High Cholesterol and Statin Drug Case Study 1
Carol was born in down town Boston area, her family moved to Wellesley when she was 5 years old, so she can go to Wellesley school for the better education. Her father was a police officer in Greater Boston area and always pushed her to study hard. She later went to a private high school in Westwood with scholarship. Carol grew up with traditional Italian food: a lot of pasta and salad with olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar. She seldom went to doctor before she reached 40 years old. Her diet changed when she went to Boston College where she has a lot of processed food with simple sugar and a lot of salt. Her diet was even less healthy when she was studying for her MBA in Babson College in Wellesley. At the age of 45 years old, her hormone started changing. Her estrogen and progesterone was out of balance, she developed different inflammation in her intestine: she had 3 surgeries in her colon and developed IBS after all the surgeries. She has to use laxative periodically and she was in pain constantly in lower abdominal areas because of the inflammation in her colon.
Finally she decided to see an acupuncturist in Needham to see if she can reduce the inflammation with her diet and life style changes. After 3 bowl surgeries, she had so much scar tissue in her colon. She would not have bowl movement for a few days, then she took laxative, she would have diarrhea with watery stool and abdominal pain many times a day. She could not absorb vitamins and minerals properly, thus her body cannot repair wear and tear properly. She developed arthritis in her hands and feet. Walking becomes more difficult. Since her circulation was not good in her feet, she was given test to see the blood vessel condition and was told her cholesterol is high and her carotid artery was partially blocked. She was given Lipitor instantly. Only after a few week of taking Lipitor, all her joint pain got worse in her feet, hands and neck. She also noticed that her short memory was influenced. As an accountant, she cannot afford losing her memory. She decided to talk to her acupuncturist in Needham. Her acupuncturist recommend her add kale and apple smoothie in her diet to clean up her arteries by lowering her bad cholesterol and reducing the inflammation. Initially she had hard time to take the kale juice, but she was so determined to reduce the dosage of her statin. She forced herself to take the raw kale and apple juice three times week. Six months after she started kale raw juice, her arteries was cleaned dramatically, her arthritis is getting better. She talked to her cardiologist in Boston Medical Center to lower her statin dosage to twice a week. Her cardiologist said as long as she can lower her cholesterol with diet, she could take lowest dosage of statin.
Now Carol took her raw kale juice three times a week and only takes her cholesterol drug once a week. She has better memory and less joint pain with acupuncture treatment every two weeks. She just got promoted in her accountant office in Weston. She is no longer worried about the blockage of her arteries because she loves her green juice and salad.