Ok, I'm coming up on my fourth anniversary of LC. ( Please don't flame me because I'm a 42 year old woman and I take statins.) Four years ago I sat in my doctors office, endocrinologist, with the following labs:
3/29/04 8/23/06 11/24/07 3/19/08
Cholesterol 245 184 182 171
LDL ? ? 34 110
HDL 42 30 34 43
Triglyceride 1721 469 154 90

I had been taking Lipitor and Lopid in March of 2004. My doctor said she could try changing me to Crestor, stop the Lipitor and leave the Lopid alone. We did that. She also said I should try Atkins. I did that. As you can see, my numbers did improve. (Believe it or not my triglycerides were over 3000 at one point.) Fast forward to November of 2007. My HDL is still low even though I take Crestor, Lopid and I've added flushing Niacin & over the counter fish oil. Triglycerides are still 154 even though I'm eating LC and working out and taking meds and supplements. My doctor, family medicine, suggested I take prescription strength fish oil. Try it for 3 months and see what happens. I took 3 months of the fish oil, Lovaza and got my HDL up to 43 and triglycerides down to 90. I'm still taking Crestor 40 mg daily, Lopid 600 mg twice a day, Niacin 2,000 mg twice a day, but now I'm taking Lovaza 1 Gram, 2 capsules twice a day. I thought those results were pretty amazing. The Lovaza is expensive, but it seems to really have helped. The package shos that each capsule has eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) ethyl ester: 465 mg and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) ethyl ester 375mg. That appears to be way more EPA and DHA than I've seen in anything OTC.
I just wanted to share what a huge difference the prescription strength fish oil made in my numbers. Yes, I know there are those that say having numbers like that won't prevent heart disease in me because I'm a premenopausal woman. I've read Taubes book. But, I'm also a nurse and I've seen women with heart disease. I have a strong family history and at this point I'm not having any side effects. Like I said I just wanted to share my numbers.
Barb

I don't understand why you're taking the cholesterol drugs. The studies show they don't work in women.

Congrats on the fish oil success! I don't see any reason why you can't duplicate it with just taking more OTC fish oil though. I don't see why it has to be prescription.

I would suggest you read this blog: http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com he uses a lot of things like fish oil, niacin, vitamin d3 and so on to treat heart disease.

Thanks for the link Nancy. I have looked at those heartscan blogs before. I take cholesterol medication because I had pancreatitis due to sky high triglycerides > 3000 and a cholesterol of 714. I could have died. I don't want to do that again. Also, as I've said, I have a strong family history of heart disease. It is the standard of care for medical professionals to prescribe these medications to treat elevated cholesterol and triglycerides. I am betting some of my health on Atkins, but I'm not willing to bet it all. Mainly I wanted to post my numbers and let people know how much the fish oil helped. I'm sorry that the numbers showed up funky in my first post. I did have them all in columns. I was getting awful fish burps from the OTC stuff I was taking before. Also I haven't been able to find OTC stuff with that much EPA & DHA.
Like I initially said, Please don't flame me for taking statins.
Barb

I'm not flaming you, just questioning you. Can I ask a few more?

So, would your triglycerides go sky-high now if you were off the statins?

I thought statins suppressed LDL cholesterol, do they also work on Triglycerides or was that solely from your dietary changes?


I'm curious, why would you consider Atkins betting but statins not betting? I think all of our health care is a bet. We bet our doctors make a correct diagnosis. We bet they are keeping up on their fields. We bet that they didn't learn wrong things in school and cling to them. We bet that our doctors are above the influence of drug companies and won't push us into surgeries we don't really need because they pay so well. How often are we betting with these folks just because they're authority figures and we feel comfortable giving someone else the control? That's what my parents did, they got horrible medical advice yet they were happy because their doctors were "nice". I'm not saying this is what is happening with you, just relaying information about what I've seen happen to other people.

If my questions bug you, I apologize. I figured you posted here to have a conversation about what is going on with your health care.

The Lopid is primarily for the Triglycerides. The Crestor is for the cholesterol. The numbers I listed for 3/29/04 were with Lipitor and Lopid but I hadn't started Atkins. The Lipitor and Lopid brought them down from a high of 714 for cholesterol and I believe 3,323 Triglycerides. I don't have those numbers stored in my computer. My endocrinologist is the one who told me to go buy the book - Atkins.

I then changed to Crestor and about a month later started Atkins. Even following the diet, exercising 5 days a week and taking my medications in 8/06 I still had triglycerides of 469. I wasn't cheating I just have crappy labs. I added Niacin, regular flush type, and got an HDL of 34, and Triglycerides of 154. I was just so impressed with how well the fish oil worked. I would have had to take 12-15 gel caps of the OTC stuff to get the amount of EPA & DHA in these prescription caps. Not only that, but the fish burps were terrible with the OTC stuff.

