I don't want to take Statins. Advice please.

I started taking them a month ago, initially had sore knees (which may have been unconnected) but now absolutely fine.
Frankly I'd rather be alive than dead, even if there were minor side effects.
My GP is going to check me out in a couple of weeks and told me that there are many different statins and that he would try another if I have problems.

First of all you don't always have to have very high cholestrol to benefit from statins.

I know many people who take them and none have side effects. DH has taken them for years as he has high BP.

Doctors do a risk assessment of your liklihood of a heart event. Called a qrisk you can do it for yourself or view it on your medical notes via the NHS app. If you score over a certain amount they recommend statins whatever your age or cholestrol. Mine was 21 and my cholestrol was 4.9.
I was advised to take statins. My reluctance was due to the fact that I already take multiple drugs for other health conditions. I am fit and BMI is 21 and I eat a healthy diet.

However I agreed to take a 10mg dose.
No side effects and my cholestrol dropped to 3

There was a study that showed the side effects people complain about were largely unrelated to the statins.

Ask your doctor what your probability of having a stroke or heart attack in the next 10 years 1) if you take statins, 2) if you do not take statins and note how big the divergence is.

I refused statins initially because the difference between the two was only 2%. I have since gone on them because I have had a minor stroke, although whether it is because I refused to take statins or not is impossible to tell, as the probabilities of my having a stroke any way was 17.5% and statins would only reduce this to 15.5%.

My GP said my high cholesterol was probably genetic as over the 15 years before my stroke, my cholesterol measurement has consistently been 8.0 and never varied from that number.

My cholesterol issue is familial. It reached nearly 9 and reluctantly I started statins a few years ago. I have no obvious side effects but i have achy legs occasional nerve shooting foot discomfort which i just put down to age. Who knows?

Thank you so much everybody for your replies. As soon as I share a worry on here, I feel better. Also, It's good to hear from people who have had experience of statins. Nobody else I know seems to have high cholesterol!

I do hope a change of diet reduces your cholesterol but if not should just like to say that had I not been taking statins

1. The small heart attack I suffered would have been a large heart attack that I may not have survived
2. Someone I know resisted taking statins until she had a TIA which acted as a wake up call.

High cholesterol does not necessarily reflect a bad high fat diet, the body manufactures cholesterol by itself.

If you do decide to take them and get any side affects ( mainly leg cramps) you’ve been given the cheap statin ( most people are given this one) then you will be given the expensive one that didn’t want to give you.

I’m not surprised your cholesterol was high, eating all that junk! Go back to healthy eating with plenty of nuts, olive oil, avocados - Mediterranean diet basically and get your bloods checked again in December.

Your life will be cut short eating junk food, there won’t be any need to worry much about statins.

I had a discussion fairly recently with my GP. I have been seeing her for many years now so trust her judgement. I asked her about her opinion about statins. She explained about negative publicity and also about risk factors. There is quite an amount of information on Diabetes.co.uk about statins if you search the forums.

I believe that if you have reached 70 without taking them there is not a great deal to be gained. I found information that suggested that older people need more cholesterol. I was also surprised that there don’t seem to have been any larger long term studies. Anyway my GP suggested I think about it. She said I could try them and if I wasn’t happy, I could stop.

If my GP had strongly recommended them I may well have tried them. The medical profession also have their own opinions.

Statins give me a retinal migraine almost straight away so I’m going to try taking plant sterols.

Have taken statins since mild stroke 12 yrs ago...its preventive meds and my cholesterol is at an acceptable level..don't dismiss them!

As has been said you only hear the bad stories. I have been taking for years and no problems.

I resisted satins for years and my cholesterol grew higher and higher.
So I gave in and it almost immediately halved. I've had no problems whatsoever. It's over 5 years ago now that I started them . My cholesterol remains low.

My cholesterol was much lower than yours but I was advised to take statins as it had always been low but as I got older it had started to increase. I discussed it with my Gp and basically he said, changes to our body as we age means our liver is less effective at metabolising LDL. Increased levels make us more likely to have a heart attack or stroke. Statins reduce LDL and most people take them with no noticeable side effects and can reduce our risk. GPs do not get paid to prescribe statins but they do get paid to do health checks and offer advice that may save our life. I have taken them now for over a year without any side effects, my OH has taken them for 5 years, he changed from the first ones as he did notice he felt a bit achy, the ones he takes now are absolutely fine. GP said people as they age tend to get aches and pains which are nothing to do with statins but because they have heard statins can have side effects they sometimes attribute them incorrectly, however, if you take statins and they really don't suit you, then you can just stop taking them.

It's definitely worth making a change to your diet as it sounds as if what you have been eating recently isn't your "normal". And if you can prevent yourself needing statins that will be a big advantage.

7.5 is quite high but is clearly related to your "unhealthy" diet recently. So just eat healthily for the next few months - and there is plenty advice online for how to do that !

However, if your cholesterol is still high you must listen to your GPs advice - you can be skinny and fit but still have a high reading. Hope it improves for you.

You only hear about the negatives of statins, millions take them without any problems so they have no need to say anything.

There are many people who read the side effects of medication and then convince themselves they have them and those who put every symptom and condition down to a side effect. There are many who blame excessive weight gain on medication where in fact very few meds cause that and those that do would only increase your weight by about 7lbs over a period of time.

If you do not want to take them then you do not have to, personally I have no problems with them and if they protect against stroke and heart attack then I will take them.

Oh and I like a beer with my dinner.