I ain't gave up no ice cream Betty!

I eat the Haagan Daas LIGHT which rocks!

What I've found out is if you eat clean fresh foods your body will repair itself. It'll burn off the fat which it was storing and everything will go to healthy levels.

I'm scared to go back bodybuilding to my old schedule. I grow muscle fast and get 20" arms in no time. With my new diet if I even look at weights I start growing muscle. Just dietary changes alone worked wonders.

Diabetes II is running rampant all over the place. Genetics I don't think play that much a part because I have people in my family that live in their 90's and some don't make it past 70. With today's medical technologies by the time we hit 2025 we'll all be looking at lifespans in the 100's and more.

Make that money now and put it away and get that 10% return for your early retirement.

Hey Mikey in the will just leave me Marie ;)

That's the problem .. I can lose a little weight but I'm not really fat. I'm also pretty active. I do a lot of work on the house and even built 2 bedrooms and a bath upstairs over the last 2 months. I've been taking 2 days a week off just to work on the house and I've already started to modify my diet .. I'm 5"9 and 200lb but i have big arms and shoulders. I should only lose about 20 - 25lb .. anything over that i look sick. not that i look healthy now but you know what i mean.

I just hope i can get it down and get off the meds ..then keep it down. I do have a lot of issues to bring up with my doctor after this thread and a lot of other options to look at ..so thanks you everyone :thumbsup

I wouldn't do that to you ... your my friend :Oh crap

haha thats a good one mikey, Hey take care of yourself, ive lost to many family members to High Blood Preasure and Cholestoral, So I gotta start watching mine also.

Yo' Mike, May I suggest a nutritionist. my cholesteral was 270 last summer and my triglicerides were 350. Yikes!! I was way over weight etc. I went to my nutritionist and lost 30 lbs in 2 months (50 lbs overall now) and brought my cholesteral down to 170 in 1 month. Didn't need any drugs, just discipline.

It's not just the meat, big problem is that a lot of ppl have fried foods in their daily program. I'm not the best person to give healthy living tips lol but it should become common sense to everyone this is something to totally avoid.

I remember when i was a kid my father didn't allow my mother to make ANY fry food with very rare occasions. This pretty much became a habit of mine and I rarely eat anything fried. Maybe like once a month or every 2 months.

I did my first workout with a trainer today. he lives across the street and holds a few titles for all natural body building . We have a 4 month plan set up and he's going to layout my entire diet and I'll keep a book of everything i eat. I'll train with him 3 days a week and do Cardio on my own an additional 2 days. I already decided after this thread and my trainer that I'm going to stop the lipitor and give good old healthy living a try. if after 2 months i haven't had enough change then I'll go on the Meds.

I noticed you lost some weight last time i saw ya .. very nice :thumbsup

Same here.. Im maybe 25 lbs overwieght for my height. I do alot of mountain climbing, snowshoeing and hiking..all year. Its my bad eating and genes that are fucking me all up.

Good luck...:thumbsup

thats awesome man! cool to see you getting on the right track like that. its depressing seeing people rely so much on drugs rather than make a lifestyle change. drugs are easier of course, but starting down that path only leads to more health problems and more drugs and a shorter life.

i see people in the gym day in and day out who don't accept responsibility for their choices and their lifestyles and because of that, can't change... and there is a small % of who understand that they have to start making some major lifestyle changes and have the determination to do it and its those people who often undergo a very dramatic change and become and inspiration to everyone around them.

I'd be more concerned with the high blood glucose at that point...

And what kind of doctor prescribes pills *before* telling you to get some exercis and eat better? He should have referred you to a nutritionist and a fitness instructor first.

But that's just my laywoman's opinion.

At least two people in this thread actually take Lipitor. Both of us reported zero side effects and for me at least, it has literally been a life saver. I hope Mike noticed these posts among all the second-hand horror stories and dubious advice.

