Beer and blood pressure/cholesterol meds - feedback appreciated

[pabloj13]

I know he's not wrong with what he just said, But, I would prefer to be sure an actual doctor is talking when one signs "MD" and can't be found on any medical profession listing. For all I know he might be a Med student claiming to be a doctor.


Rev.

If he's not wrong, I'm not sure how it matters. Note: I'm not a M.D. but I have my Ph.D. in Pharmacology.

 

[evrose]

Hi Erich. Do you have an online medical profile you can share? I looked up your name and simply can't find a single reference to your professional medical profile, a quite common thing available these days, only your blog. Each and every one of my doctors are locatable by name with a simple Google search, even my current doctor. I've tried Erich Rose and several variants but can't seem to locate any doctors with even your first name. Not doubting you at all, just would be great if you could provide a link your medical background. Thanks


Rev.

Erich Rose is not my name. Erich is, but Rose is not. Also, I don't have a blog, so whoever's you found, it's not mine. (Actually, Erich is my middle name. My real name used for my medical license is not part of my user name here.)

I don't mean to sound defensive, but I'm not going to give my real name. It's a privacy thing. I've been involved in online forums for years, and there are enough crazies out there who would call my office and start ranting out something I wrote on a beer brewing forum, cycling forum, football forum, etc. none of which is something I want to deal with at work. I'm not saying you're one of those people, but they are out there. I prefer to keep my online forum identity private. (If you think this is paranoia - it's not. I've seen it happen to more than one colleague over the past 10 years.)

Anyhow, if this diminishes the credibility of my comments in your eyes, that's fine. I understand that my not linking to my credentials or work bio makes it harder to "sell" my comments. Take what I wrote for what it is - some guy on the Internet who claims to be a doctor. Having said that, I am one, and you can verify anything I've written with online searches. The facts are out there - I don't make this stuff up. Ask your doctor.

Brew on fellow Homebrewers! I hope everyone's weekend went well (yeah, even you Rev, you wily ole rascal).

 

[Rev2010]

Fair enough man completely understandable, hope you had a great weekend too


Rev.

 

[erockomania]

I haven't read the whole thread but eating "very healthy" is a matter of debate. What the govt has told us is a "healthy diet" is a bunch of hogwash and misinformation. You COULD be eating very poorly but still be in FDA guidelines. Fact.

 

[Cromwell]

What's the difference between God and a Doctor?

God doesn't think he is a doctor.

Bwahahahaha. Ok, all seriousness aside... I haven't had BP problems so I don't have any anecdotes for ya, but you do talk about having a high-stress job, and I have a suggestion there - exercise is the very best way to relieve stress. Believe me, if you get out at lunch (you do get a lunch break) and walk or run, or just go up and down stairs or anything, you'll come back to work with less stress. I speak from experience on this one.

 

[cockybitz]

Want to avoid the statins but help cholesterol? Eat fish oil caplets. Studies are more and more showing the taxing effects of simvastatin on the liver. Fortunately Lipitor has gone generic this year, so that should play into people's budgets more, and it is better for the liver than Zocor, but of course comes with its own downfalls. Take this advice as you will. Studies show the greatest impact on cholesterol, however, remains fat level in the body, diet, and exercise.

 

[emjay]

Studies show the greatest impact on cholesterol, however, remains fat level in the body, diet, and exercise.

Actually, it's genetics by a *very* wide margin. But that can't exactly be helped, so lifestyle changes are always a good idea.

 

[cockybitz]

Sorry, greatest controllable impact

 

[boo boo]

Want to avoid the statins but help cholesterol? Eat fish oil caplets. .

I prefer seal oil caplets to fish, but that's a whole other story.

 

[evrose]

Studies show the greatest impact on cholesterol, however, remains fat level in the body, diet, and exercise.

Nope. By FAR the biggest factor in determining your baseline cholesterol level are the genes you get from your parents. Blame your mom and dad. Exercise and diet can certainly have an effect, but genetics is the largest predisposing factor.

Edit: Sorry, I read your reply correcting your statement to specify diet and exercise being the most correctable factor. That's true. Carry on.

In addition - the evidence for the benefits of fish oil is fairly well established in the realm of evidence based medicine. The precise mechanism is unknown, but it's believed to work by lowering levels of vascular inflammation - which is related to the production of atherosclerotic plaque formation. You need to take between 3,000 and 4,000 mg PER DAY to see a clinical effect in most people. That's a lot. I've been taking them for a while myself. It's been mentioned before in this thread, but the other OTC med for cholesterol is Red Yeast Rice. Many of my Family Medicine and Internist colleagues are recommending it for their patients. The active ingredient is chemically identical to lovastatin (Mevacor), but most preparations have a lower dose than a proper prescription of lovastatin.

 

[emjay]

Red Yeast Rice contains lovastatin if I'm not mistaken, which is also available in its pure form as a prescription drug.

And it's funny you mention fish oil's anti-inflammatory effects, as a good deal of recent research is showing that the anti- inflammatory effects of statins play a far bigger role in their effectiveness than previously thought, and that it's probably by this mechanism that they have been demonstrated to cause a significant decrease in both morbidity and mortality (ESPECIALLY cancer- related) even in people WITHOUT high cholesterol, to the point where some doctors are now recommending statins to almost ALL of their patients above a certain age.

 

[krazydave]

So, I saw my doctor this morning and he gave me a prescription to start taking Zocor (sinvastatin). I asked him about all this stuff this morning including if I were to try the red yeast rice thing, or fish oil and mentioned that I brew beer and drink on a regular basis.
He's a graduate of UC Davis, where you can get a degree in brewing science, so he understands why I brew, and why I drink it.
His response was basically what we all expected. "It's not advised, but it's also not horrible either unless you do it in excess, a lot.". Basically, he said to try cutting back on what I can and he'll run the liver tests on me in a month. If things look okay, he doesn't see any reason to stop drinking. But of course mentioned that it wouldn't hurt to slow down.
His thoughts on the rice and fish oil is that they may work, but there's a lot less studies done on them as they're just supplements. So he prefers something that tons of people have taken and they know all of the effects that it has on their bodies.

I'm 33, 198lbs. Three months ago I was 219lbs. That weight loss came from changing my diet alone. I'm not excited to say the least about having to take pills, so I'm going to start them and while I'm at it, get my arse in gear to start exercising more. When I feel like I'm not pushing the upper limits of the BMI, I'll stop the Zocor for a month or two and re-take my cholesterol tests (the doctor approved of this as well, in case you're wondering). If at that point I'm still high, then I'll be satisfied in that I've done all I can and my body just doesn't process the cholesterol like it should.

His explanation of the effects of alcohol taken with a statin is basically that when you drink, your liver is busy processing the alcohol and therefor lets too much of the statin into your bloodstream. Which is where the danger lies.