jThere is no connection between cholesterol levels and heart attacks or heart disease. None whatsoever. Just as many people with "normal" cholesterol levels have heart attacks or heart disease as those with "high" cholesterol levels.
Go to a search engine a type in "The Cholesterol Myth".
Your liver produces as much cholesterol as your body needs.
In 1997 it was noticed that my cholesterol levels went up (when I turned 38). I spent a year meeting with a nutritionist each month and adjusting my diet, they monitored my cholesterol and saw that dietary changes had almost no effect. In 1998 they started me on meds, one month at a time, increasing the dosages each month. It took another year to finally get the dosages 'worked-out'. I have been on: Lopid (gemfibrozil) and Zocor (Simvastatin), ever since. Now they just check my levels and write a new script once a year.
Cwester, I got off it after 2 weeks. This is 2 months later. I agree a lot of the anti-cholesterol medication necessity is myth.
Galen,
Nice to hear from you. How was Maine?
I have a script for Pravachol, am trying south Beach Diet instead. I probably wouldn't worry about any of this, except I am diabetic and thus more prone to heart attacks anyway.
Did they ever say anything about staying out of the sun? I was told to stay out of the sun and not drink grapefruit juice or eat grapefruit. Or drink alcohol.
WG
"I'd rather be in the boat with a drink on the rocks than be in the drink with a boat on the rocks."
The muscle pain is the red-flag side effect for Lipitor. If you're sensitive to Lipitor, don't let them move you to Crestor either--it's less safe than Lipitor. Zocor might be an alternative for you, but if you're sensitive to one statin you may be sensitive to them all. Check with your doctor to be sure.
I've been on Lipitor for a year and fortunately haven't had any side effects.
Very nice, I had gone up last summer and entered escrow to purchase some land but had problems with passing the requirements for a septic system, had to back out of the purchase. Though that trip was very nice.
This time, everything went well, I looked at I think over 40 propertys, found one I like. Actually two lots (a 44 acre and a 104 acre) We want one and the in-laws want the other.
"I have a script for Pravachol, am trying south Beach Diet instead. I probably wouldn't worry about any of this, except I am diabetic and thus more prone to heart attacks anyway."
Bonnie and I read a lot about the atkins/south-beach, it did get us to thinking, though trying to limit our carbs is hard. With our herd, we live on pasta and bread. The whole trip to Maine I found grinders in a Grocery Deli for $2.50 that I liked, but again the bread.
"Did they ever say anything about staying out of the sun? I was told to stay out of the sun and not drink grapefruit juice or eat grapefruit. Or drink alcohol."
I was told that there could be reactions to the sun, and the grapefruit thing.
Each time, I see a doctor they ALWAYS review my drinking habits. One glass of wine at dinner, never more; Bonnie one the other sometimes will have 2-3. Then later I do rum, usually 2 bottles every 2 weeks. Since starting Zocor and Lopid, I have gone through 6 doctors, they have all insisted that they need to monitor my drinking, though at this level of drinking it is NOT an issue with the meds. Apparantly among sailors heavier drinking is common and only when you get into far heavier drinking does interaction with the meds become an issue.
So yes grapefruit and alcohol seem to have the possibility of interactions, however that is only for heavy social drinkers.
Elevated liver enzymes can cause itching. Lipitor can definitely elevate liver enzymes and it may take more than 6 weeks for your liver to return to normal after stopping the medicine. Don't worry about it too much. It should get better with time. Alcohol is mentioned because it is harsh on the liver also. The combination of alcohol and lipitor is a double whammy.
Keep using lotions. Use a non-allergenic type laundry soap (one without scents or dyes, one that is mild enough for a baby).
You might want to get your doctor to check your liver enzymes and compare them with what they were before you started Lipitor. If he was being thorough, he would have checked them before prescribing the medicine to you. They may or may not still be elevated at this point but if they are you will know to stay away from anything that will hurt your liver further. Tylenol is also hard on the liver at high doses (you never want to take more than 2,000 mg a day of tylenol). If you are taking that right now, stop. Take ibuprophen (advil) instead since it is cleared more through the kidneys than the liver.
