M1 just told me something really interesting. Earlier this summer, she had her cholesterol levels tested. Now hers are usually borderline, or a little high, and her triglycerides are chronically above where they should be, but never anything to get in a panic about. Until this recent test.
Her total cholesterol was above 500. Her triglycerides were like 1500. She immediately thought she was going to die. Her MD put her on Zocor and she put herself on an incredibly spartan diet devoid of all fat. (She was, for example, using that spray-on margarine on her veggies and that fake-ass no fat cream in her coffee, which I told her is just sad.) She also stopped taking her latest supplement, which was CoQ10, because some googling led her to find that it follows the same pathway as cholesterol.
She just had everything retested after a month or six weeks on the Zocor and the I'd-rather-die-than-eat-that diet, and her total cholesterol is now [wait for it]...154! She and I refuse to believe that the Zocor works that great and are attributing the incredible drop to the lack of the CoQ10. She didn't mention anything to her MD about that, because he already thinks she's a, y'know, nutcase with her supplements and all. But, you know, it kind of makes sense. I know that one of the side effects that they worry about with statin drugs (which lower your cholesterol) is that they can affect your muscle enzymes. CoQ10 is good for your muscle enzymes. But apparently bad for your cholesterol. The same pathway must be being affected.
This is why, despite the billions of dollars of research, 90% of the medications you take have side affects, from minor to that's-gonna-kill-ya. We just don't know enough about how to tweak one thing without also tweaking something else that was better off left alone. Fascinating.
xoxo
4 comments:
a soccer buddy of mine went on a statin for cholesterol, and now he pulls his quad practically every time he plays. he also holds his stretches for never less than 5 seconds, which, along with advancing age, might have something to do with the fragile muscle tone, too. a puzzlement, for sure, though i immediately recommended active isolated stretching, biweekly massage, and a massive focus on fascia, just in case.
Huh. If you were a *real* friend, you'd have shared your arnica. (Heidi will make more. Swear to god!) :-)
Sounds suspiciously like the sales pitch from either a drug dealer or a potato chip magnate. "Crunch all you want -- we'll make more".
Well, if poor little Heidi could only sell more botanicals, she could afford a better ad agency.
Or something like that.
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