I already know it’s not a good idea if you have hypothyroidism to go on cholesterol lowering drugs..... But I did! Started in January (5mg Crestor) which is as low as this dose goes. I have been experiencing issues for a long time with breathlessness, whole body fatigue(I constantly feel like I ran a marathon), pin dot bruising on my calves, forgetfulness, muscle fatigue, muscle pains mainly in my (Ankles, Knees, upper arm between shoulder and elbow, lower back & butt area) I chalked it up to hypothyroidism and was going to email my Endo for blood test and increase in my meds...... In my forgetful mode I forgot to take the cholesterol pill and I noticed that my pains and muscle fatigue disappeared but I still did not put 2 and 2 together until I took that pill again and within and hour or so my pains returned and have since tested this theory and I swear these pills are causing most of these gosh awful symptoms.... I’m just not sure how much is hypo symptoms intermixing with statin.
My question is has anyone suffer the list of negative symptoms while on the cholesterol lowering meds, while being hypo? I finally did my bloodwork for the cholesterol and will video chat my Doctor soon as the results come in and definitely getting off of this med.
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Batty1
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It's not a good idea to take statins full stop. As you have found out, they can cause more problems than they solve. But, I don't think it has anything to do with levo. I don't think they would react unless your took them too close together. But, given that high cholesterol is likely to be caused by low T3, statins are superfluous. Just raise the T3 if you really must lower the cholesterol.
Hi GG, Stopping the statins actually relieved my symptoms and starting them caused issues which I really didn't realize such a small dose would be such a big deal.. ...I would up my T3 but I need another script in order to do that or my current script will run out too fast. I don't take the statins near my thyroid meds actually take them late afternoon about 6 hours after my thyroid meds so I know this isn't interfering.
Do you think the breathlessness can be caused by the statins? This is the one thing that has me concerned although the other things just add to my already broken body.
Why do you want to take statins at all? High cholesterol isn't a problem, it's a symptom. It's not going to give you a heart attack or a stroke, that is just Big Pharma propaganda to get you to take the damned things and make them more money.
But, lowering cholesterol too far could give you a heart attack, and cause all sorts of other problems, too, like low sex hormones. So stating side-effects plus low cholesterol symptoms add up to an awful lot of extra health problems on top of your thyroid problems. What's the point?
I don't know for certain that statins cause breathlessness because so many things can cause that - hypothyroidism itself, for one thing, and low ferritin for another - but there have been other reports of patients developing breathlessness when starting statins.
I only took the statins because my Cholestrol levels are out of control and as your well aware the doctors only want to give statins and not consider any other causes (hypothyroidism).....yes my diet could definitely use a good cleaning but even a good diet and exercise won't make much of a difference for me and my Cholestrol.
Cholesterol levels have nothing to do with diet and exercise. It's made in the liver, and the more you consume, the less your liver will make. The less you consume, the more your liver will make, because your body needs cholesterol. Your brain is made of cholesterol, your cells are held together with cholesterol and a lot of your hormones - and the pro-hormone vit D - are made from cholesterol. But, when your T3 is low, the body cannot process cholesterol properly and it builds up in the blood. But, that's not a problem in itself.
Study Links Statins to 300+ Adverse Health Effects
By Kelly Brogan, MD, and Sayer Ji, Greenmedinfo.com
A new study finds the chemical war against cholesterol using statin drugs was justified through statistical deception and the cover up of over 300 adverse health effects documented in the biomedical literature.
Better safe than sorry, right? This is the logic that defines the grasp that the pharmaceutical company has on our psyche. Perhaps your mother, father, brother, and boyfriend have been recommended cholesterol-lowering medication, just to help hedge their bets around a possible chest-clutching demise. In fact, recent guidelines have expanded the pool of potential statin medication recipients, so that there seem to be very few of us walking around with acceptable levels of artery-clogging sludge.
But how is it that drug companies got a foothold? How have they convinced doctors that their patients need these medications, and need them now? They are banking (literally) on the fact that you haven’t brushed up on statistics in a while.
Getting Tricky with Data
It turns out that a common sleight of hand in the medical literature is the popularization of claims around “relative risk reduction” which can make an effect appear meaningful, when the “absolute risk reduction” reveals its insignificance. In this way, 100 people are treated with statin medications to offer 1 person benefit, and the change from a 2% to a 1% heart attack rate is billed a 50% reduction rather than a 1% improvement, which is what it actually is.
