I’ve just been informed by my GP that anyone who has diabetes for 10years or more should start taking statins,
I've had type for 21 years, I have been statin free for the last 4 or 5 years of those 21 years. My total cholesterol is 4. I would suggest that he is totally wrong to suggest people should take a drug to lower their cholesterol just because they're diabetic, that's absurd!. Diabetics don't necessarily have high cholesterol, some do, others don't.
If you have high cholesterol you should investigate who set those targets, I think you'll find it's a bunch of guys who have a conflict of interests, they get paid by the pharmaceutical industry.
Then there is the issue of the empirical evidence or lack of it. Does high cholesterol lead to heart disease? My 91 year old MIL seems to be doing OK with higher than average cholesterol. Not that anecdotal evidence is any good, but it seems the proper evidence is locked away from prying eyes.
Next question to ask him is what does he suggest to people who experience muscle pain as a result of taking statins, which if he wants to know was known about as far back as 1990 when Merck Pharmaceutical applied for a patent to cover a statin with added Co-enzyme Q10. The thing that statins also lower and the cause of the muscle pain, even the manufacturer knew that.
At the end of the day, taking statins is a very personal thing, I know some people who take them with no side effects, lucky them. If you feel that your cholesterol needs to be lowered, try them, checking out all the available evidence is an onerous task, but I finally had the courage because my Total cholesterol dropped to below 4 after lower my carb intake and not increasing my fat intake.