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Family doctor told me my cholesterol is high so I agreed to try a statin (crestor). when I got it home I read in the instructions that one of the possible side affects is muscle spasms but thought well according to this forum they help ms, my legs are locking up like a vice, worse than usual. The cholesterol can build walls in my arteries for all I care just get this shit out of my system.

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Rob--first of all, what does your doctor consider "high?" Most think that ANYTHING over 200 is high; actually 200 is ideal! You can find GOOD info on this in Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.

From the book by Gary Taubes, page 80. "In 1986, the year before the National Cholesterol Education Program recommended cholesterol-lowering for every American with cholesterol over 200 mg/dl, the University of Minnesota epidemiologist David Jacobs visited Japan, where he learned that Japanese physicians were advising patients to raise their cholesterol, because low cholesterol levels were linked to hemorrhagic stroke."

On page 81. "The association between low cholesterol and higher mortality prompted administrators at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute once again to host a workshop and discuss it. Researchers from nineteen studies around the world met in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1990 to report their results. The data were completely consistent (see charts on page 82): when investigators tracked all deaths, not just heart-disease deaths, it was clear that men with cholesterol levels above 240 mg/dl tended to die prematurely because of their increased risk of heart disease. Those whose cholesterol was below 160 mg/dl tended to die prematurely with an increased risk of cancer, respiratory and digestive diseases, and trauma. As for women, if anything, the higher their cholesterol, the longer they lived."


Next...Crestor. Dr. Sydney Wolf with a consumer safety organization is trying get Crestor off the market in the US; he says it is not safe--there have been many adverse effect reports made to the FDA about it. There have deaths because of it.

Cholesterol has been made the "bad boy" of our health problems. We have been led to believe that we shouldn't have it--that less is best--WRONG!!! Our bodies need cholesterol. Myelin is made from cholesterol! Hormones are made from it, too.

I think it is time for another talk with your doctor!

If not Crestor, there are others, like Lipitor...

has crestor ever been used in an MS trial?