The doctor told your cholesterol’s high and put you on a strict diet with a daily exercise routine.
Hard as it was, you did what the doctor asked. For some reason, your cholesterol remains dangerously high.
The doctor’s prescribed you various medicines, which you’ve taken religiously.
After briefly taking this medicine, you’re experiencing pain in various areas of your body. Is the pain from the medicine, or is there another reason for this pain? What side effects could you experience with your medicine? I will answer these questions and more in the following paragraphs.
Why is My Doctor concerned about My High cholesterol?
High cholesterol is what’s considered an underlining condition. This means that if it’s left untreated, it can put you at high risk for other, more serious health issues.
Some of them include; atherosclerosis, peripheral vascular disease, and coronary heart diseases. It can also lead to stroke and possibly even a heart attack.
The Peripheral vascular disease is when the plaque to build up in your arteries. This makes it difficult for the blood to run through properly.
Your heart compensates by working harder, in order for it to push the blood through your body. If left untreated this plaque will build up so much that it will eventually block most if not all the blood from passing through. This can lead to a stroke or heart attack.
In atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease, your arteries harden and become narrow. This too makes it difficult for your blood to pass through. One way to stop these diseases from happening is to lower cholesterol levels. One way to do that is through medicine.
Introducing the Satan Family
At this time there are six different types of satins that are being prescribed their brand names are Zocor, Lipitor, Lescol, Mevacor, Pravachol, and Crestor.
These six medicines have successfully treated numerous patients throughout the years, with few reported side effects. In fact, over 76 million prescriptions were filled in 2000.
The goal of the statin family is to reduce LDL-C which in turn will decrease some of the other health issues created by high cholesterol.
How Do the Statins Work
The statins stop your body from producing specific chemicals, which creates cholesterol. In fact, studies show that 30% of the people who used one of the statins showed a reduction in heart-related issues. This conclusion was proven in both short term and long term research.
This also stops COQ10 from being absorbed, which can cause myopathy. Another theory why myopathy occurs is that the statins blocks guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-binding proteins that’s needed for healthy cells. Eventually, this blockage will cause the cells to die.
Side Effects
The most reported symptoms are pain and weakness in your arms and legs. This seems to occur more in petite females and females over the age of 80.
People with several diseases and is taking numerous medicines seems to have an increased risk of myopathy.
Medicines like Coumadin and digoxin increases this risk. Patients who use fibrates or nicotinic acid also has an increased risk of side effects. Hypothyroidism boots your chances of having myopathy.
A person taking this medicine might have difficulty opening containers. They can experience pain, weakness when going upstairs.
They might experience weakness in the knees, shoulders, and hips. A patient taking statin could have painful muscle cramps in the masseter muscles, biceps, and brachial.
A person can experience low back and abdominal pain. You can also encounter rhabdomyolysis, myalgia, and myositis. Myalgia is painful, stiff, weak aching muscles without high CK level.
Myositis is painful stiff, weak ache muscles with an increase in CK levels. Rhabdomyolysis is extreme muscle damage.
The patient will have CK levels ten times over the normal count. When a person suffers from this disease their body will release myoglobin into their blood.
This can cause severe damage to numerous organs including the kidneys. The symptoms are muscle weakness pain, tenderness, nausea, vomiting, fever and dark urine. It can also cause acute renal failure arrhythmias and possible cardiac arrest.
If you are experiencing pain and weakness, notify your doctor immediately. He will probably tell you to stop all strenuous exercise and will prescribe a different cholesterol treatment, which will stop these side effects from reoccurring.
What are Some Things I Can Do to Lower My Cholesterol?
Diet and exercise are two important keys to reducing cholesterol. You need to eat 3 healthy meals a day and healthy snacks in between.
Make sure you get plenty of fiber because it’s shown to reduce cholesterol levels. It’s suggested to eat up to 35 gm of fiber a day.
Studies further suggest that 10 gm of your total fiber intake should be soluble fiber. Some people add a fiber supplement to their daily regimen.
Your diet should be low in saturated fats and Trans fats. Saturated fats are often found in red meat and dairy products.
The doctors suggest you start eating lean meats and start baking your food more than you fry it.
They also suggest that you should drink 2% or skim milk rather than whole milk.
Trans fats are found in a lot of prepared foods, especially crackers, cookies and bakery goods. It’s suggested to get less than 2 gm a day.
Snacking Can Improve Cholesterol Levels
There are foods that you can eat that will help reduce your cholesterol level. Some of them include; oatmeal, cheerios, barley, whole grains, oat bran, beans, eggplant Okra, nuts, apples, grapes, strawberries, citrus fruits, fish, soy. It’s also suggested to get 2 gm of sterols a day. This is found in granola bars, orange juice, and chocolate.
It’s also suggested to use vegetable, sunflower, canola oil, or olive oil to cook your food.
Lastly, doctors suggest that you stop smoking and exercise two and a half hours a week. They also suggest that you maintain a healthy weight because the excessive weight was shown to increase LDL while suppressing the good cholesterol HDL.
