Question:
About 8 weeks ago my doctor had sent me to a lab to have my blood cholesterol checked. The shocking results came back a few days later. Cholesterol: 284 Triglycerides 101 HDL 37 LDL 227 He immediately had me start taking 20mg Lipitor a day and start a low-fat,low-cholesterol diet and do more exercising. I was shocked at the results, always felt that I ate sensibly but certainly never thought much about using butter, eating steaks, and whatever else I wanted. I realized I needed to lose about 20 pounds, but kept putting it off until the results came in. I immediately started an intensive low-fat/low-cholesterol diet. Switched to skimmed milk (after drinking 2% -that was tough the first few weeks), quit eating cheese (my first love) and only 3 oz of red meat (my second love) per week. I cut my total meat consumption (and that was skinless, boneless chicken or turkey) down to no more than 3 to 4 ounces couple times a week and the rest was pasta and rice dishes (cooked without butter and very little if no olive oil) and a lot of vegetables. I cut back my daily fat intake to 10 gm or less and sat fat was maybe 2 gm a day or none at all. I dusted off the old indoor bike and started riding it every-other day for 8 miles. My next blood test was scheduled for 6 weeks and I was going to do everything I could to quit taking those medicines (the side effects scared me). And so my low-fat dining adventure began. Six-weeks later and ten pounds lighter I did my second blood cholesterol check. The results were: Cholesterol: 123 Triglycerides 69 HDL 28 LDL 81 Now my question is: Is there any possible way that my free low fat low cholesterol diet , exercise, and the use of the Lipitor could have made such a dramatic effect? Or was the original blood test of someone else's?
Answer:
Liptor could have a lot to do with the dramatic change. It is an excellent drug with incredible results in some people. It is doubtful that a 10 pound weight loss and 6 weeks could have had such a profound effect. Plus, dietary changes usually don't have a lot of effect on cholesterol formation. No doubt your lifestyle changes have made the lipitor even more effective and made you much healthier. So, who cares what it is, something you are doing is working great. Keep it up. I will be interested to see if stopping the lipitor will have any sort of impact, so please let us know how your next test works out.
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