High Cholestrol :: Mediterranean Diet +10 MG Of Pravastatin - Will It Be Enough?
Jul 23, 2013
I'm less than 10 days into my being back on statins and already some of the familiar side effects are creeping back. I was hoping after being off of them for almost a year, that it would take longer to be pulled back down. First, the mild muscle aches, then feeling more tired than usual at the end of a work day and in the past 3-4 days, a mild uncomfortable feeling around the stomach area. I'm just hoping I stays mild and tolerable. In the past I have gone on Nexium to deal with the stomach issues-which is effective to a degree. Add a little Tylenol for muscle pain- that's statin therapy with 20mg of pravastatin.
I want to finish whatever time I have left feeling better than I know I will living on statins and have pretty much decided to go on the Mediterranean Diet. My hope is to try getting my dose cut to 10 mg of pravastatin, follow the above diet and do some exercising - which will consist of walking and cutting the grass. But, I'm wondering - does anyone think this is doable? My latest numbers are 307 TC, LDL 239, HDL 53 and Triglycerides 74. My numbers got this way from eating too much of the wrong foods during my "statin-break". Not my brightest moment. My Dr. said he has serious doubts that even 20mg will get me where "I need to be".
I'd like to think the Med diet will work and that I can get there with 10 mg. Anyone ever pull this off with numbers like I have shown?
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I have been on a no-oil no-nuts no-avocado vegan diet for about 7 weeks and have been very compliant except for a 3 nights when I had some fish. (I did eat 4 Brazilian nuts one day since there was a study that said they could lower LDL.)
I'm eating oatmeal every morning. I'm eating a lot of foods high in soluble fiber. I'm eating a lot of vegetables. I've lost weight.
I just got my cholesterol tested and was so disappointed to see that my LDL dropped only 9 points, from 167 to 158. Obviously 158 is still way too high. Not only that, my HDL went from 65 to 46, so almost a 20 point drop in the wrong direction.
I'm doing everything I can to avoid taking statins. I had read this diet could help dramatically lower LDL but there's nothing dramatic about only dropping 9 points.
This is so discouraging. Is it possible that since I've been losing weight that can keep LDL from dropping until my weight has stabilized?
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I am sure many of you will have heard of the Mediterranean diet and some of you may have even tried a supermarket or popular magazine version of it. Please set all those experiences to one side.
In preparation for writing about the Mediterranean diet for Patient UK, I went back through all the scientific papers on the subject to find out exactly what the diet was; what science has shown the health benefits might be; and what you actually had to eat. The research stretches all the way back to the 1970s and there doesn't seem to be any dispute within the medical/ scientific community about the benefits of the diet.
Here's a few key things I found out:
It is to do with the proportions of things you eat (meat, veg, oil, nuts, wine...) rather than any particular recipes or ingredients. You don't need to cook any Greek, Italian etc dishes at all.
There are plenty of things to 'snack' on.
You can buy everything you need to follow the diet in your local food shop. You don't need to join any clubs or take any medication.
The health benefits include: reduction of risk of developing -> heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, dementia... (indeed many of the diseases everyone is worrying about)
Following the Mediterranean diet has helped people attain an ideal weight (and there are a number of scientific papers on this).
I was so impressed by what I read - I started the diet myself.
Anyhow - if you are interested, you'll find everything you need here:
how to follow.....
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I'm a 18 year old female, currently taking 20 mg of atorvastatin every day due to familial hypercholesterolemia. I have tried to control my LDL doing only diet, but it didn't help much, the reason why my doc prescribed me the pills.
I've been taking the medication for three or four months now and I didn't notice any side effects.
However, seeing people complaining about side effects on the internet, especially pain or muscle damage is making me seriously consider stop taking them. Nobody here has any good or tolerable experience with statins to share?
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Having suffered all the problems connected with statins I have requested to stop taking them as my life is so different without them for the better.
However I have a condition called Subclavian steal syndrome which is basically a blocked artery that cannot be operated on as its too dangerous. On the advice of my doctor I am trying Pravastatin. Has anyone been prescribed this drug and had any of the usual side effects with it. If it is just like all the rest of the statins I am prepared to give them up altogether whatever the risk as I cannot cope with the side effects.