Most of all, just give this a little more time and the lipitor damage will wear off and you will quit itching.
I was started on statin drugs Zocor/Lipitor after a heart attack and discovery of blockage and elevated cholesterol. They can reduce cholesterol levels. They can also produce terrible side effects as you have seen.
But is cholesterol itself the problem? I don't think so. The majority of the information that doctors rely on about cholesterol as it related to heart disesase is provided to them by the companies that manufacture the drugs.
High choloesterol does not necessarily relate to heart disease. A person can have high cholesterol levels never have blocked arteries or heart disease.
Studies have shown that there is a higher incidence of heart diesase in those with high cholesteror than those with normnal levels arteries blocked arteries. However this does not mean that all folks with high cholesterol will get blocked arteries or that those with low levels will not. A person with normal cholesterol levels can have severely clogged arteries.
What the medical community has done, with the encourabement of Pfizer, Merck and other drug companies is to treat ALL folks having elevated cholestoral as if they will get heart disease. They are treating a statisic and not a patient.
It's like aimng and firing a shotgun at a flock of birds when trying to shoot only one or two.
From what I have gathered, more important than total cholesterol is the ratio of LDL (Bad) to HDL (Good). A low HDL cholesterol level is probably more of a predictor of coronarary artery diesease than elevated total cholesterol.
Statin drugs are powerful. They can dammage the liver and cause numerous other side effects, such as headaches, rashes, leg pain and extreme tiredness. Many times these side effects are ignored by the doctors or are treated as separated problems. So the drug companies get you with both the statin drugs and then whatever is prescribed to address the side effects - and for what? To treat a statistic and a risk factor while they make a buck or two per day off of each person on these expensive drugs.
WG, search the Internet. Read the information on both sides of the cholesterol issue. Be careful though - both sides will twist the facts and statistic to make thier respective cases. The docs just follow what the drug companies and the AHA tell them.
From my personal experienece with both Zocor and Lipitor, after 6 years they have not prevented the progression of my coronary artery disease - I will be having arterial graft surgery (aortbifemoral bypass) in 10 days to bypass blocked arteries in my legs. Also, I feel much better when I do not take them.
If your rash was casued by the Lipitor, it should eventuallty clear up. If I were you I would look to other ways to address the cholesterol issue.
"You might want to get your doctor to check your liver enzymes and compare them with what they were before you started Lipitor. . . ."
Each time I go in to see a doctor, I hit the lab first about 2 weeks early, for a "liver function test". It is the only thing the docs want to see when evaluating Cholesterol meds. At least in my experience.
Statin drugs are only good for increasing the incredible wealth of the pharmaceutical companies. There is absolutely no connection between cholesterol levels and heart disease or heart attack rates. If your doctor believes cholesterol causes heart disease--get a new doctor fast. It is a scientfically proven fact that cholesterol levels do not influence heart health.
Anyone on statin drugs is destroying their healh for no reason. Statin drugs also lower your body's levels of Coenzyme Q10. This is very dangerous for your heart health.
The best things you can do for your heart are the following:
Lower your homocysteine levels with folic acid, B6, and B12.
Lower the level of inflamation of your cardiovascular system by taking Resveratrol.
Take lots of antioxidents to stop the oxidation of the LDL cholesterol.
Also:
Take Hawthorn to increase peripheral circulation, relax the blood vessels.
Take fish oil capsules or flavored Cod Liver Oil. This does amazing things for the heart.
100mg of Coenzyme Q10 increased the strength of the heart, strengthens the immune system, and is a vey potent antioxident.
GET OFF DRUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ESPECIALLY THE USELESS STATIN DRUGS.
This just in from the Journal of the American Medical Association:
Medical doctors are the number three cause of death in the United States.(True Fact)
that being said I also realize people often are at the mercy of their doctors and need to do what they think will "help" them.
