I have to go to Rome today (going with a multi colored lady, she ain't like no rainbow I've ever known)... to see my cardiologist. Am getting an ultrasound of the ticker ticking. Then I have an appointment with the good doctor who is actually a heart sturgeon. He put stents in me in '07, IIRC.
I'm afraid he is going to fire me as a patient. I stopped taking all statin drugs 6 or 7 months ago. I went on a (modified) gluten free diet, cut my sugar intake by at least 90%, cut way back on carbs, cut out unsaturated fats as much as possible, started using only natural saturated fats like butter, lard, whole mile, etc. I expect and actually want my "cholesterol" to be higher. The brain NEEDS cholesterol, LDL is only a carrier for HDL (neither of which are really cholesterol. Your body makes cholesterol because so many things in the body need it. Cholesterol that you eat does NOT increase your serum cholesterol. It makes sense to me that higher LDL will carry more HDL away to the brain and other places instead of leaving in the arteries. In the words of another doctor, "I am convinced that my body is NOT trying to kill me". Also, there are protein molecules that are able to cross the barrier (in the bloodstream) and get into the brain carrying things that the brain NEEDS. Sugar molecules (both cane sugar and sugar your body makes from potatoes and such) bind to those protein molecules and make it so that they are changed in such a way that the "brain barrier" will not let them enter.  Gluten is the worst of it, with sugar close behind. Some are beginning to refer to dementia/Alzheimer's as type III diabetes. Gluten inflames everything and there is 30 to 40 times more gluten in todays wheat as there was in 1950. It is why you see those pictures of children in Africa with the huge belly, they obviously aren't starving but the high gluten is causing 'big' problems. It inflames arthritis, it inflames the brain... it is BAD. A little is fine but a lot is not (thanks Monsanto). So...
I've gotten off half my blood pressure meds. They were making my BP higher and had other side effects. I'm now on 1/2 a pill (2.5mg) of Bystolic and 20mg of lisinopril twice a day but I may try cutting that back. They had me on atenolol and it was putting my heart rate under 50bpm at times. It is now in the 70s. My blood pressure on 4 meds was running in the 200/100 range. Now it is usually 135-140/75... I'm fine with that. My sugar (A1C is down). About the statins, I was on Vytorin and was tired all the time (I'm still tired a lot but I'm better) they changed me to Crestor and after a couple of weeks my joints were hurting everywhere, fingers, knees, hips, all over. I stopped the Crestor and in a couple of weeks the pains were pretty much gone.
I was out of town a lot dealing with the estate of my parents and couldn't come close to sticking with my diet (pizza is good!) so I started taking 1/2 of a Vytorin, the pains came back. My ankles got to hurting so bad even if I wasn't walking. I like to cross my ankles when I sit, if I can. They hurt so bad that I couldn't do that. I stopped the Vytorin again last week and already the joint pain is getting better. For several years I have had a pain in my left hip, not a deep pain but it felt almost like a spur, I couldn't comfortably lay on my left side in the bed, I'd have to roll just a little bit forward. I noticed the last two nights that the hip pain is gone. I played my guitar yesterday and my fretting hand finger joints didn't hurt. I had been thinking it was all arthritis. I'm wondering if my spine pain will go away if given a little more time.
So.. I'm certain that the doctor is going to tell me that I have to take statins to lower my cholesterol (though my last blood work after a few months of not taking them showed them elevated but not seriously).
I am NOT going to take some medicine that might extend my life but will assuredly make it a miserable painful life and make me more tired... why would I want to live an extra few years at the cost of being miserable? That makes no sense to me and frankly, I am convinced that a high fat, low carb diet is MUCH more healthy that a high carb low fat diet. I mean... all one has to do is look around to see that what they (big pharma, the FDA, and [most] doctors) have been telling us for the last 40-50 years is not working. Heart disease is getting worse as is obesity, what they are telling us is not working. I think more people survive heart disease because of modern medical techniques that are used when one has a heart attack or a blockage, not because of the "approved" heart diet or because of statin drugs.
I have lost weight eating the higher fat diet. I am not really strict with it I just do the best I can, I'm not going to make it a burden or a job, just changing what I can when I can and it is working. I lost nearly 10% of my weight when I cut back on sugar and started to eat much less carbs... finding high fat foods isn't easy. I am shooting for something like 60% fat, 30% protein, 10% carbs. I probably come close but I don't do it every day. Now and then I eat a big plate of spaghetti and meat sauce, drink a beer a couple of times a week, ate three big buttermilk pancakes with eggs and becan Yesterday... with Mrs. Butterworths.
Life is for living, right?
I'll never be able to explain this to my cardiologist, he is old school. My regular doctor pretty much agrees with me but he sees the results and knows that, while not being my own personal food police, I am keeping pretty close to my dietary goals.
 
