Who's Taking Lipitor ?? Doc just put me on it ..
 

I've been fighting it for some time now but I can't get the cholesterol down enough on my own not to take it. Heart conditions and high cholesterol runs in the family and my Current cholesterol is 260 .. it was 291 about 10 months ago but i was able to get it down a bit .. not enough.

the other thing i have to look into and treat is that my blood glucose count. it should be between 70 and 150 mg/dL. the nurse on the phone said mine came in at over 1000. I have to take the Lipitor for 3 weeks and then fast the day before testing.

I'm going to make some big life style changes .. I'm only 31 and i need to be around for a bit .. I'm 5'9" and 205lb .. i want to get down to about 175/180 lb just joined the gym a few days ago and I've been running 45 mins every day and start weight training again tomorrow ..

anyone else taking Lipitor? what side effects can i really expect? the list is very long on the script.

icqd

9hotdutchchicks

It nearly killed my dad.

Great .. I feel better already :Oh crap

Diarrhea for sure. I know a couple of people who have been on Lipitor. One had a chronic case of the shits and had to be taken off Lipitor. The other got over it in just a week or 10 days and continued taking it.

Diarrhea for sure. I know a couple of people who have been on Lipitor. One had a chronic case of the shits and had to be taken off Lipitor. The other got over it in just a week or 10 days and continued taking it.

I've been taking it for 3 years now with no side effects

They had him booked to amputate both his legs for suspected gang green, but then discovered at the last minute he was on Lipitor and took him off that shit. He still has his legs today.

so you die of the shits, or die of congestive heart failure. pick your poison.:upsidedow :winkwink:

OMG and your legs might fall off. Who the hell put this stuff on the market?

Drugs like Lipitor should be the last resort for any health problems, not the first resort. Many of these drugs that supposedly fix health problems have such harmful side effects that I would consider most of them poison. Your doctor is most likely an overweight, out of shape slob, so don't listen to his advice.

You are a young guy. You need to chage your diet, lift weights and do some cardio and not only will your cholesterol come down, but you will look and feel better too. If after a serious effort all that fails, then maybe consider taking Lipitor as a last ditch effort if your cholesterol is still off the chart.

one thing that helped me is that I started looking at lables on the things I bought. No transfat, period. Watch the salt, and fats. Helped me a great deal. As for the shits, it settles down to every once in a while, but it can be controled wtih the pink stuff. One more thing, there is a cheaper pill by half.

I've been on it for about 2 months. Started at 10mg and it lowered my overall cholesterol 30%. He upped it to 20mg and I go back in a month. I'm not a healthy eater, but it's also hereditary - my mother had high cholesterol and watches every bite she eats. Medication is helping her too - same with my brother.

wow, what was the lipitor doing to him? my dad is on it and i know he hates it but he hasn't complained to me of any side effects at least. i know he has to get his liver checked every so often as it could possibly damage your liver but it seems to be the drug of choice for doctors when it comes to high cholesteral.

For years, I took meds to lower my total from 310. I got it down to the 220 level with Niacin and Colestid; then, down to 205 with Zocor, but because I was having a side-effect with calf muscle pain, I was switched to Lipitor which I've now been on for 4-5 years with absolutley NO side effects to my daily 40 mg dosing. My total last month was 140, with an LDL of 79 and an HDL of 50. I'm a happy camper and can now eat almost anything I want. However, like today when I'll head to the beach for breakfast and a 4-6 mile brisk walk like I do almost every day, I'll order eggbeaters with tomatoes cut up and cooked with them, or with salsa. I strongly recommend a little moderation in food consumption, and almost-daily exercise to raise the HDL good stuff.

Good luck!

Dave
www.davecummings.com

The doctors prescribe the pills that they get the best deals from the companies for. Yes, they make money, even when they hand you an ass load of pills for free.

Talk to another doctor, and try something esle if you dont like that. At least for now, they dont have you on one of the statins.

I've been on 80mg of Lipitor for about a year and a half. Once I started on it I was tired alot but I also take a bunch of other pills/day so to say it was just the Lipitor making me tired wouldn't be a fair assumption.

Folks here are right though - radically change your diet and get some exercise. That will help you out immensely and be SURE to keep an eye out on your blood sugar (diabetes). That was my downfall and now I have 3 stents to show for my oversight.

I've been friends with my doctor since before he became a doctor. He gives me what I need, not what he makes money from. Yes, there are doctors like that, but there are also honest doctors.

