I had been on Atorvastatin, the generic brand of Lipitor, since 2007 when I was given a stent in my heart. My last reading while on statins was April of 2015 my cholesterol was 108, and I was taking two 80 mg of atorvastatin a day. So it was well within the good range of less than 200.
That spring I had started to develop rashes everytime I went out in the sun for more than a couple of minutes, especially when not wearing long sleeves. After two trips to the VA dermatology in Gainesville and they had taken two biopies they were unable to figure it out. I take about a dozen different pills a day, I started reading online the side-effects of each of my pills and found that statins can cause sun sensitivity.
On June 5th on my own, I stopped taking the statins and within 5 days my sun allergy went away. However, here's the problem. On my next lab work in November my cholesterol was 247, the VA lists 200-239 as borderline and 240 and above as high.
So in November my doctor started me on drug Zitia and I added the herbal 'Red Yeast Rice' to my pills along with the 3 Fish Oil pills I already was taking. The Zitia made me fell bloated and I had some diarrhea. He next tried Niacin, which is vitamin B3. The Niacin I've had no problems and with the herbal pills my last cholesterol reading was in April was 211. It's not in the safe range but it's coming down. I get tested again in two weeks.
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