I vote for a bag of pork rinds.
(You know - the kind with zero protein.)
Basically just lick the salt off the edges.
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That would be a negatory, but I do like the pork rind idea. It could work. 
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@Sam, I hope you and others donât think that I am trying to relentlessly trash anyone. If I were over 50, fat, diabetic, and had very high cholesterol, probably over 250, I most likely would take statins. The difficult or gray areas would be what if the person is over 50, good BMI, exercises reasonably, and happens to have diabetes? One conversation that I had with the doctor was that I ought to be on several medications because I am diabetic. Naturally, I asked, if I were not diabetic, and had the exact same blood chemistry results, Blood PressureâŚetc. would I need to be medicated, and his response was that because I am diabetic, itâd be best to take the meds.
I am unaware of any study that have been able to address the question that Sam posed:
If there were such a study, it would be informative.
BTW - My posts tend towards being âprovocativeâ in that they are intended to lead to discussions of different opinions. It is through the listening and sharing of different viewpoints that we can learn from each other. Hope I donât get into too much trouble for this.
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We have been talking hot and heavy about the statin issue, but blood pressure medication is also interesting.
I havenât really heard anyone saying not to take blood pressure medicine. But this one is even less contentious then statins and I canât think why anyone wouldnât take blood pressure medicine. It prevents heart damage and strokes, has tons of research that supports it, and if you afraid of new pharma solutions has 100+ year old treatments that work really well.
Are there people not treating their blood pressure?
Iâm not any BP meds. The ones I know personally, tend to be older than I am, in the 60âs + group, or they tend to be sedentary even if âyoungerâ like in the 50âs.
Although, it was suggested to me by one doctor to take the ACE inhibitor, Lisinopril, because I was a diabetic, to protect my kidneys. I happen to be in the low range of the WNL blood pressure, therefore I did not think it was a good idea for me. Sometimes, I get a bit light headed when I stand up quickly from a reclining position.
How many folks here are on BP medicine?
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Got it, so you donât have high blood pressure, they were just looking to use it due to the ability to stop blood vessel narrowing, thinking that since diabetics end up with friable narrowed blood vessels it may work to slow this down.
Ok, that is quite a different place than treating high blood pressure.
If there were a way to âexamineâ the conditions of our blood vessels! The issue that I see with certain medical protocol is that the medical community relies on certain measurables, such as blood pressure, A1C, cholesterol numbers to make certain determinations.
Two years ago, having returned from an overseas trip to the Far East, where my choice for eating was quite limited, I sensed that something was not right. The A1C came back in the high 6âs. The endo at the time said not bad. I did not concur because I had mostly been in the low or at most mid 6âs. I requested the fructosamine test and it confirmed that the most recent BGâs were not optimal. The combination of the poor diet and something changing within my body had led to a higher demand for insulin that I had not made the adjustment for.
Anyway, the trend Iâve noticed is: Because doctors are under time constraints of 15 minute visits, they tend to make âquickâ decisions based on some protocol/algorithms. The guidelines for certain types of medications, especially BP and cholesterol have been lowered to seemingly require more patients to be placed on these medications. My old PCP and my childrenâs pediatricians, both very good, but old, tended to medicate and intervene less. The âyoungerâ doctors tend to want to prescribe oral meds and shy away from âdiscussingâ the issues. This is purely anecdotal and observational. My nephew, who is a newly minted MD, explained to me that âtheyâ the doctors think that patient compliance is difficult therefore they tend to prescribe oral meds rather than other forms of âtherapyâ, for diabetics it would be oral meds instead of insulin. Many endoâs donât bother to check for the antibodies and just go right to metformin immediately and other oral meds.
Has anyone had vascular ultrasound performed on them?https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=vascularus
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You are fortunate. Please expound on the vascular ultrasound. What useful information did they determine that is additional or not gleaned from the standard metabolic profile, blood pressureâŚetc.?
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My story is quite different. I had intractable hypertension that was being treated by a GP. I was losing potassium, so he put me on potassium supplement. I was being prescribed a new BP med every few months because nothing was working. This was about 1998.
