This is my first post here. After sitting up til 2:40 last night reading
posts, I have no idea what to do.

I recently had blood work done along with an EKG for chest pains but I am pretty sure its real severe heart burn. My doctor has given me pills for that and seem to make a difference. Anyway my blood results came back that I have high cholesterol.

I am 34
5'9"
240 lbs
Chol - 257
LDL - 150
HDL - 50
Tri - 287

I love to eat, havent excersised in a long time, have chewed tobacco for about 10 years and have sleep apnia. I also had a body scan about 5 years ago when I was having chest pains (heartburn) and they said I had a less than 1% chance of having a heart attack. So now ive got high cholesterol which my cousin who is a doctor says isnt all that high and just need to excersise and eat right. But I am here to get other opinions and see what is the best thing to do.

Is my cholesterol that bad? My doctor gave me a statin (I will have to get the name of it later, not one of the common ones) but after reading here and the label for the medicine about the side effects. I am scared. I took one pill so far and that was last night. I felt funny so I think I might stop.

There is just too much information on here about alternatives, how can I decide what to do.

Choloristaid (sp?)
Red Rice Yeast
Niacin
CO10
Power protien diet
How about Bios Life 2 ?
and the list goes on and on.

Thank you in advance,

Kevin

Hi Movie Maker..

Your cholesterol numbers are bad...but not much worse than average. At 5'9 and 240# you are the magic word: (I apologise in advance) OBESE.

Your worst number, the ratio of Total Cholesterol to High density lipoprotein is 257/50 = 5.1. This should be below 4.


A big heads up is the CHEST PAIN = HEART BURN diagnosis...I got it often: Mine was REALLY heart disease. Add that to your sleep apnea and the net is that you MUST do a few things.

Take the statin for awhile and see how you feel and see if it gets your TC and LDL down.

Maybe toss the "chaw."

ps...that "ok" EKG is really NO guarantee against heart disease, it really isn't.

Can you run a mile in 12 minutes?...better yet, 1.25 miles? When's the last time you tried.

I wish you the best, Kevin. (And lose 60 pounds ;) )

Your cousin is right. I'd start by excercising and eating right first then get your blood work done after losing weight and getting fit. If the Cholesterol goes down then you will be fine and no need for meds. It's worth a try and alot better for you than taking meds. Good luck, Lisa

I am planning on starting to excercise after New Years, with all of the
Holiday stuff going on its hard to work out and eat right.

As for the test I had that I said was OK was a Heart Scan which shows calcium build up. That is the one they said I had a slim chance of a heart attack. The EKG came out good but I didnt put any weight on it.

As for the Heartburn - it all started a few years ago. I eat VERY spicy foods, nothing really bothers me so the spicier the better. Cyenne pepper sauce on hamburgers, chili peppers on pizza, jalepeno's straight, you name it I get the hottest stuff and put it on everything. Even eat habenaro's from time to time.

I am pretty sure that is what it is, since I have taken Prilosec it has gotten better and now im on Aciphex. I mainly only have pains now at night, occasionally during the day. No pains with exersion.

What about the power protein diet or the bios life 2, read that on here somwhere. Any good?

Your numbers are high but IMHO not so high that there isn't a fair chance you could get them under control with change of lifestyle alone, as your doctor cousin suggested. But are you willing to accept a major change in lifestyle? As I see it that would involve, in order of priority:
1. Lose weight
2. Improve diet. Cut out sugars and products made with white flour. Eat little saturated (in meat and fatty dairy) and trans fats (in fried food and convenience foods), cut way back on omega-6 fats like corn oil, sunflower oil and sunflower oil, but eat fish and fish oil, canola oil and flaxseed oil. Eat vegetables and fruit, preferably 7 or more servings a day, but stick to mostly lower calorie ones, since you'll be trying to lose weight.
3. Exercise regularly.
4. Kick the chew.

If you choose to do the above, you will no doubt improve not only your health regarding your lipid profile alone, but your health in a number of other aspects as well.

My numbers were a little worse than yours at their worst. I wasn't overweight, though. Though I have changed my diet considerably (goodbye ice cream and soda pop!), and am still making changes, I improved my numbers but not enough. And since I'm just too lazy to exercise as much as I should, I am taking niacin to get the numbers down where they belong, but at least I'm taking less than I'd have to without the dietary changes. I'm still trying to work at that exercise motivation.

I know nothing about power protein diet or the bios life 2, so I can't advise you there.

I forgot to say what it is the doctor told me to take. Its Lovastatin? Dont know much about it, but I have read enough on here to know that I dont want to take a statin drug..........although if I read right red rice yeast is a statin?

Thanks for all the input so far, I am going to change the diet and excercise but I would like to take maybe a niacin or something to help it a little. Just dont want any potentially dangerous drugs. As for the diet well, I cant eat foul........no chicken, turkey, peacock ect..... So that leaves me with beef and seafood (I really love seafood). Im just trying to find the best source (book or website) that tells me what to eat and not to eat. Thats why I am thinking of the Power Protein Lifeplan.

