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I do have low cholesterol though.
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.
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He replied: "That would probably explain why the doctors next door are reviewing all the prescriptions and changing them to 20mg".
Just curious, what does he do now? What do you do after being a heart surgeon?
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.
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Zero side effects.
Last cholesterol test I was told it was nigh on perfect - can't remember the exact figure, maybe 3.4?
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)
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.
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