Anyone on Xetia? Any issues?
No issues with Xetia itself, other than it didn’t give me the cholesterol reduction the doctor and I were hoping for. It works differently from statins. My diet was good so my cholesterol issues were likely genetic. Therefor, I needed something that reduced the amount of cholesterol my body was making.
@ucbalumnus I think my legs look better! And my skin, too. I think it’s the increased fruits and veggies. The other day I got a complement on my skin from a younger man. He also said I look “stout” when ch didn’t sound so great but when I laughingly asked if I looked fat, he said, no, that it was more like I could deal with whatever came my way. That doesn’t sound to bad.
Agree with a previous a poster who mentioned working with a Registered Dietitian on some of these diet and supplement changes. One other thing to note is that statins reduce CoQ10 levels in the body, and CoQ10 is needed for energy, heart health support, and acts as an antioxidant.
I’m considerably busy here with my dad’s recent death (of a heart attack - age 76), but still keeping abreast of this (for obvious reasons).
One question that comes to mind. Since my recent heart cath showed absolutely no heart or artery issues - not even minor ones (“best cath I’ve seen in someone your age”), I’m thinking that means I don’t have to even remotely consider statins at this point - even with high cholesterol readings.
Am I thinking incorrectly?
Obviously my dad had issues for most of his adult life (first heart attack at age 47 leading to a double bypass). I’m not sure what (if anything) to assume at this point. His cardiologist had just cleared him for back surgery in Sept. It came as a surprise to them that he died on Sunday from a heart issue (most likely - no autopsy done to be sure, but no reason to doubt it).
@Creekland - sorry to hear about your dad! And I know your mom has not been well, correct?
I think the statin decision may also be affected by whether the cholesterol is the “light fluffy” kind or the more dense type.
@surfcity Yes, my mom has cancer. Hers is Stage IV esophageal with nothing working on it. She’s already lived longer than projected so we had hoped Keytruda would work, but apparently not.
She had heart issues too, but not until age 73. Her parents also had heart issues in their older ages, but lived to ages 88 and 94. She’s the first in her family line to get cancer. Dad, and dad’s side of the family have had heart issues from middle age.
All of them have Type II diabetes as well and have from adulthood or middle age. None smoked or drank regularly (well, my grandpa enjoyed a few beers pretty regularly, but the rest didn’t). Diets were hardly super healthy for any, but those who lived longer were definitely more active in their lives.
Most of my life from college age on has been set up opting to eat healthier and keeping active, etc, to avoid their issues. I like to think at least some of it has worked, but I’m aware that genetics plays a role so just want to try to be informed about my best options to choose from. Up until recently I haven’t had to care about any of it - then middle age came upon me and/or radiation issues from the brain tumor - no one knows where that one came from! It’s definitely not genetic, but even lifestyle seems odd. At least it’s benign - and hopefully dead.
Obviously I’m not related to my in-laws, but both of them are near the end too (albeit at ages 87 with end stage Alzheimers, and 90 with severe heart issues). H and I are talking a bit about how we could very well lose all of them within the span of a year. It makes one realize just how mortal life is. Seeing how the end plays out for all of our relatives keeps us wanting to do our part to make it as decent of an end as possible with lifestyle and informed, intelligent decisions. Then it’s up to chance.
Jumping in here with a purely anecdotal perspective from my son, who is a full-time paramedic with a specialty interest in cardiac care. We had a conversation while on vacation about statins, heart disease, etc. He said in the two years he has been on the job (in a busy city/county system), he has never transferred a patient experiencing a cardiac event who did NOT have a comorbidity - high blood pressure, diabetes, or obesity. Often more than one of those. He transports several cardiac patients a week, sometimes several in a day. (Note this excludes patients who have heart abnormalities, which is an entirely different situation.)
So in Creekland’s post above, a key point that jumped out at me is “all of them have Type II diabetes.” I’m interested to hear from others who have heart disease deaths in their family if there was a comorbidity involved, or not.
My latest bloodwork showed some borderline results, but S said with my good diet and fitness routine and low blood pressure there was no reason to even be thinking about statins at this point - in his humble opinion. Doctor had already told me the same when we went over the results - she said she had no concerns and we would take a look again in a year.
Here’s a funny update. H just told me my primary left a message on voicemail for me…couple of weeks ago! Thanks, H!
I called the office back and was told my cholesterol is “slightly” elevated and the doctor just wants me to…monitor my diet! Yay!
This was the guy who was so gung ho about statins earlier in the year.
I’m very happy about this.
