I stopped six medications in February 2024. Not because a doctor told me to. Because after six weeks of changing what and when I ate, I felt genuinely better than I had in years – and the body had already started telling me things before the blood tests confirmed it.
The inhaler I’d reached for every day since 1978 had gone quiet. Not a decision. Just a week passing, then two, without needing it. The statins ran out and I didn’t renew them. Eleven years on atorvastatin 40mg and the empty box just sat there.
What I expected to happen next: something to blow up. What actually happened was the opposite. This post covers the data, the three phases I only understood when I laid all the results out together, and the question I wish I’d asked eleven years earlier.
The Baseline: What “Managed” Actually Looked Like
Two months before I stopped anything, a new GP ran a full blood panel. This is the number I keep coming back to.
HbA1c: 46 mmol/mol. One point from the type 2 diabetes threshold. That number had been climbing since 2015 — 38, then 40, then 43, then 46, then 46 again. Eight years. One direction.
Cholesterol: 8.0 mmol/L. Highest it had ever been. I started statins at 7.5. Eight years later – 8.0. The medication hadn’t brought it down. It had gone up.
Liver ALT: 69. Normal upper limit is 40. Mine was seventy-three percent above it. While taking the medication.
That is what managed looked like. Every significant number moving the wrong way. The question I never asked in eleven years on statins – is this medication actually making the numbers better — had a clear answer when I finally looked at the full trend honestly.
Month One Off All Medications: The First Results
Results by email. I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t nervous opening them.
Cholesterol: 7.0. Down from 8.0. Better than any reading in eleven years on statins.
Liver ALT: 28. Down from 69. Not because of something I’d taken – because of something I’d stopped.
No spike. No disaster. The body had apparently been working quite hard to manage the medication load. When the medication stopped, it exhaled.
Seven-point-zero is still elevated. I want to be straight about that. This wasn’t fixed in a month. But the direction had reversed, without medication, in thirty days.
The GP Appointment at Eleven Months
In-person appointment. He pulled up the results. Long pause. Looked at me. “You back on statins?” He knew I wasn’t. The numbers had already told him.
HbA1c: 37. Down from 46. Optimal. Lowest reading in NHS data going back to 2012. Out of the pre-diabetic range for the first time since 2015.
CRP (inflammation marker): 1.0 mg/L. Down from 6.2. An eighty-four percent reduction in measurable inflammation.
ALT: 23. From 69 on statins, through 28 at month one, now 23. Still dropping. Record low.
Cholesterol ratio: 4.7. Within target for the first time in years.
Eight markers. All moving right. And he said – fairly matter of fact about it – whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.
Twenty-One Months Later: The Full Picture
Email results at the twenty-one month mark. HbA1c: 37. Held. Cholesterol: 6.77. Continuing to fall. Liver: normal. Kidney function: over 90. All satisfactory or better.
Six prescriptions. Not one restarted. And the NHS data – not my opinion, not a protocol I read somewhere – shows a system measurably healthier than it was while medicated.
When I laid all the results out together, three phases became clear.
Phase one: Relief. Months one to three. Almost immediate. The liver stopped fighting the statins. Cholesterol dropped. Kidney function improved thirteen percent in thirty days. The body exhaled.
Phase two: Reversal. Around month eleven. HbA1c crossed back into normal for the first time in eight years. Not managed down – reversed. Without a single drug involved.
Phase three: Optimisation. Months twelve to fourteen onward. Multiple markers hit their best readings in the entire data going back to 2012set. Not just better than on medication. Better than before medication. Better than 2012.
What drove this: fasting, non-UPF eating, fixing the inputs rather than managing the outputs.
What I’d Do Differently – and What to Watch For
One thing I’d change: I’d have had a blood test in January 2024, before I stopped anything. The December 2023 result is close enough, but I’d love a reading from the exact week I stopped. If you’re going through any kind of medication review – track from day one. Every data point matters.
If you’re on long-term medication and your numbers aren’t improving – or they’re moving the wrong way year on year — that’s worth a direct conversation with your GP. Not to stop anything. To ask: is this medication actually working for me? What does improvement look like? What are we measuring against?
And if you’re not on medication yet but you’ve been told something is borderline — cholesterol a bit high, blood sugar creeping up, tired and not quite right – you’re at the stage where trajectory matters more than the number itself.
My HbA1c was borderline in 2015. The trajectory from 2015 to 2023 pointed directly at type 2 diabetes. What I didn’t know then was that trajectory wasn’t fixed. It was responding to inputs. Inputs can change.
If I were starting from borderline, I’d track three things: HbA1c every six months, cholesterol ratio rather than total cholesterol, and CRP – the inflammation marker. Those three numbers will tell you whether the direction is changing before it becomes a crisis.
🎯 Key Takeaways
- “Managed” isn’t the same as “improving” — After eleven years on statins, my cholesterol was higher than when I started. Worth knowing.
- The body signals change before blood tests confirm it — I stopped needing the inhaler weeks before I made any decision about medications.
- Three distinct phases follow stopping — Relief (months 1–3), Reversal (around month 11), Optimisation (months 12–14+)
- Track the ratio, not just the number — Cholesterol ratio and HbA1c trajectory tell a clearer story than a single reading
- Trajectory matters more than threshold — If you’re borderline and heading the wrong way, that’s the signal to act on
Want to Track Your Own Numbers the Same Way?
The blood test data in this post spans NHS results going back to 2012s – and the pattern only became clear when I started tracking the right markers in the right way. The 14-Day Rhythm Reset Guide covers how to build the foundation that moved these numbers: eating windows, real food, fasting basics, and how to start without overwhelming yourself.
👉 Get the 14-Day Rhythm Reset Guide (free)
💪 Want ongoing support? Join Rhythm Club for £30/month (includes FREE app access, community, and weekly accountability calls)
⚠️ Important: This is educational content based on evidence and personal experience. It is not medical advice. Speak to your GP before making changes to your fasting pattern, diet, or medication.
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