Tags
Bypass Surgery, Diet, drugs, Health, heart disease, medical, Nutrition
I am saying goodbye to my cholesterol drug.
Last year I dropped my blood pressure drug as part of my overall plan to divest myself from medication.
I am currently in Phase III trials of my IDA approval*. Two more blood tests and my taper off my statin is complete. In the end I had to make a choice. Pills or nutrition. I choose food to control my disease. I could not get behind the blanket approach offered by Big Pharma. This is not an article about the evils of statins. Statins reduce cholesterol effectively. No question about it. It is an article about questioning what is best for you and forumulating a plan.
The IDA specializes in the long term care of Ian Welch
I want control and I want results. I will always choose the most effective tool in the chest and sometimes you don’t need a hammer to push in a tack.
On March, 2011, I had quadruple bypass surgery at the age of 40. Post-op I was prescribed an aggressive dose of a statin; 40mg/day. And as touted, it worked like a charm. It knocked down my cholesterol immediately. I honestly remember the statement by my cardiologist; “you will be on a statin the rest of your life“. He didn’t mean any harm but he wasn’t offering up any alternatives either.
This is not a new story. I believe most patients are told about the lifetime contract. Statins are the number one selling drug in the world. in 2010, the FDA approved statins as a preventative measure and opened up the market for Big Pharma to millions of people without cholesterol problems. I suspect the recent push by the AMA & others to define obesity as a disease is also a push to further the mass appeal of statins.
A new study from Mayo Clinic researchers reveals how many Americans are on prescription drugs. The study, published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, shows 7 out of 10 Americans take at least one prescription drug! More than half of Americans take two prescription mediations, and 20 percent of Americans are on at least five prescription medications.
I was fortunate to have read and met Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn in the very first days after my surgery. This is a doctor advocating a low oil, plant-based diet to his patients. Albeit not a large study, time has shown the advantages of this approach. In fact, his patients eventually reverse the disease. I don’t know of any drugs offering the results below:
Coronary angiograms of the distal left anterior descending artery before (left) and after (right) 32 months of a plant-based diet without cholesterol-lowering medication, showing profound improvement.
Recently, I wrote a piece for the Stanford Scope. My dilemma has been straddling the fence between the medical and wellness industries. I have shed over 40 pounds from my top weight of 235. I eat less than 10 percent fat and thrive on a diet based solely on plant-based nutrition. I exercise 90 minutes a day, with Bikram Yoga during the week and long runs and swims on the weekends. However, my last cardiologist (I have yet to find a primary doctor) insisted I attack my disease with heavy doses of statins, fenofibrates and niacin, despite recent evidence of the ineffectiveness of that regime. I’m unable to find a doctor yet willing to meet me halfway, to acknowledge the ability of the body to reverse heart disease through nutrition.
Before & After… my wife is missing her hand rest now.
So, I’ve stopped straddling the fence. I move forward as the CEO of my plan.
As CEO, I reviewed the numbers and have taken a scientific approach towards dropping the statin. The reason the statin was prescribed was to keep my cholesterol down. A plant-based, low oil diet also reduces cholesterol.
I had to weigh the pros and cons. Plants offer no side effects, no liver toxicity, muscle loss or other consequences unknown to us yet. However, for some, making the transition to plant-based can be quite an effort; a pill is agreeably easier and highly effective.
Ian Welch: Cholesterol History Since Bypass Surgery
The next two blood tests will determine whether the diet can keep my cholesterol levels down without the statin. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. There are some genes working against me but as Dr. T. Colin Campbell of the China Study always states: “genes are expressed by nutrition“. If the numbers start moving up then I will tweak my plan. Perhaps sticking with the low dose statin and moving even more aggressively on avoiding oils in my diet. Then test it again.
The point is I am in control. I know my numbers and I am taking responsibility for my disease.