The only problem is my allergies are flaring and I’m not sure what’s triggering it but it’s very likely part of my cholesterol lowering regimen. I’m thinking red Swiss chard since I react to beets and it’s related or the milk from grass fed cows since grass is a trigger for me. Who knows? It’s just frustrating because once something triggers a flare, it takes awhile until my system calms down.
Eh, in today’s cardiologist appt I got the lecture about why statins are good and a script for Lipitor (sigh). Diet and exercise were discussed too, but except for lower salt, those are already in the very good range. I suspect my salt intake is also lower than those who do more processed foods or fast food.
The dude had forgotten why I was in overall (not surprising being human and having oodles of other folks he deals with). I still like him, but with my issues not being typical I suspect this is another dead end.
Tomorrow is another preplanned blood test which will test levels. I should have those results Thursday. I guess I’ll have to figure out where I stand on the issues very shortly.
What I really want is to be able to climb stairs and mountains again - things I used to be able to do. If my heart and arteries are fine, and lungs are fine, why in the world can I walk 15 miles straight on the flat, but be unable to climb Gettysburg’s Longstreet Tower (127 steps - 75ft) without stopping at least three times to catch my breath and let my calves stop burning? Literally no one else I walk with has these problems even if they are older, less in shape, and/or have a higher BMI.
I get that couch potatoes might have issues. Those of us who regularly do/did mountain hiking should not. One could need heavier breathing climbing, but still ought to be able to actually do it without their body giving out.
But I digress… I really need to figure out if I’m going to test statins out to lower cholesterol or not. I’m doubtful they’ll fix the problems I care about.
BP today at the office was 116/78. Pulse was 68. Heart cath three weeks ago was totally clear - heart and arteries. Those all make me think they’re not needed.
But my dad just died from heart disease (albeit he was 76, I’m 51), and the doc mentioned there could be blockage in narrower arteries even if there isn’t in the larger ones.
I think I really need to move somewhere flat and not carry heavy items like water buckets for ponies (as that is an issue too).
I can walk 3 hours but have trouble with a flight of stairs. It’s my quad muscles. But you previously climbed mountains. This doc checked your foot pulses, right?
He did. No problem. There’s never a problem without exertion. Tomorrow there’s some sort of vascular/BP test, but again it’s not with exercise so all will be fine. (Forecasting - I don’t actually know, but that’s the trend.) If it were up to me, they’d be doing some sort of exercise test or let me try one of those heart monitors for 2-3 hours (with my exercise) and see if something showed up. If not, then all is fine. If so - follow that lead. But what do we minions know?
If it’s a muscle issue instead, it’s also something that’s progressively getting worse vs being out of shape. At my mom’s there’s a 3 mile walk I do as often as I can. At one point in that walk there’s a set of stairs from the bottom of a hill to the top - not sure how many steps - maybe 40 or so. I do it every single time I go up there, pushing to not stop, at least 3 times per week or so. When I was there last week my calves were burning intensely at the top as they do with such things (now) - but this time they stayed almost as bad coming down for the first time ever - not getting better until the next day. Yea. Something new. (sigh) I’ve yet to try that one again to see if it repeats that way. Next week…
'Tis not an out of shape thing and I don’t plan to let it get that way. I’ll move somewhere flat if I need to, but it gets depressing thinking about restricting our travel to flat areas. We’re NP fans - loving scenic vistas. I guess there’s always beaches.
Any chance you are retaining water? I haven’t kept up with your threads, since I’m so unlikely to have anything to offer, but I now have my daughter’s experience to share in case it’s helpful. Healthy 20 yo walked and biked all over Europe for 2 months, came home and, after a couple of weeks, started experiencing breathlessness with only light exertion. After two trips to a regular dr. and 6 hours in the ER during which they evaluated her for every possible cause, a pulmonologist diagnosed it as soon as she walked in his office: plain ol’ water retention. She was wearing shorts, and he observed that her calves were shiny. Her 02 stats were always fine, but she FELT like she wasn’t getting deep breaths. A few days on an oral steroid and a diuretic, and she was back to normal. She’ll follow up if it happens again, but he thinks it was probably a one-time thing. I know this is very, very unlikely to be your case, but I am throwing it out there in case anything rings a bell.
Have you considered seeing a neurologist, especially one specializing in neuromuscular issues? Your problem may not be cardiovascular.
Have you been tested for Lyme disease? It can cause all kinds of weird issues when it is chronic.