Perhaps this would still qualify as better safe than sorry if these medications weren’t some of the most toxic chemicals willfully ingested, with at least 300 adverse health effects evident in the published literature so far, with at least 28 distinct modes of toxicity, including:
Beyond the known fact that statin drugs deplete the body of two essential nutrients: coenzyme Q10 and selenium, they are also highly myotoxic and neurotoxic. Because the heart is one of the most nerve-saturated muscles in the human body, these two modes of toxicity combined represent a ‘perfect storm’ of cardiotoxicity – a highly ironic fact considering statin drugs are promoted as having ‘life-saving’ cardioprotective properties.
Intent to Deceive
A powerful expert review by Diamond and Ravnskov decimates any plausible indication for these cholesterol-lowering agents, giving full consideration to the above mentioned side effects.
They plainly state:
“Overall, our goal in this review is to explain how the war on cholesterol has been fought by advocates that have used statistical deception to create the appearance that statins are wonder drugs, when the reality is that their trivial benefit is more than offset by their adverse effects.”
The Cholesterol Myth
It’s tempting to look the number one killer of Americans in the eye, and say, “WHO did this? Who is responsible?” It is also consistent with American perceptions of health and wellness to demonize a natural and vital part of our physiology rather than look at lifestyle factors including government subsidies of inflammatory food products.
Not only is low cholesterol a problem, but it puts an individual at risk for viral infection, cancer, and mental illness because of the vital role that lipids play in cell membrane integrity, hormone production, and immunity.
A broadly toxic xenobiotic chemical, statin medications have only been demonstrated to be of slight benefit by statistical manipulation. For example, Diamond and Raynskov elucidate that:
The JUPITER trial of Crestor vs placebo resulted in increased fatal heart attacks in the treatment group which were obscured by combing fatal and nonfatal infarctions.
In the ASCOT trial was used to generate PR copy boasting Lipitor’s 36% reduction of heart attack risk, a figure arrived at through use of relative risk reduction from 3 to 2%.
The HPS study has 26% drop out rate prior to the beginning of the trial (which also demonstrated a 1% improvement with treatment), so that those with significant side effects were functionally excluded from the study.
While no study has ever shown any association between the degree of cholesterol lowering and beneficial outcomes described in terms of absolute risk reduction (likely because they would be perceived as insignificant), the adverse effects are not only always presented in these terms, but are also minimized through the technique of splitting common side effects up into multiple different categories to minimize the apparent incidence.
These side effects are real and common and include “increased rates of cancer, cataracts, diabetes, cognitive impairment and musculoskeletal disorders”. Their paper focuses on three primary adverse effects, all of which are likely to land you in the “sorry to have thought I would be better safe than sorry” category.
Statins Linked to Cancer?
In at least four trials, statistically significant increases in cancer incidence was found, and handily dismissed by all authors as insignificant because they claimed “no known potential biological basis” is known. This may be because the authors are still thinking of cancer as a genetic time bomb that has nothing to do with mitochondrial dysfunction, loss of lipid integrity, or environmental exposures.
With statistically significant increases in cancer incidence and deaths, in some trials, the minimal cardiovascular benefit is far eclipsed by the cancer mortality. In one of the only long-term trials, there was a doubling of the incidence of ductal and lobular breast cancer in women taking statins for more than ten years. One of many reasons that women should never be treated with these medications.
…and Myopathy
As one of the more well-known side effects of statins, muscle breakdown and associated pain, or myopathy has also been obscured in the literature. Despite an incidence up to 40% in the first months of treatment, researchers only catalogue patients who had muscular symptoms in addition to elevations in a blood measure called creatine kinase (CK) at ten times normal for two measures (not 9.9, not 8, and not one measure).
In fact, a 2006 study in the Journal of Pathology found that statin therapy induces ultrastructural damage in skeletal muscle in patients without myalgia,” indicating that statin-associated muscle damage may be a universal, albeit mostly subclinical problem for the millions put on them.
…and Central Nervous System Dysfunction
Linked to suicide in men, depression including postpartum, and cognitive dysfunction, low cholesterol is not a desirable goal for the average psychiatric patient, aka half of the American population.