Finally, I offer this to the naysayers. Time will tell whether I am doing the right thing. We will all exit this world at some point; do you want to go down fighting or simply fade away? I am making decisions I can live with based on the tools I have available to me. I do not want to take a drug the rest of my life because it was prescribed to me arbitrarily. I do not want a lifetime of side effects… Lowering my cholesterol to forsake my liver. I want customized solutions. And if someday down the road I am proven wrong; I am fine with that. I did the best I could.
I just hope Big Pharma survives without me.
The Standard American Pill Plan
IRW
wholefed.wordpress.com 
Hi, Ian. I am really enjoying your blog. You may remember me from over at Cardiac Athlete -far too few Esselstyn friendly folks there. I am in your footsteps with pharma. I tapered off the beta blocker a year ago and the ace inhibitor a couple of months ago. BP’s stayed down -typical in the morning would be 110/65 or less. For the last few weeks, I have halved the 40 mg. simvastatin. On 20 mg., total cholesterol was 126 and hdl 56. I arrested on a tennis court in 2009 but was lucky enough to be playing against a team with a cardiologist. He and a peds intensivist who was in the building did cpr on me for over 12 minutes until the squad arrived with the AED. That night, I underwent a x6 bypass -2 of the grafts were no good from the start, but, happily, training and vegan diet have enabled me to develop some collaterals and other biomarkers of health. I complete 10ks and 2 hour sprint duathlons. Keep up the great commentary with your very intelligent blog and best of luck with your health agenda.
Rick, great to hear from you. I didnt realize you had a second episode in 2009. Its a tough call dropping meds but for me, the diet seems to be covering the end goal of lowering TC. I am an open minded individual, if something better comes along or the proof lies elsewhere then I will explore it.
I am flattered at the praise and I will keep writing as long as there are people like you reading it.
Keep on trucking. Ian
Ian: My cardio doc has me on 40 MG of simvastatin along with total Dr. E diet. TC 76 LDL 35 HDL low 24. HDL low but I think it is because LDL and TC keep getting lower, so less “helper” garbage trucks needed to take the garbage (LDL) out. Don’t know of anyone who has had an “event” with numbers that low. Asked him why to continue with statins and his response was that studies have shown that the anti-inflammatory effects of statins in addition to cholesterol lowering is why to continue with it. No side effects, and liver functions all good. Just wanted to let you know about that piece-even though you may have heard that one before. Good luck with what you are doing, that is really great and it is wonderful to hear you doing what you are doing! Take care,
That is really low LDL. I have not seen that before. I test C Reactive for inflammation and the number has been very low since Essy diet & statins I suppose. You are correct, the HDL is not an issue and there is plenty of supporting evidence showing no need for high HDL if you have no LDL in your body, less garbage trucks (Ornish?) My question would be and the dilemma I am working through: is it AND/OR. Can the diet pull the weight without statin. If so why take it? I am 43, I am concerned with taking a drug for 30-40 years!
Great to hear from you George. Great comment. Back to back, with my old friend Rick just before you with his story.
Ian
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Heart disease runs in my family. My mother, father and brother all died from it. So when I mentioned that my brother dropped dead at 52, the doctor at the VA put me on a statin. Within days, every joint in my body hurt. I told her about this and she put me on another “type” of statin. The subsequent pain was intolerable. I finally said that no pill was worth being so sore. Months later, I asked to see my lab results. My HDL was 114! She concluded that this must be diet-related because she stated that she has never seen such good HDL results. I owe it to a plant-based diet with limited animal protein and exercise. There’s great information about statins in “Overtreated” by Shannon Brownlee. My point is that there are many people who take statins that may be having the same reaction (soreness, stiffness, etc) then complain about the symptoms and will then get treated with yet another pill because the relationship between pain and the statin was never explored.
It is a slippery slope when you start looking for magic pills to solve everything. I am sorry to hear about the devastation heart disease has caused your family. Post bypass I question my decision to drop the statin but as I stated in my blog, no one has convinced me that my diet cant offer the same effects sans side effects. Great comment, thank you. Ian
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