Reply #93: Re: Your cholesterol. When I got down to 125 pounds it went up to 350. You probably need a statin.

[Hekate]

Despite being slender, my cholesterol started going up in my late 30s. I started doing all the stuff my doc told me, including taking Slo-Niacin, which was a disaster. A few years later, when I was in my early 40's, I decided I should try to lose the extra 20 pounds, so I went to Weight Watchers, and dieted and exercised religiously. About the time I became a life member I had my cholesterol recheck, and that's when it went up to 350. I went home and literally cried: my skinny little aunt had recently died horribly of complications of atherosclerosis, and I thought that I could control my own fate by "being good."

My liver is doing it, not my diet.

Statins have kept it under control since then, despite the subsequent weight gain caused by taking a low dose of a tricyclic antidepressant at bedtime for my fibromyalgia.

The drug for the fibromyalgia works great for mitigating the pain, but no one told me it was what was causing me to gain 60 pounds over the next years. Not until I stopped taking it and within days the mad cravings were gone. THEN three different doctors said that class of drugs "is notorious" for causing weight gain. In the past year, my clothes have become loose, but I have a very long way to go.

Love you for loving your friend. All the weight-nazis can STFU.

Hekate