Statins

From the Guardian today:

Prof Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said it welcomed "the BMJ's retraction of incorrect statements on the side effects of statins". He said: "Statins are an important weapon in the fight against heart disease and it is essential that trusted medical journals like the BMJ do not mislead the public. Patients should feel reassured by this move and should not stop taking their statin."

John Greenwood, professor of biomedical research at University College London, said: "There is overwhelming scientific and clinical evidence that statins are an extremely well-tolerated class of drug that provides significant health benefit to a vast number of at risk patients. Despite such overwhelming evidence, there remains a disproportionate and highly public opposition to their use. Much of this concern is based on the view that harmful side effects are not fully reported and this is further strengthened by a plethora of anecdotal "evidence". It is therefore to be applauded that the BMJ has taken steps to clarify any misconceptions that could arise from publications in which there has been a clear misinterpretation of data. As with all drugs, the sole criteria determining statin use should be whether the risk outweighs the benefit. Consequently, it is incumbent on the scientific and medical community to ensure that data is interpreted in the most rigorous fashion so that such decisions are based on fact and not on spurious assumptions."

Yes. In an article in the BMJ no less.

Got the figures wrong.

Very interesting development currently, about new research that seems to show that the side-effects of Statins have been greatly exaggerated. See how it goes, but worth following.

A lovely route too- 6 months to the day today, so Carol very much in my thoughts.

No, Chambery and the tunnel de Fréjus, but you and Carol were in my thoughts....

Did your TGV go past Geneva, Lausanne or Neuchatel- if Neuchatel- you could have waved as you went past

Lidl's do a very good champagne at 9.99€....

BUT champagne is better, well to me , heyho xxxxx

I had a very nice glass of it as our TGV raced through the snow-covered Alps on our way to Turin in January....
We do very well on bargains in forrin wines in Lidl here.

Their loss is your gain, Mamie! I'm very partial to prosecco myself.

Prosecco, nice work if you can get it Mamie!

<,cheers.>

I'll drink to that.
I am on Lidl's extra dry Prosecco, because nobody else in Normandy seems to want to buy it.

Pretty much the same as you Mamie. The main changes I made were reducing fruit juice to a very small glass (about 80ml) with breakfast, whereas I used to drink a lot more than that, though I did dilute it.
No more fruit yoghurts, no shop-bought cakes and desserts and drink a lot less G&T because I don't like diet tonic so have dry white wine instead

Thanks GJ too.
It helps that I don't like the local puddings; rice pudding and apple crumble.
About three times a year we have a fraisier from the local patisserie which is in the top ten in France!

Thanks Jane. How do you get on with cutting right back on sugar? We don't have cakes, biscuits or puddings (we never have, much), but we do add dried berries to our muesli; goji, dried cherries (because DH gets gout from time to time) and bilberries, which we found at a foodie event in Caen and are just like compressed sunshine. We also have our own low-sugar marmalade on toast. We don't eat processed food and DH makes all the bread which is now 30% spelt, so I think we can be pretty sure that we don't have hidden sugar. We have about two pieces of fresh fruit a day and drink dry wine (!). Not sure how many teaspoons of sugar that is, but it doesn't feel like much.
I suspect it is easier to manage here on our French hillside (or indeed on your boat) because there isn't so much temptation.

Well done both of you.

Well done Mamie
I had a blood test result last week & my total cholesterol is down from 5.8 last year to 4.7 with a good ratio of HDL to LDL.
I still eat cheese, butter and olive oil nearly every day but have tried to cut out sugar as much as possible - I think this is what has made the difference for me.

Just coming on to say that I had a blood test this week and have got my cholesterol ratio down to 3.42 from the high fours. On the advice of my doctor I have pretty much given up cheese, eating it as a treat (and I do love it) only once every two weeks or so. I wasn't prepared to give up butter or milk, so she said cheese would do it and it has. We have almost cut out sugar completely (apart from marmalade), given up fruit juice and have moved over to low GI grains for several meals a week. My glycaemic level has dropped to 5.16. It wasn't too high before, but I am just hoping that DH will have the same drop and will be able to fight his way out of the pre-diabetes category.
We haven't found this hard and are really enjoying things like bulgar wheat with roasted vegetables. We are still eating meat, butter, olive oil and enjoying wine and we don't feel hungry.
So I am allowing myself a short moment of self-congratulation. (Sorry)
Having said that I wouldn't hesitate to take statins or any other medication if it was really necessary.

I had terrible back pains [muscle] for years when taking simvastatin. Came off it when I almost lost the use of my right arm as well. The arm cleared up [from pains] within a week and the muscle strength took nearly a year to come back.The back pain is now almost gone, and some strength recovered there enough to do normal daily stuff, which at times, I had despaired of ever doing again.Other statins may well be a lot better as I think Simvastatin is the cheapest one to prescribe.However, my cholestrol isn't too bad anyway [the reason I had been put on it] and I am trying hard with weight loss.True about the hair thinning as well, my hair now looks tons better.

Tragic indeed. And tbh, just cannot understadn why they did not do liver function tests at an earlier stage- it does seem negligent to say the least- she must have had symptoms that would alert them to liver problems, surely. Again, I am so sorry to hear this, but it does sound if it was a complicated case- and that statins were just part of the story.

Unfortunately, if the tests are not done, and they rarely are, the liver can be badly damaged. My friend was having all sorts of test and inspections to find why she was having the symptoms she had. It was 5 years before they realised it was the statins. Now I cannot prove that the damage to the liver was the reason primary liver cancer developed (she was not a drinker), but primary liver cancer is not that common and it is reasonable to think that a damaged liver is likely to be more susceptible to other liver problems.

I am just so sorry about this- but to be honest, I've never heard of anyone who died of taking statins and neither has OH in his long career. It can affect the liver, which is why people on statins should have liver function tests every year or 2 years. Sorry, I did say last post, so must remember.

Granjura It is fine to talk of those who may have lived if they had taken stains, what about those who may have died as a result of taking statins? (see above)

I'm so sorry to hear about your DIL- must be very worrying due to her age, and hope they can help her asap- but I am glad you would not put her off taking statins if recommended due to her condition.

I totally agree with you that it was wrong to suggest all over 60s should take statins- that is just ridiculous, expensive and daft. We are both lucky that we do not have any side-effect from them- and we know lots and lots of people who take statins wihtout any problems either- apart from the relative who refuses to take them as he believes it's causing minor hair loss (hey at 64, minor hairloss is fairly normal I'd say). And it so happens we have lost 2 good friends in their mid-50s for whom statins were particularly well indicated due to their health problems- and who refused to take them due to bad press and internet- and died. And OH I know has truly my best interest at heart, and I know he would not strongly recommend I take statins if he did not truly believe it to be beneficial. And I trust him and his knowledge and experience absolutely totally.

We will have to just agree to disagree- and hope for the best. But I do think, that as in the case of MMR vaccination- that we have to be very careful- as misinformation can truly kill. Last post.

Just this week both my daughter in law aged 37, and my grandson's other grandmother, aged 67, have had health problems. Daughter in law has been put on beta blockers until she can see a heart specialist. The other grandmother has had a stroke and is in hospital in Denmark. I would not dream of telling either of them not to take statins if they were recommended. They can make up their own minds. The one certainty about statins is that you know if you are getting side effects, from what I have heard from others and my own experience.
I am not sure, granjura, about whether people who just take statins have to pay prescription charges, but if so, paying for CoQ10 on top of a monthly prescription is quite a lot for some people, particularly when the manufacturers were supposed to put CoQ10 in to get the licence.