We’ll see about that

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

OK, here we go again.

Longtime readers know about my battles against diabetes. I fought it to a standstill with diet changes, supplements and a half-dose of Metformin, with a A1C of 4.7 my last full blood test. I have no illusions that the battle’s over, but I have a truce. So, in November I had a blood test that showed my blood fats and cholesterol out of whack. Fine, I’d been eating a little less disciplined—increased processed carbohydrates—than usual, and mainly because I’d quit smoking again, I’d gained some weight. But my doctor insisted I try statins, which I hated: www.newsreview.com/reno/true-blood/content?oid=5378995.

To fix things, I concentrated on my diet and mineral and herb supplements. I promised to write about my results. Last week: total cholesterol, 152; triglycerides, 117; HDL, 45; VLDL, 23; and LDL, 84. I’m willing to bet these numbers are better than those of most of my readers. They’re better than my doctor’s.

But in the meantime, I had a cardiac CT for calcium scoring to prove to my doctor I didn’t need any statins. The test showed eight choke points, mostly on my right coronary artery. For those who care, my Agatston score was 347. They call it asymptomatic because I work out five times a week, and have no shortness of breath or chest pains.

The doctor says there’s no practical way to remove the blockages, and I must go on statins to keep them from getting worse. I think not. There are many schools of thought, and I think I can do better than to take a drug that makes me unable to think or control my emotions.

I’ll bet many of you are in the same situation, as the response to my past columns on statins proved. I look at this holistically, like smoking+drinking+ genetics=prediabetes-carbohydrates=athereosclerosis. Factor in personal and job stress.

We’ll see. Restricting food groups restricts nutrients from those groups. Vitamin C seems like a no-brainer. Oh, look what Linus Pauling said all those years ago: http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/sp-su97/athero.html.

—D. Brian Burghart