Cholesterol lowering foods symptoms and conditions

I posted several months ago on this string and wanted to update. I had bloodwork done for the 1st time since I quit the 20mg of Lipitor in August. LDL went from 123 to 210. Total Chol went from 191 to 285. HOWEVER all shooting pains I had been experiencing in legs, feet, and chst are GONE! Went back to my Dr. today, told her that same result and my serious objection to taking any kind of statin and she prescribed CRESTOR while telling me it was more potent than Lipitor! WTF!!!

I refuse this course, am drinking 30 - 40 ozs. of water each day now like I should have been, doubled my CoQ10 to 200mg/day, finally getting back into the gym to lose weight and get the HDL up from the level of 36 it is now. also started to drink the new yogurt type "shot" of Promise for cholesterol that provides 2 grams of plant sterols per day.

I will not take statins ever. I WILL find a natural way to keep my Chol under control. I've also been convinced that you don't have to be at or under the 200mlg of total chol to be healthy. Look at your C Reactive Protein and Homosiytes (sp?) If they are in range you should be good.

I know Lipitor was the cause of my rupturing each of my Achiller tendons a year apart while playing tennis in my late 40's Muscle pain soon followed.

I stopped taking Zocor 6 weeks ago on advice of a metabolic specialist. I started to feel the best I have for four and a half years. I was going about my daily routine last week when it dawned on me I had no muscle aches or pains at all. I was feeling so well, not depressed or tired. I have been sleeping well at night time and now I only have pleasant dreams. I wake up refreshed and full of hope and the stiffness in my body had gone completely. I take the dog for a walk daily and the other night I found I went for a short jog with him, I couldn't believe I could actually jog. I had been finding it impossible over the past four years to gain any level of fitness,although I exercise daily, and have always eaten only the healthiest food. I never lost weight during the last four and a half years, and gained a lot of flab on my stomach. The metabolic specialist stated that the Zocor had destroyed muscle and replaced it with fat. Now that I am not taking Zocor I have started some light weight training, and I have found this to be beneficial. I will see my GP in 2 days time to report my good health. I will never take Zocor or anything like it eg.Lipitor or any statin drug. I believe these drugs are not beneficial to a person's health. I feel sure I will lead a normal healthy life from now on with sensible exercise, continue with good common sense cholesterol lowering foods to compliment my optimistic outlook. Even although I have a family history of heart disease, I believe I will have a better lifestyle looking after myself the natural way. I prefer to believe what I have read on this website from the people who really know what it feels like to be suffering continually from aches and pains, and feeling as though I was a constant pain in the neck for my family. I have had so many of the side effects described I felt like I was a hypochondriac and so I gave up complaining about all of my symptoms to my doctor; exteme fatigue, feeling unwell and depressed, swelling in my legs, trouble walking up 2 flights of stairs, stiffness, particularly in my legs, feet, more so on the right side, sometimes stiff neck(which the Dr said was a wry neck), burning sore feet continual, waking at night with my lower body just aching like a toothache, feeling freezing cold; sometimes I would wake and the joints on my lower trunk where my legs start felt like they had ridges of built up swelling or calcium. I have had bleeding gums at times, and sometimes mouth ulcers. 2 years ago I had unexplained vaginal bleeding, my stomach had blown up and I looked like I was 6 months pregnant although I was post menopausal (early menopause). I had to have a curette because they thought I must have cancer, but there was no explanation for the bleeding. 2 months ago I had tests for diabetes, my blood glucose tolerance test came back with a concave reading, which the GP could not make sense of, so this is why I was referred to a metabolic specialist. The specialist could not fault my dietary intake. It was found that I also had a severe depletion of iodine, although I had been tested for hyposthyroidism 2 years earlier and nothing showed up. From time to time I have had abnormal liver function tests, put down to overuse of paracetemol or anti inflammatory drugs.....so I stopped taking these completely and managed the pain with some help from a psychologist friend with self hypnosis. I believe that all of my symptoms were due to taking drugs, and prior to taking Zocor I had no need to ever take anything. It was only because the GP recommended Zocor after a High Cholesterol reading and I was considered to be in a High Risk Category because my Mum died of a sudden heart attack and my dad had Angina. Mum died at 61 y.o. and dad at 78 y.o. I am 54 y.o. and started taking Zocor at 49 y.o. I stopped taking Zocor 6 weeks ago, now feel great and would not recommend it to anyone.