X-Message-Number: 25794 From: Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 17:21:15 EST Subject: Personal experience with policosinol vs. lipitor, semi-off topic This is Rudi Hoffman in Daytona, FL. In June of 2004, my total cholesterol was at 260. I was at the time a 47 year old male, I am currently (not surprisingly) a 48 year old male. I took 10, and then 20 milligrams of policosinol, and also occasional red yeast rice, which were purported to lower cholesterol, and/or improve ratios of hdl to ldl. The bottom line that was there was virtually no movement in blood levels of cholesterol over 5 or 6 months. Being a loyal and long term "Life Extension Foundation" member, and generally predisposed to nutritional over prescription solutions, I wanted the policosinol to work. I also increased my B vitamin intake. But it did not...at least not significantly enough. In contrast, once I started 10 mgs of Lipitor my numbers changed dramatically, to about 160 total, with better ratios. I am currently on 20 mgs of Lipitor. It is a drag that it is so darn expensive, but this stuff does indeed do what it claims. With seemingly low side effects, if any. None I have noticed, except annoyance at price, since both Dawn and I are doing 20 mgs. daily. This is probably cheaper than risking early cardiovascular event. Small irony. And, interestingly, I still am taking 10 mgs of policosinol. I just don't think it worked for me by itself. So, I am only one data point. But there it is. Any similar or contrasting experiences? Best, Rudi Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=25794