High cholesterol question

vraiblonde

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Damn it!!! :mad: I had a complete blood work thing done for my health insurance company and the lab called - my cholesterol is high (in the low 300s) and she has called in a prescription for some medication that I am to start taking right away.

I don't want to take this medication. Or any medication.

There are a number of things I could be doing to lower my cholesterol naturally. I could lose weight, I could give up eating animal things, I could get more exercise, I could eat oatmeal every morning for breakfast. And yes, I would rather do those things than take a pill every day. Plus I've been wanting to do those things anyway (except the eating animals part) but haven't really been that motivated. But I am motivated now.

So what I'm going to do is blow off getting the prescription filled. I see the doc again on Thursday anyway and will just explain to her that I'm not going to die in the next month, so I'm going to try to get rid of the bad stuff without pharmaceuticals. If I can't get my numbers lowered within a month, then I'll consider the med option.

Is this too reckless and I should do what they say and not what I think is best? I admit to being an insufferable know-it-all, but I think doctors rely too much on pills. Plus I'm not interested in the crazy side-effects that go along with statin drugs.

Any advice?
 
Misfit

Misfit

Lawful neutral
They get kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies to convince you that you have to take a pill. You can control your cholesterol all on your own (I did) although doctors will tell you different.
 
vraiblonde

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Misfit said:
They get kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies to convince you that you have to take a pill. You can control your cholesterol all on your own (I did) although doctors will tell you different.
Click to expand...

Okay, so I'm not being a paranoid big pharma hating nutter?

Good.
 
Vince

Vince

......
vraiblonde said:
Damn it!!! :mad: I had a complete blood work thing done for my health insurance company and the lab called - my cholesterol is high (in the low 300s) and she has called in a prescription for some medication that I am to start taking right away.

I don't want to take this medication. Or any medication.

There are a number of things I could be doing to lower my cholesterol naturally. I could lose weight, I could give up eating animal things, I could get more exercise, I could eat oatmeal every morning for breakfast. And yes, I would rather do those things than take a pill every day. Plus I've been wanting to do those things anyway (except the eating animals part) but haven't really been that motivated. But I am motivated now.

So what I'm going to do is blow off getting the prescription filled. I see the doc again on Thursday anyway and will just explain to her that I'm not going to die in the next month, so I'm going to try to get rid of the bad stuff without pharmaceuticals. If I can't get my numbers lowered within a month, then I'll consider the med option.

Is this too reckless and I should do what they say and not what I think is best? I admit to being an insufferable know-it-all, but I think doctors rely too much on pills. Plus I'm not interested in the crazy side-effects that go along with statin drugs.

Any advice?
Click to expand...
Get the prescription filled. My mother was a little bitty thing, 130 lbs soaking wet and had high cholesterol. It wasn't her diet. It was just hereditary and happened when she got older.
 
B

Bobwhite

Active Member
I'm not sure what side effects you speak of. I've been taking statins for years and I'm not aware of any side effects. I agree with you on taking the more natural approach before going to pharmaceuticals. When I was first diagnosed, I tried fish oil and niacin. Unfortunately, they did not work for me. I wish you the best of luck with your endeavor.
 
migtig

migtig

aka Mrs. Giant
The night before a blood test I had deep fried food night at the house. Blood tests came back and they said I had "elevated" cholesterol and it was concerning. Went back for a blood test a couple of weeks later and everything was perfectly fine. I wouldn't take a pill either without trying other things first.
 
Roman

Roman

Active Member
Give it a go on your own, but if you find yourself cheating here & there consider the Statin. I can't take Statins because I get the muscle cramps from hell.
 
BadGirl

BadGirl

I am so very blessed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...9d3add6c-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e&hpid=z12

"Almost one person in three would rather live a slightly shorter life than take a daily pill to prevent cardiovascular disease, a new study suggests.

A thousand people whose average age was 50 were asked how much time they would be willing to subtract from their lives to avoid taking daily medication for cardiovascular disease. More than 8 percent said they would be willing to forfeit two years of their life, while about 21 percent said they would sacrifice between a week and a year to avoid taking that daily pill.

The study “reinforces the idea that many people do not like taking pills, for whatever reason,” said study author Robert Hutchins, a physician at the University of California at San Francisco Department of Medicine.

The researchers also asked the study participants how much they would be willing to pay to not have to take the medication but still enjoy its benefits. About 43 percent said they were unwilling to pay any amount of money, whereas about 21 percent said they would pay $1,000 or more.

Hutchins said he was surprised that so many people reported that taking daily medication would have “a very large effect on their quality of life.”


Among the people in the study, 79 percent were taking at least one pill daily.

They were asked to assume that the pills they would hypothetically be taking were free and that they had no side effects.

It is not clear why some people were willing to pay money or sacrifice time from their lives to avoid taking daily medication, the researchers said in their study, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute.

“I would have really liked to have gotten to talk to those people . . . and find out what it was that they thought was so bad about taking a pill daily,” Hutchins said."
 
itsbob

itsbob

I bowl overhand
Misfit said:
They get kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies to convince you that you have to take a pill. You can control your cholesterol all on your own (I did) although doctors will tell you different.
Click to expand...

She's a LOT older than you are, and it's really hard for an old lady to get their cholesterol down.

However I would do research into which drugs actually work..
 
vraiblonde

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
BadGirl said:
“I would have really liked to have gotten to talk to those people . . . and find out what it was that they thought was so bad about taking a pill daily,” Hutchins said."
Click to expand...

The car salesmen do that - reduce everything down to it's LCD to manipulate you. "Don't think of it as $50,000 - think of it as $14 a day (for 10 years). Is the safety of your children not worth $14?"

Taking a pill every day isn't terrible at all. But spending $50 per month for something that I can perhaps do for free is dumb. And then you have to wonder if the pills are even necessary, or if it's the doctor in cahoots with the drug companies to make mo' money. Then there are the possible side-effects...

Living to be only 80 instead of 82 isn't that frightening to me. :lol:
 
T

tommyjo

New Member
vraiblonde said:
The car salesmen do that - reduce everything down to it's LCD to manipulate you. "Don't think of it as $50,000 - think of it as $14 a day (for 10 years). Is the safety of your children not worth $14?"

Taking a pill every day isn't terrible at all. But spending $50 per month for something that I can perhaps do for free is dumb. And then you have to wonder if the pills are even necessary, or if it's the doctor in cahoots with the drug companies to make mo' money. Then there are the possible side-effects...

Living to be only 80 instead of 82 isn't that frightening to me. :lol:
Click to expand...

Yes of course, the ONLY reason a doctor prescribes medication is because s/he gets a kick back from the drug company. There is no other possible rationale is there?

No doctor in the history of time has ever provided any necessary service that helped anyone and no drug every in the history of time has done anything to make anyone's life any better. Every decision every doctor has ever made was based solely on an analysis of the profit potential, right?

Take the pill or don't take the pill. Its your damn choice to make...but don't blame anyone but yourself if you choose not to follow the doctor's advice.

Of course, if you don't follow the advice, why do you even have a doctor?
 
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