Thank you, that's very interesting. I already take a self-administered shot every two weeks for high cholesterol.

Quirt, you came to mind as soon as I saw the news item.

Quirt - tell me about this shot (if you don't mind). Is it a statin?

I saw my cardiologist for my annual visit yesterday and got a bit blindsided by all the bad news. Among other things, she is finally unwilling to overlook my extremely high cholesterol (familial, been high since my 20s and completely f-ing unchanged despite my 60 lb weight loss in the past year.....grrrrrrr) so she prescribed a statin pill. The people in my family who have been on statins (which is pretty much everyone, at one point or another LOL) have not had nice things to say about them so I'm wary. Curious what else is out there. Too bad this vaccine isn't ready yet, LOL!

Some sort of heart issue is what has killed everyone in my family, so I know she is trying to be proactive but it sucks. I feel old.

A new class of treatment has been developed in recent years. PCSK9 inhibitors.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org...550-pcsk9-inhibitors

I'm pretty sure Quirt's the expert and up to date on current higher tech approaches, but I'll add my $.02 about something more basic...I know I've posted about this more than once, so apologies to those who have already heard this..

My Mom had high cholesterol despite having a good diet, exercising, and being of average weight. Her total cholesterol was well over 400. I'm guessing it was some kind of familial hypercholesterolemia.

She was able to tolerate a low dose of statins, but they didn't bring down her cholesterol to normal levels. When the dose was bumped up, she had unacceptable side effects. I talked with her doctor and we agreed adding plant stanols was worth a shot.

Benecol is a product with plant stanols that help lower cholesterol. Here's some basic info about Benecol. The article is older, and Benecol was only available in a butter spread at the time. Chews and other products have been developed since then, making it easier to take.

https://sciencebasedmedicine.o...nt-stanol-margarine/

(thread drift....I thought of markb when I found that article...he used to post articles from SBM all the time... )

Mom took a Benecol chew (one with each meal), in addition to a low dose of a statin. The combined approach worked very well for her, bringing her levels down to near normal.

Mr wtg can't tolerate statins at all. His cholesterol isn't anywhere near as high as Mom's was, but his doctor (same one as Mom) wanted to bring it down to a more normal level. Mr wtg takes a similar plant stanol product, Cholestoff Plus. His cholesterol and ratios are perfect.

When we tried plant stanols with Mom more than a decade ago we worked with her doctor to monitor her serum cholesterol. He really wasn't familiar with them, but agreed to the experiment. He was both surprised and impressed with the results. Since then he has incorporated use of plant stanols in helping control high cholesterol in patients who can't tolerate statins or who won't take them. They don't help everyone, but he's had good enough results that he often tries them as a first line, low risk approach.

Good luck!

quote:

Originally posted by Lisa:
Quirt - tell me about this shot (if you don't mind). Is it a statin?

I saw my cardiologist for my annual visit yesterday and got a bit blindsided by all the bad news. Among other things, she is finally unwilling to overlook my extremely high cholesterol (familial, been high since my 20s and completely f-ing unchanged despite my 60 lb weight loss in the past year.....grrrrrrr) so she prescribed a statin pill. The people in my family who have been on statins (which is pretty much everyone, at one point or another LOL) have not had nice things to say about them so I'm wary. Curious what else is out there. Too bad this vaccine isn't ready yet, LOL!

Some sort of heart issue is what has killed everyone in my family, so I know she is trying to be proactive but it sucks. I feel old.

There are two variations. I don’t recall the name of the second; the one I take is called Repatha.

https://www.repatha.com/

In addition, I do not tolerate statins very well. I’ve cycled through many, and finally found that I can tolerate a low dose of pitavastatin (Livalo).

I also take a purified fish oil called Vascepa (icosapent ethyl). My lipidologist says it’s the only fish oil product with demonstrated heart health benefits. It allegedly reduces the risk of a cardiovascular event by 20%.

Thanks! I'll ask her, but I'm sure she'll want to cycle through the statins first. I took my first dose last night and so far, don't feel any different. What sort of side effects did you (Quirt) and Mr. WTG have? Curious what to look out for? I know my family members all complained of leg and muscle pain (and since I have fibromyalgia, I'm already in a perpetual state of that, so unless it gets a lot worse, I may not even notice).

Mom and Mr wtg both had muscle pain.

Mr wtg also had statin fog. The literature says things like "people complain about statin fog but the research suggests it may be related to other causes." Mr wtg's was real and repeatable, and went away when he stopped the statins.

https://www.webmd.com/choleste...tatins-and-brain-fog

He was working at the time and would spend a lot of the day looking up part numbers that were between nine and twelve digits long. After he started the statin, he suddenly couldn't remember more than four or five digits at a time, where previously he would get the whole long number in one go. He went off the statin and his memory came back. He went through three additional attempts at various statins, always with the same results. Side effects that would start after commencing the statin and go away when he stopped. That's when he switched to Cholestoff Plus and his cholesterol has been fine since.


An additional weird side effect as that he got really grumpy and would snap at the weirdest things. He's a very laid back person, so this behavior was totally surprising. That went away when the statins did.

For reference, his total cholesterol, if untreated, is in the 230 range. With Cholestoff Plus, it's down to around 180. I would have to look up the HDL/LDL breakdown, but whatever it is, the doctor was not concerned.

Muscle pain in the legs.

It’s not just pain, it’s potentially dangerous. From the Mayo Clinic:

quote:

The higher the dose of statins, the higher the risk of rhabdomyolysis becomes.

My blood tests were ok, but my doctor decided to keep trying different statins until we hit on Livalo. 2 mg is ok … 4 mg becomes a problem.