[masraum]

I've heard many, many stories of statins causing problems. At least one person on this board had a family member that seemed to be permanently affected by them, and a neighbor at my old house had the same issues. Also, lots and lots of stuff both on Pelican and on the board of other folks with side effects that don't always go away if the statins are stopped. I had a Dr tell me he wanted to put me on statins. My cholesterol was in the 235-250 range with the hdl running 40-50 and the ldl running 190-200 and triglycerides that I think were around 170-175.

I started taking niacin (1500-2000 mg per day in 3-4 doses spread throughout the day), high fiber diet (not bran muffins or high grain, more like beans, berries, avocado) and cut out the bulk of my sugar intake (seems like EVERYTHING has added sweetener these days). After 3 months of that, my total had gone from 240ish to 160, LDL had gone from 190ish to 98, and HDL was 60. I think the triglycerides had dropped to 50-60 (I think I remember it was about 1/3).

There are lots and lots of threads on the board about cholesterol and statins. Do some searches.