There was a pediatrician in Alpharetta I used to take my son to who worked out of her house, was in her 90's and had taken care of generations of kids in that area. There were times when she'd receive no payment or payment in livestock or produce :) (not from me - I don't think she wanted a dog or cat :thumbsup )

Why don't you change that as well? Healthy food is good for you in general. Not just for your cholesterol

I've been on Lipitor for the past few years for my bad cholesterol was high and my good cholesterol was low. I was also told to change my diet and exercise more (I was 265 lbs at 5'11" and now I'm 210 lbs), which I did. When I first started, I had to take one pill a day. For me the side effects was mostly depression. The diarrhea that I did have was mostly from eating more fresh fruit and oatmeal.

Last summer, my dosage went down to one every other day. Now I'm down to half a pill every other day. My bad cholesterol is now low and my good cholesterol is high. However, I still have to watch what i eat and that means nothing with high transfat.

Good luck with getting the cholesterol down, Mike.

i was sitting with a group of doctors once... and my attorney who had just been prescribed lipitor. the conversation about drugs came up and our reliance on them. lipitor can have a lot of really nasty side effects and i was criticising the doctors for making people take that kind of shit rather than just sit down and talk to them about diet and exercise.

they all explained that it had nothing to do with them not caring, but more the simple fact that when they tell people how to improve their health, they absolutely won't do it.

but wow. 31 with these problems? thats crazy and very serious. its easy to understand why they resort to drugs.

I am, in general. Eating a lot better than I used to - lots more veggies and lean meats. But sometimes a BBQ sandwich from the place down the road finds a way into my mouth :thumbsup

I have taken Lipitor-style drugs for more than 10 years. After I began taking them, I had a couple of blood tests to ensure my liver wasn't reacting badly. The results were fine and I am not aware of any side effects whatsoever.

I have genetic cholesterol problems, meaning that my body makes too much cholesterol and therefore diet, exercise, etc are only marginal factors in that respect. Lipitor got my levels down to normal. It's probably the main reason, if not the only reason I am still alive.

The only proviso, like someone else wrote, is that Lipitor is only one of several medications I take. My health is badly shot too, so it is possible Lipitor is responsible for some of my symptoms. However it is the least likely cause and none of my doctors have ever suggested it.

this stuff doesnt sound too safe :S

Lipitor is a nightmare, I've never heard of a drug with so many side effects. And not just the "it may cause death, aids, cancer etc" on the commercials, but real life stories.

I haven't had any side effects. I feel cheated :(

Very strange. I have been in and out of heart wards and clinics for years. I haven't heard so much as a hint of any widesrpead or serious side effects (providing liver function is checked - which it routinely is - at the outset) and several of my doctors have been positively glowing about all the vastatins and the improvements in them over the years.

First, as in my case, diet has very little impact. In fact my liver might simply produce more cholesterol in reaction.

That is not true for everyone, but one thing I learned when my problems were diagnozed and I made a serious effort to find out about good diet, is how relative that term is. Most of the everyday discussions are really about improving diet, which is fine. But the suggested improvements wouldn't come close to a good diet.

Nor may a good diet be adequate if you already have elevated cholesterol levels and your arteries have begun to suffer. The next time you are out and you are able to do so, check the saturated fat content of anything you can. You will be horrified how many single servings of some foods are enough by themselves to put you over the 25Mg daily limit recommended for a healthy person. Now consider that if you have a high cholesterol level, even if it is treatable by diet, you should be aiming for closer to 5Mg. And that is only one aspect of diet.

Thanks for all the feeds back guys and girls ... :thumbsup

Jim .. I have been eating better and trying to be more active. 10 months ago my cholesterol was 290 and i was able to get it down to 260 but that's not low enough. I am going to step up the diet and training ( I already have a trainer and start tomorrow with him... he also is helping me with diet )

My entire family on my mothers side has high bllod presser and cholesterol .. everyone on her side of the family has died from heart problems. she is also on Lipitor. this is kinda a last resort ..

My Doctor is a good guy. he's kinda a Hippie and in his 40's. he never likes to give meds unless he has to and is in good shape. he's also been giving me advice on what to eat. I actually get my Ambien from another doctor because he wants me to use natural sleep aids. I need to get off the Ambien also .. I sleep eat on it... I take it and then sleep walk and eat leftovers like crazy ..i've woken up in the morning and find the remains of a T-bone by the couch ... it's fucked up.

