bloating

[garina]

Tex,

After reading and re-reading the info you posted plus the sites, and hard that it will be, I will need to change my thinking. I have always been told that my chol is high if it is over 200. These articles are very telling. I really didn't want to start another drug (statin) as I already take enough (HBP, Synthroid), but that was my reason. Otherwise, I believed my Dr. when he said it would be best to start.

I have printed out two of the articles for my next visit with him, which will be in about three months. I will also ask him to explain why, at my age and given the fact that my chol/LDL is not so critical, that he prescribed this to me. I am going to choose to be one of those people that "celebrate my slightly high cholesterol!"

My husband was also told many years ago that he had hereditary high cholesterol (around 300) and he has been on statins now for over 10 years, I believe. We have surely made the pharmacy companies rich. They should love us!

Thanks for all the help and enlightening me.

But, now, I'm curious. I would like to know what awful experiences you have had with digestive enzymes. I have always heard good things about enzymes.

Sara,

In looking at my recent labs, my Trig 87, HDL 67, Chol 227, LDL 143, Chol/HDL ratio 3.4 and the only thing listed at high was the Chol (norm 200). I am going to drop the statin. I still am going to see my cardio and ask him to read the articles I printed out that Tex posted. Money/power, I think that is what rules with some, and the patient's best interest is put on the back burner. Too sad.

If Red Yeast Rice still gives muscle pain, it would be of no use. I am hoping now that I'm GF that eating more fresh foods will help in the long term with digestion plus cholesterol, BP, etc. Gerd has already subsided due to a GF diet, so I know something is working, plus I have less D. For this, I am grateful.

Many thanks,

garina

[tex]

But, now, I'm curious. I would like to know what awful experiences you have had with digestive enzymes. I have always heard good things about enzymes.

I was in remission, and still on a restricted diet, in order to give my gut time to heal. I was doing OK, but when someone on the board mentioned using digestive enzymes, I got the bright idea to try some, so I bought a pricey mix that looked as though it had enough enzymes to be able to digest a meal of shoe leather and nails. I tried my first pill the next day, a few minutes before I ate breakfast. In less than 2 hours, I was as sick as a dog. I vomited a number of times during the day, (ending with several sessions of dry heaves, late in the day). The stuff that came up was vile and green, and my stomach hurt like the devil, as though something was trying to digest it. It took me several days of feeling rough as a cob, before I got up the nerve to try eating solid food again. I'm not saying that they might not be helpful for someone else, but they certainly don't work as advertised for me.

Incidentally, my total cholesterol is only 200, but that's because my HDL is only 33. My doc doesn't seem concerned about it, though, because, as he points out, it's hereditary. Anyway, the point is, your cholesterol numbers are much better than mine, because of that HDL level.

You're most welcome,
Tex

[sarkin]

Garina,

I plugged your test results into this calculator, http://www.hughchou.org/calc/chol.php

and you are in great shape!


Your Total Cholesterol of 227 is BORDERLINE

Your LDL of 143 is BORDERLINE

Your HDL of 67 is OPTIMAL

Your Triglyceride level of 85 is NORMAL

RATIOS:

Your Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio is: 3.39 - (preferably under 5.0, ideally under 3.5) IDEAL

Your HDL/LDL ratio is: 0.469 - (preferably over 0.3, ideally over 0.4) IDEAL

Your triglycerides/HDL ratio is: 1.269 - (preferably under 4, ideally under 2) IDEAL


The worst word they have to say about you is 'borderline' - and there's a lot of ideal going on (as well as optimal!). Interesting, yes?

I hope this gives you confidence that you're not taking a terrible risk - and I don't know whether it's better to reduce a statin drug slowly, or whether it's OK to drop it like a hot potato... so please do your own research and thinking... and good health to you!

[garina]

Tex,

That is indeed a horrific outcome to one digestive enzyme. I think they put the shoe leather and nails inside that pill! I love your colorful descriptions. I could even see that little pill breaking down all that shoe leather!

Thanks.

Sara,

Thanks for checking out my test results for me. Borderline - that doesn't sound too bad, and Ideal sounds good. Unfortunately, Dr. Ding-a-ling didn't see it that way. And, I believed him. I will stop worrying. No doubt, statins are the worse. I will check, but I think it probably would be okay to just stop the drug without the weaning process. I don't think it's like a PPI.

Many thanks to you both.

garina

[tex]

I stopped taking Simvastatin last February, (cold turkey), and the only side effect of stopping, that I could detect, was that after a few weeks, I no longer woke up in the morning, or during the night, with my fingers locked, either straight out, or slightly curved, so that I couldn't bend them, to make a fist. I would actually have to take the other hand, and force them down, in order to get them to be able to flex, again. Once they were unlocked, they seemed normal. Sometimes it happened to one hand, and sometimes it happened to both hands. Whenever it happened, all the fingers on the affected hand would be locked.

It has never happened again, since then, so I consider that to be pretty strong evidence that the statin was causing the problem, probably by drying out the tunnels that my sinews slide in, similar to the way that statins cause the myelin sheaths that protect nerves in the brain, to dry out, resulting in Alzheimer's disease. We have to have cholesterol - it's vital to mobility. Cholesterol is one of the primary differences between animals and plants - plants don't need cholesterol, because they are immobile.

Tex