Statins

Bettie

kaya wrote: »

I figured that if my arteries were clogging up with fatty chollesterol deposits as the test Indicates then common sense dictates I would see an abnormalitie in my blood pressure so I purchased a blood pressure monitor , unsurprisingly my blood pressure absolutely fine :-)

Kaya, my blood pressure has always been spot on but I still had a stroke.:(

Horseunderwater

Well this is an interesting thread. I believe that they are responsible for causing my auto immune disease or at least a significant weakening. I have a fairly rare illness called Myasthenia Gravis serum positive antibodies in blood and when I was put on them as a preventative (diabetic 2) measure along with Perindopril for BP even though it was not high, I had severe muscle cramping and pain in my lower limbs so stopped taking them and my cholesterol was within the normal range for years - that is until I got this darn illness. I now have to be extremely careful what drugs I take as so many are contra indicated for MG and just to make matters worse, the high steroids I had to take for past year have now caused Diabetic neuropathy for which there is no cure. So beware folks. I have gone from being a fittish over weight person to someone who can barely walk at all now in severe pain on DLA and ESA as well as all the ones for diabetes. Funny thing is I now cannot take any cholesterol reducing drugs and back on a very low BP tablet.
Indeed anyone can be slim and have a stroke or heart attack etc. Some people have arteries that have very stiff walls that do not stretch too well and this can make them more susceptible to such things - there are lots of factors involved with these things. It is not just diet/weight/exercise - how much fat you eat or not. It is also about how your body metabilises the food you eat and how efficiently it is converted into energy or stored for a rainy day. Portion sizes have been getting bigger for years. I remember eating off a smaller plate when I lived with Mum/Dad, but we have bigger plates here and our portions were bigger, but we have cut down loads and rebalanced the plate contents. Eating more protein to carb and less veg and sauces. This helps. As to chol levels there are 3 I get measured for but my overall one is now at 6.3mmol and 6 months back it was 8.8mmol. All I did was reduce amount portion down a bit and it has made that much difference. Also everyone makes it too, some make more than others so that gives a false picture too.

daska

Bettie wrote: »

I have two months of prescription for 40 mg statin at a time. I was put on them when the hospital discovered i had had a stroke. There is history of stroke and heart attack in my family. They said no amount of diet change would lower my cholesterol to "safer" levels. ( wonder if they were telling fibs?) The tablets have lowered it significantly. I have been a vegetarian for 30 + years but did tend to eat too much fried food and dairy.

Dad has managed it by using diet and ditching the statins. He is vegetarian and has eaten "healthily" for years, unfortunately it turns out that his "healthy" diet was costing him his health.

Bettie

daska wrote: »

Dad has managed it by using diet and ditching the statins. He is vegetarian and has eaten "healthily" for years, unfortunately it turns out that his "healthy" diet was costing him his health.

some can change it with diet but some can't. I personally have never had a "healthy" diet, veggie doesn't necessarily equate to healthy , my love of chips, crisps, fatty food and cream cakes probably did me no good.:rotfl: ( i am not fat, more on the skinny side)
There is so much conflicting advice I certainly can't decide what to believe.

SevenOfNine

Sounds like Zandoni (& wife) are quite happy with statins, just not the monthly prescription!

My husband's cholesterol readings at age 60 were identical to age 40 & 50 (he'd had medicals for work purposes and we'd kept the info), but the goalposts had moved and it was now considered 'raised'.

He read the already mentioned 'The Great Cholesterol Con' by Doctor Malcolm Kendrick and flatly refused statins.

We think statins are given out like candy to possibly avoid heart problems which you may not get anyway. For my husband, they had too many side unwelcome side effect risks which he did not want.

At 65 his 'range' is almost normal, he takes more exercise, is slimmer, has a more cholesterol friendly diet etc. May he live long and prosper.

Zandoni

SevenOfNine wrote: »

Sounds like Zandoni (& wife) are quite happy with statins, just not the monthly prescription!

I'm are not happy at all that my wife takes Statins and we are very interested to hear peoples comments.

I'd very much like to hear everyone's comments and I'd also like to know the prescription side.

The Jury is still out on whether she will continue to take them.

Appreciate peoples involvement.

Bigmoney2

Zandoni wrote: »

Hi all, my wife has just started on low dose statins, will do some research about the pros and cons.

But what interests me is that she only gets a prescription for one months supply at a time. Is this the same for everybody that's on them?

I thought that GP's were only allowed to prescribe a months supply of most medication at a time.

I've read of people having problems when they want to travel for longer than this and having to persuad the doc to give a longer prescription.

Pennylane

SevenOfNine wrote: »

Sounds like Zandoni (& wife) are quite happy with statins, just not the monthly prescription!

My husband's cholesterol readings at age 60 were identical to age 40 & 50 (he'd had medicals for work purposes and we'd kept the info), but the goalposts had moved and it was now considered 'raised'.

He read the already mentioned 'The Great Cholesterol Con' by Doctor Malcolm Kendrick and flatly refused statins.

We think statins are given out like candy to possibly avoid heart problems which you may not get anyway. For my husband, they had too many side unwelcome side effect risks which he did not want.

At 65 his 'range' is almost normal, he takes more exercise, is slimmer, has a more cholesterol friendly diet etc. May he live long and prosper.

Regarding your bit which I've highlighted ...... the goalposts have indeed moved over the years so now more people are considered to have "high cholesterol" which = more people on statins which = more money for GP practices.

SevenOfNine

Zandoni wrote: »

I'm are not happy at all that my wife takes Statins and we are very interested to hear peoples comments.

Oops sorry Zandoni, I didn't mean that to sound quite like it did! My point with the 'you are happy with Statins' remark was because we were commenting on their virtues, or lack of, as opposed to focussing on your actual prescription question.

You are right to do plenty of research, even on just taking the correct Statin, GP's do seem to dole out the cheapest & I'm sure they're also complying with some sort of Central Government targets (rewarded by grants or something), to get as many as possible on this 'preventative' drug.

Do see if Amazon have the book mentioned, it is a very lightweight, amusing and informative 'read' - given that my old man rarely picks up a book, he enjoyed it. Worth every penny.

Mammal

I would advise you see this video before taking stantins. I can´t post a linke, so you can find it on youtube. Part 3: About Statins (BMA Leeds)