It turns out that 25% of the total amount of cholesterol found in the human body is localized in the brain, most of it in the myelin sheath that coats and insulates the nerves:
“It has been estimated that up to 70% of the brain cholesterol is associated with myelin. Because up to half of the white matter may be composed of myelin, it is unsurprising that the brain is the most cholesterol-rich organ in the body. The concentration of cholesterol in the brain, and particularly in myelin, is consistent with an essential function related to its membrane properties. “i
The cell membrane, specifically, is highly vulnerable to damage by statins:
“The cell membrane is an 8 nanometer thick magical pearly gate where information, nutrients, and cellular messengers are trafficked through protein gates supported of phospholipids and their polyunsaturated fatty acids. Cholesterol and saturated fat provide essential rigidity in balance with other membrane components. Without them, the membrane becomes a porous, dysfunctional swinging gate. In a self-preservational effort, cholesterol supports production of bile acids, integral to the breakdown and absorption of consumed essential dietary fats.” Source
By extension, behavioral and cognitive adverse effects may be the manifestation of this fat-based interference. Diamond and Ravnskov state:
A low serum cholesterol level has also been found to serve as a biological marker of major depression and suicidal behavior, whereas high cholesterol is protective 54–57. In a study by Davison and Kaplan 58, the incidence of suicidal ideation among adults with mood disorders was more than 2.5-times greater in those taking statins. Moreover, several studies have shown that low cholesterol is associated with lower cognition and Alzheimer’s disease and that high cholesterol is protective.
A review article called Neuropsychiatric Adverse Events Associated with Statins: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, Prevention and Management discusses the state of the literature around the intersection between mental health and cholesterol control. Despite generally dismissing a strong signal for concerning psychiatric adverse events, the article seems to conclude the following:
Severe irritability, homicidal impulses, threats, road rage, depression and violence, paranoia, alienation, and antisocial behavior; cognitive and memory impairments; sleep disturbance; and sexual dysfunction have all been reported in case series and national registries of those taking statin medications. Sound like the laundry list of rapidly spoken side effects at the end of a drug commercial? To anyone with a history of or current psychiatric symptoms, the role of these now ubiquitous medications should be appreciated.
The signal for lipophilic statins – simvastatin and atorvastatin – was stronger which makes mechanistic sense since these medications penetrate the brain and brain cholesterol deficiency has been implicated in bipolar, major depression, and schizophrenia.
Statins: Not Worth the Harm
Of course, none of these findings nor their suppression should be surprising because there is no pharmaceutical free lunch, and because Americans are so accustomed to interfacing with human health through the lens of a one pill-one ill model. We are yanking on that spider web and expecting only one thread to pull out. This perspective would be less disturbing if it didn’t serve as the foundation for medical practice, determined by boards such as the American College of Cardiology and The American Heart Association , the majority of whom have extensive ties to the pharmaceutical industry. An industry that has paid out 19.2 billion dollars for civil and criminal charges in the last 5 years alone.
So, the next time you hear of a doctor recommending a cholesterol-lowering intervention, tell him you’ll take that 1% risk and spare yourself cancer, cognitive dysfunction, myopathy, and diabetes. And then go have a 3 egg omelette WITH the yolks.
Nice article ... It does seem that low cholesterol leads to dementia, my father n’ law has “normal” cholesterol and suffers with dementia and the same is true of his younger sister.
Hmm… The question is: what is 'normal' where cholesterol is concerned? My cholesterol, last time it was tested in 2013, was right at the bottom of the range (my fT3 was pretty high), and the lab noted that I was in danger of a heart attack at that level. But, my doctor said: nonsense! Cholesterol can't be too low! So, who's right? But, one thing is sure, the top of the range has gradually been reducing lower and lower as Big Pharma tries to get more and more people to take statins, their major money-spinner.
One of the reason I'm at high risk for Cholestrol is because I have psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis and take Immunosuppressive drugs to battle these and I swear it effects my levels.
I have not had FT3 tested since starting these statins or with the change of my thyroid meds was on 2 grain Armour Thyroid switched to 100mg Synthyroid and 10mg Cytomel.
MY last FT3 was done in Aug 2019 while taking 2 grains of Armour Thyroid....3.380 (2.0-4.4) My LDL was at 190 (0-100)
That's only 57.50% through the range. Most hypos need it higher than that. Plus if your other medication is also having an effect on your cholesterol level, then it's not surprising it's high. But, statins are still not the right thing to take.
