Statin and me
I am back in the blogging world. After almost two months of absence I can finally say I am on my way to be blogging healthy again.
And talking about health, I am slowly regaining my weight. It had been a very stressful two months. It started when we began planning our move to a different place. There were so many concerns that needed to be tackled, and issues that required refinement. I was on the verge of complete exhaustion. This affected my health, my health plunged.
But today, as I write this very first post here since my hiatus, I feel better. I am starting to gain some pounds. I am not sure if this is about the statin drug I have started to take. My cholesterol count was starting to seriously worry me. You see, I postponed taking my doctor-prescribed statin medication against the advice of my doctor. I thought I could bring down my cholesterol levels through a better diet.
The kind of hypertension I have is not really affected so much by the food I eat. Realizing this, I began taking statin however, much delayed. I am just on my fourth day and I already can feel the difference.
One thing I also discovered is that if a person is on statin, you can not eat grapefruit. Wikipedia says, "Consumption of grapefruit or grapefruit juice inhibits the metabolism of statins—furanocoumarins in grapefruit juice inhibit the cytochrome P450 enzyme CYP3A4, which is involved in the metabolism of most statins (however it is a major inhibitor of only atorvastatin, lovastatin and simvastatin) and some other medications[20] (it had been thought that flavonoids were responsible).
This increases the levels of the statin, increasing the risk of dose-related adverse effects (including myopathy/rhabdomyolysis). Consequently, consumption of grapefruit juice is not recommended in patients undergoing therapy with most statins. An alternative, somewhat risky, approach is that some users take grapefruit juice to enhance the effect of lower (hence cheaper) doses of statins. This is not recommended as a result of the increased risk and potential for statin toxicity".
And to think that I was initially planning to buy some grapefruit or oranges to test my newly purchased juicer. Hah! :-)
And talking about health, I am slowly regaining my weight. It had been a very stressful two months. It started when we began planning our move to a different place. There were so many concerns that needed to be tackled, and issues that required refinement. I was on the verge of complete exhaustion. This affected my health, my health plunged.
But today, as I write this very first post here since my hiatus, I feel better. I am starting to gain some pounds. I am not sure if this is about the statin drug I have started to take. My cholesterol count was starting to seriously worry me. You see, I postponed taking my doctor-prescribed statin medication against the advice of my doctor. I thought I could bring down my cholesterol levels through a better diet.
The kind of hypertension I have is not really affected so much by the food I eat. Realizing this, I began taking statin however, much delayed. I am just on my fourth day and I already can feel the difference.
One thing I also discovered is that if a person is on statin, you can not eat grapefruit. Wikipedia says, "Consumption of grapefruit or grapefruit juice inhibits the metabolism of statins—furanocoumarins in grapefruit juice inhibit the cytochrome P450 enzyme CYP3A4, which is involved in the metabolism of most statins (however it is a major inhibitor of only atorvastatin, lovastatin and simvastatin) and some other medications[20] (it had been thought that flavonoids were responsible).
This increases the levels of the statin, increasing the risk of dose-related adverse effects (including myopathy/rhabdomyolysis). Consequently, consumption of grapefruit juice is not recommended in patients undergoing therapy with most statins. An alternative, somewhat risky, approach is that some users take grapefruit juice to enhance the effect of lower (hence cheaper) doses of statins. This is not recommended as a result of the increased risk and potential for statin toxicity".
And to think that I was initially planning to buy some grapefruit or oranges to test my newly purchased juicer. Hah! :-)