Living AMA: Finding a natural alternative to Statin
April 17, 2011 9 Comments
I am 38 exercise several times a week, eat a relatively clean diet and am in otherwise good health, but recent blood work revealed a problem with my triglycerides. Despite having normal cholesterol levels my LDL was predominately the flat small type, so I had the bad version of the bad LDL. To address this my doctor prescribed me Statin which is one of the most common prescribed drug on the markets today and one of the best selling pharmaceuticals in history. Despite being a bit dejected at having to take a heart related pill I filled my prescription and took as directed, which is when the real problems began.
Despite never feeling any ill effects of my non fluffy LDL the Statin sure packed a punch. In about five weeks of taking the drug as directed I gained over twenty pounds despite regular exercise and a calorie controlled diet. I also had the pleasure of experiencing odd muscle and nerve pain which made sleeping difficult and my head was in the clouds which was compounded by the lack of sleep and weight gain depression. Needless to say the side effects from the Statin for me were worse than the potential problem it was suppose to address so I searched out for a natural solution to my bad LDL issue.
Now nothing in this article is medical advice, in fact as the title says I am living Against Medical Advice (AMA). I can tell you I feel a thousand times better after being off the Statin for a couple weeks and the side effects have gone away. These side effects are not very common with Statin use, especially having three different ones, and many people take Statin for years and never have these types of problems but since I did I decided to see if I could figure a natural solution. Obviously it will not be easy to gauge the effectiveness of my natural program but I will be getting my levels tested again in six months to see if what I am doing is working, so at this point all of what follows is speculation. I could have gotten another type of Statin in the hopes of not suffering the same side effects but if I could find a natural solution I know I will be better off since you can never really tell the long term side effects of prescription drugs.
To begin with when researching heart issues it is interesting to discover that heart disease is a modern problem, very few people prior to the 20th century died of heart disease. Sure some of that has to do with lower life spans (not living long enough to die of heart issues) but the diet was also dramatically different. People ate whole pure foods more fish and less beef and there was no such thing as processed and packaged foods, so I decided to start my program with diet.
MY HEART HEALTHY DIET
All modern diet programs claim to be heart healthy, let’s face it who would buy into a program that wasn’t advertised as heart healthy when heart disease is so rampant? So I pealed back beyond the hype and tried to base my diet around those of people who don’t suffer from heart disease like we do in the US. I ended up choosing the Mediterranean Diet which is basically built upon the eating habits and lifestyle of a region with much less heart problems than we do here. The building blocks of this diet are healthy fats, olive oil, whole grains, fish and lots of fresh vegetables and fruits. My biggest concern with this diet is potential weight gain since the carbohydrates can be high on this diet but right now I am more concerned about my heart health than my weight and I know that as long as I keep the portion control in line I should be able to lose weight on this diet. Portion control is key to successful weight loss on this plan. My diet will be simple, no red meat but instead poultry and fish as my meats, beans, nuts (in moderation) whole grains (in moderation) fresh fruit (in moderation) and lots of salads and water. The plus of this diet is most of the food I will be eating is very fiber full and filling so I shouldn’t be feeling hungry to often despite the limited portion sizes. I will be using flavored olive oils as my seasoning on almost everything. This diet also calls for me to reduce the amount of coffee I drink to three cups a day and the removal of all packaged and heavily processed foods from my menu, which means no more chips and also no more protein shakes or bars. The diet at its core is simple; eat whole real foods in moderation. Here is my first shopping list on this diet to give you a better idea of what I am going to be eating:
Whole grains breads and pasta
Olive oil (flavored) (extra virgin the best)
Almonds and walnuts (in moderation)
Chicken and Turkey
Fresh fruit and vegetables (make up the majority of what you eat)
Fish
Fat free yogurt
Low fat cheese
Beans
Sunflower seeds
Most of my meal will be a mixed salad so I can stick to the diet while allowing myself enough food to feel full without adding extra calories. This diet actually is pretty easy to stick to even when eating out, order a salad made of fresh vegetables with oil and vinegar dressing and either a grilled or broiled fish or poultry and your set (no fried food on this plan).
EXERCISE
One of the essential elements to a healthy lifestyle is exercise and on this program the exercise of choice is walking. For people living in the Mediterranean walking is a way of life so I plan on relying on walking as my main form of cardio, oddly enough walking was key to me losing eighty pounds as I detail in my book, Diary of a Former Fatman (ADD LINK).
For strength training I am going to follow this superset and triset workout program and add some basic yoga to my routine.
SUPPLEMENTS
Some natural supplements have been shown to have similar if not greater effects that Statin on bad LDL especially when combined with a proper diet and exercise program. The following is based on my own research of medical reports please do your own research before making any decisions on supplements. What I am taking to combat my bad LDL include: Fish Oil (omega 3) 1000 – 3000 mg a day, CoQ10 100- 300 mg a day, Red Yeast Rice 1200 mg a day, standardized trans-resveratrol 400 mg a day, Folic acid 500 mcg a day, B12 400 mcg a day, B6 50 mg a day, Niacin 50 mg, and Natural Full Spectrum Vitamin E (400 IU of alpha-tocopherol and mixed tocopherols, along with 400 mg of mixed tocotrienols) along with vitamin D 1000 IU a day. While you might be able to find one pill with most or all of these ingredients I prefer to buy each one separately so I know what I am getting and am not getting any unneeded products or fillers.
As I said this program is living AMA and it will be really hard to tell if I am right or not, but I can tell you as a Christian I am much less worried about death than I am about living with life diminishing side effects of Statin, the way I look at it life isn’t about the number of years you live but what you do with those years that matters.
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[...] this article: Living AMA: Finding a natural alternative to Statin « FITNESSFORUS.COM ← Dieting and Fitness – Diet [...]
[...] You can do this workout for 4 – 6 weeks before you will need to change it up to continue to see the progress you want. As for diet I am on a Mediterranean Diet and combined with this workout program have shed 11 pounds of fat in 3 weeks while seeing a noticeable increase in my lean muscle mass, you can read about why I am on a Mediterranean Diet and my supplement plan here. [...]
I thank you humbly for sahrnig your wisdom JJWY
[...] I have been on a Mediterranean Diet for five weeks so I figured that is enough time to write an assessment. Well I have lost 13 pounds, while managing to increase my muscle mass (noticeably visually as well as confirmed through measurements). My energy has been fantastic and I have to say I have felt great and have not felt really hungry once that I can remember. You can read why I went on this particular diet here. [...]
That’s 2 clever by half and 2×2 clever 4 me. Thakns!
How have your blood tests come out? Did you lose the statin induced weight? Thanks.
Hey Paula, need to wait six months to see what changes there are to the blood tests, I have lost most of the statin weight (down 17 pounds in a little over 6 weeks so far).
Walking in the presence of giants here. Cool thiknnig all around!
AFAICT you’ve ceovred all the bases with this answer!