Ezetrol

[Lyngal]

Hi just been to see my consultant for my 6 monthly check, I have familial hypercholesterolaemia . My level has gone down from 9. 8 to 6.4. She said my H D L was very good but a reading of 6.4 is too high. I take 40mg of statins it was increased to 80 but couldn’t tolerate it so I’ve now been put on Ezetrol to take as an add on tablet. Has anyone else taken this tablet Thanks

[kasibarndoor]

My brother takes it and has been doing so for a few years, he is also on 10mg Atorvastatin.

[sos007 Ambassador]

You won't know if you actually have familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) unless you first adopt a healthy diet and lifestyle.

I too was diagnosed with the same condition, after I had a triple bypass and they found one of my bypasses re-occluded in the first month.

After moving to a whole-foods, plant-based diet, and embarking on a lifestyle change by beginning to walk daily for an hour. I lost 40 lbs over 10 months and leveled off at a weight that was consistent with my height and bone structure. I am 5'10" tall and weigh 155 lbs. I'm a male, 55 years of age.

My cholesterol levels, and more importantly, my triglyceride levels, have all normalized. The original diagnoses was flawed. Don't assume doctors know everything or are perfect. They are only dealing with acute cases and you cannot make the best diagnoses by only seeing a person in an acute conditions without implementation of dietary and lifestyle changes.

If you have the desire to make similar changes, and you experience a similar transformation, then you'll know, as I do now, whether or not you actually have that condition.

More than likely what you have is a poor diet and poor lifestyle, not FH.

If you want more details you can message me privately or you can go to my other posts here:

healthunlocked.com/user/sos007

Good luck.

[Lyngal in reply to sos007]

I lead a healthy diet, my father died of a heart attack at the age of 48 his uncles and his brothers also died of an early age as the result of heart problems, my 3 brothers who again eat a healthy diet have high cholesterol and my daughter at the age of 26 is also under the same consultant as I am as her cholesterol is slightly high

[sos007 Ambassador in reply to Lyngal]

Read this article:

nytimes.com/2018/01/09/well...

The only solution to the problem noted in the article above can be found here:

practicingmedicinewithoutal...

I have used the Pauling Therapy and have lowered my Lp(a) from 764 to 510 mg/l, over the last 4 months or so. This is a 32% reduction. I also take 700 mg of Niacin which also helps reduce Lp(a). The optimal measure is less than 300 mg/l, so as you can see, I'm still not there.

Get your Lp(a) measured so you know what you're dealing with. It is not part of the normal lipid panel and most doctors don't even know if its existence.

---------------

One more thing, a 'healthy diet' is a subjective statement and means different things to different people.

The diet I'm on is effectively the Mediterranean Diet. Whole foods (fresh ingredients only - no store bought packaged foods), plant-based (mostly vegetables and fruit), with fish 2-3 meals per week, and chicken 2 meals per week. That leaves 2-3 days per week where my principle source of protein is legumes and egg whites, as well as a moderate amount of dairy daily. I use goat milk for my breakfast tea. I eat about 2 oz of Greek feta daily which is made from goat and sheep milk. I also consume 1/2 cup of low fat, plain Greek yogurt 4 days per week.

I'll have a 3 oz portion of red meat on occasion - about once every few months.

I ensure that I eat the following daily as they are a foundation for good health and low LDL particle number (different from LDL-C - volume based measure).

1/2 cup of fresh blueberries

1/2 cup of nuts - mixed including 6 pieces each of - walnuts, almond, pecans, cashews; 1 tablespoon of sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and a single brazil nut;

1 apple

1 orange

2 green teas

I in addition, I ensure I have a small bowl 1/3 cup of all-bran buds in a small amount of almond milk (unsweetened, unflavoured).

Finally I make sure I have one to two servings daily of either:

Brocolli, Kale, arugula (rockets), or spinach.

I do not eat any fried foods and I avoid all simple carbohydrates such as white bread, white pasta, white pizza, white rice, white potatoes.

I do not consume any free sugar, but do consume about one teaspoon of honey per day, usually for my breakfast. I have one low-sugar Italian biscotti daily in my breakfast tea which has less than 1 teaspoon of sugar.

Instead I enjoy multi-grain bread, spelt or whole grain pasta, quinoa, whole-grain pizza, brown rice and sweet potatoes.

Good luck.

[Floozie in reply to Lyngal]

As you are already under a consultant & your family history backs up that you do have FH, I do not understand the comments of sos007 who states you won't know if you have FH unless you first adopt a healthy diet & lifestyle. I was diagnosed with FH at the age of 28 (I am now 72) from my family history + my own elevated cholesterol & have been monitored in a Lipid Clinic ever since. I take Crestor 40mg. (rosuvastatin) + Ezetrol 10mg daily. I was told that the Ezetrol (in conjunction with the Crestor) decreases the cholesterol level by a further 10%. I don't have any side effects. Untreated my cholesterol would be around 10-12. My medication brings it down to around 4-5. I have always eaten what I want & have never followed what I consider to be weird diets.

[lynsreid]

If you haven’t already been gene tested for FH this would be worthwhile even to reassure you that the diagnosis is correct. I would also suggest other statins are tried rather than increasing the dose, it may be that the one you tried just isn’t for you. Good luck!

[DakCB-UK]

I take ezetrol but I thought it was a last resort after I was diagnosed as statin intolerant. I think it's an absorption inhibitor.