Dementia and statins.

There's been some interesting information here. My thanks to everyone.

I am on pravastatin (hydrophilic), and have been for the past couple of years. Before that, I tried atvorastatin and simvastatin. None of them helped my cholesterol (which in my case was at the point of blood having the consistency of jelly). What has helped is Repatha (evolocumab). However, Repatha is quite the expensive little bugger, and insurance will not cover it unless I am also on a statin.

My cholesterol dropped from the local high (it was higher before) of 500+ to 77 in three months. The LDL and triglycerides showed the biggest drop; HDL stayed pretty steady. It appears that I have a genetic condition that prevents my liver from absorbing enough LDL due to an overabundance of the protein that regulates LDL absorption.

Thus far, I have seen no cognitive decline. At worst, the brain fog when I wake up is unchanged.... always had that little issue. I'm a very sound sleeper.

I have done one thing to ensure that my cholesterol doesn't get too low: I was on a "heart-healthy" diet (no salt, no grease, no fat), but when my cholesterol dropped so fast I got off that. Now I eat what I want, and in the South grease is one of the four major food groups. That has not adversely affected my cholesterol levels so far, and I keep a steady supply of fats in my bloodstream.

Now, my situation is somewhat unique. As I understand the doctors, few people have my particular biochemical defect. I have no issue believing that statins are over-prescribed. I have to also say, the concerns about very high cholesterol levels are not unwarranted either. Cholesterol is a balance like everything else in the body. Too much of it for too long, and it will result in some very unpleasant conditions. Even after quintuple bypass surgery to get the heart to actually pump again, I am still left with a small abdominal aneurysm in the aorta and significant plaque buildup in my left carotid arteries. Docs are monitoring those.

The disabling fatigue is not due to statins, cholesterol, or plaque. That last heart attack (after the surgery) left some pretty significant scarring on one side of my heart, so blood flow is about 3/4 of what it should be. Mechanical issue.

I'm using capsaicin to try and treat those remaining problems on my own while the docs monitor. Not the pills... raw, unbridled, throat-singeing amounts of pepper! As in, 1/8" of crushed red pepper on a plate of spaghetti. Chicken and dumplings that are a dark grey instead of white from the black pepper. pouring habanero sauce over hamburger patties like it was steak sauce. Been doing that for a few years and it does seem to be doing a little good... as well as making sure no one tries to eat off my plate!

Oh, Mexican restaurants are fun now, too... ever seen a Mexican chef stunned because the guy who just challenged his ability to make hot sauce is drinking the stuff he thought was inedible? It's funny....

Anyway, my point is that it is possible to have too high cholesterol levels, and the risk of statins may well outweigh the risk of high cholesterol. Just because statins may be over-prescribed, it does not follow that they are not sometimes needed. Balance, people.

TheRedneck

a reply to: rickymouse

I never trusted most doctors with good reason 90 plus percent of them look at you like a peace of crap on their shoe and cannot wait to get you out of the room quick enough ,the lady doctor that I mentioned earlier who I showed the magnet trick to basically through me out of the room saying your ten minutes are up , magnetic particles in a tablet


Two years I asked very nicely can I have a blood test please to confirm that I had anti tripasin deficiency which all the family have to be tested for ,when I Finally got the test and results they would not even look me in the eye and tell me just a casual yes with no added information or guidance on said condition .

I have been asking them nicely for 25 years can you fix my nose please so I can breath properly ,still waiting ditto for my finger and big toe but the toe issue is only ten years or so so I can wait .

If I want advice I can go to my local vet surgeon he will be more knowledge .I have never taken for long any medication the doctors give me bar aspirin and a blood thinner called lisinopril and I am still here kicking I take plenty vitamin tablets .

But the number of times I have had to take out the instruction leaflet from a medicine and point out to a doctor / not to be taken if ? It is beyond shocking how dence some of them are and that is being polite .

My current male doctor who I have shirts older than meets patients at his door dressed like he is working at a abbatuar full on regard mode plastic gown down to near his shoes full face visor and mask and gloves a vet would be proud of for inserting up a cows backside I did happen to mention that the death rate from this COVID is 0.025 percent maybe he is overreacting a bit but he still will not prescribe me diazipam when they work like a charm 100% of the time I have tried everything else they have thrown at me and by day 3 I am immune and could swallow bucked loads of them and nothing still nothing I get do not ask for anything with Pam at the end of it .

I just swap the Gabapentin for Xanax as you can tell from my user name I am not slow in that department lol .

a reply to: rickymouse

Also statins cause diabetes in females I forgot about that, this is another reason why to stay away from statins if you can find a way to keep your cholesterol at healthy levels, not the ones pharma has established in order to push for statins on people that otherwise do not need them.

a reply to: stonerwilliam

There are a couple of supplements that might help with COPD risk. One is N-acetylcysteine which is in some of the meds they use to treat lung issues. The other is possibly L-lysine. It is competative with arginine in the tissues and it can reduce inflammation. I do not know if taurine would be helpful with this, NAC is converted to taurine in metabolism and I can't remember in the anti-trypsine deal if there was an enzyme effected by the genes during the transition. If you try the NAC, a smaller one is probably all you need, same with the l-lysine, high doses are not needed of these most times, just enough to cure the deficiency. Also, the molybdenum cofactor is needed to process sulfite oxydase which is an enzyme that works with this kind of stuff to turn sulfides back to sulfates which are less corrosive to tissues. Again, a small supplement of molybdenum is only needed, about fifty percent of the RDA would be fine and having a little copper in the mix will also help in the supplement.

