Statins

Just coming on to say that I had a blood test this week and have got my cholesterol ratio down to 3.42 from the high fours. On the advice of my doctor I have pretty much given up cheese, eating it as a treat (and I do love it) only once every two weeks or so. I wasn't prepared to give up butter or milk, so she said cheese would do it and it has. We have almost cut out sugar completely (apart from marmalade), given up fruit juice and have moved over to low GI grains for several meals a week. My glycaemic level has dropped to 5.16. It wasn't too high before, but I am just hoping that DH will have the same drop and will be able to fight his way out of the pre-diabetes category.
We haven't found this hard and are really enjoying things like bulgar wheat with roasted vegetables. We are still eating meat, butter, olive oil and enjoying wine and we don't feel hungry.
So I am allowing myself a short moment of self-congratulation. (Sorry)
Having said that I wouldn't hesitate to take statins or any other medication if it was really necessary.

Well done Mamie
I had a blood test result last week & my total cholesterol is down from 5.8 last year to 4.7 with a good ratio of HDL to LDL.
I still eat cheese, butter and olive oil nearly every day but have tried to cut out sugar as much as possible - I think this is what has made the difference for me.

Well done both of you.

Thanks Jane. How do you get on with cutting right back on sugar? We don't have cakes, biscuits or puddings (we never have, much), but we do add dried berries to our muesli; goji, dried cherries (because DH gets gout from time to time) and bilberries, which we found at a foodie event in Caen and are just like compressed sunshine. We also have our own low-sugar marmalade on toast. We don't eat processed food and DH makes all the bread which is now 30% spelt, so I think we can be pretty sure that we don't have hidden sugar. We have about two pieces of fresh fruit a day and drink dry wine (!). Not sure how many teaspoons of sugar that is, but it doesn't feel like much.
I suspect it is easier to manage here on our French hillside (or indeed on your boat) because there isn't so much temptation.

Thanks GJ too.
It helps that I don't like the local puddings; rice pudding and apple crumble.
About three times a year we have a fraisier from the local patisserie which is in the top ten in France!

Pretty much the same as you Mamie. The main changes I made were reducing fruit juice to a very small glass (about 80ml) with breakfast, whereas I used to drink a lot more than that, though I did dilute it.
No more fruit yoghurts, no shop-bought cakes and desserts and drink a lot less G&T because I don't like diet tonic so have dry white wine instead

I'll drink to that.
I am on Lidl's extra dry Prosecco, because nobody else in Normandy seems to want to buy it.

Prosecco, nice work if you can get it Mamie!

<,cheers.>

Their loss is your gain, Mamie! I'm very partial to prosecco myself.

I had a very nice glass of it as our TGV raced through the snow-covered Alps on our way to Turin in January....
We do very well on bargains in forrin wines in Lidl here.

BUT champagne is better, well to me , heyho xxxxx

Lidl's do a very good champagne at 9.99€....

Did your TGV go past Geneva, Lausanne or Neuchatel- if Neuchatel- you could have waved as you went past

No, Chambery and the tunnel de Fréjus, but you and Carol were in my thoughts....

A lovely route too- 6 months to the day today, so Carol very much in my thoughts.

Very interesting development currently, about new research that seems to show that the side-effects of Statins have been greatly exaggerated. See how it goes, but worth following.

Yes. In an article in the BMJ no less.

Got the figures wrong.

From the Guardian today:

Prof Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said it welcomed "the BMJ's retraction of incorrect statements on the side effects of statins". He said: "Statins are an important weapon in the fight against heart disease and it is essential that trusted medical journals like the BMJ do not mislead the public. Patients should feel reassured by this move and should not stop taking their statin."

John Greenwood, professor of biomedical research at University College London, said: "There is overwhelming scientific and clinical evidence that statins are an extremely well-tolerated class of drug that provides significant health benefit to a vast number of at risk patients. Despite such overwhelming evidence, there remains a disproportionate and highly public opposition to their use. Much of this concern is based on the view that harmful side effects are not fully reported and this is further strengthened by a plethora of anecdotal "evidence". It is therefore to be applauded that the BMJ has taken steps to clarify any misconceptions that could arise from publications in which there has been a clear misinterpretation of data. As with all drugs, the sole criteria determining statin use should be whether the risk outweighs the benefit. Consequently, it is incumbent on the scientific and medical community to ensure that data is interpreted in the most rigorous fashion so that such decisions are based on fact and not on spurious assumptions."