I just really don't ever want to have pancreatitis again. The pain was horrid. I don't drink. I used to when I was way younger 20 years plus younger. It wasn't alcohol causeing the pancreatitis. My endocrinologist really works with me. She talks to me about the supplements I choose to take. She'll ask me why I take something, nod and say something along the lines of "Yes, there was a study done______".
I don't know what my triglycerides would do if I were to stop the Lopid or the Crestor. I was hoping to have some "normal" labs for about 6 months and then see if I could stop one or other for a 3 month period and see what my numbers do.

Wow, that is something you don't see much! My endo was against Atkins, but perfectly happy with protein power.
Congratulations on the fish oil working so well. I have only recently started taking it, I hope my results will be good like yours!

You've had a great improvement, cameromom. It's interesting and useful to know that prescription strength fish oil has made such a big difference.

That almost certianly says that the oil was RANCID! No wonder it did no good. I buy my fish oil/omega 3 from a supplement store that seems to have a lot of customers and thus a high turn over of its' stock so I hope that it is thus fresher. Then as soon as I get home it goes in the frig to protect it.

I've always checked my commercial fish oil before using, and periodically after I start using a bottle. In Protein Power the recommendation is to bite into a capsule to see if it's rancid, but I've found that just cutting them open and smelling is just as effective....and not as nasty tasting!

Fish oils are polyunsaturated fat, which is fairly unstable and easily damaged, so prescription or not, check your capsules periodically!

Thanks Larry and Cindy. I appreciate those tips on checking out the caps first.

I was just so excited to have finally gotten a grip on those lipids. I do think that the higher concentration of EPA & DHA is what made the difference as I've taken a fish oil supplement for quite some timre.
Barb

I think that's fantastic about what a difference the fish oil made for you.

By the way, I've noticed that the liquid fish oil is much, much higher in EPA and DHA than most capsules are. There's a lemon flavoured one that isn't bad at all, and I don't get any of those 'burps' you're talking about.

Here's a comparison of two store-bought fish oil products I keep on hand:

Carlson Norwegian Salmon Oil Soft Gels
-------------------------------------
Serving size - 2 capsules, provides 360mg of EPA and 250mg of the DHA.

Carlson "The Very Finest" Fish Oil - Lemon Flavour - liquid, sold in a bottle
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Serving size - 1 teaspoon of the lemon flavoured liquid provides 800mg EPA and 500mg of DHA

So, when I remember (and I do need to get good at taking this stuff), I take two teaspoons daily - one in the morning sometime, and one later in the day, like after supper or something. This gets me 1600mg EPA and 1000mg DHA.

I'd have to take 5 or 6 of the softgels to get that same amount.

And I hate taking pills and supplements - so the liquid is a good way to get more of the EPA and DHA.

How many of the prescription strength capsules are you taking?

Anyway - thanks for sharing this with us - it's really good to know that fish oil can make such a difference.

Sara

Ok - I see that you're taking two capsules, twice daily of the prescription strength fish oil. Which means you're getting the same amount of EPA and DHA as I would when I remember to take two teaspoonfuls of the liquid lemon flavoured store-bought Carlson's fish oil.

I guess the next question is the difference in price.

...Just went looking, and I see that vitacost has the best price.

I bought mine at the local health food store and it was more than $30 for the bottle.

Here's the vitacost link:

http://www.vitacost.com/Carlson-The...Finest-Fish-Oil

It's about $23 for 100 'servings'. Take two servings per day, and it's 46 cents per day.

How's that compare to the cost of the prescription strength one? Just out of curiosity.

Thanks,

Sara

Hi!
Prices certainly can vary hugely. I'm very drawn to a famous alternative med guy's products for ciruculatory disease, but they run about US$90 per mo on the internet. I know his quality is excellent.

Then I found this importer who carries tried and true ancient formulations and it would be $8 a month. There is a slightly higher possibility of risk.

So I am debating.

This same famous alternative American guy carries a monthly multi for about $90 also. Does anyone know of a high quality multi (USP) that's cheaper?

I have talked to my Doctor about possible taking fish oil and using the OTC stuff.

His response was that sometimes you cannot guarantee what you are getting from the OTC stuff because it is not regulated and the variations are great.

...but getting our meds from China is very problematic...

That's the standard answer....but if you buy reputable brands, it shouldn't be an issue.

And, like you said, there's China and heaven know where else we get drugs or drug components from!