A doctor asks if we should stop pushing them.
Saw my cardiologist a couple months ago. He still wants me on them because he thinks my cholesterol level is too high. I continue to refuse. My only risk is my parentage, and they were both overweight smokers.
I’ve been taking Lipitor for years, but for the first several years it seemed to have no effect whatsoever on my cholesterol levels. I happened to have a random visit with some doctor somewhere, and mentioned this to him. He asked “When do you take it?” I replied “First thing in the morning.” To which he said “Why don’t you take it at night, because that’s when your body makes cholesterol?” I replied that no one had ever told me that.
I still take it, at night, even though the instructions on the bottle are to take it in the morning. My cholesterol is perfectly normal, and has been ever since I started doing that.
I’ve been on Zocor for ~25 years… almost half my life. Take it every morning. Thanks to your post I’m going to look into changing to taking it at night.
I found that I had a bad reaction, where it lowered my IQ quite a bit. Unfortunately it took me a long time to figure it out, because it had lowered my IQ by quite a bit…
I had the same experience, except fortunately I noticed pretty immediately. That GP’s solution was to — instead of Lipitor –use1000mg of Niacin per day, which is an interesting feeling. The most current GP has as of 2 months ago put me on Ezitimobe, which could have a similar IQ effect for some people, but so far (as far as I can tell) has not for me.
If a person sees a cardiologist on a more or less regular basis, that means they have some “condition” that merits being seen by a cardiologist — chest pains, a heart attack, some congenital heart malformation, evidence of impaired heart function, something?
Otherwise, the “model” is that whatever is ailing you would be treated by your Primary Care Provider, who would be the one nagging a person about statins?
Could one suppose that a person seeing a cardiologist for whatever is by that very fact in a higher risk group than the rest of everybody getting prescribed medicines by their Primary Doc? And if a person is seeing a cardiologist because of some condition that has elevated their risk, why are they debating the cardiologist about what sort of medicine they should be taking? Why see a specialist — one can have that kind of argument with a Primary Doctor?
Statins are another case of a misleading medical myth.
Instead of guessing as to whether or not you should take a statin, get a CT angiogram (CTA). It is far, far better than a EKG, and far better than a stress test. It provides a clear indication of the condition of the blood vessels and will show restrictions developing due to cholesterol buildup. The percentage of blockage and in which arteries will make the case one way or the other. The sooner the better, though. As the arteriosclerosis progresses, the lipid is replaced by calcium, and then the restriction or blockage is not reversable without surgery of some sort. My understanding is that the highest time of risk for men with a family history of heart disease is 50 to 55 years old. My recommendation, in this order: 1) Have good medical insurance; 2) Get a CTA.
Note: I am not a medical doctor. This is from my experiences.
My cardiologist gave me a nuclear stress test once. He had me defuse a nuclear bomb whose red LED timer started at 59 seconds, to see if the stress would affect my heart. Other people who have had nuclear stress tests have told me that theirs were quite different…
As a fan of the Pointer Sisters, my question is this.
When you were on the treadmill, did your heart start pumping schemes? As the technicians administering the test cranked up the treadmill slop, were your leg muscles just burning, burning, doing the Neutron Dance?
Look up Dr Malcom Kendrick and read his articles and books. You’ll get a whole new perspective on the issue.
The cholesterol/heart disease thing is about as dangerous and stupid as the food pyramid.