Advice on taking Statins

Monica I totally agree my mum always had cholesterol in the 7 s although ate a near perfect diet without sugar or salt all home grown veg etc she lived to her 90 s without any heart problem she was the only person in the care home (dementia) that was on no medication I m also on no medication I haven’t had my cholesterol taken for years but it also used to be in the 7 s like my mum I don’t smoke I rarely drink alcohol I don’t eat meat or fish and have no reason to concern myself over my cholesterol
I wouldn’t go on Statins

I suppose I should be dead according to the drug industry.
The last time it was taken it was 9.3. It was 9.6 when taken 11 years ago.
But as my dietitian friend says: that’s the level my body operates on.

I was more than happy to go on statins when my GP said my cholesterol was 7. She put me on a very low dose. Never again.
I woke up in the middle of the night one night thinking my nose was running. I put the light on to find the pillow and duvet covered in blood from a nosebleed. I had never had one in my life. I had four more in the next few weeks, my husband rang 111 on one occasion as the bleeding wouldn't stop. I couldn't understand it. I looked on the statins leaflet and there it was at the top of the side effects 'nosebleeds'. I stopped taking them and the bleeds stopped. I am taking plant sterols now. I'll see how that goes .

Speaking with a friend this morning she told me she had seen a physiotherapist because she had so many aches and pains . Physio asked if she took statins, she told him yes. He explained that some statins were responsible for muscle / joint pain. He asked her to speak to her GP , she did this and told him what the physio had said . GP immediately prescribed a different statin - so far so good !

When my DH was on Statins the pains in his legs were so bad he could not walk it was nothing to do with the "nocebo” effect seeing we didn't read the leaflet until the pains in his legs were so bad he was crying in pain we were looking at everything and anything to help him and reading the leaflets of all his medications was one of the things we did, and there it was!, now seeing as when he was 60 and on Statins he was crippled and now he is 72 and runs 2 charity shops on his feet all day AND he has a dodgy knee but can actually walk is proof enough for me that the Statins were the cause, I will ignore any research (usually funded by big Pharma) that says otherwise

It makes me wonder sometimes what they are prescribing for people. My sister has been put on blood pressure tablets and her hair is thinning and her eyebrows have disappeared. She asked her GP if it could be the tablets and he said 'Oh yes they can cause hair loss'. For goodness sake!

susytishI agree with MOnica.
You need more information from your GP so that you can make an informed choice.
He/she can work out your risk score easily by using an online calculator. It's a matter of looking at more than just your total cholesterol. Your LDL and HDL (low and high density lipids results), age, sex, blood pressure, whether you smoke or not, whether or not you have diabetes, any genetic risk and any relevant medical history.
In my own case, my total cholesterol was 6.71 and my GP keen to prescribe a statin but risk of coronary heart disease was under 7% so I declined.
Personally I believe statins are over prescribed.
A healthy weight, sensible eating and twice daily dog walking reduced my cholesterol further.

High cholesterol does not necessarily mean raised arterial plaque. A CAC scan (rarely done on Nhs) will reveal your actual level of arterial plaque. Low plaque levels means low risk of heart attack regardless of cholesterol readings. Re the nocibo effect, a friend came off statins after bad muscle cramps etc. He is a GP! Definitely genuine side effects. Also depression.

I’ve been on them for 30 years but I have to keep to the lowest dose because the higher doses give me really bad back pain. They do work for me. I went from 8.5 down to 4.5 .

I have no doubt that statins do reduce cholesterol, within a few weeks mine was drastically reduced. My dilemma is with some of the side effects. I found that after a short time the heavy legs and achey arms thing would return so that a couple of goes with the upright vacuumed cleaner felt like I’d rowed the Atlantic and needed to sit down. Day after day this really got me down as I felt like I was unable to do the ordinary but necessary things that make life bearable. I can well imagine that if I had been -say aged 70 and not 44 I might have have put it down to ageing, I don’t know. I always read the leaflets with meds but I’m not obsessed with them. Any way after stopping the statins these above mentioned problems went away…and resurfaced after being given ”the talk” by various doctors, all well meaning, and starting the statins again.

It's not just over weight people or people with poor diet get cholesterol.

I know someone who is the right weight for his height. Always eat the right food . Goes to the gym 3 times and week plus running and cycling. His cholesterol was sky high now on statins. It's coming down. He's GP it's just the luck of the draw who has high cholesterol. He has patients who are obese but have perfect cholesterol low bad high good cholesterol.

