Re: got my hospital records
- From: Jim Chinnis <jchinnis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 03:09:31 GMT
Jackie Patti <jpatti@xxxxxxxx> wrote in part:
Jim Chinnis wrote:
I had a heart valve (mitral) repaired in 1988, out of the blue. Just sorta
fell over on the beach while riding my bicycle and ended up on the operating
table a few days later at age 44. The surgeon who did my surgery did one
just like it a few days later, and the surgery was filmed. My cardiologist
sent me a copy. This was truly hard to watch! I remember seeing the s t o p
p e d heart in the surgeons hands. Something you didn't get to see that I
did was the surgeon cutting the heart open to get to the valve leaflets.
OK, that would completly wig me out. I do not ever wanna see a bypass.
(The type of surgery you had is often called "open heart" but it isn't.)
Yeah, that's what I said to a nurse friend. I thought she was
misspeaking when she referred to it as open heart surgery, but she says
that's what they call it.
I saw open heart surgery on TV once years ago and I knew that wasn't
what they did on me.
<snip>
Then on 6/2, after my bg was relatively controlled for all of 2 days, I
had total cholesterol: 107, triglycerides: 121, HDL: 24 and LDL
(calculated): 58.8, risk factor: "average".
The HDL is a bit scarey. The rest is a huge improvement.
Yeah, I don't like my HDL.
But it's all old news, I'll see what my lipids look like in November.
I've made LOTS of positive changes so I am giving myself a vacation from
worrying about lipids until then.
Fair enough.
Zetia is a cholesterol-lowering med, as that's the only effect it has been
shown to have. Statins (some at least) are heart attack and stroke
preventing meds, independent of lipids.
It appears there's a big anti-inflammatory effect with statins, but I'm
not sure I can't get that in other ways without the risks of statin side
effects.
The thing is, statins--for reasons not clear--reduce MIs and strokes. They
seem to do that in everyone by about the same relative risk reduction.
They've been studied well and the other methods that might work haven't
been. I blame the government. The commercial drug companies test drugs to
gain approval to market them. But the government(s) doesn';t do squat to
test other approaches in the same rigorous ways.
I would reach a different conclusion. Zetia would be a non-starter, since
your cholesterol is already low. Whether a statin is needed to reduce the
probability of another heart attack or a stroke is hard to say. If your bg
is tightly controlled and your lipids are good (including your hdl), and you
have no other known risk factors (elevated fibrinogen, Lp(a), etc., then I'd
say to skip the statin and blame the heart attack mostly on the bg.
Otherwise, I'd take a statin. ($4/month.)
They don't do all these other tests... just a lame lipid panel with a
calculated LDL. But I do plan to nag for better tests when I see the
cardio again.
Well, you can do a lipid panel than provides info on particle sizes and
Lp(a). And you can test for clotting factor problems like fibrinogen with
other tests. And, you can explore the hypercortisolemia possibility too.
The $4/month doesn't bother me; the messing around with my steroid
synthesis pathways does.
I agree. I just get more persuaded by the "hard endpoint" studies than by
the theoretical arguments.
I am even more convinced now than ever that it was the elevated bg that
caused the heart attack, my own stupidity in being afraid of insulin.
Take home lesson: Don't be afraid of insulin, rather be afraid of not
doing whatever you need to do to treat high bg.
And if a doctor ever even THINKS the word "statin" in my presence again,
he shall have little cause to describe me as "pleasant."
You were afraid to take insulin and got an MI. Now you are afraid of a
statin. You may be right this time, but you should be sure your risks are
really low. The HDL is scarey, and I don't know how much you have been
tested for other risk factors like fibrinogen, Lp(a), etc.
Hey, don't use my words against me like that! I *have* a daughter, you
know. ;)
LOL! So do I... ;-D
Seriously, my fear of insulin was irrational. I just felt... my dad
went on insulin and then he died. It wasn't exactly a logical thinking
pattern. Heck, it wasn't even fully conscious thinking... just random
fear at the diea of insulin.
My concern about statins have to do with not liking their
mode-of-action. I'm diabetic, my endocrine system is partially broken
for certain. Messing with cholesterol synthesis just seems like a bad idea.
Yet the studies show a good effect of statins on diabetics. There's the rub.
I'm open to being wrong about this, but not just yet cause I'm not gonna
think about it until after my next set of lab work.
That's fair.
I'm busy being happy about my health right now. It's probably reducing
my cortisol levels as we speak. ;)
That's good. Certainly if you can get your HDL up to 60 and find no risks
from things like clotting factors or Lp(a), tightly control bg, and your
blood pressure is great, etc., then you wouldn't have much to gain from
taking a statin or anything else.
--
Jim Chinnis Warrenton, Virginia, USA
.
- References:
- got my hospital records
- From: Jackie Patti
- Re: got my hospital records
- From: Jim Chinnis
- Re: got my hospital records
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- got my hospital records
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