The Lipitor Dilemma

I am 34 and I have very high level of cholesterol in the blood. The doctors suggested Lipitor as a very effective treatment, but my mother used to take Lipitor and experienced serious damaging of her muscles and liver as a result (the level of cholesterol was lowered). My cousin is a medical student and she claims that Lipitor is very dangerous and that I should take more vitamin C instead. Lipitor or vitamin C is now my dilemma. But cholesterol sounds too serious to be treated with vitamin C only.

You are quite right when you say that the problem of cholesterol is too serious to be treated with vitamin C only. You are also right when you claim that Lipitor has devastating side effects. The fact is that your body creates cholesterol for some reason. Cholesterol is essential for your cells’ and tissues’ repairs and replacements. If there is not enough cholesterol in your blood, your cells cannot be repaired and they degenerate in time. This is the purpose of cholesterol, and the extra cholesterol you do not need should be naturally recycled. Some researchers believe that a sufficient amount of vitamin C enables normal cholesterol excretion and that the lack of vitamin C produces building up of cholesterol in your blood. Lipitor, they claim, reduces the amount of cholesterol too much and therefore numerous neuromuscular degenerations appear. You should not take this for granted - the increase in the amount of vitamin C in your diet will not solve all your cholesterol problems, but you could try to achieve at least some improvement (especially when you think of all those really appalling side effects Lipitor can produce) with it. Talk to your doctor about it - if nothing else, more vitamin C will perhaps mean smaller doses of Lipitor.