I certainly don't claim to know more than a doctor but I think Zocor is the wrong med for you. Tricor just makes way more sense because it works on the trigs. As far as niacin goes I've been on it since April and have been on Zocor 40 mg for close to 3 years.
My numbers as of July 2004 total chol. 136
LDL 67
HDL 46
Trigs 113
My numbers when my blockage was discovered and these are approx. #'s from memory
total chol 193
LDL 136
HDL 32
trigs 183
As you can see my numbers have improved greatly while on Zocor. The niacin raised my HDL 6 points but my totalcholesterol came up along with it so I don't know that it will pay off to stay on the niacin. I've accomplished this with a fairly sensible diet, exercise and medication. I believe also working at relieving stressors in my life have also made a difference.
And don't ever worry about bothering anyone here with questions. It's healing for me to try to help someone else not have to face what I did in 2001 and 2002 with a stent and bypass surgery at age 41. Ask those questions and just keep on asking because knowledge is power!