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i have been suffering from this debilitating Chronic disease all my life, I was diagnosed back in 2006 by a gene test. Ever since I was put on a disability pension. I suffer from recurrent episodes of high fever and pain in all my joints, my life is made of pain, and with at least twice a month sometimes even more often I get high flares.
nothing I was given by my GP that really helped. I may have few hours of the day at times that I feel normal, this is when I take advantage of the time to do housework chores. My husband who was my carer was there for me, helping me on my daily progress, since he passed away (15 month ago) on a stroke I have been suffering even more, emotionally and physically.
Since September last year, I have been chased by Centrelink, who's telling me that back at the time they accepted my application for the disability I didn't have enough evidence to become eligible for that and had had made a mistake, so they asked me to bring evidence from specialist to do so, it was the time just before xmas.
now everyone knows that to get appointments with various specialists take time. Before I was able to see one, Centrelink had cut me off, I have appealed, and now waiting for the tribunal decision. In the meantime I have evidence from some specialists.
but from the ones that I was gone through the government system to see a specialist in the local hospital, it 5 month for the first appointment, then 2 month to do ct scans and xrays. Now I've been waiting another 2 month hoping to hear from them before coming may which is my tribunal day in May 18. a Doctor called me this morning asking if I have left a message in the hospital about the results of the scans, he said, your scans looking fine, only the liver is fattened, nothing about my debilitating disease or if I'll have another chance to see the specialist so they can advice me about my FMF problems. I'm shattered and so disappointed, he hardly finished talking to me and his beeper was buzzing, he continued saying sorry, I have emergency and was gone. Where am I standing here? What kind of treatment is this, I've been waiting now for at least 7 month to see and talk to specialist and this is what I get. I need a written results for Centrelink and I'm feeling lost. I don't know what to do. This is just a joke. Please help me to understand and get some wisdom here as I'm lost in this government system.
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I am a 51 year old male. My cholesterol was 256 and my doctor convinced me to take a statin in Jan 2013. I started simvastatin but my joints got so stiff I couldn't walk down stairs.
I switched to pravastatin ..only 10mg. I felt my joint in shoulder stiffen constantly (little league pitcher) but Dr said take if I can tolerate. Since I had chest pains for a few prior years I continued on the statin. MY Total cholesterol has slowly went down. I had no activity until 2014 when I pick up ice hockey.
However it is my belief my testosterone sank to only 400 along with my sexual desire. I will monitor my mood which has been very low for a few years, erectile dysfunction, testosterone level and total Cholesterol.
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I am a female 62 years of age who has suffered with FMF since I was a child of 8 years old - but not diagnosed until I was 45 years old. The FMF attacks mimicked several different medical conditions - first I had my appendix taken out at age 8 because of abdominal pains, then at 32 I had a hysterectomy because my "attacks" happened during my monthly menstrual cycle, then the attacks continued and mimicked gall bladder attacks - so I had my gallbladder out! At the age of 45 I was diagnosed with FMF when I made a trip to Israel and visited specialists in this area of expertise to finally get a diagnosis. It was a long time to finally get a medical diagnosis as most of my adult life I was told by doctors that it was stress related and that I should learn how to control the stress in my life!
I was hospitalized each and every month for at least 4 days because of the severity of the attacks and the dehydration of vomiting. Colchicine has kept it a manageable level for me and kept me out of hospital. After 17 years I am now getting side effects of Colchicine of numbness in my hands and feet. Now I have to find another drug that I can use in order to keep the FMF under control.
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Do either of these raise blood sugar, diet coke and diet ginger beer sometimes I like a rum with the diet ginger beer (no alcohol in the ginger beer)
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i am not overweight. Drink a healthy smoothie and whole grain cereal almost every morning yet my BP is still high. (100/170). I was told it may be because of elevated insulin levels caused by the fruit drinks and whole grains (as well as the potato, rice, pasta and breads) that I eat. These are things that easily break down into sugars and cause the issue. (Basically a carb issue). Am I supposed to go on one of those caveman diets? Has anyone tried lowering their carb intake to lower their BP?
