Statins

[nailit]

Anyone had experience on these?
Good? Bad?

[Jackdaw33]

No problems with mine.

[nailit]

Thanks JD.
My GP tried to put me on them (cholesterol 5.6) I refused.
I want to know first what evidence there is that dietery cholesterol affects bodily cholesteral?
My sister eats virtually no cholesterol foods and her cholesterol levels are through the roof.

[Buenchico]

Lots of info here
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/statins/
and here
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/high-cholesterol/treatment/

[Jackdaw33]

The only downside with statins is that you are not supposed to consume grapefruit or its juice. Why grapefruit should be singled out from all other citrus fruits I don't know. Perhaps Sqad can provide an answer.

[nailit]

Thanks Chris, will have a look at those shortly.
JD, it seems as though that the mention of cholesterol been a bit high that GP's want you to get on statins ASAP. I don't get why alternatives aren't offered first. Ive know so many people on statins that have had some awful side effects from them that they have had to stop taking them. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones?

[douglas9401]

I've been fine with them.

I'm sure I read that the grapefruit thing has been reviewed and amended, Jackdaw.

[Jackdaw33]

I must admit that when I first started taking them I suffered from cramps. They soon stopped, however, and I have had no problems since. The only way you can find out if they are suitable for you is to try them. If adverse you can stop them.

[jno]

the was a rage for prescribing statins a few years back, but it's mostly died away.

When I was on them, I started getting upper arms pains several months later. The locum I saw said "I bet you're on statins", and took me off them again. No problem with my cholesterol levels since. In fact when the locum looked back in my files, there never had been any problem, so I don't know what they were for in the first place.

One possible downside is occasionally you take out insurance where one of the questions asked is "Have you ever been prescribed statins?" I usually have to ring the insurers up and explain that I was, apparently incorrectly, and my cholesterol levels are fine. This is tedious.

[Sqad]

"I want to know first what evidence there is that dietery cholesterol affects bodily cholesteral?"

What a very, very good question. it is accepted by main stream science that a high cholesterol diet influences your blood cholesterol.

let me tell you a story:
Many years back a group of Cambridge students went to Iceland to live with the Inuits who have a high cholesterol diet and yet have a low incidence of heart disease and low blood cholesterol. The student group lived mainly on whale blubber which is high in cholesterol and what happened to their blood cholesterol?........it FELL. I have never seen this study published or quoted.
The relationship between diet and blood cholesterol is ill understood.
Statins and grapefruit juice........reacts adversely with Simvastatin....the other statins are fine to take with grapefruit juice.

My advice.....if you can take statins without some of the unacceptable side effects, then do so.

[Jackdaw33]

Thank you Sqad, I am on Pravastatin. Must amend tomorrow's shopping list to include grapefruit. Incidentally, I was going to be prescribed Simvastatin but apparently it reacts adversely with Erythromycin of which I have to take a daily dose to boost my immune system as I have no spleen.

[nailit]

Sqad, while you are around, was also told that my triglycorides were high (as well as my blood pressure) Any correlation?

[237SJ]

I thought it was a high saturated fat that affects your cholesterol, not cholesterol that is consumed from foods

[nailit]

Only saw a young trainee GP who didn't seem to know what she was on about...

[237SJ]

high saturated fat "diet"

[Sqad]

Nailit...there "might " be an association between high blood triglycerides and high blood pressure.......there might. Best i can do.

There is an association between high BP , heart attacks and strokes.
Fro what you have said naillit...if you can take statins then do so, bur if you can't because of the side effects you can take Ezetrol which lowers you blood cholesterol without side effects.

[Buenchico]

>>> Many years back a group of Cambridge students went to Iceland to live with the Inuits . . .

Inuits in Iceland? Were they on holiday there then?
(Inuits aren't found in Iceland. Perhaps you meant Greenland?)

Anyway, that 'research' has been largely discredited by Bjerregaard, Young & Hegele in their study ("Low incidence of cardiovascular disease among the Inuit – what is the evidence?"), which concluded that it was far more likely that the incidence of death from cardiovascular disease was far higher among Inuits than elsewhere.

[jennyjoan]

my friend and I and sista were all on them - but we took ourselves off it cos all us suffered from "heavy legs".

[murraymints]

They caused severe depression for dad..had to come off them

[anneasquith]

No problems, preventative medication should be used if possible .

[Sqad]

Buenchico...forgive me......Greenland.
This is a good example where one can pick a link to a website which supports one's argument. i have not read the study that you chose, but there are others that dispute their findings.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2736000
this is an example. The relationship between dietary fats and blood cholesterol is ill understood and certainly not straight forward.
whe there are opposing views on medical topics by medical "experts" it means that the truth is un known.