I am curious if anyone who has been on TRT has noticed a decrease or increase of Cholesterol while on TRT. I’ve read numerous articles on this where some studies have shown TRT will help improve cholesterol while others have stated it can make it worse.
I personally have high cholesterol and take statins for this. Even with diet and exercise my cholesterol is still high, it runs in my family on both sides. I went off my meds for a few weeks and my numbers shot way up. I’m curious if being on TRT has made my cholesterol profile worse.
CHOL is the basic building block of all hormones. it is the starting block. your body senses low hormones and may respond by ramping up CHOL levels because it is trying to introduce more raw material into the hormone production chain. While on T, your body may sense you have enough T so it scales back your CHOL levels.
I have heard horror stories of people on statins from multiple hrt boards - muscle damage, CoQ10 depletion, etc. etc. I personally would explore and try almost every single alternative before ever going on a statin.
plus do you know that the 30% decrease in heart attacks or such that they claim in their ads really is something like out of 100 people with High CHOL 3 may have a heart attack… now if all 100 people took Lipitor then only 2 people may have a heart attack. so 100 people have to be medicated to stop 1 person from possibily having a heart attack, and then when you look at how many of those 100 experienced negative side effects, is it really worth it in the end?
[quote]oceanminded wrote:
I am curious if anyone who has been on TRT has noticed a decrease or increase of Cholesterol while on TRT. I’ve read numerous articles on this where some studies have shown TRT will help improve cholesterol while others have stated it can make it worse.
I personally have high cholesterol and take statins for this. Even with diet and exercise my cholesterol is still high, it runs in my family on both sides. I went off my meds for a few weeks and my numbers shot way up. I’m curious if being on TRT has made my cholesterol profile worse.[/quote]
Seeing as you are on statins, have a read of some articles and then make up your own mind if you want to be on them.
They will continue to believe that cholesterol lowering medications will successfully treat and prevent heart disease in spite of the fact that a study published in The American Heart Journal ( January 2009 ) analyzing 137,000 patients admitted to hospitals in the United States with a heart attack demonstrated that almost 75% had “normal” cholesterol levels.
x3 here, chiming in on the evil of statins…I always say if you are going to be on them, at least take CoQ10 to help mitigate their effects…but I wouldn’t touch them myself…
Personally, my CHOL was the same (over range high total/LDL, below range HDL with triglycerides in the upper quadrant of range) when my T levels were 600 naturally, 250 naturally, and 950 on TRT…it appears that at least in my case, there is more to the equation than just Total T…
I am taking 1 g of Naicin daily (in an attempt to raise HDL) and 3 tsp of Apple Cider Vinegar daily (to lower overall CHOL and LDL)…i’ll report back on this in my log after 3 months or so
I can attest to the fact that TRT has lowered my cholesterol to the point that my cardiologist has begun taking me off of medications, in fact at this point I take only Tri-Cor for help in controlling triglycerides. I had pretty high Cholesterol but since starting TRT/HRT about 2 1/2 years ago my total cholesterol has consistently been in the 120 range after being in the 275 - 300 range.
I had been on statins and working out regularly and can tell you the statins had very little effect on lowering my levels. I have to add also that I have been recently going through some issues (I’ve discussed with Pure Chance in a seperate post), that have made me wary of my Drs. protocol for prescribing medications and the actual good vs bad they are doing me; but that’s another story.
Getting back to Cholesterol, I think most people including Drs. have lost sight of the fact that the real culprit is Triglycerides and not Cholesterol. You should read up on the effects of Triglycerides vs Cholesterol and work toward getting off statins. Good Luck.
FYI - CHOL under 150 can be dangerous. CHOL is the basic building blocks for cortisol plus a whole lot more. Low CHOL can be life threatening as much as if not more than high CHOL.
This is a touchy subject. When cholesterol levels are high, excess cholesterol concentrates in the walls of the arteries, thereby reducing blood flow. This dangerous buildup of plaque is called Atherosclerosis. Heart Disease is the number 1 killer in the U.S. My dad had a stent put in at age 65. He was fit, ate well, didn’t drink or smoke yet his cholesterol was high. I also personally know guys in their late 40’s and 50’s who have had heart problems and they all had high cholesterol. There’s always the exception to this but too much cholesterol is not good. The reason these big pharma companies make a killing off these statin drugs is because the majority of Americans are obese and they don’t eat well. If we were a healthy nation there would be no need for these drugs except for people whose cholesterol remains high despite diet and exercise. I hate taking statins but if they help reduce the buildup of plaque and inflammation, then I’m all for it.
[quote]oceanminded wrote:
This is a touchy subject. When cholesterol levels are high, excess cholesterol concentrates in the walls of the arteries, thereby reducing blood flow. This dangerous buildup of plaque is called Atherosclerosis. Heart Disease is the number 1 killer in the U.S. My dad had a stent put in at age 65. He was fit, ate well, didn’t drink or smoke yet his cholesterol was high. I also personally know guys in their late 40’s and 50’s who have had heart problems and they all had high cholesterol. There’s always the exception to this but too much cholesterol is not good. The reason these big pharma companies make a killing off these statin drugs is because the majority of Americans are obese and they don’t eat well. If we were a healthy nation there would be no need for these drugs except for people whose cholesterol remains high despite diet and exercise. I hate taking statins but if they help reduce the buildup of plaque and inflammation, then I’m all for it. [/quote]
If you keep seeing firefighters at the scene of a fire, do you turn them away and blame them for causing it? Dont blame the effect, blame the cause…
[quote]
Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease
In individuals without clinically evident coronary heart disease but with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease based on age > 50 years old in men and > 60 years old in women, hsCRP > 2 mg/L, and the presence of at least one additional cardiovascular disease risk factor such as hypertension, low HDL-C, smoking, or a family history of premature coronary heart disease, CRESTOR (rosuvastatin calcium) is indicated to:
reduce the risk of stroke
reduce the risk of myocardial infarction
reduce the risk of arterial revascularization procedures [/quote]
This medicine is not shown to lower the risk of heart attack or stroke outside of that population…it is a sham…dont be a sheeple.
