The Primal Diet or Lipitor?

So last week I got the results back from my annual physical.  I'm healthy except for two things: my weight and my cholesterol levels.  Neither of these things are a surprise to me.  I've had high cholesterol since I even started measuring it in my early 20s.  My weight has been a problem for the past 15 years or so.  What did get my goat, though, was that my doctor wants to put me on Lipitor.  It's a statin, and I will likely have to take it for the rest of my life.

If I ever start taking it...

And I don't intend to start.

You're probably scratching your head.  Why would I go against the advice of my doctor?  Surely he has my best interests at heart, right?  Maybe, but I'm not entirely convinced that he does.  In his defense, he has suggested diet and exercise in the past to bring down my cholesterol levels. I haven't really changed either in the past 5 years.  He also refrained from putting me on statins since I wanted to have another child.  Statins can cause birth defects, and neither one of us wanted that.  Now that I'm done with child-bearing, statins would be "safe".

Except they're not.

Why on earth would I want to put anything in my body that could cause birth defects in another human being?  You're scratching your head again.  "I thought you were done having babies," you're saying.  Yes.  But if the chemicals in these drugs can cause damage to a human being - at any stage of development and beyond - why on earth was deemed it safe for ANY non-reproducing human to consume? Money, and the FDA, I suppose.  But I digress.

What exactly does a statin do, you ask?  According to WebMD, "Statin drugs work by blocking the action of the liver enzyme that is responsible for producing cholesterol." Wait.  It blocks a normally occurring bodily function to prevent it from producing cholesterol?  I thought the problem was with OUTSIDE cholesterol from a poor diet?  So what happens to the cholesterol I consume through said diet?  That's the potentially harmful stuff, right?  Not the cholesterol my body produces.  Somehow that just doesn't make any sense.  Is my body broken to the point that it and it alone produces too much cholesterol?

Hmmm... WebMD goes on to say that statins lower OVERALL cholesterol, even the good stuff that our body needs.  How is that a good thing?  Do the benefits outweigh the risks?  I'm not entirely convinced that they do, given the list of side effects (again, from WebMD):

• headache
• difficulty sleeping
• flushing of the skin
• muscle aches, tenderness, or weakness
• drowsiness/ weakness
• dizziness
• nausea and/or vomiting
• abdominal cramping and/or pain
• bloating and/or gas
• diarrhea
• constipation
• rash

I've also learned from several chiropractors that statins loosen ligaments (not in a good way) and make it next to impossible to get any results from chiropractic treatments.  I need chiropractic treatments.  They help me stay pain free. 
 
Still, my doctor says statins are safe.  He gave me a prescription and a handy-dandy discount card that would make lipitor only cost me $4 for a months supply... for as long as I take it.  What a huge incentive to buy their product!  All I have to do is present the card at time of payment, and no matter what my co-pay is, all I have to pay is $4!  Still, I'm not ready to commit to putting chemicals in my body for the rest of my life.  There has to be an alternative.

So I'm going to actually counter with what I've been trying to do this whole year of cutting the crap: I'm going to drastically change my lifestyle by eating only fresh fruits, veggies, and meat/poultry/fish.  I'll include a daily exercise plan.  A friend recommended the Primal Diet.  It looks very much like what I intended to do, so I'm going to try their 30 day challenge and go from there.  It can't hurt, right?  And it's certainly better than the alternative. 

I now have an incentive, which is to lower my cholesterol, so maybe I'll get off my butt and actually do this.  If after a few months of this lifestyle change I don't see results in my cholesterol counts, then and only then will I consider Lipitor.

Heaven help my family.  This is going to be one bumpy ride.