I have relatives who almost waiting for me to drop dead cause i do not "take care of myself" by going to the doctors twice a month or for every time Ifeel pain or not well. I had an ear infection I treated it with herbs and it took about a month for it to go away and I was in pain, andother relative goes to the dr. upon theonset of pain they treat him with anitbiotics every single time , he gets better adter 14 days and it comes back within a couple of months, for three YEARS a cycle of dependency . mine has not returned his has cost the insurance thousands of dollars for testing of the bacteria and etc... and he keeps gettin it back.
I do not know but my sister went off the staton drugs due to side effects but she is on a very very strict diet and still is told she has high bad levels.
I flatly refuse to do it . somhow I truly believe it isnt going to be a level of a chemical in my blood that will kill me, but maybe my relatives who know how to run my life better than I who shorten my life by a few decades anyway.
they know the problems with these drugs it has been a long history of some very serious complication then why do they keep promoting them? Is the good they do really better? or is it because they can measure the amount of it in your blood and say they did one thing right and it must be working in a good and positive way?
IM not sure and frankly I do notthink they are either.
about the dry skin : oatmeal baths may help calm it down and also eucrin brand products are very very good for dry skin. for sensitive skin.
You guys are so helpful! Thanks, each and every one of you.
I am going to print this off at the end of the day and definitely get into some of the more natural things suggested.
I think the problem is aggravated by being out in the sun. I also think it is the weirdest damm thing that's ever happened to me.
I'm gonna go see my doctor this week, not the same one who prescribed this Lipitor crap, but a primary care physician. I will also see about the Q-10 one of you suggested, it is even getting allopathic attention.
WG, well join the rest of us who are on harmones, Fosimax and HDL/LDH meds.
My doctor started me out on Liptor and I was ever so miserable while taking it. He changed me to Zorcor and I have not had any side effects from it what-so-ever.
You may want to ask yor doc to try you on another drug that works just as well without the side effects. Hope you can find some relief..
My cholesterol is 330 and I refuse to take any of the drugs. The males on my side of the family are /were known to have high cholesterol, moderate to heavy drinking and *no* heart attacks. My cholesterol drug is 2 fingers of 30 proof Southern Comfort every night while I'm in bed reading.
Oh, and let's not forget salmon, nicely grilled and served with a sour cream-dill sauce on the side, as a source of antioxidants and pure dining pleasure besides!
Rule of thumb: If any product uses the words "toxins" or "detoxify" in any of its advertisements, odds are high it's pure snake oil.
Lots of things are "natural". That doesn't mean they're good for you. (cf. mercury, cyanide, cobra venom)
If an alternate-medicine practitioner treats his methods as though they were more of a religion or a political response to a conspiracy theory, run far, far away.
Extremism is never the answer to anything. Eat sensibly instead of fanatically, take only the barest minimum of supplements, be they herbal or pharmaceutical, learn to relax wherever possible, and you can keep the doctors (of all kinds) out of your life as much as possible.
CoQ-10 is a little on the expensive side, but I take it every day. I dunno if it works or not, but my doc said my homocysteine levels were just fine, so maybe it does.
Cholesterol 176, BP 118/72. Guess the meds are doing their job, too. ;)-->
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Tom Strange
nope WG... sorry... I remember seeing the adds for Lipitor and thinking "nice add, those 'possible' side effects are worse than the high cholesterol!"
anyway... sorry you itch and hurt... is Cortaid hydrocortizone?
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chwester
get off the stuff.
jThere is no connection between cholesterol levels and heart attacks or heart disease. None whatsoever. Just as many people with "normal" cholesterol levels have heart attacks or heart disease as those with "high" cholesterol levels.
Go to a search engine a type in "The Cholesterol Myth".
Your liver produces as much cholesterol as your body needs.
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Galen
In 1997 it was noticed that my cholesterol levels went up (when I turned 38). I spent a year meeting with a nutritionist each month and adjusting my diet, they monitored my cholesterol and saw that dietary changes had almost no effect. In 1998 they started me on meds, one month at a time, increasing the dosages each month. It took another year to finally get the dosages 'worked-out'. I have been on: Lopid (gemfibrozil) and Zocor (Simvastatin), ever since. Now they just check my levels and write a new script once a year.
