learnt to carefully increase the dosage to make sure I had minimal side effects. I now take a gram a day(500mg in the morning 500mg in the night). The flushing happens about 2 times a week, but I could care less anyways. The low blood pressure, fall on my face, never happened since the first time or two. So the next thing to do was have a blood test. The results were although not where my Doctor would like it was at the lowest level in the last ten years. As I had read; it dropped my bad, raised my good which brought my average way down. This therapy won't work if you have blood sugar problems as it can possibly elevate the sugar level. Although it is an over the counter vitamin it should not be taken in high dosages without medical advise.Just a little more info: Too low of cholesterol sets you up for strokes and colon cancer. The medical community says that the increase in the chance in stroke or colon cancer is out weighed by the lower risk of heart attacks.
My father had triple bypass and was a diabetic on high dosages of statins to control his cholesterol. He then found out he had colon cancer(only one in family of 14 on high dosages of statins, to get colon cancer). Then last Winter while in hospital he lost all use of his legs. Found out his enzyme count was though the roof and the drugs were to blame. They had him on steroids which helped him to recover most of his use of his legs. Then they decided to take him off all statins for good.