NP doesn't think this is sucess, wants statins page 2

[EagleRiverDee]

My dad tried statins and it almost killed him (messed up his blood pressure really bad) so he switched red yeast rice and it worked.

Last year I dropped my cholesterol 81 points just by doing daily exercise and diet, but if I hadn't been able to do that I might look at red yeast rice next. Oh, I also spike my tea with cayenne and cinnamon and both are known to reduce cholesterol. So that may have played into it.

[WendyLady]

After struggling with Celiac's for 16 years and being diagnosed with EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN (including hypochondria) but having Celiac's suggested by a pharmacist (!), I'm tired of trying to educate doctors. I do my own best research, and if they say something stupid that I know to be untrue, I go out the door. To be fair, I think doctors in general do not expect patients to do the right thing. They're all, "here, take this statin since you will never change your diet and maybe you will live slightly longer and I won't have to feel guilty about doing nothing". When you have a patient changing his life... maybe they find this hard to believe or to trust.

I vote you find another doctor.

[PBNewby]

Double check your math.
I think this is more correct:


21-Oct-11 24-Apr-12 29-Oct-12
Total 234 217 227
Trigs 122 129 112
HDL 38 46 48
VLDL 24 26 22
LDL 172 145 151

LDL/HDL (goal < 4.30) 4.53 3.15 3.15
Trigs/HDL (goal < 2.0) 3.21 2.80 2.33
Total/HDL (goal < 5.0) 6.16 4.72 4.73

For reference, I had mine checked last week and my ratios are 3.3, 2.5, and 4.8. Quite comparable to the last column of numbers above.

[Him]

I wouldn't try to tell a doctor (or other professional) how and why to do their job

That's correct. Instead tell them what their job is. As in, what result you want, and what you are willing to do to get there. An architect can't design your dream house if you don't tell her what you dream, and a dream house you cannot afford to build, or wouldn't be willing to live in, isn't much of a dream either. Professionals are people you hire to help you acheive specific results in areas requiring special knowledge and flexible problem solving abilities. You must give them the parameters of your problem or they can't do their job. Often they can guess but their guesses may well be wrong. If one of your parameters is "no statins", that's just like if I was specifying my dream house and said, "no doric columns". I can't blame an architect for designing me a house with doric columns if I haven't told her I think they look wrong on houses.

Trust is an overused word, but it comes into play here. Not the authoritarian "trust us, we're professionals", but the prosaic, "provide correct information" sense. It should go both ways, but in the short term you only control one side. Make yourself trustworthy because that gives others a chance to show their true colors. If you can't develop trust in return...if you don't find the professionals you have hired trustworthy...fire them and hire others.

[Dirlot]

So the numbers seem to be getting better each visit and they want statins....sigh.

[honeybuns]

My DH suffered muscle damage from statins. What docs don't tell you, even though the information is out there, is that the statins do their work at the expense of muscle. Do your ow research into the side effects and dangers of statins. NOT worth the gamble!

[momrn]

Can you tell me how I calculated wrong for future reference? I like your numbers better!

WendyLady, that was me, too. She was totally surprised that my panel came back positive. She thought it was just IBS. I wound up with villi that were still showing damage two years after being totally GF.

We would leave this practice except he has a complicated health history, and, to be frank, we don't believe we can find anyone better where we live.

Not sure who said not to tell a dr how to do their job, but we have both been asked, "What do you want to do?" When my health care provider is sitting there typing your symptoms into Medscape, I feel pretty confident I can grasp the issue.

[Cuban]

We would leave this practice except he has a complicated health history, and, to be frank, we don't believe we can find anyone better where we live.

When my health care provider is sitting there typing your symptoms into Medscape, I feel pretty confident I can grasp the issue.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding your point because it seems your latter statement disagrees with your former. A health care provider using Medscape is not a health care provider I would trust. Based on years of training I would opt for a MD/DO before a NP. It sounds as if you don't have any options but if this provider is the best where you live that is a bit scary. Regardless of how well trained there are very few providers who have studied the effect of nutrition over prescription meds. It's just not taught to them in school.

[PBNewby]

Can you tell me how I calculated wrong for future reference? I like your numbers better!
...

I apologize for not responding earlier, I missed the question above.
The triglycerides ratios are not correct.
For example, Trig/HDL is 122/38 which equals 3.2 (not 6.5 as in your post)

[jammies]

While I am not a supporter of statins, I will say that for the most part your provider is correct that those numbers have not really improved. While they are trending the right direction, the changes are barely, if at all, outside the margin of error for the test. You would need more tests over time to tell if things really are changing.

I would think the triglyceride levels have the most room for improvement.