Measurements of what? The OP said her cholesterol was high, so whatever the measurement I have to take her word for that! And, according to the range, it is high.
Sorry, but that's rubbish. You're not doing any such thing. Cholesterol only sticks to the arteries and veins where it's needed. And, it's needed as a sort of sticking plaster to heal damage done to the blood vessels by inflammation. As it heals, the artery walls grow over the cholesterol so that the cholesterol becomes a strengthened part of the artery walls.
Yes but when converted to UK measurement it's raised but not massively high ... the measurements used for HDL LDL Total Cholesterol and Triglycerides all have ranges. According to OP they are all the same. Will try and find a conversion link ...
When I responded to OP earlier she had not posted the ranges, only the results - these were added later and yes you are right they appear high. Divide Total Cholesterol by 39 and it comes out around 6 in UK numbers ! Which is not considered so high when I believe 5 is the magic number.
It is the Tri-glyceride result that is meaningful .. Have a read of the Cholesterol Support Forum here on HU and read posts by SOS 007 I think he's called !
I do believe as you are in the US a different measurement is used for LDL. What was the unit of measurement please ? What did your Tri-glycerides measure ?
A higher cholesterol level is one of the clinical symptoms of hypothyroidism, which should reduce when on an optimum dose of thyroid hormones that suit you.
Unfortunately, due to doctors being unaware of the clinical symptoms of hypo are apt to prescribe 'other' medications for particular symptoms rather than making sure patient's thyroid hormone dose is optimal.
Hi Shaws, Yes I have read this a hundred times voiced my concerns of being possibly undermedicated and as your well aware the doctors tell me your levels are in range....it is flustrating.
'In Range' definitely doesn't mean optimal and it is 'optimal' the medical professionals should be aiming for plus relieving all clinical symptoms.
The pity is they are completely unaware of what optimal is and many are happy to adjust dose up/down according to the result of the TSH alone. Considering this is from the pituitary gland and I doubt the medical professionals are aware that it is and patients get their dose adjusted - willy/nilly to try to keep the TSH 'somewhere' in the range instead of 1 or lower. FT3 and FT4 are also important and rarely tested - both results should be aimed towards the upper part of the levels.
It is a pity that the professionals seem to believe that the TSH is the 'be all and end all' of treating patients. I doubt they even know that TSH is from the pituitary gland - not thyroid gland. It rises to try to flag the thyroid gland into producing more hormones
Request B12, Vit D, iron, ferritin and folate to be tested too. Deficiencies need to be resolved. Excerpt from link below:-
" Doctors are taught that hypothyroidism is a high TSH--when it is, in fact,
the state of inadequate T3-effect in some or all tissues. They are taught wrong. TSH not a thyroid hormone and is not an appropriate guide for either the diagnosis or treatment of hypothyroidism. The hypothalamic-pituitary secretion of TSH did not evolve to tell physicians what dose of inactive levothyroxine a person should swallow every day. A low or suppressed TSH on replacement therapy is not the same thing as a low TSH in primary hyperthyroidism. IF you continue to suffer from the symptoms of hypothyroidism, you have the right to demand that your physician give you more effective T4/T3 (inactive/active) thyroid replacement therapy. Your physician can either add sufficient T3 (10 to 20mcgs) to your T4 dose, or lower your T4 dose while adding the T3. The most convenient form of T4/T3 therapy, with a 4:1 ratio, is natural desiccated thyroid (NDT-- Armour, NP Thyroid, Nature-Throid). If you have persistent symptoms, ask your physician change you to NDT and adjust the dose to keep the TSH at the bottom of its range."
Hi Shaw, I sent a message to my new Endo last night and I requested new thyroid testing (TSH, FT3, FT4, T3) the last thyroid test was 3 months ago and only included the TSH,FT4, T3 and I was tested 2 hours after taking my last dose of thyroid meds, so I'm sure those results were skewed. I explained that my cholesterol shot up significantly after switching from Armour Thyroid to my current combo synthyroid and cytomel and that the statins my Doctor keeps putting me on are killing me and I want to try and lower my Cholestrol with the thyroid meds increase.
Let's see if he does what he promised me and my husband that he would do and that is testing and upping my medications (by little increments) when I feel I need it....
Hi Batty1 - I suffered with the symptoms you described when on statins, which similarly disappeared when I stopped (on the advice of my Dr). ( I have hypothyroidism.).
