Radio Naturopath Episode 435: Ron's Cholesterol and Thyroid Labs, Bicycle Positioning and Sciatica

This week, Ron handed me his recent blood work and had me talk about it. We talked about his elevated TSH and how his doc needs to adjust his thyroid medicine. We talked about his target-low cholesterol numbers, and how his Repatha drug is starting to give him a lot of side effects. We talked about the mechanism of that. We also answered a question from a listener about whether cycling negatively impacts sciatica, and how it's necessary to get the position right on the bike and also do stretch and strengthening exercises. 

Radio Naturopath Episode 393: Statins, Ezetimibe, PCSK-9 Inhibitors, Cholesterol and Health

This week I continued with my series on cardiovascular health. We explored how statin drugs work to lower cholesterol and how they cause detrimental side effects. We talked about another commonly used drug that also has side effects, ezetimibe. And there's the somewhat newer PCSK-9 inhibitors, which lower cholesterol by an alternate mechanism. For some people, they have less side effects, but not necessarily. We also began to discuss some of the natural ways to lower cholesterol, and some cholesterol testing besides the common LDL, HDL, and triglyceride testing that can go deeper into helping the decision on whether to medicate.

Radio Naturopath Episode 392: Overdoing It; Statins, Side Effects, Anti-Inflammatory Alternatives

We talked about how it can be easy to overdo it when the weather gets nice all of a sudden. Make hay while the sun shines, right? We get really industrious and want to take care of our WHOLE yard. Or we go from riding one hour at a time on our indoor bike trainer to riding 62 MILES. And then we wonder why we're sore all over, hurt our back, or are super exhausted! It's OK to take it easy and ease into the outdoor joys of the season. 

We also continued our series on cardiovascular health. Today we focused on statin drugs: how they work, their side effects, and how to reduce inflammation in other ways. Cardiovascular health is a very rich topic so we'll be getting into this for a few more weeks!