So far I have not noticed any side-effects.
I guess that I am lucky.
I hope your ill-effects dont worsen.
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Watered Garden
thanks ya'll.
Tom, I think Cortaid is a cortisone product.
Cwester, I got off it after 2 weeks. This is 2 months later. I agree a lot of the anti-cholesterol medication necessity is myth.
Galen,
Nice to hear from you. How was Maine?
I have a script for Pravachol, am trying south Beach Diet instead. I probably wouldn't worry about any of this, except I am diabetic and thus more prone to heart attacks anyway.
Did they ever say anything about staying out of the sun? I was told to stay out of the sun and not drink grapefruit juice or eat grapefruit. Or drink alcohol.
WG
"I'd rather be in the boat with a drink on the rocks than be in the drink with a boat on the rocks."
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Zixar
The muscle pain is the red-flag side effect for Lipitor. If you're sensitive to Lipitor, don't let them move you to Crestor either--it's less safe than Lipitor. Zocor might be an alternative for you, but if you're sensitive to one statin you may be sensitive to them all. Check with your doctor to be sure.
I've been on Lipitor for a year and fortunately haven't had any side effects.
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Galen
Watered Garden:
"Nice to hear from you. How was Maine?"
Very nice, I had gone up last summer and entered escrow to purchase some land but had problems with passing the requirements for a septic system, had to back out of the purchase. Though that trip was very nice.
This time, everything went well, I looked at I think over 40 propertys, found one I like. Actually two lots (a 44 acre and a 104 acre) We want one and the in-laws want the other.
"I have a script for Pravachol, am trying south Beach Diet instead. I probably wouldn't worry about any of this, except I am diabetic and thus more prone to heart attacks anyway."
Bonnie and I read a lot about the atkins/south-beach, it did get us to thinking, though trying to limit our carbs is hard. With our herd, we live on pasta and bread. The whole trip to Maine I found grinders in a Grocery Deli for $2.50 that I liked, but again the bread.
"Did they ever say anything about staying out of the sun? I was told to stay out of the sun and not drink grapefruit juice or eat grapefruit. Or drink alcohol."
I was told that there could be reactions to the sun, and the grapefruit thing.
Each time, I see a doctor they ALWAYS review my drinking habits. One glass of wine at dinner, never more; Bonnie one the other sometimes will have 2-3. Then later I do rum, usually 2 bottles every 2 weeks. Since starting Zocor and Lopid, I have gone through 6 doctors, they have all insisted that they need to monitor my drinking, though at this level of drinking it is NOT an issue with the meds. Apparantly among sailors heavier drinking is common and only when you get into far heavier drinking does interaction with the meds become an issue.
So yes grapefruit and alcohol seem to have the possibility of interactions, however that is only for heavy social drinkers.
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LearnedTooLate
Elevated liver enzymes can cause itching. Lipitor can definitely elevate liver enzymes and it may take more than 6 weeks for your liver to return to normal after stopping the medicine. Don't worry about it too much. It should get better with time. Alcohol is mentioned because it is harsh on the liver also. The combination of alcohol and lipitor is a double whammy.
Keep using lotions. Use a non-allergenic type laundry soap (one without scents or dyes, one that is mild enough for a baby).
You might want to get your doctor to check your liver enzymes and compare them with what they were before you started Lipitor. If he was being thorough, he would have checked them before prescribing the medicine to you. They may or may not still be elevated at this point but if they are you will know to stay away from anything that will hurt your liver further. Tylenol is also hard on the liver at high doses (you never want to take more than 2,000 mg a day of tylenol). If you are taking that right now, stop. Take ibuprophen (advil) instead since it is cleared more through the kidneys than the liver.
Most of all, just give this a little more time and the lipitor damage will wear off and you will quit itching.
Good luck!
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Dot Matrix
WG
Try vitamin E and Lecithin to help with colesteral levels...
Where is Master hearbalsit?
