Health

He called me one night, unusual for him, and said he'd been feeling a little weak and one thumb wouldn't work. So I told him to stop taking the Lipitor and call his doc for a quick appointment, they were going to need to check his blood for a serious reaction to the Lipitor. I said if the appointment couldn't be a quick one, to start eating whole grain oats in the morning I mentioned oatmeal and the various forms of Cheerios that were so sugared up they could be eaten out of hand as snacks.

Next phone call mentioning his cholesterol, he said the doc was thrilled with how well he was doing on the Lipitor. I asked if he was still taking it. He said nope, he was feeling his Cheerios.

When he died at 89, I found YEARS of uncashed Lipitor prescriptions on the kitchen counter, along with boxes of various flavors of Cheerios and one lonely box of oatmeal.

Not all people react the way my dad did, but if you want to knock that total cholesterol down even more, consider whole oats in the morning. Other whole grains will help, but whole oats are the best.