I moved from SoCal to NorCal at that time and looked up an endo. He promptly tested for and diagnosed adrenal hyperplasia. He put me on spironolactone, and discontinued my BP meds. Potassium and BP stabilized within a week. He then put me back on one BP med (amlodopine) and gave me Benazepril for the specific reason of kidney protection, NOT for BP control.
BTW, as previously mentioned, he put me on a statin, not because of hypercholesteremia, but because of my risk factors.
That is what I call good doctoring. I never had a 15 min appointment with him, he always explained what and why, answered all of my questions, and obviously used extremely sound medical judgement for me, as an individual.
Twenty years later, taking the same meds he originally prescribed, my BP is very normal (120/80), total cholesterol is at around 150, and Iâm pretty healthy. No complications.
Iâm convinced had I not had this type of medical intervention I would probably be dead by now.
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These do have some protein, not much, but they look like a great LCHF snack. The salt is just an added benefit. But I donât think theyâre kosher 
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I love cheese whisps. They are not a low sodium food. Cheese whisps are better than potato chips, in my opinion.
After all these years, I honestly can say that I donât miss potato chips at all. There are so many other better alternatives. The other weekend, I was very satiated by half a corn, very fresh, very sweet, covered in butter.
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If you just lick the outside then you get all the salt and none of the protein.
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My understanding is that while statins have been shown to have some benefit, itâs very unclear whether that is in fact mediated by reduced cholesterol, and may instead be due to anti-inflammatory effects of the drugs. While that still means people at elevated risk for CVD should probably try statins, it has a lot of implications for other treatment options and whether monitoring cholesterol is in fact tracking the outcome of interest or just a correlate of the actual mechanism. It also might suggest that other factors besides cholesterol levels may be more important in determining treatment approaches.
Personally, as someone with a persistently high HDL (70s), reasonable LDL (110s), and finally low triglycerides once I got my A1c down (donât remember the exact number on those, but well under the at-risk level), as well as 70/115-120 blood pressure, Iâm not planning on taking statins any time soon. My endo, who is a very smart, younger, research-driven guy, thinks thatâs reasonable. The side of my family that my cholesterol/metabolic stats very closely resemble also has no history of CVD (the other side has a dramatically different body type, cholesterol numbers, blood pressure, etc, as well as a hx of CVD, but I pretty clearly donât take after them). If, on the other hand, my stats were like the other side of the family, Iâd without doubt be on a statin.
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Very well stated. There has been a lot of discussions about infammation as the root cause of many health issues.
I am currently not taking an antihypertensive med. My BP at home is always good, 115/70. I too, tend to get "lightheaded/dizzy when I stand up fast. or upon rising in morning. My BP in the docâs office is always elevated. But, they take it right after I have sat down. I believe if they waited just a bit it would be normal or at least much lower. I have been resistant because they keep Rxing Lisinopril/HCTZ combo and HCTZ causes a rash. I would probably agree to a low dose Lisinopril without the HCTZ, but for whatever the reason they keep Rxing it with HCTZ.
I have PKD (polycystic kidney disease), but my creatinine and BUN are normal. My mother had PKD but did not require dialysis until she was 86, she died at age 89. I am assuming I will manage without dialysis for many more years too. I have a strong family history of heart disease on my mother and fatherâs side. On my motherâs side all the men died in their 50âs, the women lived into late 80âs and 90âs.
All the men on my dadâs side of family died of heart disease before the age of 55. He had 5 brothers that died of heart disease at an early age as did my paternal grandfather. My father however was the exception. He lived to age 76, but had massive MI (the widowmaker) at that age. He never took BP or cholesterol meds as they were never prescribed for him, he just took an aspirin every day because he thought it was a good idea. He died in 1986.
No one in my family had diabetes on either side of the familyâŚlucky me as the only one âblessedâ with Type 1. I am assuming this may throw an added monkey wrench in my âlongevity plans.â Only God knows and he remains silent on this issue and many other issues come to think of it.
I donât know if I am being foolish by not taking the Lisinopril/HCTZ combo. I suppose I could put up with the rash if I had to.
Excuse the rather long post. I am struggling with taking meds because I am one of those âcrazy peopleâ that worries about side effects and prefers natural supplements, unfortunately this didnât work. Having done more âinternet researchâ I have actually decided I do need to take a statin.
