Hello doctors,
I’m a 34M of Asian descent. About a year ago I was prescribed a statin to help manage high LDL cholesterol. It has worked tremendously; my LDL dropped by about 60% in the first 2 months or so after having started taking the statin daily.
Before I went on the medication, I had lab work done that included a CK test with a reading of 240 U/L. While I can’t quite recall the exact reason why this test was ordered, my guess was that it was to establish a “baseline” to see whether the statin was causing unintended muscle damage.
Fast forward a year later, and I recently went to see my doctor again for an annual physical. CK was tested again, and it remains elevated (349 U/L). In both times when I took the test, this year and last year, I had trained the morning of, which I suspect is what is contributing to this result.
Now, my doctor has asked that I retest CK after taking a break from exercise. I don’t want to come off as a non-cooperative patient, and it’s not like avoiding exercise for a couple days is that big of a deal, but at the same time I can’t help but think this is an example of doing blood work “just to see”, or just for purposes of getting a particular blood marker into a certain arbitrary “normal” range (as Dr. Baraki has raised concerns about). I am not experiencing any symptoms of muscle pain or rhabdo, and generally have no acute concerns regarding my health. I am also happy that I got on a statin and would be uncomfortable getting off of it, even if CK levels were a concern. Am I being unreasonable, or should I just take the CK test again after a break from training because that’s what my doctor ordered?
Thanks for all your great work, especially the podcast.