Statin free success story!

In my intro post I mentioned my husband Frank’s sky high cholesterol as one motivator for even cleaner living. Well it’s about 3 months later and he had his bloodwork rechecked. We both expected minimal change and maybe hoped at best for a slight improvement since we were trying to do it without prescription statins and were told by his doctor when it’s that high and it’s “genetic” that it rarely moves much without medicine.  

When the nurse called saying the results showed “excellent improvement” and that the doctor said to “keep taking Crestor” my husband had to correct her and clarify that he never got the prescription filled and he’s only been adjusting diet, exercise, and lifestyle. 

Despite his doctor’s doubts we opted to give natural ways of treatment a try for a few months and also added Nature’s Made plant based statin that was recommended in a healthy minded group I’m in (pic below.)   

Well....I am literately blown away that in just 3 months he could make such an improvement. Total cholesterol went down 63 points, LDL went down and HDL (good cholesterol) went up.

So what did we change? We’ve been pretty health conscious for years so we were already starting from a mostly organic food, high quality/well sourced diet.  But we also enjoyed eating out, occasional bakery stops and Ben and Jerry’s in small doses plus my husband could be a bit “streaky” with exercise.  We made a couple major adjustments over this 3 month period. I significantly cut down our meat consumption and now cook fish or seafood 1-2x a week as well as a couple meatless nights. Whole grain pasta and veggies add more variety than you may think! I also added lentils in once a week as well as occasional barley or farro dishes (majorly nutrient dense and filling grains).  He also nixed nightly sweets and peanut butter and jellies — saving added sugar mostly for eating out treats and mostly eliminated lunch meats. 

Frank added push ups 4-5 days a week on top of his walking/peloton ride routine to get that oh so important strength training in. We also upped his vitamins (C, B, D and zinc) as well as a regular probiotic to heal his gut. Lastly (and we don’t know what role this played) he began taking the Cholestoff. 

Who knows what had the most impact but we’ll take the results! I knew super strict all the time wouldn’t work for long term so we still enjoy takeout once a week where we get what we want plus he still enjoys desserts when they’re around (just not something sweet the majority of days!) 

This statin free experiment just fuels my passion for cleaner living and completely validates the choices I make around health (despite the eye rolls and laughs of some friends or family.)  I’m by no means anti-pharma and know it has it’s often life-saving place. Yet I also deplore the treat the symptom versus the underlying cause and enmeshed relationship with the pharmaceutical industry that I often find in Western medicine. It seems like it’s gotten worse as the pharmaceutical industry continues to grow and the over prescribed statin industry could be its own post alone!

But Frank reminds me that many people would rather “just take a pill” than make hard diet and lifestyle changes.  But as I see it, it’s not that simple.  With the example of cholesterol, if the underlying causes of inflammation and poor gut health continue — the body’s imbalance will simply surface in other ailments or diseases.  I’m beyond thrilled with the results of these last few months. And if the day comes when we DO need to add some med’s that’s okay too, but for now,  I’m so grateful we have made changes (that are good for ALL of us!) that are sustainable. Woo hoo!!!