I most likely do not have that genetic mutation, I had lots of issues with breathing and now it is gone. I had chronic bronchitis, but that is gone. I also removed some foods in my diet that triggered lung problems, one was bananas, another was propylene glycols in foods and stuff like liquid smoke and double acting vanilla. I also have to limit high vanilla foods in my diet for that. It takes getting used to. I like being able to breath pretty good now after I identified what was causing my problem.

I checked my gene app, the ancestry DNA did not collect that snp that is rare that determines the disease risk. I know one thing for sure, diet is related to gene expression of epigenitic snps and gensets a lot. If you have a mutation then you need to alter the diet to limit the problem. It is in how people evolve, it is a difference, not a curse. I could spend a week researching this condition but cannot comprehend it properly because I can't test how the changes effect me when I don't have the genetics.

I would get a multimineral or a vitamin complex with at least a hundred percent RDA of molybdenum in it and fifty percent copper, it may be in the vitamin pill you already take. That seemed to help my breathing the most of anything I did. Now your condition is different than mine was and I have a genetic reduction in the Molybdenum coenzyme production so I need to have a little supplement morning and night, so my body can make the enzyme slowly. I also have a problem breaking down carbs, so getting it from whole grains is hard, and that lack of the enzyme even effects rice too, which is high in molybdenum.

These are a few things you can try, pay attention to changes when experimenting on yourself. And remember that too much of anything is not good, and if you do feel better, beware, don't start taking high doses, sure it may seem good for a while, but some of the minerals and vitamins can cause problems down the line by altering metabolism and excretion of too much other minerals or by changing quantities of enzymes created. Most enzymes have a mineral necessary for their creation. Just like our blood cells have a porphyrin ring with an iron insert in the middle, plants have chlorophyl which is a porphyrin ring with a magnesium insert in the middle. Now too much of one mineral can cause things to get off balance in our bodies.

This is just something to try to see if it can help, I don't give medical advise, I just try to give people a route to research and try some things on themselves. Remember though, if you feel better with a little, it does not mean you should increase it sometimes, have patients, in a month you will notice if it is working at all. I have experimented on myself quite a bit and I can tell you one thing for sure, sometimes you get side effects that you did not expect. I wish I would have had someone to advise me on this stuff when I started, to tell me what to look out for. Most side effects are not long lasting, but long term treatment can result in metabolic changes too.

a reply to: stonerwilliam

Oh I forgot about the .025 percent you quoted about covid. That percent is about correct for getting the virus and having it turn covid then you die. If the virus turns to covid, which is similar to sepsis in other diseases, it is about five percent of covid cases...not the same as cases of the virus. I hope I said that right so you can understand it, the government states that percentage of covid patients, which is true, but if ninety five or more percent of people only get the virus and never have it turn covid, those .025 overall are figured into the whole picture. The fear mongerers push covid to death ratio which is deception. For people with a severly compromised immune system where the virus has a great chance of going covid, that five percent approximation is probably pertinent. But now they do have some expensive inhibitor meds of mpro and another related function in the body that they approved to slow replication or block viral entry into cells, chemistry that is contained in some food chemistry can replace the meds.

originally posted by: marg6043
a reply to: rickymouse

Also statins cause diabetes in females I forgot about that, this is another reason why to stay away from statins if you can find a way to keep your cholesterol at healthy levels, not the ones pharma has established in order to push for statins on people that otherwise do not need them.

I read about that in some research, but I didn't actually focus on diabetes risk that much, I was more concerned with the effect on thinking and on lowering of immune system function. I am not fond of Statins because I have talked to so many people who have had negative effects with them.

a reply to: marg6043
Here is some new research that came out about fat stores feeding the creation of white blood cells.

So lowering levels of lipids in the bloodstream could weaken people's immune systems. The main place that white blood cells are produced is in the bones, but they can be created under some conditions in other parts of the body when needed too, it is not limited completely to bone marrow.

originally posted by: anonentity
a reply to: All Seeing Eye

Fifty percent of the people on statins will have a cataract operation within two years. I read that in one of the side effects.

2 years is overstating it...but my dad has cataracts (But refuses surgery right now)...quite well developed in one of his eyes. He's been on statins since early 2000s. Lipitor 10 mg now and Plavix.

But yes...read numerous articles about cataracts as a side effect.

The GREAT CHOLESTEROL MYTH - Great book if you don't already know about it. 2012 book.

Also LIPITOR - THIEF OF MEMORY




The Graveline book is older.

Also TRUTH ABOUT STATINS is another one. But if you've read the GCM - you don't really need the other two, so much. But always nice to read other perspectives.