Statins and statistics

[kinverkid]

I was asked if I wanted to go on Statins after they checked out the 'fluttering' sensation I was getting in my chest. Couldn't find anything wrong with me and put the probable cause down to stress after losing my big brother (a proper carpenter). I was in my early fifties, still working, and a long-distance runner at the time. The only worry they had for me was that all my six siblings had some form or combination of heart, cholesterol and high blood pressure of which I had none. I also lost my father to a heart attack at 65 three months after retirement and my oldest brother to heart failure at 62 never getting to retire. I've never had any side effects that some people and the Doctor said I might get. I'm now on my second bought of cancer and the chemotherapy on both occasions has stopped me running or even getting the exercise I need to help me keep strong. So now is the first time that I think I am benefiting from the Atorvastatins if I wasn't before, to help keep down the cholesterol that I'm producing partly because I now have the head of my pancreas removed which makes it difficult to break down fats and proteins and partly, while on this chemo, my normal healthy diet has gone to pot because sometimes I can't face some of the lovely food my wife cooks and can only stomach chocolate, cake, Werthers (crack cocaine for old people) and ice cream. Food, except the ice cream, mmmm, that I wouldn't normally touch.

If there are no side effects then I just see statins as possible insurance especially as we get older and may help when something like cancer (boo) or even an accident, can knock us for six but fingers crossed some of the drugs many of us are taking can put us in good stead to help fight and repair whatever life has decided to throw at us.

 

[Ollie78]

Fortunately I get no side effects from my prescription drugs.

Atorvastatin
Aspirin
Metformin
Gliclazide
Linagliptin
Dapagliflozin
Levothyroxine
Omeprazole
Meloxicam
Allopurinol
Tamsulosin
Lisinopril
Amlopidine
Codeine
Pregabalin
Pioglitazone.

Holy cr*p ! maybe the side effects are all balancing each other out nicely.

 

[woodieallen]

I've been on atorvastatin for about 15 years. I stopped taking it for a while a long time ago, because I had aches and pains.
Next time I had a blood test, my GP said my cholesterol was up, and wanted to increase the dose, I told him I'd stopped taking it. He asked me if the aches and pains had gone away, I had to admit they hadn't. I've been taking it ever since. I'm not saying it's all psychosomatic, but I think as one gets older, aches and pains manifest themselves, we look on the internet and blame the statins.
Having said that, I know there are some who do have very serious side effects, but I believe it's a very small percentage. Bit like the vast number of people who claim to be gluten intolerant, versus the tiny number who really are, or the even tinier fraction who are coeliac.

There is a lot of disinformation out there about cholesterol levels. I've been looking into this for years. The simplistic viewpoint simply focusses on total cholesterol level which is daft. It's the ratio of HDL (the 'good' cholesterol) to the rest that is important. My total cholesterol was always around the 6% mark (down from 7.5% in my 30's) and my GP made the usual noises about statins but like many here looked at the possible side-effects and as I'm not an avid pill-pusher always declined. Change in diet brought it down to 5%.

But a medical picked up a very, very slight heart murmur and a slight carotid bruit (bit of furring up of the artery with plaque). So I researched more and more but still unconvinced whether statins were any use compared to possible side-effects (which incidentally my GP reckons that a lot of patients who are not that keen on statins will latch onto the slightest ache or pain being a side-effect of taking the stain). I ended up having a private consultation with an excellent doctor who, once I mentioned the bruit, told me it was a no-brainer. One of the benefits of statins are that, if you have a bruit then they help prevent bits of plaque breaking off and going where they can cause damage ie brain, for example. No GP had ever mentioned this as a good reason to take a statin. Perhaps they didn't know of the additional benefit.

So atorvastatin. No aches or pains.

 

[Majimoto]

I have been type 2 for 20+ years and have been on statins and they wanted me to take more to get a little lower but I have refused and recently have been chatting to a Diabetic nurse and she advised me to try Cinnamon powder and Cumin powder to help lower BS levels and Cholesterol, so starting to try it this weekend, we will see how it goes.

Keep us updated on this approach, please.

 

[sploo]

Keep us updated on this approach, please.

Not trying to be negative on Phill05, but remember that any results he gets will be a sample of one; for his specific age, gender, health conditions, history etc. etc.

I'd suggest instead trying to find published medical studies on the use of cinnamon and cumin; as if they've been well performed then they should have a decent sample size of patients (and data comparing the effect on those patients against both placebo and control groups).

 

[Lard]

Here's a shocking story for you.....a 82yr old mate of mine has been suffering with 'his nerves' for quite a while and 'we' finally persuaded him to go and have a chat to his doctor. Unbeknownst to us another 80+ friend of his told him to ask the doctor to put him on statins.....new doctor (not seen before - so assume a locum) met him and actually asked him what he wanted???? so he said statins.....long story short, the pharmacist in the local chemist in no uncertain terms refused his prescription on the grounds that if she had given him the tablets he'd have died within days as (in her words) "the doctor has completely ignored all of the other tablets he was taking".....this happened about 5 weeks ago, couldn't make it up.

 

[DRC]

Hi everyone your posts have been very informative and helpful thank you so much. I'm 81 years old and am on Apixaban (plus a load of others similar to you guys) and I was on Bisoprolol which I have now stopped (the side effects were horrible). I had a phone call from my GP saying there had been a directive (from whom I can't remember) about Cholesterol and he prescribed Ezetimibe I researched it and it is a Statin. So I have decided not to take it as I know my diet is low in harmful Cholesterol, plus, the side effects of Eze. were not to be preferred. I believe it is up to us to research for ourselves what we are putting into our bodies and decide accordingly. Please keep this post going the more information we can get the better.

