CDC Reports Half of Eligible U.S. Adults Don’t Take Statins

This may be the best thing for them – see my blog here. I will be ditching statins over the next 45 days and I will not let a doctor convince me otherwise. In researching for the blog above, there were many articles on statins causing hardening of the arteries. Yet, the endocrinologists and cardiologists will not give them space on their websites. In a recent conversation with a cardiologist, when I mentioned this, he wanted to know where I read this and asked for URLs that I could email to him.

I did hear back from him and he said that he would need to rethink his policy of prescribing statins. He was gracious enough to say that he had not heard of these studies and even though most were behind paywalls, he did access them and was very surprised at what was in several of the studies. In the email, I did ask if he were able to read a couple of them, would he email me a copy. He did and for that I thanked him.

We have continued our discussion over the last several days and he thanked me for my blog referenced above and for including the statements by several doctors. While he was aware of Dr. Malcolm Kendrick's book “The Great Cholesterol Con”, he had not read it and with the URLs I had sent him, he had ordered the book.

I also asked him about the newest statin, the PCSK9 class. With our discussion, he said he would be in correspondence with Dr. Kendrick after reading his blog on this and reading my three blogs on the new drugs. He is not sure about prescribing presently, but stated he does have one patient that has asked about them and the patient fits the criteria, but he told the patient to wait.

Then he asked me for the results of my last lipid panel, which I sent to him. I received an immediate reply asking me how I had achieved the low levels for LDL, triglycerides, and a good reading for HDL. I said my way of eating and not following the food plan many registered dietitians push of carbohydrates and whole grains. I said I follow a low carb, high fat food plan with moderate protein. I eat lots of eggs and cheese that is not highly processed. I like sausage and bacon and I choose other high cholesterol foods that are not highly processed. I read food labels, ingredients, and avoid many canned foods except green beans and use a lot of dried beans that we use the pressure cooker to put moisture back into the beans. He asked how many carbohydrates I consumed per day. My answer was 30 to 50 grams per day and it varies by what I decide to eat for the day.

He commented that he had two patients eating very similar food plans and he said this must be why their lipid panels are always so good. He said he needed to stop for now, but that he would be back with more questions.

I have strayed from the topic so I will have to think about whether I really want to blog about the CDC saying half of eligible U.S. Adults don't take statins.