Re: Statins

In the same way I find your reluctance to comprehend how most modern scientific research has been compromised by reliance on work funded by the drug industry. At some point we are going to have to take a long hard look at the effects of funding on research outcomes. In the mean time may I suggest you read the book The Diet Delusion: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Loss and Disease that gives an overview of nutritional research and details how it's become corrupted.

BUT if the basis on which they are trained and have qualified is mistaken then the advice, knowledge and advice they provide is equally corrupt.
We have to go by what actually works and it is apparent, by the evidence of our own eyes that 98% of people who follow dieticians advice will regain any weight they lose over the next 5 years.
We know that people have eaten less saturated fat and that has not resulted in lower heart disease rates.

We know that on the whole when people exercise more they do not, OVER THE LONG TERM, lose weight and keep it off.
What happens in practice is their bodies adapt, hunger levels rise, and they are back to square one.

If doctors were any good at PREVENTING disease they would not have any patients. They rely on people being sick to justify their existence. It's possible to live without needing antibiotics, or pain killers, or blood pressure lowering medicines and rather than just reaching for a prescription pad if GP's were any good they would explain to people how to survive without prescription medications.

My view is you should trust your doctor as much as your banker.

If you hand over responsibility for your finances to a banker who will make the most money out of that capital, you or your banker?

While you fail to take responsibility for your own health you are a pawn in the system and will be used to enhance your doctors income by participating in target driven health initiatives that suit the drug industries objectives and don't relate to you wellbeing at all.

Here is one example of the way dangerous drugs get into circulation.
Interview with "Blood Feud" author, Kathleen Sharp

Big Pharma, are you ready for your close-up?

Re: Statins

I agree Rena, let it rest now, we are going round in circles and getting no where.

Re: Statins

I am reading these posts and i have come to one conclusion......A little knowledge can be a very dangerous thing....ignorance can therefore sometimes be bliss..... a few examples..
firstly i am overweight ...not morbidly obese by any means .....I was happy till someone said it was dangerous
I am T2 diabetic ......I was happy till I found out
I had suspected colon cancer ...I was happy till I found out
all i did is worried about my weight , worried about my diabetes, I worried about the poss of cancer.I worried about what all the food i eat is doing to me.....
I may not be a educated or as intelligent as Ted appears to be but i am glad , because if i knew all that scientific clap trap true or not it would give me another bucket load of stuff to worry about....so i stick with what i know and take my metformin , i take my aspirin i take my ezetrol,and my Lansoprazole....So now I dont worry any more since i lived for 5 months of worry waiting to get the all clear from colon cancer which means i am now Happy

Re: Statins

The practice nurse has been moaning at me for ages about statins for mildly raised cholesterol, so I agreed to trying a low dose tablet. To be cynical, I think it's more to do with NHS targets than clinical need.

Anyway, I went to pick up the prescription and the packet carried a warning to avoid grapefruit. Nobody told me about this, so I looked into it. True - for some statins, including Simvastatin, you should avoid grapefruit & grapefruit products as they can cause liver problems.

I also looked for info about interaction with alcohol and came up against confusing and contradictory information.

I decided not to take any of the tablets till I have a word with the doc. Meantime, do any of you have any experience of taking alcohol or grapefruit while using statins? I know some statins are ok with grapefruit but I'm not giving up having a decent drink at the weekend!

Re: Statins

George matey, I too have had to give up grapefruit, not because it interferes with my statin, but it does affect the warfarin I've also been prescribed. As to booze, though, no alcohol shouldn't have too much affect on that - it certainly didn't with me anyway, so your weekend drinks ought to be safe enough.

Re: Statins

I have been on about 4 different types of statin ...I started with Simvastatin which seemed OK for 3-4 years...However i WAS GETTING side effects which i put down to getting older. i then found a forum about statins and i was horrified to find that the symptoms i was getting where identical to what was on the forum . so i tried a experiment i Threw them away and didn't take anything for about 10 months ....My Cholesterol levels went up slightly to 5 .1 . and the symptoms slowly went away...after about a year i had a stroke on my optic nerve and the doctor insisted i re-start the the statins. since then i have tried several different types and doses all of which have caused me a lot of problems....I stopped taking the last one about 4 weeks ago as it made me feel so bad i couldn't even put my socks on or do up my shoe laces ..lol ...I have included the link to the forum ..there is a lot off USER information on there which totally contradicts what the drug companies tell ...

http://www.medications.com/simvastatin/35052

PS i post on there under the same ID ....

Re: Statins

I'd no idea a nurse could give a prescription or prescribe a specific medication and, to my knowledge, they can't.

After I had my mini stroke in April of last year I was put on Simvastatin, not for cholesterol reasons as mine was low at 4.1, but to protect against future strokes. The Simvastatin gave me gut rot so it was changed for Pravastatin which has been okay for me.

I can't comment about grapefruit as I never eat it, but I do have a few glasses of wine a week with no problems.

It is never wise to consult anyone about a medical condition on a forum as, even with the best intentions, they don't know your history - your doctor does. What's okay for one person could be detrimental to another.

Re: Statins

Certain things can be prescribed by a nursing sister!

Re: Statins

I have had Pravastatin...I had the same problems after a short period, so i was changed to another statin

Re: Statins

Yes, Wrinkley is correct. Nurses who have the qualifications to do so have been able to prescribe independently for quite a while now and nurse prescribers undergo specific and rigourous training to enale them to prescribe from the supplementary and extended National Formulary.