I have not had the same dilemma as I did not have a heart attack. I did however have high cholesterol and PN. I already knew that statins are bad news for PN patients, and a quick 1 week experiment made it clear that for me they were a bad choice as well (ouch!).
Now, the following is not "advice", it is purely my own experience, so anecdotal, with
n = 1. It is however 100% accurate, with no hearsay, and with blood tests backing it up.
Although I wasn't too worried about the cholesterol, I did want to eat as healthy as possible, with the intention of reducing (unneeded) inflammation as much as possible. I hoped - and this turned out to be the case - that this would reduce my PN pains.
After 6 months I had - almost inadvertently - lowered my LDL (by 40%) and increased my HDL (by 25%). What was more spectacular however was that I had reduced my triglycerides by
66 %. As noted in another thread, my GP hardly believed her eyes, and was ready to declare me "risk free" - even though my total cholesterol was still relatively high.
I am not going to name or suggest a specific diet, but I can say that.
- I completely stopped eating processed foods
- I reduced my sugar (well, fructose) intake by 90%
- I used olive oil exclusively
- I used fresh produce
- I ate mostly lean meats and avoided simple carbs
- I also reduced the more "complex" carbs in the form of wheat products
- I made sure I ate lots of fiber from veggies and fruits
- I used lots of fresh garlic, ginger, and turmeric
- I ate quite a few vegetables and fruits from my own garden, and from the garden of a friend in Tuscany
- I ate lots and lots of chili peppers
- I tried to eat fresh fruit every day, and tried to avoid those with a lot of fructose in them. Lots of berries.
- I ate a lot of nuts (not peanuts) like macademia and walnuts
- I drank only water and coffee
- I did not avoid "fatty foods" and used real butter, real eggs in moderation
- I did allow myself some french fries every week to keep it "real"
- I spent every waking hour outside throughout spring and summer to catch some sun
- After a while I felt energized and put in a lot of effort to keep moving
- I tried to reduce stress as much as humanly possible
- I did not count calories
- I took low dose aspirin (50mg/day)
- I took high dose high fish oil (9.000 mg of DHA/EPA daily)
This "list" was based on my own understanding of books about the Zone diet, the paleo diet, the work of Dr. Lustig on sugar, but also the common sense book "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. And, not to forget, reading around in this very forum.
As a result, as noted in another thread, I lost 75 pounds, and a blood panel that seemed rather pleasing to my doc.
Would this work for you? I don't know, everyone is different. I'm not even sure what is most relevant from the above list (and maybe I am not including something that is vitally important!). What is clear though is that diet and lifestyle can be a powerful tool. Like Mrs. D. I tend to believe that cholesterol is not the real problem - I like the analogy of seeing firefighters at a fire and concluding that they must be causing them - and inflammation is. More and more doctors seem to agree on that. My own body seems to agree too.
The proof is in the... eh... current absence of pudding.
Statins do work in that they do seem to prevent heart attacks from recurring. But that might be because they reduce inflammation in a very crude way, not because they lower cholesterol. If that is indeed the case - and I think it is - then there are better ways to reduce inflammation without risking the damage that statins can clearly do.
I hope this helps you in some way.