7 years ago I let a doctor talk me into taking Crestor (a statin) for a year and a half. My cholesterol & triglycerides have been in the 200-225+ range for 40 years but no previous doctor had ever prescribed medication for it. While on Crestor, my cholesterol readings did go down to 130-160, but hip and leg pain at night eventually got so bad, I couldn't sleep past 3-4am. During the day I had no pain, so the doctor did his best to ignore it, because I was never in pain when I saw him. My wife and I even bought a new mattress thinking that was the problem. It didn't help. Neither did CoQ10, which I still take. Eventually after research online, I confronted the doctor about it being a side effect of Crestor. He reluctantly told me to stop taking it for 6 weeks. The pain went away and I never went back to that doctor. I should point out that in that year and a half, I never filled a prescription for Crestor. The office had a cabinet full of Crestor samples and the gals just gave me whatever I needed. DUH! That should have been a clue.
Earlier this year, at 73, I decided to get a checkup just for the hell of it and made an appointment with a random doctor. My cholesterol was over 225 and this doc wanted to put me on medication. I told him that I wasn't taking cholesterol meds, getting a colonoscopy (despite my dad and his dad dying from colon cancer), or getting a shingles vaccine. I did agree to taking a low dose BP med (no side effects to date), getting flu and pneumonia shots, doing a cologuard test (in lieu of colonoscopy), and undergoing stress and echo tests. All came out good, so for now he's backed arguing with the cranky old guy and we are getting along ok.
Earlier this year, at 73, I decided to get a checkup just for the hell of it and made an appointment with a random doctor. My cholesterol was over 225 and this doc wanted to put me on medication. I told him that I wasn't taking cholesterol meds, getting a colonoscopy (despite my dad and his dad dying from colon cancer), or getting a shingles vaccine. I did agree to taking a low dose BP med (no side effects to date), getting flu and pneumonia shots, doing a cologuard test (in lieu of colonoscopy), and undergoing stress and echo tests. All came out good, so for now he's backed arguing with the cranky old guy and we are getting along ok.