1 What will you do? |
Attempt to lower my LDL cholesterol through medication.
My cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels hover near the upper end of the optimal range, sometimes creeping over. Since all the men in my family suffer from heart disease and have heart attacks, this is a source of concern for me.
Overall cholesterol less than 200 is considered optimal, and LDL cholesterol less than 100 is considered optimal, with the upper range of "near optimal" LDL put at 130. My overall cholesterol has bounced between 179 and 192 since 2002, and my LDL cholesterol between 108 and 131. My most recent test, on 4/21/2010, put my overall cholesterol at 185 and LDL at 125; four months earlier by numbers were 192 and 131.
Over the years, I've experimented with a few approaches to lowering my LDL cholesterol: a vegetarian diet, a multi-vitamin which contained Niacin, and most recently a 12-month test with 1200 mg daily of Red Yeast Rice. None had any effect -- my LDL cholesterol actually seemed to elevate after a year of taking Red Yeast Rice, which contains a naturally-occuring statin.
My doctor doesn't support this experiment: he thinks my cholesterol levels are not a source of concern. His concern about my taking a statin is potential liver damage.
I expect, as I get older, that my cholesterol levels will rise and become a problem. Part of the reason for this experiment is to establish now, at the age of 45, whether a statin drug will damage my liver. I'm not sure what I'll do if this turns out to be the case, but major diet and exercise changes are going to require a major renovation of my lifestyle, and if that's necessary I'm going to need to start soon, since it will be a long-term undertaking. |
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Comments & Observations
Liza Cunningham Hey Dan, I am curious... is there any chance you have hypothyroidism and/or adrenal fatigue. I read about the various experiments and obstacles you've noted, ranging from physical to mental/focus and these are all definitely related to hypothyroid including high cholesterol (I know from personal experience). If you are interested in reading more I can send urls.
Jun 26, 2010
Matthew Cornell Good luck with this, Dan. It's funny that doctors discourage self-experimentation (I'm not sure if this is true for yours), but as you point out elsewhere, we're all different and the only sure way to know is how something works for you. Managing risk is very important, and I'm happy to see you're taking care.
Jun 26, 2010
Dan Owen Liza, I considered hypothyroidism a few years ago, but ruled it out because other than fatigue I have so few other symptoms -- in particular, I have healthy weight and by existing standards healthy cholesterol. To be honest, though, I never had a TSH test. It's something I should probably consider. I don't know anything about adrenal fatigue.
Jun 26, 2010
Liza Cunningham Here are the symptom checklists on my blog site, in case it helps. I wrote a lot about TSH because its an unreliable test (even though many doctors use it). The Free T3, Free T4 tests along with symptoms are more accurate. If you have 50% of the symptoms noted here is worth testing. Otherwise, you are right, it could be something else. Adrenal Fatigue goes along with Hypothyroid but can exist on its own.
http://misslizzy.me/hypothyroid-symptoms/
http://misslizzy.me/adrenal-fatigue/
Jun 27, 2010
18 hours ago