1. High cholesterol may be caused by poor diet, but often it is genetic (as in my case). Either way his doctor should recommend changes in diet, but a) it is important to get cholesterol down quickly and b) it takes time for a change in diet to indicate whether diet is the culprit. That is why his doctor is recommending Lipitor immediately. The vastatin drugs work on the liver and there is a small risk that the liver may not be able to handle them. Patients are routinely tested to check that.

2. If high cholesterol levels have already caused damage to arteries, a reduction to normal levels will prevent further damage, but will not reverse the damage already done. Lipitor or one of the other vastatins can reduce cholesterol levels below normal and possibly help clean the arteries. That is another reason it might be prescribed.

3. Without doubt, most people could benefit from lifestyle changes. But there is not a one-size-fits-all formula: particularly if your body is not functioning normally. If I had followed some of the exercise suggestions here, they would have killed me. Hopefully Mike is young enough that his cholesterol levels have not yet caused serious artery blockage and thus weakened his heart. But really it is irresponsible of people to make suggestions without knowing the specifics of his condition.

I have more reason than many to be sceptical about a lot of medical professionals. But when someone already has a potentially serious problem, the only really sound advice is to follow their recommendations and if in doubt, seek a second or even third opinion.

I sincerely hope that delaying the lipitor for two months won't hurt you down the road; if I was you, I would do the above exercise and nutrition regimen PLUS immediately start the Lipitor.

Good Luck, Mike, and please let us know your progress from time-to-time!

Dave Cummings

My god you americans are all slaves to your food and pill industry :2 cents:

I've been to the USA a couple of times and every time when I took a shit it was 3 times longer in size than at home.. thats seriously fucked up!

Didn't you know that the average GFYer has a minimum of 8 years medical school and X years experience under their belt?

Mike, bare minimum, I hope you tell your doctor about your choice. I've stopped taking medication before without advising my doctor and it landed me in the hospital knocking on deaths door.

It's always seen as a joke when someone asks legal advice on GFY. Medical advice should be taken with the same grain.

saying "high cholesterol is genetic" and questioning whether "diet is the culprit" implies that there is little you can do about it or that its beyond the individuals control. i am not trying to diagnose you and i am not a doctor. i have already stated that i think drugs have their place in medicine. of course there are individual, genetic factors (often liver issues) that might put one person more at risk than others but you sound like you have no willingness to even attempt live a healthy lifestyle either and you again suggest that it might not help.

your tone and message is not that great diet and exercise is extremely important to good health and drugs are a last resort or SOMETIMES neccessary, but rather "hey man, its probably not the individuals fault, we don't have time to eat right, we don't have time to exercise, diet might not help anyway and a healthy lifestyle might not help". that is the part of the conversation that i think is unfortuneate.

you are very bright person. far brighter than myself. you are certainly one of the most articulate people to ever post on this board, yet you seem to be oddly one sided and defensive about this issue.

its also worth pointing out that in 100 years, we went from being a country where heart attacks were unheard of ... to heart disease being the nations number 1 killer. thats not "genetic" - thats a nation of people who, in a very short time, went from a normal diet to subsisting on saturated fats, starches and sugars while becoming increasingly sedentary. heart disease is the symptom... not the problem. pills can't change that. only education combined with peoples willingness and determination to change the habits that created this situation can.

Yes. Life expectancy has also doubled.

why does that make it ok that heart disease which is fully accepted to be the direct result of poor diet and lack of exercise, to be the number 1 killer of Americans? in fact, people mostly die from preventable disease.

Not to mention, 100 years ago the "weak" would have died young or as a miscarriage. Now babies born months prematurely live their lives.

How many people posting in this thread would have been dead 100 years ago? I know I would have.

(i say all this as i realized i was too fatigued to box this morning and am eating nachos)

I'm sorry. Did I say that somewhere?

Everyone should exercise. Everyone should eat right. But to right off medicine as its only a bad thing is absolutely ridiculous.

Out of curiosity, do you suggest that diabetics should control their insulin levels solely based on the foods they eat? Or do you suggest they take proper shots AND a proper diet?

ok... for the 3rd or 4th time. medicine has its place. medicine is not "bad". i was commenting on this countries problem where pills are often the first line of defense. cholesterol is one of those issues where doctors will give a prescription first, because most patients won't do the work themselves. thats just my opinion. i'm not a doctor... i might very well be an idiot.

