The doc gave me a free 30 day supply of Simvastatin. The ongoing prescription $4.00/month, from Target, less my employee discount. Pretty cheap.
SWMBO has become one of those anti-statin folks, really doesn't want me to use it. The doc does say there are some serious side effects if it goes wrong. I'm really torn.
But there is bacon...
On a serious note (but of course bacon eating IS serious), for a couple of years I had borderline high cholesterol. My doctor, who is pretty anti pill popping, gave me a recommended diet for all three meals. I already exercise pretty regularly, so he figured sticking to the diet would work for me. I of course couldn't stick to the crappy no bacon diet, and two physicals ago, my cholesterol went "over the border". Not super high, but high enough so that Dr anti-drugs was threatening to put me on Lipitor.
He ended up giving me one last chance. What I basically ended up doing was buckling down on just one meal - breakfast. Instead of donuts, pancakes, and other stuff like that, I have the following: One cup of blueberry yogurt. One half cup of oatmeal mixed with half a banana, a handful of Costco frozen blueberries, a spoonful of honey, and a couple of tablespoons of Platinum Performance (recommended by my Doctor who also uses it, and originally made for horses :) ). I wash it down with a cup of coffee.
I did this for a year, and the cholesterol results from my last physical were a VAST improvement, putting me all the way down in the "no worries" zone. The only other changes I made are that I don't eat as much pizza and pizza related products as I used to (which was a lot), and cut down a bit on the fast food burgers, replacing them with burgers I throw on the BBQ instead. When I do get fast food, I skip the fries. I'll often order two burgers instead of a burger and fries.
I still eat bacon at least once a week, still order a pizza once in a while, and on weekends will still have a pancake breakfast or some donuts. Though usually on Sunday mornings before my major gym workout of the week, I'll have a muscle milk smoothie mixed with bananas and blueberries.
I'm glad that this worked for me, and that my regular Doctor was really pushing the non-meds solution for me. At the same time I was getting my regular physicals, I was getting flight physicals for work, and the Flight Surgeon was really pushing the pills. He believes everyone should take Lipitor whether they need it or not, just like a daily vitamin.