[quote]rbarker wrote:
I can attest to the fact that TRT has lowered my cholesterol to the point that my cardiologist has begun taking me off of medications, in fact at this point I take only Tri-Cor for help in controlling triglycerides. I had pretty high Cholesterol but since starting TRT/HRT about 2 1/2 years ago my total cholesterol has consistently been in the 120 range after being in the 275 - 300 range.
I had been on statins and working out regularly and can tell you the statins had very little effect on lowering my levels. I have to add also that I have been recently going through some issues (I’ve discussed with Pure Chance in a seperate post), that have made me wary of my Drs. protocol for prescribing medications and the actual good vs bad they are doing me; but that’s another story.
Getting back to Cholesterol, I think most people including Drs. have lost sight of the fact that the real culprit is Triglycerides and not Cholesterol. You should read up on the effects of Triglycerides vs Cholesterol and work toward getting off statins. Good Luck.[/quote]
rbarber,
That’s encouraging to know your cholesterol ratio improved while on TRT. I wish there were more studies done on the effects of TRT and cholesterol along with those taking statins while on TRT vs those who aren’t on any cholesterol lowering meds. Hopefully, one day I can get off the statins but for right now the benefits outweigh the risks.
[quote]oceanminded wrote:
I am curious if anyone who has been on TRT has noticed a decrease or increase of Cholesterol while on TRT. I’ve read numerous articles on this where some studies have shown TRT will help improve cholesterol while others have stated it can make it worse.
I personally have high cholesterol and take statins for this. Even with diet and exercise my cholesterol is still high, it runs in my family on both sides. I went off my meds for a few weeks and my numbers shot way up. I’m curious if being on TRT has made my cholesterol profile worse.[/quote]
[quote]oceanminded wrote:
but for right now the benefits outweigh the risks.
[/quote]
Honestly, I would not be so sure after reading some of those studies in the links provided.
Did you have a read?
[/quote]
I read the articles and many more like those. Diet and exercise is the best way to lower your cholesterol but meds are sometimes also necessary depending on one’s risk factors. Like I said in my earlier post, I have known people personally who have had heart problems as well as high cholesterol. It’s funny how we don’t have a problem injecting ourselves with a synthetic hormone each week along with taking an AI, yet when it comes to taking a statin drug that could potentially lower our risk in developing heart disease one day the red flags go up.
[quote]oceanminded wrote:
It’s funny how we don’t have a problem injecting ourselves with a synthetic hormone each week along with taking an AI, yet when it comes to taking a statin drug that [u]could potentially[/u] lower our risk in developing heart disease one day the red flags go up.[/quote]
“could potentially” if you are the one out of the 100 that it MIGHT help. Keep in mind there is very little evidence showing statins lowers the risk of heart disease.
There is however proven side effects of the drug…if you think the side effects outweigh the sorta-kinda-maybe-hopefully-possible benefits, thats your perogative, but dont start trying to compare statins to testosterone…you will not win that fight despite how many logical fallacies you lob out
[quote]oceanminded wrote:
but for right now the benefits outweigh the risks.
[/quote]
Honestly, I would not be so sure after reading some of those studies in the links provided.
Did you have a read?
[/quote]
I read the articles and many more like those. Diet and exercise is the best way to lower your cholesterol but meds are sometimes also necessary depending on one’s risk factors. Like I said in my earlier post, I have known people personally who have had heart problems as well as high cholesterol. It’s funny how we don’t have a problem injecting ourselves with a synthetic hormone each week along with taking an AI, yet when it comes to taking a statin drug that could potentially lower our risk in developing heart disease one day the red flags go up.[/quote]
Fair enough, I am not trying to convince you one way or the other. I just think that a study of 137,000 people who had heart attacks, 75% of them had normal cholesterol levels is interesting.
So more people had heart attacks with cholesterol in range than those with out of range. That to me sounds pretty convincing. Just to let you know I was prescribed statins also, but after reading all the crap they do I never picked up my medication.
The guys on the board here brought up a good point which I think is very valid in regards to cholesterol. Having higher levels could really be the warning flag that something is messed up in the hormonal chain that needs attention.
The guys on the board here brought up a good point which I think is very valid in regards to cholesterol. Having higher levels could really be the warning flag that something is messed up in the hormonal chain that needs attention.
[/quote]
Definitely an interesting hypothesis and one that I’d never even thought about previously.
Incidentally, my latest lab results showed my total cholesterol at 143 and my LDL to HDL ratio was 1.2. Not sure if it’s TRT related or not, but I’ll take it…
I have been on TRT for about 3 months and my levels of cholesterol remained the same.
I´m on the “bad side”, with a total of about 220.
Since last result I tried to lower using Crestor (previously I was taking Fluvastatin), but not sure if this is causing me lower libido, etc. issues (anyone else?). Not sure at all, could be something else. Otherwise taking Crestor since about a month and didn´t notice any bad symptoms (other the “suspected” described).
My weight is super OK and I´m on the athletic side, never smoke or drink in my life, have hight cholesterol since I was a kid.