Anyone on Statins.

[The Jogger]

No, I use to be but realised that I don't want to take a drug that does away with something that the body needs. Just as many people have heart attacks with so called normal cholesterol than raised cholesterol.

 

[Alan O]

Atorvastatin for me too, 20mg per day for a bit over 10 years. Familial hypercholesterolaemia was discovered after my heart attack - I can have a totally vegan diet containing zero cholesterol, and still get abnormally high blood cholesterol levels.

I've had no adverse effects, and nobody mentioned diabetes - but there's never been anything abnormal in my regular blood tests.

 

[slowmotion]

Atorvastatin for me too, 20mg per day for a bit over 10 years. Familial hypercholesterolaemia was discovered after my heart attack - I can have a totally vegan diet containing zero cholesterol, and still get abnormally high blood cholesterol levels.

I've had no adverse effects, and nobody mentioned diabetes - but there's never been anything abnormal in my regular blood tests.

Blimey! I'm on 80mg a day.

 

[albion]

Once a day for me.

A large bowl of porridge works.

 

[Alan O]

Blimey! I'm on 80mg a day.

I was initially on 80mg (as, I believe, are a lot of people), but after a while the doc reduced it while monitoring my cholesterol to see if a smaller dose would be effective, and 20mg seems to be sufficient for me.

The other one that was tried on me was Simvastatin as it's it was a lot cheaper (which is fine by me if it works), but it didn't appear to work for me as my cholesterol climbed right back up again - so the doc put me back on Atorvastatin.

 

[Alan O]

No, I use to be but realised that I don't want to take a drug that does away with something that the body needs. Just as many people have heart attacks with so called normal cholesterol than raised cholesterol.

Well, it doesn't actually do away with cholesterol, it just lowers the level to something within the usual range - there's still plenty there for fulfilling its function.

 

[Threevok]

Atorvastatin 80mg for two years since heart attack. No side effects I’m aware of and my GP advises I stick with them providing there are no adverse reactions.

All my bloods came back perfect a couple of months ago.

I’m interested by Threevok’s remarks re his mother as I’m discussing arthritis in my hip with my GP and how to treat it.

Hopefully it's common knowledge now, so they should know which meds they can and can't mix with them.

 

[PK99]

Hopefully it's common knowledge now, so they should know which meds they can and can't mix with them.

My GP's computerized prescription system recently flagged up a potential conflict between a new (to me) antibiotic and allopurinol - there should be no need to rely on doctors' memories.

 

[Threevok]

My GP's computerized prescription system recently flagged up a potential conflict between a new (to me) antibiotic and allopurinol - there should be no need to rely on doctors' memories.

Sorry, I meant in the data sense, not the medical community as such

 

[Alan O]

STATINS nearly killed my mother. She was prescribed them while on medication for arthritis and the combination of both completely stripped her immune system.

I had a strange reaction to one of my heart-related drugs (an ACE inhibitor, but I can't remember which one), in that apparently it can affect the immune system in people who are genetically deficient in a specific enzyme that moderates the immune cascade reaction. The result was a night in A&E with anaphylaxis.

 

[vickster]

Hopefully it's common knowledge now, so they should know which meds they can and can't mix with them.

What med was it? Steroids?

 

[Threevok]

What med was it? Steroids?

I'd have to ask her, but it was a drug for her arthritis.

 

[vickster]

I'd have to ask her, but it was a drug for her arthritis.

There are lots and different types of arthritis I take a few pills myself , but as I'm not on statins I'm not aware of that interaction

 

[buzzy-beans]

I have high cholesterol readings, when living in France on I was put onto Statins but I didn't like taking them and so I opted to take myself off them, an action which was much to my French doctors dismay!
Some months after doing this and whilst still having monthly blood tests, I had a replacement hip opp at the Clinique du Sport at Merignac Bordeaux which is the top clinic of its' type in the whole of France. To say the Clinique was thorough is a profound understatement because prior to my opp I had to undergo numerous tests and checks one of which, because of my cholesterol levels, was an ultra sound as well as a CT scan of my heart, the results of which quite frankly amazed the consultant undertaking the tests, the reason being that I have absolutely zero furring up of any of my arteries.

On my return to living once more in the UK, when in conversation with my local GP in Wales, I told him about my cholesterol levels and the tests that had been carried out and his reaction was a real eye opener as he started banging his desk whilst saying "YES, YES, YES" etc.!
It turned out that prior to becoming a GP he had worked for a long time with a study group at Cambridge University, he said their research had revealed a sizeable majority of people who are on Statins do not need to be, he also told me of a remote tribal group somewhere in Africa they had found all of whom had exceptionally high cholesterol and yet they were existing on a nigh on perfect diet with virtually no fats or sugars, very high levels of exercise and on checking this entire remote group, they didn't find a single person with any signs of furred up arteries.

So if you are on Statins, do you really have to be on them?

 

[Johnsop99]

STATINS nearly killed my mother. She was prescribed them while on medication for arthritis and the combination of both completely stripped her immune system.

She was in hospital for weeks and the family were "called" on several occasions.

Took them ages to diagnose the problem - at one point they thought it was AIDS

About a year ago a friend of ours in his early 70's who appeared reasonably fit and healthy suddenly started losing weight and generally feeling lethargic. Loads of tests were done over about 3-4 months and they could not diagnose what was wrong. He continued to lose weight and ended up in a wheel chair looking like he was going to pop his clogs at any moment. Eventually it came to light that it was a reaction to the statins he had started taking just before he became ill. He stopped taking them and is now making a slow recovery although nearly a year on he is still well under weight but at least the wheelchair's gone. He told me that apparently 1 in 5 people could react to statins in this way, if this is the case how come it took them so long to diagnose the problem?
ps I don't know what other medication if any he was taking at the time, but it has certainly put me off statins.