Batty ' higher cholesterol levels' are due to being hypothyroid (I think the medical professionals assume it is through our diet that it increases). When we're given optimum thyroid homones, cholesterol levels should slowly reduce.
" Doctors are taught that hypothyroidism is a high TSH--when it is, in fact, the state of inadequate T3-effect in some or all tissues. They are taught wrong. TSH not a thyroid hormone and is not an appropriate guide for either the diagnosis or treatment of hypothyroidism. The hypothalamic-pituitary secretion of TSH did not evolve to tell physicians what dose of inactive levothyroxine a person should swallow every day. A low or suppressed TSH on replacement therapy is not the same thing as a low TSH in primary hyperthyroidism. IF you continue to suffer from the symptoms of hypothyroidism, you have the right to demand that your physician give you more effective T4/T3 (inactive/active) thyroid replacement therapy. Your physician can either add sufficient T3 (10 to 20mcgs) to your T4 dose, or lower your T4 dose while adding the T3. The most convenient form of T4/T3 therapy, with a 4:1 ratio, is natural desiccated
thyroid (NDT-- Armour, NP Thyroid, Nature-Throid). If you have persistent symptoms, ask your physician change you to NDT and adjust the dose to keep the TSH at the bottom of its range.
Statins made me feel awful. Pain in my legs was unbearable, felt exhausted, miserable. Symptoms didn’t stop immediately I stopped taking them, took about 2 weeks to go completely. I’ll never touch statins again.
If you have an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism), treatment may be delayed until this problem is treated. This is because having an underactive thyroid can lead to an increased cholesterol level, and treating hypothyroidism may cause your cholesterol level to decrease, without the need for statins. Statins are also more likely to cause muscle damage in people with an underactive thyroid.
Thanks SD, How in the world do you get your doctor to give you more thyroid meds when your levels are within the range, especially since they say no connection between the two?
High Cholestrol is a very real problem within my entirely family.
Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and before eating or drinking anything other than water .
Last dose of Levothyroxine 24 hours prior to blood test. (taking delayed dose immediately after blood draw).
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, best not mentioned to GP or phlebotomist)
If/when also on T3, make sure to take last third or half of daily dose 8-12 hours prior to test, even if this means adjusting time or splitting of dose day before test
Is this how you do your tests?
What are your most recent Ft4 and Ft3, vitamin D, folate, Ferritin and B12 results and ranges
Yes, I'm pretty fanatical with doing test early no meds or food prior.......however that fell apart when new Endo sprung a thyroid test 2 hours after I took my thyroid meds (3 months ago) I never thought he was going to do labs since it was a second opinion about lymph node cancer.
“testing not possible now as I need to stop my biotin supplements for a week before any blood tests”
If you are taking vitamin B complex, or any supplements containing biotin, remember to stop these 7 days before any blood tests, as biotin can falsely affect test results
Like Greygoose says, cholesterol rises when your FT3 is too low. My cholesterol was rising year on year and my GP kept trying to force statins onto me. I regard them as pure poison and particularly poisonous to hypo folk. It was only when a blood test revealed that my FT3 was only 5% within the range and I insisted that my GP increase my levo, did my cholesterol begin to come down. Just a 25mcg increase reduced it in 8 weeks and I am waiting to see the outcome of a further 25mcg increase. Shocking the ignorance amongst the medics that for years they try to force statins when all they need do is increase FT3!!
More T4 will raise my FT3 not T3 ? I can give myself more T4 since I have about 6 different types of pills from the constant changing of my scripts but not T3 I don't have enough without running out.
One of the reasons there is a raised level of cholesterol in the blood is to act as a sticking plaster over areas of inflammation in the arteries . Sugars are a problem too - reduce as much as possible.
How much VitD ? What was your last result ? Good levels of T3 should resolve your cholesterol levels - VitD can resolve inflammation. Did you look at the websites I posted ? You can watch Dr Kendfick on YouTube ...
Dont Take them. My friend's husband has been made extremely disabled as a side effect of Statins. He has no muscles left, it's called IBM ..... Inclusion Body Myosotis. Looks like he will be using a wheelchair soon. Very sad as he was a fine strapping fella.
Sometimes this is the only way you can work out what it is that is causing you an issue - what I have found over the years when something like that happens - is what have I touched (in my case issues with my skin) what have I taken and then by a process of elimination I find out what it is - I had a terrible problem with nickel at one stage I could not even hold cutlery without covering them with paper and then could not understand why I got a problem after eating strawberries - only to find that this fruit contains nickel naturally.
