New Statin Guidelines by Val Jones MD
With the new guidelines for prescribing cholesterol-lowering medications, I’ve been wondering if perhaps we’re becoming overexposed to these drugs?
Entertaining, Educating, and Criticizing Our Broken Healthcare System for 22 Years
With the new guidelines for prescribing cholesterol-lowering medications, I’ve been wondering if perhaps we’re becoming overexposed to these drugs?
Comments are closed.
I am borderline hyperlipidemic and have taken statins in the past with fair results. However, the fewer drugs the better, and I have adopted the Mayo Clinic recommendations for diet:
oatmeal with banana; grilled fatty fish; handful of nuts; olive oil; and I’m thinking about sterol fortified OJ…also, added red yeast rice and garlic….
Prevention is Preferable to Pharmaceuticals.
That’s funny.
Crap. Typo.
I meant “…with an HDL that high…”
My stepmother has had TGs ~157, LDL ~135, HDL ~57, Total Chol. ~225 for years.
Her only risk factors are being over 65 and having quit smoking 35 years ago.
For years, her doctor has been putting her on statins. She has tried every one, and every one has given her muscle aches (she was on the last one for 2 weeks, but the aches didn’t go away for 2 months), so she finally refused any more of that crap. Never mind the fact that with an LDL that high, her total cholesterol is irrelevant.
Last week, she had her routine blood work. The MA called her in a panic, said her TGs were 660 and she had to start Tricor right away. My father called me and asked me what to do. I said “Don’t take the medicine, and insist that the Dr. do another test, because it’s obvious that the test result was wrong.” The Dr. refuses to order another test, to re-check the isolated outlier result, over the phone and insists she come in for a visit first.
Whatever.
This is the kind of “medicine” (in quotes because it’s not authentic) that is practiced in this country, and this is how statins are prescribed, and this is how the drug companies want it.
Frankly, I’d much prefer to die on an MI in my sixties than spend ten years in some nursing home with a diaper on wondering why Abe Lincoln doesn’t swoop in and carry me off to my friend Billy’s house down the street, where I can have some good cookies and milk.