The FastDay Forum

Hi Izzy,

My total cholesterol level is a magnificent 7 and I don't care. I shall NEVER take statins and if you get a chance, read Dr. Malcolm McKendrick's book 'The great cholesterol con' and then decide what you want to do. My husband has been almost crippled by them and it is now a year since he stopped and only recently has been able to walk any distance. We dreaded the side effects being permanent, as they are for some, but it looks as though they may be waning but he still has an uphill struggle to regain his mobility which has been severly compromised by statins.

This is a decision that only you can make and if you decide to go down this route then good luck and I hope they work for you but please do some homework before you commit to taking them, then at least you will have made an informed decision.

Let us know how you get on,

Ballerina x

Oh issy must be disappointing.
Have you thought of alternatives like naturopath/ herbalist to help you overhaul your diet. I had a funny experience with a Local doctor when I was on a "x" factor diet (author of book about it was Leslie Kenton) close to Atkins Diet where you are careful of the quality of the protein you eat e.g cutting of fats and more salads and vegs. After 3 months of following his diet (geat weight loss too) I became so fatigued went to doc and she ready read me the riot act of how foolish I was. Told me my bloods especially my cholesterol would be way of of wack and raised
Long story short when I went back my cholesterol levels had improved so much the doc was cranky to be wrong and just did not want to talk about my good work with cholesterol levels or my version of Atkins.
My point is have a good look at a diet which is structured to give you the good fats. All the best

It would have been wonderful to share with my gp doc what I was eating on my X factor diet as after that diet in 2005 its been until now 2013 with 5:2 I have not had such a good weight loss. I eat very well as nutrition is an interest of mine and even on 5:2 I am working on how to ensure I am doing the optimum with creating a nutritious diet pattern. Seem to find there is not enough time to eat with 5:2+ 16:8 so still working on that.

You make a good point that life happens to reduce our activity as well. Ditto for me. But keep your chin up and time will tell. We are lucky to be able to access great food and recipes at the tap of a mouse or in my case finger

My last reading was 6.3 and my GP said she would put me on Statins - IF I wanted it. Didn't bat an eye when I said NO. I keep up to date on the subject and I've also seen someone suffer the muscle weakness statins can cause. I'm not going there.

I'm not sure if this book is available in the UK but it shows available for the Kindle as well. My SIL was told to go on statins because of his high numbers, my daughter said no way. They followed the very natural steps in this book and wahlah he was in the normal range. A girl I work with is now doing the same thing. Certainly worth a try if you have the time.


[url][/url]http://www.amazon.com/Cholesterol-Down-Simple-Weeks--Without-Prescription/dp/0307339114/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371006812&sr=1-1&keywords=cholesterol+down

How do I get this to be a url?

[Betsysgr8]

I'm not sure if this book is available in the UK but it shows available for the Kindle as well. My SIL was told to go on statins because of his high numbers, my daughter said no way. They followed the very natural steps in this book and wahlah he was in the normal range. A girl I work with is now doing the same thing. Certainly worth a try if you have the time.


http://www.amazon.com/Cholesterol-Down-Simple-Weeks--Without-Prescription/dp/0307339114/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371006812&sr=1-1&keywords=cholesterol+down

How do I get this to be a url?

there ya go, does this link through to the amazon site that benefits this forum?

Perfect. Thanks Betsysgr8! Hopefully izzy will see it tomorrow. I think all of our UK friends are fast asleep.

I have a friend who was offered statins. She has done some diet changes that seemed to do not much. Then she tried Ethical Nutrients Cholestrienol. For the first time in ages her cholesterol has come down. Ingredients named don't sound bad. Might be worth looking at.

Hi Izzy,

Wow, this is an interesting thread you've started, those hot French waiters can't compete with you lot, so here I am! I didn't realise Dr McK had a website so I shall go from here to there toot sweet and see what I can find out, thank you so much for the link. Part of the problem is that GPs are paid extra for treating certain things and, well, you know what they say about money. The government is also pushing statins, presumably someone in Whitehall is making a fortune from it. Cynical, moi?

I hope you can work things out to your satisfaction and it lovely to see so many taking responsibility for their own health, good for you.

Unfortunately my husband has a degenerative kidney disease and no amount of dietary intervention will alter that.

Hoping to read good things from you, good luck,

Ballerina x

Hi Izzy
sorry the results were not what you were hoping for. I had posted about statins before same as ballerina. They made my husband ill and I had the GP take them of mums prescription. Big hug from me
Chris xx

[carorees]

There was a paper in the Lancet which showed that the best predictor of cardiovascular risk is the ratio of total:HDL cholesterol. The paper was a meta-analysis (an analysis of publishedvtrials) so it's an important finding. The target for the ratio is 3.5 but the risk depends on your blood pressure, age and smoking status. PhilT posted a chart where you can read off your risk in another thread. I'll see if I can find it.

[carorees]

Here's a link to the cardiovascular risk charts using total:HDL ratio: http://heartuk.org.uk/health-profession ... isk-charts

Find the chart that applies to you (e.g. in my case, non-smoker, woman, aged under 59) find your ratio on the bottom axis and your systolic blood pressure (the top number in the bp measurement) in the left axis, if the point where those meet its in the green you are at low risk and you don't need treatment. In my case my bp is 140/80 and my ratio is 3.45 so I'm in the green (despite a high total cholesterol of 8!).

[carorees]

Good to know the ratio is OK. Re the HbA1c result...did you see on the BBC News about the benefits of walking for 15 minutes after each a meal for lowering blood glucose and so reducing diabetes risk? As I expect you know, the HbA1c is an indication of how much glucose on average has been circulating in your blood over the last 3 months. If you can reduce the glucose peaks after eating that can help lower HbA1c, so a "post-prandial constitutional" is a good idea. Also, after a fast, I would suggest you break your fast with a low GL food (i.e., low carb) as there is a lag between eating and your insulin levels rising again (they will be low during fasting as there will be no glucose entering your system) so that the first food can create a bigger increase in blood glucose than it would normally do if you had not been fasting.

Good to know the ratio is OK. Re the HbA1c result...did you see on the BBC News about the benefits of walking for 15 minutes after each a meal for lowering blood glucose and so reducing diabetes risk?

C4 want us walking before eating in order to take out the fat from our blood stream more efficiently.

Is there a conspiracy to keep us on our feet around meal times ?

http://www.qrisk.org/ is an online risk calculator using cholesterol etc to put a number on risk and also on how treatment would affect risk.