At 37 years old, I developed Type 1 Diabetes after almost 20 years as a strict whole-foods vegetarian (don’t try to tell me why). Two years later, my diagnosis was revised from a type 2 (in spite of having dropped 25 lbs. to just 140 on my 6′ frame at initial diagnosis) to a type 1 and I was put on a statin. Six months later, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s and put on Levoxyl. At that point, a group of symptoms that had been bothersome for a few months, including vertigo, abdominal pain, difficulty breathing, chest tightness, pain in my upper throat and headaches became constant and debilitating. I discovered these were disclaimed side effects of my statin and stopped taking it, much to the chagrin of my endocrinologist. But, my cholesterol levels have never been anything but perfectly ideal and these symptoms disappeared soon after stopping the statin. I don’t want to try other statins. I want to know if I honestly need a statin. I prefer an answer from someone who should know and gets NO considerations from the pharmaceutical industry.
4 responses so far ↓
1 alliblue // Nov 5, 2008
I would have to say it depends on what your cholesterol is. But I just wanted to say that I am so happy that you did end up with the correct diagnosis. Type 1 diabetes can happen at any time in a person’s life and although usually does happen during childhood it can happen at any time. Sometimes when your a type 1 I have found that the meds some want to put you on are preventive. Maybe that is the case for you, I don’t know.
2 Terry O // Nov 5, 2008
To get to the bottom of what you are suffering without being distracted by secondary symptoms and their indicated pharmaceutical remedies, your diagnosis appears to amount to insulin tolerance. As a vegetarian, as I was for five years straight with no exceptions, it is likely that you had a high level of blood sugar from eating a lot of fruit and having too little fats to moderate the absorption rate. This causes a constantly high level of insulin. The muscles, now accustomed to the high levels of insulin, do not respond by metabolizing the blood sugar. So the blood sugar gets even higher, and bingo, it looks like type 1 diabetes, but what you really have is insulin tolerance brought about by consistently high levels of both blood sugars and insulin at the same time.
I assume that you responded to your situation by first cutting down on the amount of sugars and carbohydrates in your diet. That will bring down the base insulin level. But to reverse the insulin tolerance, you absolutely must exercise your muscles. Since we tend to eat 7 days a week, exercise for this purpose is also best done 7 days a week, not just 4 or 5, unless you only eat 4 or 5 days a week. You need 20 minutes of cardio, and twice a day will recover you faster than once a day. (The simplicity of all of all of this logic is remarkable, isn’t it?)
Now why the statin? It is simply that consistently high insulin levels cause release of other debilitating hormones, such as Adrenalin, that would normally stimulate muscular and breathing efficiency to bring down blood sugar. But your diet got in the way of that. So those persistently high secondary hormone levels cause arterial inflammation and palpitation, which appears as arterial constriction. Arterial constriction is most commonly the result of accumulated fats, which statins are often able to reduce. But a vegetarian could not possibly, as far as I know, (I am not an MD or a dietitian, just an experienced and well researched vegetarian), have any amount of arterial plaque accumulations, which are typically caused by diets high in animal fats.
By the way, what does your blood pressure look like most of the time?
To moderate your digestion of carbohydrates you should be getting at least 2 grams a day of omega 3 oils. Taken with carbohydrates, it slows down the absorption rate, smoothing out the blood sugar spikes that trigger insulin releases. As you know, those insulin releases cause blood sugar decreases, which causes a need for more carbohydrates, and so goes the merry-go-round.
So at your age and weight, with your diet and a healthy exercise regime, you should live a long and healthy life without ever getting sick. But you must get complete and balanced levels of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, trace-elements, fibers, and lipids.
I have tried many, and there is really only one source that gets the job done. Email me if you want particulars.
3 sue // Nov 5, 2008
There is a type 1.5 which is a combination of both type 1 and type 2.
Now to the statin problem. If you are allergic to one of them you will most likely be allergic to all of them. They are RX’d for diabetics to try to help protect the kidneys while killing the liver.
I won’t take them for the reason that my liver is in fine shape right now, and why would I want to kill it too. The doctors all disagree with me on this stand, but I am the boss of my bod and what I say goes into it.
Now, I did take the statins for a time, then did some research on the breathing problem which it exacerbates and I have chronic sinus and bronchitis problem already. I don’t see that it will help anything and did not lower my triglyceride numbers at all for the 2 years I took the junk.
I think they are a golden goose for the pharma industries that don’t do a thing for us but make us take another pill.
Stick to your guns and do as you see fit to manage your diabetic condition and live a long healthy life.
4 dingding // Nov 5, 2008
We diabetics are held to a tighter standard on our cholesterol numbers. My endo and my general doc are quibbling over whether to put me on a statin drug because I got one bad LDL reading of 100. <100 is normal, but they want diabetics to be <70. So your numbers might seem normal, but your endo might want to tighten you up further.
Have you tried pycnogenol? It's a nutraceutical that's been clinically shown to help some people if their LDL is only moderately elevated. I used to take it and will probably try it again before resorting to statins. I think you can get it at GNC and other online sources.
http://www.pycnogenol.com/pdf/Pycnogenol%20for%20healthy%20cholesterol%20levels.pdf
EDIT: Also, I'm sure you already know that your being veggie had nothing to do one way or the other with you becoming Type 1. You could be the healthiest person in the world and still get Type 1.