 

[John Brown]

Hi everyone your posts have been very informative and helpful thank you so much. I'm 81 years old and am on Apixaban (plus a load of others similar to you guys) and I was on Bisoprolol which I have now stopped (the side effects were horrible). I had a phone call from my GP saying there had been a directive (from whom I can't remember) about Cholesterol and he prescribed Ezetimibe I researched it and it is a Statin. So I have decided not to take it as I know my diet is low in harmful Cholesterol, plus, the side effects of of Eze. were not to be preferred. I believe it is up to us to research for ourselves what we are putting into our bodies and decide accordingly. Please keep this post going the more information we can get the better.

There is, as far as I know, a loose coupling between cholesterol and diet, genetics being more significant. I may be wrong, however.
Interested to know what the horrible side effects from Bisoprolol were, as I take it - I recently got my GP to halve the dose, as I suspected it was making me short of breath. Have felt a bit better since.

 

[Adam W.]

I lowered my cholesterol considerably by changing my diet.

I cut out 4 leg meat, white wine, butter and milk and it went from 6.7 to 4 in a couple of years.

 

[Lons]

I changed surgeries after nearly 70 years, the new one is so much more eficcient that the one I left. The doctor went through the list and asked why I took the lisinopril and amlopidine at night - he said I should be taking them in the morning as it's in the daytime the b. p. needs to be kept down. I seem to remember being told to take the lisinopril at night went I first went on it years ago.

My doc said I shoulod take the Amlodipine after breakfast quoting the same reason.

My father had heart problems and emphysema being a heavy smoker and ex miner, he was confined largely to a chair for several years with a supply of oxygen and a nebuliser. He had to take 10 or 11 different meds and was a wreck until one day he said to the doc "which ones are critical to keep me alive?" Stopped taking several that were prescribed mostly to treat side effects and within a couple of months was completely different. No longer depressed, still clearly ill but more mobile and far fewer aches and pains.
He said to me one day that he would rather halve his time and be happier than live it out in the miserable state he was in. He lived for a number of years after that and we'll never know if he shortened his life but what he said made a lot of sense to me.

 

[monster]

https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-great-cholesterol-scam-and-the

 

[Jacob]

https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-great-cholesterol-scam-and-the

Not everything is a scam but many of these things can be mistakes, or improved upon.

 

[Jacob]

I lowered my cholesterol considerably by changing my diet.

I cut out 4 leg meat, white wine, butter and milk and it went from 6.7 to 4 in a couple of years.

What do you drink instead of white wine? Is gin OK?

 

[monster]

What do you drink instead of white wine? Is gin OK?

Gin is good - sugar is the enemy and Gin has low sugar content.

 

[monster]

Your Doctor is Wrong about Cholesterol.

Click on 'Watch on YouTube' link and video will play.

 

[Adam W.]

What do you drink instead of white wine? Is gin OK?

Gin makes me go loopy. In fact, I have come to the point where I'm going on the wagon, as alcohol doesn't do anything to improve my poor mental health.

 

[Keith Cocker]

I believe it is up to us to research for ourselves what we are putting into our bodies and decide accordingly.

I find it incredible that some people think that Google will give them better information than someone who has studied for six years, has years of experience and continuing education and updating. Yes, mistakes are made but they are incredibly rare in the scheme of things. I prefer experts to the internet.

 

[MikeJhn]

I was told by my GP that the constipation I was experiencing was coincidental and nothing to do with the Statin he had put me on, stopped taking them and I suddenly did not have constipation.

To be fair, that could still be coincidence.

Could be, but I doubt it for someone that was as regular as I was prior to taking them and then back to being regular again after I stopped taking them.

 

[Jacob]

Could be, but I doubt it for someone that was as regular as I was prior to taking them and then back to being regular again after I stopped taking them.

Me too.
One bit of advice is to check out apparent side effects by stopping for a week or so and see what happens.
Doc advised carry on with Statins, gave me some more laxatives and a promise of blood test in 2 months. Thought of carrying on with Rosuvastatin even for a day is really depressing so I have stopped now for 16 days and am feeling normal for first time in a long while. Have dumped the leftover pills.
So that means low cholesterol diet, more exercise.
Now bike riding again after long break following hip replacement.
Looking at various anecdotes above it seems I'm healthier and fitter than many so I reckon I'm at a lower risk.
Lots of google sources give similar advice on reducing cholesterol - I thought this one was nice and concise: https://www.theyellowpractice.co.uk/keeping-healthy/cholesterol-reducing-fact-sheet/

 

[sploo]

I find it incredible that some people think that Google will give them better information than someone who has studied for six years, has years of experience and continuing education and updating. Yes, mistakes are made but they are incredibly rare in the scheme of things. I prefer experts to the internet.

Exactly this.

Modern logic seems to be:

I have never crashed a commercial passenger airliner. Trained pilots sometimes do. Therefore it's safer for me (not a pilot) to fly your plane.

I have never killed a patient on an operating table. Trained surgeons sometimes do. Therefore it's safer for me (not a surgeon) to perform your operation.

I have never misdiagnosed or given a patient the wrong drugs. Trained doctors sometimes do. Therefore it's safer for me (not a doctor) to tell you what meds to take.