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Let me start off by saying I am a 20 year old male who was fine before all of this started. I went to the ER for chest pain and palpitations they did the basic test like EKG Xray and Blood work. The ER doctor said i was fine and they let em go home but said i need to see a cardiologist to just make sure everything was fine. So i went to see a cardiologist and the hospital faxed over all of my test results. Based on my ER visits EKG i have an abnormally high P wave everything else on the EKG was fine. They set me up for a Echocardiogram to make sure i did not have an enlarged heart. that test came back normal and they said i did not have a enlarged heart. They set me up for a Stress Echo test I went in for the test got my heart rate up to 200bpm the before and after pictures of my heart looked good and they said everything was working fine and that i was healthy. But during the test i still have those high P waves showing up on the EKG which he said was caused because I am very thin chested and my hear beats close to the surface of my chest so the EKG pick up a higher voltage. Now i have noticed a slight arrhythmia when i take my pulse it tends to beat at 60 bpm then 5 or 6 beats later it jumps to 80 bpm then back to 60 after 5 or so beats. This comes and goes and does not happen all the time and when it does happen it only last up to 30 minutes but during that time i feel fatigued . And finally my blood pressure seems high the systolic pressure is always within normal range its the diastolic that always above normal when i tested my blood pressure with a home blood pressure monitor today it was at 135 over 87 then when i tested it later on in the day it was 127 over 83 i have noticed in multiple test the diastolic seem to float around the mid 80's to 90's the highest i have seen is 133 over 99. The cardiologist does not see to think there is anything wrong with me I have another appointment this week to bring up the high blood pressure and the arrhythmia.
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Hi, Is is possible to have a high heart rate while at the same time a normal rate of blood pressure? I'm asking on behalf of a relative... I thought blood pressure would be high if the heart rate was also high?
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I am 35 year old unmarried female, i am 5feet 2 inch and my current weight is 63 kg/ 140 lb after one year dieting started when i was 77 kg.I have high cholesterol and high LDL issue in genes (my father had high cholesterol with high bp issue). My Blood pressure is normal, My cholesterol was 207 mg/dl, LDL = 160 mg/dl and HDL= 40mg/dl from 2011 to june 2015 with few up and downs but in reports of oct 2015 and march 2016 my cholesterol is increased up to 260 mg/dl, LDL = 198 mg/dl, HDL=51mg/dl, triglycerides = 100 mg/dl ,my other results are
Liver function test result are ALT/SGPT = 16U/L, SGOT = 19U/L, alkaline phosphate = 114 U/L , i am vitamin D deficient. march 2016 current level of vitamin D(25-OH) =26ng/ml . i take 600000 IU two injections in 2013 when my level was 4ng/ml and then i take 200000 IU one capsule in oct 2015 .
My prolactin level is also high since 2002 means between 75 to 100 ng/ml
My menstrual cycle is also irregular means come with gap of 40 to 70 days.
kindly tell me why my cholesterol and LDL is high if SPGT/ALT is normal. Since august 2015 i limit my whole day oil consumption is olive oil two table spoon in a day and one table spoon purified butter in a day. once in a week i eat one dunkin donut, 250 gram yogurt . i eat one egg daily.
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Recently been diagnosed with high cholesterol along with my high blood pressure. Was on atenolol and bendrofluazide but these weren't keeping my bp down so was put on lisinopril. I have had pains in my stomach since i started my new meds wake in the night with a jolt, am tired and feel weak all the time, i'm only 43 and not over weight. Has anyone else had these symptoms. I'm unsure what is causing what as every thing has changed all at once?
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My doctor called me and told me to go to my pharmacy TODAY and pick up my rx for statins. My LDL is 331 and my HDL is only 34.
He put me on Pravachol 40 mg.
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I'm a bit alarmed. I just had my 3 month check up with the doctor. I've never had any kidney problems before. My Creatinine is 2.0 and my GFR is 34. I am recovering from some major oral surgery right now and I haven't been able to eat as I normally do. Less food. I was wondering if this oral surgery and my diet could have anything to do with my test results? My doctor wants me back in his office in 6 days to discuss this test. If you have anything to share, that would be awesome!
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I have picked up my tablets yesterday so I can start them today, however I'm going to struggle as not to sure what to eat, I find it easier to follow a weekly diet that's already set out , I have purchased the alli book so hopefully that will help, I used to weigh around 11 stone until I had Idine treatment for my thyroid as it was over active and now it's under had major problems there which had made me stuck on 5 stone! I only eat chicken and fish every other night with salad and rice or vegetables and jp or sweet potatoes, is there any diet to follow on day to day?
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I would like to ask a question concerning cystic fibrosis diet. I work as a nurse in a hospital, and I heard for a lot of cystic fibrosis cases in last 6 months. Of course, the affected are all newborn, and I am just curious about their fates. I do not want to ask doctors, they all seem jumpy and nervous when you ask them anything about their little patients. So, will there be any help from you?
