Statins

[noseall]

hype about cholesterol

What 'hype'?

 

[Brigadier]

What 'hype'?

Living longer, not dropping dead in the street after only 2 yrs of retirement.....................that sort of "hype"

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Must admit my sleep pattern seems odd at times ? Aching arms

Never really associated it with statins tbh

The aching arms, are one of the symptoms I get, when I suffer the 'worrying episodes'. My arms weirdly feel terrifically heavy, like Popeye arms. I'm still suffering the waking from very convincing dreams, and they dwell for a few minutes after waking, though not it seems nightmares now. I've woken several times, with odd ideas in my head, even waking Av talking about them, once I am awake....

My back, has been giving me some grief this week, so I been making good use of an Iphone sized tens machine on it. Decades ago, I bought a shoebox sized machine, long since disposed of. I woke in the early hours of last week, dreaming I was using that old machine in bed, on my back, and the leads had come off. I woke up, and woke Av up, searching the bed, and under the bed, for those leads to reconnect them, until I realised it had been another dream. It was never normal for me, to suffer dreams lasting, beyond my waking, before taking the statins.

I'm guessing, the effects of the statins, are still lingering in my system, but at least they are just dreams now, rather than the nightmares I was suffering.

Might it be worth, you asking your doc, if you can go on a three-month trial of ezetimibe, in place of the statins?

 

[Koolpc]

There is, it doesn't work as well as medication and requires complete lifestyle changes to make a real difference, like going vegetarian.

Nope. No need to go vegetarian either...

 

[IT Minion]

Nope. No need to go vegetarian either...

Go check again, diet can make a change but it requires a massive lifestyle change (not just changing from butter to margarine) and is about half as effective as medication.

I think I linked to a study on this earlier in the thread

 

[Koolpc]

Go check again, diet can make a change but it requires a massive lifestyle change (not just changing from butter to margarine) and is about half as effective as medication.

I think I linked to a study on this earlier in the thread

I agree but, not necessarily vegetarian...go look at some articles..

 

[IT Minion]

I agree but, not necessarily vegetarian...go look at some articles..

I'm not sure of your point, even with massive lifestyle changes the video posted earlier only managed to get their cholesterol down to borderline numbers. He then went opinion shopping until he found a doctor who gave him the answer he liked.

People have studied how well lifestyle changes work.

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In short: Exercise heavily, lose weight if you're fat, switch to a fish and plant based diet and you might manage a 30% reduction. Everyone should do that, but lifestyle changes like that are really hard and nearly always fail, you need Olympic athlete levels of mental dedication. Statins aim for 30-50% by taking a very cheap pill.

 

[Koolpc]

Woof

 

[securespark]

I got a message from my GP today.

Dear Secure

Your cholesterol is 5.1 on 28/08/25. We use this figure with your age, weight, family history, smoking status and ethnicity to calculate a QRISK score (the chance you will have a stroke, heart attack or die in the next 10 years due to cardiovascular disease). Your QRISK score is 12% Please see attached information on the benefits/side effects of statin medication or could you improve your diet/exercise? Please let me know how you wish to proceed?

Dr Dolittle.
First, they waited until now to talk to me about my results from August 2025?
Second they didn't explain what 12% risk represented.
Third, they obviously have not read my notes when I have been in (many times) since November 2024, where I have kept them informed of diet, weight and exercise updates...
I sent a message telling them I did not want to take any more meds if could help it.
I asked about the risk and got a message back saying it was low. In which case why offer statins?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I asked about the risk and got a message back saying it was low. In which case why offer statins?

I had an appointment with my ckd consultant. I think we have established, and agreed that the statins may not be the cause of my serious reported mental issues, rather it is the poisons in my blood, from my poor kidney filtering function, allowing the poisons to reach my brain....

I did though, definitely suffer from the many physical side-effects from statins. I stopped the statins last September, these side effects stopped almost immediately, as an alternative, they gave me ezetimibe. These are not so effective on their own, so they recently added bembedoic. I've had zero side-effects from taking these.

There are a lot of serious concerns about the taking of statins, I am glad to be off them.

 

[StephenStephen]

I got a message from my GP today.

Dear Secure

Your cholesterol is 5.1 on 28/08/25. We use this figure with your age, weight, family history, smoking status and ethnicity to calculate a QRISK score (the chance you will have a stroke, heart attack or die in the next 10 years due to cardiovascular disease). Your QRISK score is 12% Please see attached information on the benefits/side effects of statin medication or could you improve your diet/exercise? Please let me know how you wish to proceed?

Dr Dolittle.
First, they waited until now to talk to me about my results from August 2025?
Second they didn't explain what 12% risk represented.
Third, they obviously have not read my notes when I have been in (many times) since November 2024, where I have kept them informed of diet, weight and exercise updates...
I sent a message telling them I did not want to take any more meds if could help it.
I asked about the risk and got a message back saying it was low. In which case why offer statins?

I imagine a web search for QRISK would tell you exactly what it means.

 

[IT Minion]

That it's at the low to moderate range where statins would be recommended but the doctor isn't going to push them if it's going to impact your mental health.