Diabetic death spiral

[Larry T]

I think you'll find that many people who train heavy have had very poor luck with statins.

It was a statin side effect that was the last straw pushing me into losing a little over 100 lbs. Both Crestor and Lipitor reduced my LDL and increased my HDL but they ALSO raised my blood sugar levels - a known side effect in over 25% of statin users. 2-3 years ago the only number I had that was good was my blood sugar. Even at 6'4" and almost 340 my sugar level was in the 90s. Statins jacked it to over 130 - even after losing 30 lbs.

I stopped the statins, lost another 75 lbs and POOF! No more high BP, HDL and LDL are good and sugar levels went down to mid 90s immediately after stopping the statins even before losing the other 75 lbs.

[Pluripotent]

I think you'll find that many people who train heavy have had very poor luck with statins.

This may indeed be true. I personally have never had a patient who is both on statins and trains hard, and I'm pretty sure this particular scenario hasn't been studied. However, I also find that many people will blame the statins for any aches and pains when they may have nothing to do with it. Determining whether the culprit is the statin (in the absence of frank rhabdo, which makes it easy) is pretty difficult to suss out, since it takes some commitment on the part of the physician and the patient to experiment and be strict about what they take for a while, and be willing to follow up, and it's often not done because it's just too much trouble (the statin is just stopped and maybe listed as a class allergy). The hard fact, however, is that for some people who legitimately have an issue that cannot be reversed by diet alone, statins can prevent an early death. Everyone has heard the stories of very healthy people who suddenly die of a heart attack. Atherosclerosis is virtually 100% preventable these days. Obviously it would be best if people didn't have to take any medications, but some people's genetics may offer little other choice. But I'll be the first to admit that for the vast majority of people, we just don't know if diet and exercise is all they need, because they just won't do it.

[Jonathon Sullivan]

But statins save lives, though.

http://www.thennt.com/nnt/statins-fo...heart-disease/

[Mark Rippetoe]

http://www.thennt.com/nnt/statins-fo...heart-disease/

Yeah.

[vanslix]

http://www.thennt.com/nnt/statins-fo...heart-disease/

Sorry, I meant secondary prevention. I agree that the despite the new guidelines, primary prevention data isn't strong. About the only convincing one for me was the Jupiter trial but that was only one trial and cut short.

[drecar]

http://www.thennt.com/nnt/statins-fo...heart-disease/

Thanks for this very important information. So far my doc says that I have excellent cholesterol.

Doc says no protein in my urine.

[DaveJF]

Let's look past the obvious to see the actual. The OP is 6'0" and weighs 300 lbs. Regarding his general health and especially diabetes, he doesn't need programming help or BCAAs or Prowler sessions. He needs to lose a hundred pounds, which will be done by eating 500 to 1,000 calories a day less than he burns. He can't out-lift or out-train a bad diet.

He said a few posts back that he's 95% diet compliant but nothing is happening. EAT LESS.

That was my experience. Only thing I could add is that specifically concentrating on lowering carbs made it a lot easier for me to comply to a lower calorie diet (could be different for the OP).

Thanks for this very important information. So far my doc says that I have excellent cholesterol.

Doc says no protein in my urine.

Excellent news.