I have NO problem cutting out pop (well except at the movies which is like twice a month). I hardly ever eat candy, dognuts, ice cream, and most sweets. Pie and Cake once in a blue moon. Kicking the chew will be hard, I have tried.

For a book to read on diet, I'd recommend The Omega Diet: The Lifesaving Nutritional Program Based on the Diet of the Island of Crete by Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D. and Jo Robinson. You should be able to look up excerpts from the book on a popular website to see if it looks like it might be for you. I'll probably have additional comments regarding niacin therapy later when I have more time.

The Protein Power books by Doctors Michael R. and Mary Dan Eades are fine. You must think of them as a "way of eating" for the rest of your life and not as a weight loss diet. The second you revert to old eating habits and not exercising all the weight you lost will rapidly return.

Losing weight and exercise should improve your cholesterol/lipid levels but more importantly you will feel better, have more energy and reduce several of your risk factors for developing CAD, stroke, diabetes and high blood pressure.

. . . I am going to change the diet and excercise but I would like to take maybe a niacin or something to help it a little. Just dont want any potentially dangerous drugs. As for the diet well, I cant eat foul........no chicken, turkey, peacock ect..... So that leaves me with beef and seafood (I really love seafood).If you love seafood, you will probably like The Omega Diet then. The authors really focus on fish and seafood as the center of the diet. When you eat beef, just stick to the less fatty cuts and trim visible fat. And of course watch portion size on everything.

Be aware that if you do choose to take niacin in therapeutic doses, that it, too, becomes a potentially dangerous drug. You need a liver enzyme test before you begin, to make sure you don't already have a liver problem. No doubt you have already had this, since the doctor put you on a statin, which also can be hard on the liver, so you're probably okay in this regard, but it would be wise to know what your numbers are to start. You'll need periodic liver enzyme tests after you start therapy, so if the niacin does negatively affect the liver, the problem will be caught early on before any serious harm is done.

If you want to seriously consider niacin as an alternative, you might want to be aware of some suggestions for minimizing side effects. I summarized them in post 29 to SternFan here: http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=235852&page=6&pp=5
(Sorry, I'm just too tired to type all that again!)

Kevin,

Never let a day go by without faithfully taking an aspirin...with food if you have confirmed GERD.
And DO take that aerobic run-test next week. Try for the 1.25 mile in 12 min. (the ancient aerobic standard.) Stop at the first sign of chest discomfort. Don't feel bad if you have to walk frequently or can't get even a mile, just get a good estimate of the distance travelled in 12 min.

An aside,

When you "chaw", do you swallow anything? If so, that would be ABSOLUTELY the worst conceivable thing you could do to an esophagus that's battling the inflammation caused by reflux disease.

Omega diet sounds good, I'll check it out. Liver ensyme test? never had one. But I did take only one statin pill. I decided not to take anymore, and try to do things by eating right and excercising. I am however going to go get another CT scan, or I am going to try and get a CT Angiogram as well which is what I want the most. After that I will feel alot more comfortable and less stressed.

A liver enzyme test is just a simple blood test. If your doctor ran a series of blood tests before putting you on the Lipitor, it may have already been included in the series. Look for AST and ALT on your copy of the lab results. If a doctor knows these tests are needed, they normally just order them at the same time as the lipid blood profile. I know in years past, my doctors have included those tests just as part of my routine annual physical. If you didn't get a copy of your lab results, you might call the doctor's office and ask them to mail you a copy.

Someone else please tell me if there are different lab tests which might have been used instead. I'm no health professional and am only familiar with the tests the doctor has ordered for me. I assumed that since statins have the potential for damaging the liver just as does niacin, that doctors would normally order some kind of test to make sure the liver is in good condition before they start. Maybe I'm wrong.

Prior to starting statin (or niacin) therapy your doctor should have run blood tests to see if your liver enzymes were elevated. These blood tests should also be repeated at regular intervals after starting statin or niacin therapy.

From the Lipitor prescribing information:

It is recommended that liver function tests be performed prior to and at 12 weeks following both the initiation of therapy and any elevation of dose, and periodically (eg, semiannually) thereafter. Liver enzyme changes generally occur in the first 3 months of treatment with atorvastatin. Patients who develop increased transaminase levels should be monitored until the abnormalities resolve. Should an increase in ALT or AST of >3 times ULN persist, reduction of dose or withdrawal of atorvastatin is recommended.

Atorvastatin should be used with caution in patients who consume substantial quantities of alcohol and/or have a history of liver disease. Active liver disease or unexplained persistent transaminase elevations are contraindications to the use of atorvastatin (see CONTRAINDICATIONS).

Thanks, love all the info. I am going to get my records and blood results sent to a place here in town that is supposed to have the best cardiologist where I live. I am going to schedule an appointment and have them review it and do other tests if necessary. I am going to talk to him about not taking the lovastatin which is 40mg once a day by the way. I have only taken one pill and have not taken another since.

I will make sure that a liver enzyme test done, and anything else you guys recomend.