I'm going to try a dose of 20mg of lipitor and exercise and diet .. retest in a month and then try lowering the Lipitor if i feel the diet has been strong .. I need a life change for sure

i didn't mean to suggest that drugs such as this don't have their place and aren't necessary. i was commenting on the fact that in general, a doctor is much more likely to prescribe pills rather than to discuss healthy lifestyles. i think that the sad fact is that drugs in the US are too often looked at as a first line of defense... not a last line of defense.

btw, you are cofusing mg with grams of fat. its not difficult at all to eat less than 20-30 grams of fat a day. eat clean. its simple. you shouldn't be eating things with saturated fats at all... thats not hard to avoid either. its only difficult if you are eating horrible foods to begin with or you fighting some sort of disorder. its not hard at all. http://www.bodyforlife.com/nutrition/foodlist.asp

Try doing a hernal detoxification as well. A good one will say that it is best to eat only organic food for a 3 month period or so as well. Even if you don't have a lot of weight and start to eat organic you'll feel better and your body will work better.

Good luck.

Coirrect. I type too many computer-related measures with an M in front... it slipped in by accident. But you are wrong about the ease of following an extremely low-fat diet. At least, doing so and living normally, without driving your friends and family crazy.

There are plenty of healthy foods available in the broadest sense. However, they tend not to show up in "normal" peoples' diets. And the point I was trying to make about ideal saturated fat levels against those which exist in commonly available foods, is that unless you do a lot of digging around, you won't even be aware of what you should be eating, much less of what you are eating.

For example, my diet allows me 4oz of lean meat a week: a miserable portion by any standards. I can eat oily fish - herring, mackerel, etc - twice a week for their omega acids (well I could before I lived where I do now: here they are not available except in cans). And for decomposing flesh, that is it.

And that is only a response to one aspect of diet. Build in the right amount of fiber, fruits and vegetables, etc and you stray even further from what is easily available and commonly consumed. There are few places you can go out to eat, without resorting to (undressed) salad. At home, the chances are you end up making your meals separately: it became a standing joke in my house that I lived on lentils, although in fact I didn't :)

Etc. In other words a truly healthy diet is doable, particularly if you live in a city with access to lots of variety. But even then it requires some knowledge and - at least until you have acquired new tastes - self-discipline. It's obviously the best answer if poor diet is responsible for your problems, but I can understand doctors declaring that for many people pills are more certain.

Nice Jonesy ..:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

How did they not know he was on Lipitor until they were about to amputate?

damn bro took you long enough!

i was inspred by your vampire wine thread - hence Don Vino.

get on the wine and get off the lipotor. :thumbsup

I agree that doctors prescribe too many pills when other methods are available, but you're overlooking something very simple...

The average 38 year old working stiff. He's 30 pounds overweight. Drinks beer and eats pizza on football Sunday. Takes a nap after work. Is involved in no sports and no real physical activity.

You say to this guy "ok I'll give you 2 choices, if you don't do one you're going to die. One, completely change your lifestyle. Exercise daily. No more beer binges and pizzafests. Cut out the red meat. Or two, take this little pill daily."

Which is this guy going to take?

Like I said, I'm all about healthy modes of treatment and less pills, but we have to be realistic here. The average person does not want to bust their ass day in and day out to have a healthy body. They'll gladly take a pill though. People don't want 12 months treatment programs, they want a solution now.

And if Dr. Bob doesn't prescribe the pill, Dr. Bill will.

Think about... let's say a sinus infection. You go to the doctor, get some medications, he gives you a list of other things you should be doing to fight the infection. Do you follow all of the instructions? I sure as hell don't, and thats just for something stupid like a sinus infection. My diabetic brother totally ignores what the doctor says and we're talking about diabetes here.

Point is, people do not take proper care of themselves, regardless of how important it is.

I have heard these very difficult!

Are you sure they said your blood glucose count was over 1,000???? Dude you not only have to make some changes but you should have started yesterday!

I just went through the overweight illness thing. I dropped 52 lbs in the last 7 months and didn't break a sweat doing it either. I'm 6' 2" and for the first time in almost 20 years am under 200lbs. I look great! I'm not outta the woods yet but I'm almost there. All I did was changed my diet. Absolutely no sodas. One can has the equivalent of 20 table spoons of sugar. No processed meats. No white flour, white rice, white bread. WHOLE grain foods and lots of oils like olive and flaxseed oil.

Change now Mike before you end up with some shit like Diabetes II cause that shit is running rampant all over the planet due to obesity and bad diets.

I can send you some dietary links that should help you quickly. If possible, study bodybuilding. Natural bodybuilding like I do. It's what saved my life.

Do NOT hesitate one iota. Eat fresh foods and only whole grain pastas if you have to eat pastas. No table salt and fuck no table sugar. Use 'sea salt' and if you have to have sugar try raw sugar or stevia.

Do it now dude. If you don't you could end up fucked up beyond recognition fast.

Oh, and if you smoke, STOP IMMEDIATELY.