danieltait.bsky.social
Twitter refugee - Spatial Analyst - SQL databases - AI - Tech
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Quote from the article “Alternative medications like amlodipine or chlorthalidone might offer better risk profiles for your specific situation.”
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Unless your diet is terrible to begin with most people can only lower their bad cholesterol by about 10 percent with diet alone.
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Yep. It doesn’t work for cholesterol
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It sounds like your diet is already fairly healthy. Both bad cholesterol and prediabetes/diabetes have a strong genetic component to them. I eat healthy but need to take Crestor + zetia to get my LDL down. Talk to your doc about lipid lowering meds for LDL. Also, metformin to prevent diabetes.
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That’s good to hear. You’ve got a good doctor. I’ve had no side effects whatsoever from the rosuvastatin. Many cardiologists now prescribe with Ezetimibe as you can get an extra 20 percent lipid lowering effect. Both cheap and generic.
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I’m guessing you’re referring to lipoprotein(a) as there is a drug in the pipeline to lower that.
If you have high Lp(a) then it’s even more important to aggressively lower LDL. It’s mostly genetic. I’ve had good success with rosuvastatin and ezetimibe.
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It’s mostly genetic. I take a small amount of rosuvastatin (Crestor) and it dropped my cholesterol right down.
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lol
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No problem!
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Typo. Meant to say “No side effects whatsoever”
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It’s mostly genetic. If you have high LDL it’s best to use lipid lowering medication. Personally, I take low dose rosuvastatin (5 mg) and ezetimibe (10 mg). Both are cheap generic medications. So side effects whatsoever and this has dropped my LDL by 50 percent. All the best.
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What was your LDL? That’s the important number to look at.
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High cholesterol is mostly genetic. Exercise won’t lower it. Diet can lower it a bit. What was your LDL?
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No problem :) definitely ask about about metformin as it can prevent diabetes. I also take an SSRI. Even low dose rosuvastatin (Crestor) can dramatically lower LDL. Some people even take it every second day. All the best for your physical.
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Your LDL was similar to mine before I started on crestor 5 mg. I take crestor 5 mg and zetia 10 mg. This reduced my LDL to 58. Thankfully, no side effects whatsoever. Did your doctor mention metformin for treating your pre diabetes?
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What are your numbers for each?
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Heart disease can take decades to develop. Getting your LDL down now earlier in life is a good idea and means you likely don’t have to worry about heart disease in the future.
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Unfortunately a lot of doctors aren’t up to date on lipids. What was your LDL?
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Better to know than not know. 5 mg of Crestor and 10 zetia dropped by LDL by 50 percent. No side effects and I feel great. Wish you all the best.
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The benefits of Crestor accrue over a lifetime. If you go off it then your LDL will quickly return to your higher baseline.
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Your LDL is not too bad but yes you would absolutely benefit from plaque stabilisation from crestor. Ask for a lipoprotein(a) test. I have high lipoprotein(a). You only need to get tested for Lp(a) once in your life because it remains fairly stable.
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No problem. Ezetimibe (zetia) is not a statin but it’s often used with a statin. In the old days they used to have to put someone on a high dose statin but now they can get a persons LDL low enough with a low dose statin by combining it with zetia. Zetia might also reduce risk of alzheimers
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Cholesterol truths is the name of the book. Yeah he sells a couple of gimmicky books but he is a lipids experts and cardiologist and the cholesterol truths book is legit.
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I take 5 mg rosuvastatin and 10 mg ezetimibe. This has dropped my LDL by 50 percent. I have high lipoprotein(a) which is why I want my LDL lower. However, if I was in your situation I would probably want a high dose of rosuvastatin. Maybe 20 mg rosuvastatin plus 10 mg ezetimibe. Both cheap meds.
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Unfortunately HDL makes no difference. They even tested medications that raised HDL and it didn’t lower risk of heart attacks.
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HDL is no longer considered good cholesterol. You can ignore it because it makes no difference. Focus on getting your LDL down. Since you’ve had a heart attack you absolutely want to get your LDL down as low as you can. Crestor will help stabilize existing plaque. That and zetia work well together.
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Dr Alo addresses this in this book. Basically people can get heart attacks with ‘normal’ LDL because at average LDL levels can still cause plaque. Anything over 60 mg/dL you’re laying down plaque. Lipoprotein(a) is an additional risk factor. It’s an especially bad for of LDL. It’s genetic.
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That’s great news! Dr Alo has talked about how he gets some of his patients LDL down very low and sometimes even undetectable and they do just fine. The lower the best to reduce risk of another heart attack.
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Eggs are high in dietary cholesterol. You might be a cholesterol hyper absorber. These are people who absorb more cholesterol from the intestine. Ezetimibe works very well for cholesterol hyper absorbers. I take it with a small dose of rosuvastatin. No side effects whatsoever
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Btw the latest research shows HDL makes no difference. It’s not good or bad.
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Time to find a new doctor. High LDL is mostly genetic. If it’s high you need to be on a lipid lowering medication like rosuvastatin (Crestor). Don’t wait until you have a MACE
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Why would I use that when I can just ask a good reasoning LLM directly?
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This is likely one driver but anti-intellectualism in the US predates modern complexity. Growing economic divides and media algorithms that reward simplistic takes over nuanced expertise are probably more relevant in my opinion.