STATINS ????

Dominic

Sure that there are plenty of users amongst the senior fretboarders .........I have been on them for a year now
Don't have any issues other than mild constipation from time to time but I know many people have problems taking them
WHAT YOU ON?
COMMENTS / REACTIONS
SIDE EFFECTS
ALTERNATIVES
There has been a lot of press speculation both for and against .................................what says you ~?

ESBlonde

A large portion of older people have been prescribed but interestingly doctors themselves avoid taking them!

rlw

I've taken them for years and have noticed no adverse side effects.   Then again, I've always been grumpy, irritable, lazy, slothlike, lacking sex driv etc etc etc.

I do have low cholesterol though.

bluechargeboy

My Dad was recommended statins by his doctor, and he decided to improve his diet instead. It worked within three months, of course, but the doctor was shocked because "nobody ever actually does that". Some people have genetic predisposition to high cholesterol, but most people are just eating shit and trying to patch up the problem.

Which doesn't answer your question, but it disturbs me that people turn to medication (and are recommended to do so by their doctor) to fix problems caused largely by their chosen diet.

TheBlueWolf

I've been on Simvistatin for about 3 years. At the time of prescribing I was overweight, lived on a diet of booze and whatever fried crap I ate and my cholesterol levels were insanely high. Quitting the booze and generally eating a lot healthier has bought it back down, although I could still do with shifting a few pounds.

Fretwired

My dad was on them and when he saw a specialist doctor over some issues he'd been having the doctor said he wouldn't take them. He switched my father from statins to another drug that does the same thing without the side effects.

axisus

I was prescribed them about 5 years ago due to high cholesterol. Started taking them but I saw a pal at work who used to be a heart surgeon. He said absolutely don't take statins. He said that you could get unpleasant side effects and also, once you are on them you can never come off. I stopped taking them! He'd been on them for years, had aching bones as a side effect and knew that he would be in serious trouble if he stopped taking them. He mentioned a different non-prescription thing that he said worked much better but with no side effects (but it's expensive, about £40 a month I think). I really should look up what he said again ......

west

https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/

Skipped

A couple of years ago I said to my chemist: "It says in the Daily Mail that 40mg Simvastatin is too much, and that 20mg daily is more than enough to control cholestrol, and that there are less/no side effects on 20mg"

He replied: "That would probably explain why the  doctors next door are reviewing all the prescriptions and changing them to 20mg".

martinw

axisus said:

...... a pal at work who used to be a heart surgeon.

Just curious, what does he do now? What do you do after being a heart surgeon?

Jalapeno

Nurse practitioner keeps trying to get me on statins (I am very marginally above normal cholesterol).  First couple of drugs (Simvastatin, and another beginning with V) - resulting in very severe muscle cramps.

Last time fantastically managed to get me from diet controlled pre-diabetes to full on diabetes (a not talked about side-effect).  Doctor immediately told me to stop taking Statins funnily enough,and since this is nowhere near as concerned as diabetes nurse.

Recent go was given non statin based tablets for cholesterol reduction, brought me out in allergic hives !

So back to nothing again.

gavin_axecaster

40mg Atorvastatin for the last couple of years since having a stent put in. Prescribed by my cardiologist and he recommended to keep taking it when I questioned the scare stories in the papers.
Zero side effects.
Last cholesterol test I was told it was nigh on perfect - can't remember the exact figure, maybe 3.4?

Chalky

Statins are good for some people, bad for other people. We need to lose this silly notion that medicines for chronic conditions are universally good or universally bad. Its unscientific.

strtdv

The statin debate now mostly centres around who should be started on them, should it be for secondary prevention (ie someone who has already had a complication of their high cholesterol such as a heart attack or stroke), should we use them as primary prevention in higher risk individuals (those with say a family history of heart disease and who already have hypertension), or should we use them widely in lower risk groups (say anyone over the age of 50 who can tolerate a statin).

The evidence for secondary prevention is very compelling. You only need to be on a statin for 6 months after a stroke or heart attack to gain a survival benefit, never mind reducing your risk of further heart attack or stroke. This is why even very elderly people can benefit from a statin as secondary prevention, you don't need to live very long to get a benefit from being on it.

The evidence for primary prevention in high risk populations is less compelling though still decent. Current guidelines suggest that if you have raised cholesterol and a greater than 10% chance of having a cardiovascular event in the next 10 years (as estimated by your Framingham score), then you should be on a statin, although at a lower dose than for secondary prevention. 
This is the point that it is reckoned the benefits of being on the statin outweigh potential negative effects.


The evidence for primary prevention in lower risk groups is lacking. If your cholesterol is high but you're otherwise not at particularly high risk of a heart attack or stroke (non-smoker, no family history, normal blood pressure), then the risks could well outweigh any benefit in cholesterol reduction. Also, there is essentially no role for primary prevention of any sort in people over the age of 80, and the risk/benefit needs to be carefully considered if you're over 70.


As far as side-effects go, the most well known ones by the public are the muscle aches (and in extreme cases rhabdomyolysis). The most common one I would see in older people tends to be dry and itchy skin. They can also cause abnormal liver function tests.
Grapefruit juice interacts with them, and Atorvastatin interacts with Clarithromycin (a widely prescribed antibiotic commonly used for chest infections).

The Type 2 diabetes risk isn't terribly well understood. It may be the statins, or it may be an unintended side-effect of lowering your LDL cholesterol.

You take them at night because HMG Co-A Reductase is more active at night (Statins are HMG Co-A Reductase Inhibitors).

Alternatives include Fibrates (more useful if you have elevated triglycerides as they tend not to lower LDL by much), Ezetimibe (inhibits dietary cholesterol absorption, tends to be used as an add-on. Also, it interacts with cyclosporin which is significant in kidney transplant patients who usually have high cholesterol), and then other things like Cholestyramine (horrible stuff), and Orlistat (also horrible stuff which will give you diarrhoea)

Evilmags

Orlistat is vile. Makes you shit orange oil amd takes about half a room off andrex to get off. 

cj73

4 and a bit years ago I had an MI (aged 38, congenital problem with an artery but that's another story).  2 days later, whilst talking about my medications, the cardiologist said it if it was up to him him every male over 40 in the West of Scotland would be put on them.

axisus

Good post @strtdv ;

axisus

martinw said:

axisus said:

...... a pal at work who used to be a heart surgeon.

Just curious, what does he do now? What do you do after being a heart surgeon?

Medical research centre. We have a lot of ex-clinical people, they find the work to have a more far reaching effect that patching up people, although admittedly some of them miss the hands-on helping aspect.

Dominic

Interesting confict of opinions...................
my cardiologist said this...
At an annual cardiologist convention of senior consultants the opening speaker asked for a show of hands as to who was taking statins .............
Apparently every single person in the room raised their hand 
That was enough to convince me

ennspek

martinw said:

axisus said:

...... a pal at work who used to be a heart surgeon.

Just curious, what does he do now? What do you do after being a heart surgeon?

Make amps?

Blaendulais

gavin_axecaster said:

40mg Atorvastatin for the last couple of years since having a stent put in. Prescribed by my cardiologist and he recommended to keep taking it when I questioned the scare stories in the papers.
Zero side effects.
Last cholesterol test I was told it was nigh on perfect - can't remember the exact figure, maybe 3.4?

Good man - follow Good advice.