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Goey
WG,
I was started on statin drugs Zocor/Lipitor after a heart attack and discovery of blockage and elevated cholesterol. They can reduce cholesterol levels. They can also produce terrible side effects as you have seen.
But is cholesterol itself the problem? I don't think so. The majority of the information that doctors rely on about cholesterol as it related to heart disesase is provided to them by the companies that manufacture the drugs.
High choloesterol does not necessarily relate to heart disease. A person can have high cholesterol levels never have blocked arteries or heart disease.
Studies have shown that there is a higher incidence of heart diesase in those with high cholesteror than those with normnal levels arteries blocked arteries. However this does not mean that all folks with high cholesterol will get blocked arteries or that those with low levels will not. A person with normal cholesterol levels can have severely clogged arteries.
What the medical community has done, with the encourabement of Pfizer, Merck and other drug companies is to treat ALL folks having elevated cholestoral as if they will get heart disease. They are treating a statisic and not a patient.
It's like aimng and firing a shotgun at a flock of birds when trying to shoot only one or two.
From what I have gathered, more important than total cholesterol is the ratio of LDL (Bad) to HDL (Good). A low HDL cholesterol level is probably more of a predictor of coronarary artery diesease than elevated total cholesterol.
Statin drugs are powerful. They can dammage the liver and cause numerous other side effects, such as headaches, rashes, leg pain and extreme tiredness. Many times these side effects are ignored by the doctors or are treated as separated problems. So the drug companies get you with both the statin drugs and then whatever is prescribed to address the side effects - and for what? To treat a statistic and a risk factor while they make a buck or two per day off of each person on these expensive drugs.
WG, search the Internet. Read the information on both sides of the cholesterol issue. Be careful though - both sides will twist the facts and statistic to make thier respective cases. The docs just follow what the drug companies and the AHA tell them.
From my personal experienece with both Zocor and Lipitor, after 6 years they have not prevented the progression of my coronary artery disease - I will be having arterial graft surgery (aortbifemoral bypass) in 10 days to bypass blocked arteries in my legs. Also, I feel much better when I do not take them.
If your rash was casued by the Lipitor, it should eventuallty clear up. If I were you I would look to other ways to address the cholesterol issue.
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Galen
LearnedTooLate:
"You might want to get your doctor to check your liver enzymes and compare them with what they were before you started Lipitor. . . ."
Each time I go in to see a doctor, I hit the lab first about 2 weeks early, for a "liver function test". It is the only thing the docs want to see when evaluating Cholesterol meds. At least in my experience.
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chwester
Statin drugs are only good for increasing the incredible wealth of the pharmaceutical companies. There is absolutely no connection between cholesterol levels and heart disease or heart attack rates. If your doctor believes cholesterol causes heart disease--get a new doctor fast. It is a scientfically proven fact that cholesterol levels do not influence heart health.
Anyone on statin drugs is destroying their healh for no reason. Statin drugs also lower your body's levels of Coenzyme Q10. This is very dangerous for your heart health.
The best things you can do for your heart are the following:
Lower your homocysteine levels with folic acid, B6, and B12.
Lower the level of inflamation of your cardiovascular system by taking Resveratrol.
Take lots of antioxidents to stop the oxidation of the LDL cholesterol.
Also:
Take Hawthorn to increase peripheral circulation, relax the blood vessels.
Take fish oil capsules or flavored Cod Liver Oil. This does amazing things for the heart.
100mg of Coenzyme Q10 increased the strength of the heart, strengthens the immune system, and is a vey potent antioxident.
GET OFF DRUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ESPECIALLY THE USELESS STATIN DRUGS.
This just in from the Journal of the American Medical Association:
Medical doctors are the number three cause of death in the United States.(True Fact)
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mj412
I agree with cwester about the drugs.
that being said I also realize people often are at the mercy of their doctors and need to do what they think will "help" them.