Refer back to the first page where I clearly stated that I agree with you.

Sometimes you get so busy posting your opinion that you fail to realize when others actually agree with you and then you start to counter their statements. You have done this to me a couple times when I agreed with you 100%.

depends on the type of diabetes. when not born with it, diabetes is most often caused by poor diet. EVERYONE should eat correctly and exercise.

if you are a fat turd like my aunt, who refuses to eat right and exercise and your health slowly degrades to the poiint you are diabetic due to the downward spiral caused by insulin resistence... your choice is to start taking insulin and/or to start undoing all the years of bad eating and eventually normalize and stabilize your pancreas function... or start taking insulin and cry about your "genetic" issues while you make a dinner out of Oreos and deep fried Twinkies.

sorry.

i only noticed your comment "But to right off medicine as its only a bad thing is absolutely ridiculous" - thought you were saying i was saying that.

my gfy posting formula

1) skim
2) assume
3) attack

;)

You know what they say about those who assume... :pimp

i always remember that from watching Bad News Bears when i was like 8 or 9 if thats what you mean. the only part of the movie i remember. :)

get a treadmill and diet and you wont need it. take it as a warning sign to change your life and get right. take the pills and look at them every day and say if i stay fat, this is what i will have to take..

or buy some meth and get on it..its probably healthier

What he said.

Yogurt is a great substitute for ice cream.

Because uninformed crap is harmless in most cases, but not when it comes to someone's health. This thread didn't start as a debate about general healthcare principles: someone asked if anyone here took Lipitor, because he has a raised cholesterol level and his doctor is recommending it for him. If he really is foolish enough to take medical advice from this board, it seems he will now be ignoring his doctor. Wonderful!

For your information, when my condition was recognized, it had already gone far beyond just raised cholesterol. I ended up in intensive care and was told I had very limited prospects without immediate bypass surgery. But I was also warned that unless my cholesterol levels were reduced (and at this point they didn't know why they were raised), I might need repeat surgery every few years.

So I took a chance and decided to work on my cholesterol first. I started on Lipitor and worked on my lifestyle. Which is the other reason I'm "defensive", as you put it.

Most people in good health will benefit from the general advice given in this thread, but that isn't remotely enough if your body is already damaged. Not only is radical change likely to be needed, far more so than most people probably imagine, but then you have to take care that reducing and cutting out certain foods, you add others to keep yourself supplied with all the vitamins and minerals you need. Depending on your condition, the type of exercise which might benefit one person, could be extremely damaging. In short, you need detailed advice specific to your condition and it really isn't helpful - as several have done in this thread - to imply that if someone simply takes better care, everything will be fine.

what uniformed crap?

you are very clearly an exceptional case. you are describing a VERY EXTREME personal situation. most people who are prescribed lipitor aren't in intensive care with doctors recommending immediate surgery or telling them they might require surgery every couple years. far from it. you are not the general population of people trying to lower their cholesterol. as i have said quite a few times now, obviously medicines like this have their place and yours was certainly one of them.

There is a HUGE difference however, in the immediate need to lower cholesterol levels when you are at risk of dying, which requires drugs and being one of countless people today with high cholesterol which rely on a drug over diet and exercise which people commonly tend to do.

lets not pretend that Lipitor is something ONLY prescribed to people who are at risk of death at any minute. its not. like far too many drugs today, its given out like candy because doctors know that the vast majority of patients won't make the required lifestyle changes. i had one friend that was an attorney prescribed lipitor to lower his cholesterol and among other symptoms, he was experiencing vertigo and falling out of chairs at meetings. he was so miserable that he quit it, talked to a nutritionist and created a diet plan and started working out. in 2 months, he had significantly lowered his cholesterol levels. THOSE are the people i am talking about. THOSE represent the majority of people being prescribed drugs because doctors know that the vast majority of patients won't make the required lifestyle changes to help themselves without drugs.