So back to the symptoms - they are classic strain on the adrenal gland symptoms - even breathlessness and the muscle aches probably due to COQ10 being low.
It is not that well known that cholesterol is needed by the adrenal glands to make the numerous hormones they need to keep us well but particularly cortisol.
You are virtually suffering with low cortisol because the adrenals have grabbed anything they can from the body to keep you going because you didn't have enough whilst taking that awful medication that virtually switched off production.
Also you have to take into account that the mitochondria is also affected by these meds - so much so that an important component needed by the muscles - COQ10 - is stolen from the muscles which will also be a cause of your pain - these muscle issues can become permanent if you were to continue as you have had such a bad side effect. I am not advocating you stop taking them - that is for a Dr to instruct - but there are other ways to get your cholesterol down and that is by ensuring your thyroid is running correctly (not an easy one) but years ago before blood tests for thyroid deficiency were developed one of the markers for identifying a problem was the usual - fatigue- hair loss - deep voice etc. etc. but also raised cholesterol - so your thyroid is not happy in some way otherwise that figure would be lower.
I might add that high cholesterol is around 200 not the ridiculous figure that the drug manufacturers made up to sell their drugs to practically everyone in the UK.
Now if you look at the link below you will see that COQ10 in itself can lower cholesterol - and it may be that your levels are low which caused the severe symptoms you experienced - so you could carry on taking the statins - and supplement with COQ10 or take COQ10 and try to lower it that way. Please bear in mind it reduces blood pressure too and I remember many years ago I took this when it first came over from Japan and nearly fainted - not knowing in those days I had adrenal issues and my blood pressure was already low. So if you have high blood it will lower it to your advantage but just be careful if you run low anyway.
One wonders how many people who are on statins will suffer with CV19 symptoms in the extreme because they have virtually shut off their adrenals in the way I have described.
Hi Batty1, I have high cholesterol and my GP prescribed statins.I took them for 3 months but the side effects made me feel awful- so I stopped taking them and 2 weeks later side effects stopped!At this stage my T3 was only 1% through range.My GP agreed to increase my levo by 25 mcg alternate days and I optimised nutrition by supplementing- 8 weeks later my total cholesterol has reduced from 7.5 to 6.58 and my T3 is 40% through range.I hope to reduce my cholesterol level further but TSH is now suppressed so I need to consider the addition of a small dose of T3.It is too easy to put us on statins rather than deal with poorly treated thyroid disease.
I'm on t4/t3 combo I probably need both raised ....I swear my thyroid levels are showing incorrect on the labs because of this immunosuppressive drug I take.
There is a growing body of evidence that shows that
1) diet has no real effect on cholesterol levels
and more importantly
2) High cholesterol does not cause Coronary Vascular Disease.
See the Great Cholesterol Con by Dr Malcolm Kendrick for more details and evidence
He concludes that for the vast majority of people, statins have no effect and cause significant side effects.
I have high cholesterol and have lived longer than my father and his brothers who all died of CVD. But they all smoked and drank and didn't exercise. No way would I take statins. I wont take up smoking and I exercise when I can. When i take my thyroxine and exercise, my blood pressure is good. Off thyroxine I cant exercise and my blood pressure rises.
A study with a sample of one!!
I believe that if you optimise your thyroid hormones you wont need statins.
According to Dr. Stephen Sinatra, M.D. in his book "The Great Cholesterol Myth", the ONLY people who might benefit from taking Statins are those who've already had a heart attack or already have severe heart disease. In those cases the Statin acts as an anti-inflammatory, rather than a cholesterol-lowering treatment. And therein lies the real message...lower your inflammation to prevent heart disease. A diet high in sugar was pointed out to be a big culprit in causing inflammation.
He also mentioned that women should NEVER take Statins.
The key in persuading a doctor is acquiring good negotiating skills. He will never accept that you might actually be the more educated person in the room.
The Truth About Statins: Risks and Alternatives to Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs Paperback – April 24, 2012
by Barbara H. Roberts M.D. (Author)
She did say that for men with known CHD there may be some small benefit, but for women None! Included in this book are practical lifestyle approaches as well as the side affects to statins. Very scholarly and footnoted.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
And, according to the range, it is high. 
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