I am allergic to Statins so won't/can't take them. In fact other drugs always give me muscle problems even Finesteride damaged one of my Hamstrings. My figures are: HDL=1.27(-) LDL=3.5 5.5 overall, as baseline (I have not started Ez. yet). I am on Clopidogrel and take B12 supps 1000mg. Interested in others experiences e.g. are these figures particularly wrong? Is it worth actually trying to correct HDL/LDL at 75 years? I try to eat well and avoid SatFats amap.
Many Thanks.
Read this for general UK guidelines on cholesterol .
nhs.uk/conditions/high-chol...
However if you have been diagnosed with some form of heart disease, you are usually prescribed medication to alter lipids and their balance to be better than the 'norm'. So your cholesterol numbers are probably just about borderline OK for a normal adult, but not someone with heart disease.
As far as 'eating well' to protect your heart is concerned, it's more than just avoiding saturated fats. Look at the BHF menu pages for some ideas, including foods like porridge which has beta glucan which is good for reducing cholesterol. Plus there are now also plant stanol and sterol enhanced foods and drinks for people who have 'high cholesterol' which might make a difference.
Finally I am not far off your age and I haven't given up looking after my health (without being obsessive about it), and that includes cholesterol management by diet and medication. So perhaps you too are not yet old enough to consider sort of giving up, but only you know that. 😉
Thanks, very interesting. Only thing I know is one heart 'junction' had moderate blockage some three years ago with an angiogram. I am on thinners due to having minor white matter ischemia some years back. BP is reasonable if I avoid stress. Hopefully these blockages grow slowly! Yep, diet I am aware of and try to avoid sat-fats. steel cut porridge for breakfast! A degree of malabsorption has hit me recently with fatigue attacks which B12 supps seem to be helping. Vit D to tackle next as that is way under but getting them to be effective is a challenge - research ongoing.
I once knew a brilliant GP in Wales, who has sadly no retired who thought all these matters about Cholesterol were all a load of get out of jail tosh! He came to this conclusion many years ago shortly after graduating, when a group of ex-grads went to Africa where they found a very remote tribe who all had very dangerously high cholesterol figures and yet they were eating a nigh on perfect diet and they were all as fit as butchers dogs.
Long before I met this brilliant GP I had been put on statins by my doctor over in France where I then lived and I found I reacted badly to 3 types before finally one was found that I didn't react badly to (I am sorry but my 73 year old grey matters has forgotten their names). On returning to the UK this Welsh GP and I decided that as I was fighting fit then I didn't actually need to take statins, so they were stopped.
However since moving house again and at new surgeries, they have all been of a different mindset and I was put back onto the darned things, but following my last A&E blues and twoes visit (of which there have been 5 in total), I have now been put onto both Ezetimibe 10mg as well as Rosuvastatin 40 mg and am suffering no side effects.
I think it would be true to say, borne out by medical research, that on balance for anyone who has natural high levels of cholesterol, like me it's genetic, or have some form of confirmed heart disease, such as a heart attack, the benefits of taking medication such as statins usually outweigh the risks or any minor side effects. But there there will always be exceptions to this point of view, either in the general population or the odd GP here and there. In my case I was diagnosed with very high cholesterol over 20 years ago, and following a failed diet alone approach to reduce it have been on statins ever since. And as I have said before without them probably wouldn't be here, but even then still managed to have a 'minor' heart attack over 4 years ago, at which time I was found to have severe arteriosclerosis in some places.
Finally I have several medical conditions and am required to take several daily forms of medication, nearly all for life. I do so reluctantly, but in the knowledge that they are simply making my life better, or in some cases keeping me alive, at least for the time being....
🙂
Hi omits,
My baseline is 4.4 and I tried Atorvastatin, Pravastatin and Simvastatin, all with quite serious side effects. My GP then prescribed me Ezetimibe, but testing a year later revealed it had zero effect.... I was still at 4.4.
I was persuaded by the Pathologist at the local hospital to try 10mg Rosuvastatin on alternate days. It didn't start well with headaches daily, but I was determined to give it a go, so I split the tablet to take 5mg on alternate days. Then I upped that to every day, eventually moving onto 10mg on alternate days as prescribed and with no issues. The process took a few weeks. My cholesterol went down to 3.7, but by last year it had crept up to 4.1, so I requested additional tablets to take it every day and it is now back down to 3.7.
To give an answer to your question is virtually impossible as we are all different. It is about trying to reduce your cholesterol level and your quality of life balanced with the side effects of any medication prescribed. Ezetimibe had no effect on my cholster old, but ithe had none side effects. With hindsight I might as well have not taken it, but I certainly wasn't going to tolerate the muscle pains that I experienced with the first three statins, so overall it was worth giving Ezetimibe a try.
At a total of 5.5 your cholesterol is above the magic 5.0, but not by much. Some would say that you should get it down at all costs, indeed some articles that I have read recommend getting it below 3.0. However, no clinician has ever set such a target for me. The Pathologist seemed quite pleased I was down at 3.7, so I have taken that as my personal goal.
Hopefully Ezetimibe will work for you. You will see whether it has any effect or not when you next have a blood test, assuming it doesn't cause any issues in the meantime.
Kind regards,
Gerald
Your experience mirrors mine to some degree. I have genetically high cholesterol (about10) and years ago tried to reduce it by strict dieting. The best I got was about 6.5 and then over the months as my dieting got more 'relaxed' my cholesterol crept back up again to just under 8 so I was put on statins. Then 4 years ago I had a HA and my atorvastatin was increased from 40mg daily to 80mg which did have an effect looking at my past test results but then again food management got relaxed and everything has slowly increased. So my conclusion, in my case, is that taking statins does work but diet also plays its part, in other words it's unwise for me to solely rely on medication to reduce my cholesterol. And after another recent minor scare that's what I am again putting into place.
Hi I too can’t tolerate any of the statins I’m afraid so I have been on Praluent since 31st December last year. No side effects so far but have still to be tested to see if these injections once a fortnight are reducing my inherited high cholesterol. The various statins rendered me unable to walk … muscle pains in hips legs and ankles … unbearable !! Everybody, thankfully, is different so what works for some doesn’t work for others.
Time to ask your GP or prescribing health professional for a cholesterol test? I'll bet the drug has had chance to achieve what's its capable of within you. Anyway the cost of the test must be peanuts compared to the cost of a drug that might in fact not be working, which is an argument you could use if there is any lack of enthusiasm for your request. But hopefully the outcome will be positive for you
I take this along with 80mgs of Atorvastatin!! Apparently my cholesterol under normal circumstances isn't high, but in only 4 years since my bypass one of my arteries furred up so badly they had to drill to put 2 stents in. It dropped very quickly after a couple of months but there is no indication I am going to have either reduced!!
That’s the high dose of Atorvastatin plus 10mg of enzitmbe they put me on immediately after my heart attack but sadly my body couldn’t tolerate either. Maybe they’ll reduce your dose at your next check up if they think it’s suitable to do so
I have no check up scheduled, but I may chat to my GP about it. I can tolerate a lot but if it isn't necessary surely they can cut it down.
Statins/ezetimibe 
Raised cholesterol
Atorvastatin
Cholesterol Levels 
