A couple of weeks ago I went back to my family doctor for my annual physical checkup. Ever since I lost 180 pounds in 2004, my doctor has been simply amazed by the complete turnaround in my health for the better.
Prior to my low-carb weight loss, I was on medication for my breathing, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. And for the latter I was told that I needed to take a statin drug to get my total cholesterol down.
As I previously blogged about in this blog post, when I took Lipitor first and later Crestor to get my cholesterol to go lower as my doctor instructed, it certainly did bring my total cholesterol down. But the unbelievably painful joint and muscle pain that I experienced on these dangerous drugs is now the subject of an intensive study to help educate doctors about what they are doing to their patients. It’s amazing these drugs are still allowed on the market with so many unanswered questions about what they are doing to people.
Even still, medical professionals have heralded statin drugs as the miracle pill they’ve been longing to find to lower cholesterol numbers. But what is it doing to the health of the people taking it? Sure, their cholesterol has gone down, but now what problems are they having to deal with because of the statin drug they are taking? Yikes! Which is worse?
I finally decided to stop taking these statins once and for all in August 2005 because I was tired of hurting and became thoroughly convinced that cholesterol drugs are more about money than they are improving people’s health in an effort to prevent a heart attack or stroke. Plus, with my enormous weight loss on low-carb, I knew my HDL would be way up from the lower 20′s it used to linger at before and my triglycerides and total cholesterol would be way down the next time I had my blood work done.
You can imagine my anxious anticipation after having my cholesterol checked in late October 2005 when I got the incredible results:
TOTAL CHOLESTEROL: 201
HDL: 71
LDL: 119
TRIGLYCERIDES: 57
To say I was THRILLED with these numbers is an understatement. But I didn’t realize just HOW good they were until I read Jeff Volek’s work on the triglyceride/HDL ratio as an indicator of heart health. Using this equation, my ratio was a mere 0.83! Sure my LDL and total cholesterol were higher than what my doctor would prefer, but I was much healthier than I was before my low-carb experience.
Yet, now I face an interesting cholesterol conundrum that I would like to present to the educated readership at my blog. I just got the numbers back from my latest visit to the doctor in March 2006 and they have my doctor pulling out the dreaded “s” word yet again:
TOTAL CHOLESTEROL: 254
HDL: 72
LDL: 170
TRIGLYCERIDES: 44
As you can see, my total cholesterol and LDL both increased while my HDL grew by one point and my triglycerides continued to plummet 13 more points. I was excited about my triglyceride/HDL ratio, though, which actually IMPROVED to a microscopic 0.61!
Nevertheless, my doctor is very alarmed about my cholesterol numbers right now. He doesn’t care that my HDL is outstanding (his nurse even said my HDL was TOO HIGH if you can believe that!) or that my triglycerides continue on their downward path. All he can see is that my LDL is up which has caused my total cholesterol to be up as well. Guess what the first words out his mouth were to treat it: STATIN!
Since I’ve already tried Lipitor and Crestor, now he wants to put me on Vytorin! But I don’t think so. There’s something wrong with doctors so quickly wanting to prescribe higher and higher doses of drugs like these that are actually hurting people. I don’t want to go through the pain of statin treatment again.
I talked to my chiropractor, an opponent of statin drugs, about my numbers and he said as long as my total cholesterol/HDL ratio is less than 5:1 I should be fine. Using that scale, my ratio is about 3.5:1 so I’m okay according to him.
So, should I be worried about my higher LDL and total cholesterol numbers as much as my doctor is? I’m scheduled to go see him for an office visit on Friday afternoon to discuss this. I’m pretty firm against taking a statin drug again, but should I consider something else to get my LDL cholesterol down? Is it a major concern for me to ponder or is this much ado about nothing?
Especially when you’ve got studies showing that the existence of LDL cholesterol is actually good as you get older, it makes you scratch your head wondering if all this hoopla about cholesterol in the United States these days is just one big scam by the pharmaceutical companies using our medical doctors as their pawns.
I trust the collective wisdom of those who read my blog and I look forward to seeing your comments about what I should say to my doctor during my visit on Friday. Click on the comment link below or e-mail me at livinlowcarbman@charter.net. THANK YOU!!!