I don’t know what this is. For the past three or four years as it’s developed I assumed it was asthma because three decades ago the Navy said I had it and it would get worse as I aged. Their decision got me medically discharged from the AF, so seemed “real.” Therefore, it made sense to lose the ability to do things considering I was getting older so my family and I just ignored it and dealt with it. Last fall when I figured it was finally time to get it addressed again I went in figuring I’d get an inhaler or something - only to be told it’s not asthma, I likely never had asthma, and my lungs are fine.
The only thing I know is it happens all the time - super consistent - perfect correlation to exertion and when I get out of breath my pulse is > 120 (unless I just donated blood in which case I can lower that to 115). I reach 110 just by regular quick walking. I reach 120+ by either carrying heavier things or stairs/hills. Most of the time my pulse returns to normal (resting rate in 60s usually, can range from 55-75) quickly (minutes). If I’ve been active more than usual it can take a couple days to return below 90, but all usual stuff returns to normal quickly.
Pulmonologist said to check cardiac. That’s where I’m at.
And the outside influence… radiation for a brain tumor happened in 2014. This could be somehow caused by that even though the doctors I’ve seen have been inconsistent in saying that’s possible. I have a couple other issues blamed on radiation that aren’t normal - trigeminal nerve pain especially, but even things like being able to hear my pulse (making it rather easy to know when it’s high/low). Those I’ve learned to live with. This one I might have to learn to live with as well. The progression worries me and is very aggravating/frustrating considering our lifestyle, but it’s slow. It’s been 3-4 years now since I first recall anything coming from it.
Med school lad is working on it. Unlike doctors, he’s seen my life and knows what is going on so there’s no believability issue. The problem there is he’s only second year, so has a bit to go yet before having more knowledge to handle weird things. He recently had one possible clue since he gets supraventricular ectopic beats with exercise causing him to have slight shortness of breath. He and I wondered if that was what was going on in my situation, but 26 years more age with me so perhaps worse. NIH says it’s possible with exercise. I mentioned that to the doc yesterday, but he said it’s not even remotely likely to be an issue so I guess not. I’m stuck again - and still frustrated, but pretty much ready to drop this (medically) and just live with it until I can’t anymore - or middle son hits upon something that is correct.
Back to this thread… would any of y’all be considering Lipitor? I don’t think that part is related, but it is something I need to make a decision on soon - like - by Monday. I’ll start investigating myself (online) after I get today’s cholesterol results.
@Creekland, I take Lipitor - 40 mg daily. My total cholesterol had been over 200 for a long time, but I had very high HDL, moderately elevated LDL and very low triglycerides, in no small part due to an extremely healthy (okay, rigidly healthy) diet and exercise plan. My doctor and I agreed a statin was unnecessary until this year. Late last year I started to struggle with breathing during exercise and frankly had some frightening runs where I honestly thought my heart was going to explode. Very high pulse. I had my cholesterol tested as part of an insurance physical and it was through the roof. I have a family history of heart disease - my LDL was up, my HDL was substantially lower and triglycerides had tripled - even though I had been doing everything I’d always done. So I now take Lipitor which has brought everything under control. My glucose is elevated now and that is something that will need to be monitored, but I have to tell you I feel a whole lot better than I did. There are a number of different protocols that might be worth discussing with your doctor. I resisted for a long time, but I’m very glad I went ahead. I didn’t want to die when there was something I could do.
@sabaray Thanks for sharing. It gives me a glimmer of hope that maybe this is a plausible path to consider instead of thinking they’re not possibly linked and “why deal with Y when X is what’s bugging me?”
I should see if my numbers have shifted at all by tomorrow. The lab is often very quick posting results. I wish everything in the medical world could be so timely!
Orthostatic intolerance testing via a tilt table test would still be work checking as well.
What happens if you RUN, let’s say, at moderate 11 min/mile pace instead of walking those 3 miles at 16 min/mile?
@Creekland You’ve had your bloodwork checked correct? My D just had a problem with kidney stones and had to have a procedure and they checked her bloodwork beforehand. Some of her levels were off a bit, but not enough to postpone the procedure. She has an appt today with her PCP to get them checked up.
I googled the test results and the most likely cause is anemia - which makes sense since she just became a vegetarian. She also doesn’t eat enough healthy vegetables. But when I was doing the research it stated that shortness of breath with exertion could be a symptom. She’s a basketball player and hasn’t complained as she’s eased back into her routine, but she’s young and fit.
Just thought I’d throw that out there.
Also, it amazes me that your cardiologist won’t do a exercise stress test or put you on a 24 hour holter monitor. That makes no sense whatsoever.