by Manuel Villacorta
The sad news is most doctors know nothing about nutrition. I don’t blame them. While in their long and tedious 8 to 15 years of training some of them only get one class in basic nutrition. As a registered dietitian with a master of science in nutrition I have studied and completed 9 years of schooling in nutrition.
On many occasions I have heard my patients telling me that their doctors don’t have any faith in them about lowering their cholesterol or blood pressure through diet and exercise. My opinion is that doctors don’t know what to tell their patients about nutrition so the fast solution is to write a prescription to lower cholesterol and blood pressure.
Now you are taking statin drugs to lower cholesterol but continue eating whatever you like. With time your cholesterol continues increasing and so does the amount of statin drugs required to keep your cholesterol low. As you probably know statin drugs have their share side effects and the more you take the higher the risk for side effects. So you may end up with normal cholesterol levels and eating all the bacon you want but in ten year with liver failure.
I am not implying that diet and exercise will do the trick completely. I understand genetics and that you may need help by taking a drug but you still need to watch your diet so the dosage does not increase. Or you may try to lower your cholesterol and blood pressure with diet and exercise first and if all fails then supplement your good and healthy diet and exercise with a statin drug.
If this sounds familiar then ask your doctor for a referral to see a registered dietitian.