I'm a little nervous about it, talking to the doctor but I'm going to tell him I'm not taking statins anymore. If he or insurance insists, I'll fill it at the pharmacy and throw it out.
 
One other thing to think about. Tell me what incentive does big pharma or any pharmaceutical company have in me being well, in me not being sick? Do they not make their money treating symptoms with pills? So, if I am well and have no symptoms, they won't be selling me medicine and they won't be making money... that could explain (and probably does explain) the faulty information on diets and other things. Follow the money. I'm sick, they make money. The more sick I am, the more money they make. I am well, the doctor makes money from exams and tests... big pharma does not because I do not have symptoms that need to be treated.
I told my internal medicine doctor that, what I think about big pharma not wanting me well, and he agreed. I was surprised.
Do you think my cardiologist will drop me?
 
"Oh, by the way, I'm bound for Rome".

I'd love to know what a "multi colored lady" is?

Me too...

I believe Dr. Frankenstein made one of those once. It turned out to be the last time he let Igor choose the components. 

I'm picturing a polka dotted lady with paisley highlights.

When in Rome...

Jbow, I wish you well. I've had minor heart issues but seemed to correct after a month on Atenolol however, my cholesterol needs to be checked. Someone suggested grapefruit daily will reduce cholesterol by about 20% but citric is like acid for me, feels like a volcano doing the tango. I've been referred to a gastroenterologist to probably have the scope shoved down my throat, but it could be worse.  And in addition to arthritis (mostly in my knees) I need to see specialists about the ulnar and plexus brachial nerves in my left arm / shoulder, I also have issues with my right arm although luckily nothing too serious. For osteoarthritis, the doc suggested I take Glucosamine 2000mg daily, but the size of those pills are freaking huge, no pharmacy in my area sells it in powered (tasteless) form, I have to order it online. Ready-made drink solutions are readily available but those aren't good enough, less than 2000mg and are expensive.  

I have not tried to talk a patient into taking any prescription for a couple of decades. Maybe the best part of abandoning medical practice is that you do not have to feel responsible for people who "know their bodies."  Don't worry about getting fired. Everyone who has been in your doctor's situation has learned to live with the disconnect between their understanding of the best medical evidence and the limitations in how far they can go in treating real people. Part of the job is accepting that a man is his own man, even when you call him a patient. Just be honest, so he does not think that what he recommended is not working and tries something else you do not want.
 
There is plenty of room for criticizing the profit motivated overuse of drugs and treatments that has a basis in real evidence, without assuming that everyone who offers you advice is your adversary or a dupe of the medical industrial complex. If you want to avoid gluten, I do not think anyone in medicine will say anything more negative than that it probably is not necessary for most people to do so. And if a physician has written a bestseller, and is making more on speaker fees extolling the virtues of an unproven medical regimen than he did in medical practice, I see no reason to doubt his advice.
 
As for malnourished children in Africa with swollen bellies, at least some of them are undoubtedly suffering from kwashiorkor, and many have never been exposed to gluten in their diet unless they have been lucky enough to get to a feeding station. When there is insufficient protein in the diet the body is unable to make the normal amounts of blood serum proteins. That results in a decrease in the osmotic pressure of the blood and migration of fluid out of the circulation and into the tissue spaces. If you were to stick a needle into some of those swollen bellies you would find they were filled with fluid (ascites). The same process causes the swelling of feet and legs (edema).

Whatever the outcome Jbow, I sincerely hope you find the path to better health.
 
Now, back to 'multi-coloured lady'...

Be well, my friend!