Sat, Sep-10-16, 17:40
|
Senior Member
Posts: 178
|
|
Plan: Atkins 20
Stats: 237.6/150/155
BF:
Progress: 106%
|
|
Summer Summary: A Stroke, Huge Weight Loss, Lipitor question
In mid July my partner had a stroke. A fairly serious one. But he is on the mend and we are super optimistic.... neurologists say he may regain close to full recovery. He has overall one-side weakness and some aphasia, but is getting better every day.
He hadn't been to a doc in a while, so while they were treating him for stroke, they found high blood pressure, and high blood sugar (diabetic range). Reasonable blood lipids. He was very overweight (about 80 pounds overweight).
So the first thing they want to do is put him on meds. We decline the blood glucose meds... instead, he goes on a strict Adkins diet in the hospital (ignoring the ADA and AHA - recommended meals that include fruit, cottage cheese, etc.) and within days his before-meal blood glucose has dropped to between 80 and 100 every single reading.
They put him on high blood pressure meds, but two weeks after he was released from hospital (still on low carb diet), he saw his primary doc and guess what -- he had already lost 20 pounds and his blood pressure was already too low. So they cut out the blood pressure meds, and his bp is now straight normal.
Now he has lost around 40 pounds. Normal blood sugar. Normal blood pressure.
But on his release from the hospital, the docs put him on Lipitor... not because of high LDL (He was right around 100, and we all know that may not even matter.) But because the neurologists claim that statins stabilize the plaque in the blood vessels to keep clots from breaking away. We do not know the etiology of this stroke. But the scans showed clear arteries without a lot of plaque build up. Plus his LDL cholesterol has now dropped to about 45.
From, what I've read the "fact" that statins reduce stroke risk may not be a fact at all. And if he is successfully treating his diabetes and high blood pressure and weight problem with a low carb diet, isn't it better to be off meds all together?
I need info to take to the doctor's visit. Does anyone have links to discussions about Lipitor/statins, particularly with regard to how and if they reduce stroke risk, and also re: long-term side effects? I am familiar with the recent general consumer media reporting on this, but I'm looking to go a little deeper, perhaps to critiques and reviews of the studies that show Lipitor's effect on strokes. My impression is that a lot of those studies were industry funded and that the raw data has not been made available for review, and that the prophylactic benefit has been oversold.
Thanks.
|