TSH: 9.25, T3 and T4 wnl. My total cholesterol is 258 HDL good, LDL(calc) 196, CHOL/HDL 4.9 Triglycerides low (96)
I am now taking Lovastatin 20mg at night. I had hoped lots of exercise and low carb, high fiber, low fat diet would take care of it. It didnât.
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i am on a LCHF diet for many years now. my âbadâ cholesterol is high, but my âgoodâ cholesterol is excellent; my endo and my cde both tell me that my "âgoodâ cholesterol balances out my âbadâ. does this make sense to anyone? my PCP, on the other hand, would like to put me on a statin.
(my endo does not believe in flu shots, nor diabetic gastropareses, nor does he believe in doing anything for diabetic neuropathy. my PCP believes in flu shots, and diabetic gastroparesis. when do you listen and to whom?)
First sorry Hydrocholorthiazide (HCTZ) gives you a rash. Your doctor can surely prescribe you just Lisinopril, I personally was on it for my blood pressure for years prior to the study that showed HCTZ was effective in large populations (thanks to pharma for actually doing a head to head), when they switched me to Lisinopril/HCTZ. What they are prescribing you is called Prinizide, and contains the drug you donât want.
Also on your blood pressure, are you measuring it during the day, or just after you have been sedentary for awhile. I say that, because prior to medicating, my blood pressure was all over the place, normal one day, high the next, high after exercise, etc.
Then after medicating, I can run into the doctors office, sit down while sweating, and my blood pressure will be in the normal range.
On the cholesterol questions, normally I would say listen to the specialist. But that only applies if the decision is in their practice specialty. Honestly, which of your doctors do you think is more up to date with their research papers and conference attendance?
At your next appointment I would ask each of your physicians why they feel that way and listen to the answers. It may be that one is going on outdated information, or that it is a âfeelingâ or what I have always done with my patients. If a physician has a well thought out opinion backed by modern research (i.e. within the last 10-15 years), then I would always be willing to listen to them and probably accept their recommendation without hesitation.
Flu shot - no idea, for what it is worth our last two endoâs have pushed them with exuberance.
Gastopareses - that would appear to me to be in your endoâs practice area, I would go with his/her opinion over a gp, unless the gp was extraordinary.
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Might depend on how high your LDL (bad) cholesterol is. As someone with very high HDL (good), Iâve been told by some drs not to worry about getting my LDL super low (like the recommended below 100) and most agree with me that I donât need statins, but I think the highest itâs ever been measured was in the 120s, and usually lower than that. I donât know how much the research backs any of that up though.
Family history can be key in these decisions tooâdo you know if your numbers look like your familyâs? What have their outcomes been like? You can look at the results of research studies all you want, but they donât typically take that kind of thing into consideration and often donât study many potential moderators of effects, so considering your own specific family history is often the best predictor of results, for many aspects of medicine.
I would be very weirded out though by an endo who does not believe in flu shots, given every one Iâve worked with has strongly recommended them. I mean⌠why on earth not? As in, whatâs the possible harm, unless youâre one of the rare people who has a reaction to it/one of the ingredients? Iâd be all the more wtf if that person also didnât âbelieveâ in gastroparesis (âŚhow do you not believe in something thatâs so clearly demonstrated in many people? and has the reasonable explanation of vagus nerve damage?) or treating neuropathy. I donât have diabetic neuropathy, but I had neuropathic pain when recovering from an injury once, and itâs horrible. Why on earth wouldnât you try to lessen someoneâs pain? Unless youâre saying these are the endoâs positions re: your treatment more specifically. Is your endo otherwise good?
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My husband and I have found that the variability in cholesterol measurement depends on whether the blood was taken fasting, what was eaten prior to the blood test (including the dinner meal before the fasting blood draw). If we were to have eaten steak, the cholesterol numbers always come back high. Additionally, if I am fighting a cold, generally not feeling well, the cholesterol results are also higher than my ânormalâ range. Thatâs one of the reasons that Iâm not so keen on medicating based on cholesterol numbers. I was also told during pregnancy and post pregnancy that one can expect higher cholesterol numbers by my PCP at the time. (Many people have told me that if they are sick, their insulin needs increase. )
Has anyone noticed changes in their cholesterol due to variables such as what was eaten and health at the time of the blood test?
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