I have been told that the cause of my high cholesterol is probably genetic because it has been entirely stable at exactly the same score for over a decade.

I am not overweight, got 9 out of 12 on the mediterannean diet scoreboard after DH's heart attack. The main problems being that we do not eat nuts very much and I prefer to use locally grown rape seed to imported olive oi, not how much oil I use, but what oil - and they admitted rape oil was nearly as good for you as olive oil and I am very active.

There are far too many cliches waved around about health by people who prefer such cliches to thinking for themselves and finding out what the facts are from reliable sources.

I had a heart attack in 2006 and have taken statins ever since. no real problems.
I'm not overweight - at the time the cardiologist said it was probably due mainly to 30 years of smoking. Though I'd already given up for 15 years. plus genetics.

susytish, ask your GP about your risk levels - with and without statins - (there may be little difference) then decide whether the side effects are really worth tolerating!

I was going to ask if anyone has tried plant sterols but see that Kate is giving them a go. Maybe you could let us know how you get on with them Kate?

Liz I've been taking them for about a year, along with a daily benecol drink, benecol spread and yoghurts. The sterols were recommended by someone on GN. I don't know if they are working or not as I haven't been back to have my cholesterol checked since. I will go at some point and let you know if they have done the trick.

Thanks Kate. I use the Asda brand rather than Benecol as the nurse said it was just as good but cheaper. I hope she is right.

My mum had very high cholesterol levels around 9 or 10. She was never overweight, ever and she never smoked or drank alcohol. She couldn’t be bothered with statins and lived to be in her high eighties. She died of a heart attack but , as she used to say, you’ve got to die of something and she preferred heart failure to cancer! Very practical, my mum. My level is also very high without the Lipitor and I am not overweight, either. My Dad was the same and he was very slim - another one who died of a heart attack.

I was originally prescribed 40mg of a statin. Seems this was a standard dose. I asked if I could start at 10mg and then have a blood test. Turned out I only need 20mg a day. Made me think that they over prescribe. As for asking advice on here...I think you need to be talking to your doctor. Your doctor is the only one who can advise you.

Hubby tried every one in the book and couldn’t tolerate them. Brother tried one felt ghastly and stopped
Neither of them bother with them now
My cholesterol is borderline and I take Red Yeast supplement which is supposed to keep it in check - I get them from H&B health foods in the high street

You might find this document helpful. www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg181/resources/patient-decision-aid-pdf-243780159

If this is the first statin you have tried there are still many options to discuss with your GP, or possibly a pharmacist at your surgery.

I can't take Statins and neither have several of my relatives; one of them was really ill with them. I now take something which isn't strictly a statin but does the trick.
It is always worth looking at where your cholesterol levels are being skewed. For example, I have high Triglycerides which is due to high glucose levels. Cutting out all the fats made little difference and it is only when I was able to see where the problem was, I was able to affect my cholesterol levels. I have gone from being 8 times the ideal upper level of Triglycerides to jut being marginally higher than ideal. This has mainly been due to cutting my carb intake and looking after by blood sugars. I still need to work on upping my HDL but I am on the way to being much healthier and the non-statins will help that too.

I was prescribed statins in my early 50’s and had a terrible experience with them. Every muscle and joint in my body ached. Doc tried every type available but no respite. I was so bad that my regular Christmas outing to a panto with my 4 gc’s at the time involved a train journey, going for for tea then on to a panto - that year I was told my oldest gs decided he didn’t want to go so his dad came along with us. Discovered later that they were worried I wouldn’t cope with the kids as I struggled so much getting myself around - they thought I would struggle so persuaded older gs to stay home so dad could help me ?. I stopped taking the statins even though my cholesterol was still high. With a new gp now and he decided I should be on statins. Discover a brand I hadn’t tried. I lasted 2 weeks on it. Told gp I preferred quality of life over quantity. What’s the point of lasting a couple of years longer if you are wracked with pain?

I was advised by my GP to take Coenzyme Q10 200 mg with my statin and have not had any side effects since doing this

I kept being pressured into having statins, but finally caved in because I am older!! I have just stopped them because my arthritis is getting out of control, discovered they make me more prone to chest infections (my lungs are bad enough) - it's only been about 10 days since stopping, I think there is an improvement, but now I've got COVID, so don't know how much that will affect my joints - watch this space!!