I have relatives who almost waiting for me to drop dead cause i do not "take care of myself" by going to the doctors twice a month or for every time Ifeel pain or not well. I had an ear infection I treated it with herbs and it took about a month for it to go away and I was in pain, andother relative goes to the dr. upon theonset of pain they treat him with anitbiotics every single time , he gets better adter 14 days and it comes back within a couple of months, for three YEARS a cycle of dependency . mine has not returned his has cost the insurance thousands of dollars for testing of the bacteria and etc... and he keeps gettin it back.
I do not know but my sister went off the staton drugs due to side effects but she is on a very very strict diet and still is told she has high bad levels.
I flatly refuse to do it . somhow I truly believe it isnt going to be a level of a chemical in my blood that will kill me, but maybe my relatives who know how to run my life better than I who shorten my life by a few decades anyway.
they know the problems with these drugs it has been a long history of some very serious complication then why do they keep promoting them? Is the good they do really better? or is it because they can measure the amount of it in your blood and say they did one thing right and it must be working in a good and positive way?
IM not sure and frankly I do notthink they are either.
about the dry skin : oatmeal baths may help calm it down and also eucrin brand products are very very good for dry skin. for sensitive skin.
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Watered Garden
You guys are so helpful! Thanks, each and every one of you.
I am going to print this off at the end of the day and definitely get into some of the more natural things suggested.
I think the problem is aggravated by being out in the sun. I also think it is the weirdest damm thing that's ever happened to me.
I'm gonna go see my doctor this week, not the same one who prescribed this Lipitor crap, but a primary care physician. I will also see about the Q-10 one of you suggested, it is even getting allopathic attention.
Will report back any news.
Love and thanks to each of you!
WG
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dmiller
Not meaning to derail, but what is a "grinder"?
-->
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Watered Garden
I think it's Yankee talk for a submarine sandwich. There's a restaurant chain here called OJ Grinders.
Like Subway serves.
WG
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dmiller
WG -- Thanks! I figured it was a sandwich, but had never heard the term.
:)-->
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sadie
WG, well join the rest of us who are on harmones, Fosimax and HDL/LDH meds.
My doctor started me out on Liptor and I was ever so miserable while taking it. He changed me to Zorcor and I have not had any side effects from it what-so-ever.
You may want to ask yor doc to try you on another drug that works just as well without the side effects. Hope you can find some relief..
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Jim
My cholesterol is 330 and I refuse to take any of the drugs. The males on my side of the family are /were known to have high cholesterol, moderate to heavy drinking and *no* heart attacks. My cholesterol drug is 2 fingers of 30 proof Southern Comfort every night while I'm in bed reading.
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Watered Garden
Oh, and let's not forget salmon, nicely grilled and served with a sour cream-dill sauce on the side, as a source of antioxidants and pure dining pleasure besides!
WG
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Zixar
Rule of thumb: If any product uses the words "toxins" or "detoxify" in any of its advertisements, odds are high it's pure snake oil.
Lots of things are "natural". That doesn't mean they're good for you. (cf. mercury, cyanide, cobra venom)
If an alternate-medicine practitioner treats his methods as though they were more of a religion or a political response to a conspiracy theory, run far, far away.
Extremism is never the answer to anything. Eat sensibly instead of fanatically, take only the barest minimum of supplements, be they herbal or pharmaceutical, learn to relax wherever possible, and you can keep the doctors (of all kinds) out of your life as much as possible.
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Watered Garden
Zixar - words of wisdome for sure.
I happen to like salmon, and buy wild salmon whenever possible. I take vitamin C, E multi- and will probably try this CQ-10 enzyme if possible.
Oh, yeah, I like Cheetoes too, just to keep a balance in life!
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Zixar
WG: Mmmmmm.....salmon! Love it, myself.
CoQ-10 is a little on the expensive side, but I take it every day. I dunno if it works or not, but my doc said my homocysteine levels were just fine, so maybe it does.
Cholesterol 176, BP 118/72. Guess the meds are doing their job, too.
;)-->
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Watered Garden
Zix---does this mean the "colon cleanse" was not all it was cracked up to be???
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chwester
shop for natural medicines, including coq10 at the www.vitaminshoppe.com or www.vitacost.com or www.webvitamins.com
best prices around
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