A friend just sent this to me today:

Something to think about, if people here are using statins!
Patients here with demyelinating PN should take note!

Tens years ago i took Zocor recommended by a doctor. I asked about side effects and he said just minor ones. Six months later my PN started. The pain grew fast and severe. One day i checked for side effects. It said it could cause PN. I never take any drugs now until i do my own research. Any drug that can cause any known incureable desease should not be sold.

Be your own advocate for your health or you make suffer or loose it.


George


PS. I will cure myself of PN or die trying. I can not loose.

"........Any drug that can cause any known incureable desease should not be sold."

Many times it is necessary to compromise.
Chemo is used for Cancer patients, but it can cause PN.
Which would the CA patient prefer?
But the drug companies are having the sales reps push statins.
Its big money.
My doc was an advocate of them.
Worked wonders on her patients' cholest. numbers. I needed a cholest. med, too.
I took Lipitor for one month, and then demanded Zetia. (Mrs D pointed me in that direction) My Sx seemed worse on the statin. I've changed my doc's attitude towards statins being a wonder drug.

This issue is a struggle for me, too. My cholesterol is high, and my LDL is high, but my doctors have still felt I was not a huge risk, because there were no other risk factors. But now I've got an elevated cardio CRP, so there's more reason to think about treatment. (And, I'm older, too; funny how that happens.)

One of my docs has urged cinnamon, and by using it in capsule form, I've got the numbers down 10%. But still, they're too high. Wings had pointed me towards Red Rice Yeast, but that lowered my HDL more than my LDL, plus, is still a statin with drug interactions with other meds, so I stopped it.

I tried niacin, but 1) couldn't take the flush, and 2) another doc urged against.

I'm now in a new practice and seeing all integrative physicians. I'm interested to see what they decide, when they decide what to do with me.
The lyme question is still there, because of the positive test, but I don't think I "look" like lyme, from what I'm reading; I just look like PN.

The cholesterol problem is an ongoing one for those of us who want to avoid statins, something which makes total sense for us.

well.....first research and determine if you believe the cholesterol is the issue that they want you to believe.....then the CRP........then check out curcumin.....should belp with both of those issues......and physical exercise....to what ever you capacity is....