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I have now had diverticular disease for the last 12 years and have a flare up every 6 months. I have apparently 6 pouches in my colon. I still do not know what foods to eat and to avoid. I have from my own experience stopped eating certain foods. I do not eat anything with seeds in ie some fruits have seeds so the only fruit I eat is melon pineapples bananas. The doctors say you should have a high fibre diet then they say do not eat seeds. I have just discovered that I should not be eating rice. How about baked beans should I eat these or not? Please could someone tell me as at the moment I am going mad not knowing what I should be doing.
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I've had this condition for many years. Recent tests/scan show it's now extensive throughout the bowel. I've been given conflicting advice on appropriate diet and wondered whether anyone can provide more help? I've been taking fibre gel every other day for many years. Consultant insists this should continue.
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I am a woman of 56 and have never been overweight and up to these eleven years ago enjoyed good health.
My first symptoms started eleven years ago whilst on holiday in France. My elbow and knee joints became difficult to move and painful, particularly when carrying shopping. A fortnight later on my return to England the pain had increased, my ankles had started to swell and I felt generally very unwell, not unlike an onset of influenza. My doctor thought it may have been an insect bite and prescribed a course of antibiotics which had no effect. He then tested me for Lyme's Disease and put me on a further two courses of antibiotics, none of which made any difference. The Lyme's Disease test was negative.
By this time, six weeks from the first symptoms I was almost bed-ridden. The joint pains were almost unbearable, I felt itchy all over and isolated little bumps that were extremely painful to touch appeared under my skin, two on my hand and one on my rib bone. After a couple of days they disappeared and I was left with bruises. Some of my knuckle and finger joints were swollen and started to become slightly deformed. I found that I was passing water about every 30 minutes and had pronounced anxieties, insomnia and depression....I had never suffered from depression before. I also started to experience heart flutters and eczema in my ears.
In desperation I began searching (pre-Google days) for clues in some home medical dictionaries. I came across gout and one of the recommendations for managing this affliction was to cut out all rich and fatty food. Although I knew I did not have gout I thought my problem may have been related, particularly with my swollen ankles which by then had turned a rather nasty brown colour. I decided to experiment and immediately cut out cheese, butter, mayonnaise, oils and fatty meats to achieve a very low fat diet.
Within two days I was feeling much better and over the course of the next month I continued with my experiment and found that within about 24 hours of starting on a higher fat diet again my symptoms would begin to return. Over the next four years and after spending a lot of money on private consultations with no diagnosis being given my doctor eventually referred me to the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath. The consultant diagnosed Poly-Reactive Arthritis. I told him about my very low fat diet (under 20 grams a day) which I had been trying. He said if that worked for me I should keep doing it. Subsequently I developed lactose intolerance. Symptoms from this appear two hours after eating any dairy but I have not found any known connection between this and Reactive Arthritis. I also developed problems in my lower back and X-Rays confirmed that this was caused by arthritis. I am unable to lift even fairly light weights and cannot operate a vacuum cleaner without getting severe back pains for a couple of days.
The diagnosis of Reactive Arthritis was six years ago and if I keep to my very low fat diet I am able to lead an almost normal life. However, I now find that in the past year I have had an increasing amount of urological problems such as cystitis and what were though to be bladder infections, although all the urine tests proved negative. I have also been investigated for possible kidney stones but again this has been negative although on one occasion there was blood in the sample. I have found out in the past few days through Google that symptoms like this are often associated with Reactive Arthritis and called Interstitial Cystitis.
Recently I found the web site for the Arthritis Research Campaign which has a very good information booklet on Reactive Arthritis and in an answer to my questions advised me that cutting down on fat can make a difference in most types of arthritis including inflammatory arthritis, particularly saturated fats which can increase pain and inflammation in the body.
They directed me to their information booklet Diet and Arthritis on their web site at www.arc.org.uk. In this publication they recommend concentrating on oils such as olive oil, walnut oil and oil from fatty fish. I thought I would again experiment and only eat the fats they recommended even though I felt sure that too many olives and olive oil dressing would cause a reaction. Twenty four hours after crossing my 20 gram threshold my symptoms reappeared then slowly subsided after I returned to my strict diet.
In all of my research I have not come across any suggestion for treatment of Reactive Arthritis by a low fat diet. I only know that it has worked for me so far.
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