<last week one day>
My cardiologist is frustrated with me.
He wants me to start on statins
or some other drug to reduce LDL cholesterol. I demurred. The ONE time I tried their statin (Plavix), my inflammation shot through the roof, and I had rapid onset of severe arthritis. Rather than LOWER the risk of atherosclerosis, they increased the likelihood of it. Statins fuck with your liver's production of cholesterol AND OTHER THINGS. It's the 'other things' they do that shot my inflammation up.
I read and research frequently on medical topics, and atherosclerosis (plaque build-up in the arteries) is one of my hot buttons, since it killed my dad and his brother. My younger brother also has atherosclerosis. I'm on the other end of the scale: at 60 years old, there's still ZERO evidence of plaque in my arteries. The heart attacks I had in 2016 were due to a single occlusion in one small area of one artery, and the stent fixed that (likely permanently). The cardiologist didn't have any idea why I only had the one location with damage, and said it might have been a congenital weakness in that one spot.
I've also had at least 3 strokes, and numerous TIAs (small strokes that self-resolved). Ischemic strokes are caused by chunks of plaque
or blood clots blocking a vein or artery in the brain. Note the 'OR'. If there's ZERO plaque, then they must have been blood clots. Fine, I'll take your anti-platelet drug and deal with bleeding frequently. The last minor injury I had bled for a full day before it finally clotted, due to the drug. 3 weeks later, it's healed and invisible. It sucked the first day, though.
No matter what source I look at (medical journals and studies on PubMed or ResearchGate, not WebMD), the result is "
We don't know what causes atherosclerosis". All they know are risk factors; they still don't have a clue what the mechanism(s) are. They've identified a bunch of risk factors, but for the most part they don't know WHY it's a risk factor.
Type 2 diabetes (high blood sugar)
High blood pressure
High LDL cholesterol or triglycerides
Smoking
Obesity
Age (over 45 years)
Sedentary lifestyle (little exercise)
Oxidative stress (high intake of oxidized foods)
Pollution or other chemical stress
Trans-fats or saturated fats
Insulin resistance (not diabetes, yet still high blood sugar)
Inflammation
Alcohol
Stress
(there's a number of other less-obvious risk factors)
I smoke. I've smoked a pack per day for 45 years. I have high LDL cholesterol; it's genetic on both sides of the family. Hell, I had high LDL on a purely vegetarian diet with NO trans-fats and minimal saturated fats. Every time they've looked, the end result is 'no plaque', phrased in different ways. If there's no plaque, there's no atherosclerosis. Period. Risk factors are
possibilities, but I don't have
the problem after 60 years of elevated LDL and 45 years of smoking. Cholesterol is simply ONE risk factor, it's not causative.
Let me harp on that: Cholesterol doesn't 'cause' atherosclerosis. If it did, we'd all be dead of heart attack. Every animal has cholesterol - you have to have it or you *die*. Therefore, cholesterol isn't a Bad Thing, so get that idiotic 'Bad Cholesterol' phrase completely out of your head. No such thing. High or low levels of
anything your body needs can cause problems.
Since I'm dead-set against statins, they recommended an alternate: PCSK9 inhibitors (Praluent or Repatna). The cost for them is $4000 to $8000 per year, TO SOLVE A PROBLEM THAT I DON'T HAVE. Yeah, thanks for the suggestion. I'm sure as shit not spending $8K USD yearly to correct a non-issue, and adding muscle aches or flu-like symptoms as common side effects.
