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Cholesterol

noblehead

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Had my annual review yesterday and got the opportunity to ask the consultant if he still thinks I should be taking a statin for prevention of CVD. Last year when I seen him he suggested I would benefit from taking one being in my late 40's and having diabetes for 30 years, not long after the appointment I got a letter through the post from my gp with a prescription attached for Simvastatin, which I kept but never handed in.

Last time I saw him my total cholesterol was 4.1 and lipids were all in range, yesterday my total cholesterol was 3.8 with my LDL being 2.0, HDL 1.7 and trigs 0.7...so a small reduction in the total but wouldn't have thought it would be enough to change his mind on statin.

However when I said I wasn't taking the statin he said he wasn't too concerned, he said with my good cholesterol control, bp and bg control he didn't see any urgency to start with statins and this could be something we could discuss at a future date, I'm sort of pleased in a way but still unsure if I should/shouldn't be on a low-dose at least :crazy:

Hb was 6.4 which is a little higher than last time but still reasonably pleased.
 
My total was 3.8, and I was asked if i wanted to come off them. i stayed on low dose, because of the cardio vascular protection it apparently gives on top of cholesterol reduction. It Is also now suggested it is a big help in avoiding certain cancers like bowel cancer. Don't know if that's true, but as I have no side effects I take them as insurance.
 


Odd that they asked you if you wanted to come off them when they have reduced your cholesterol levels I'm still sitting on the fence although he did say if I wanted to start a low-dose then he'd happy for me to try one, the side-effects are probably the one thing that stops me trying even though my mother and brother take statins without any side-effects, what is the low-dose statin you take?
 
Not the lowest I've heard of - I'm on 20mg a day. Have heard of people on 10, but think most are on 40. Think I was offered the "come off" option because my BP was also down from 155/85 to 118/66 and BMI was 22. Resting pulse rate was also down from 74'ish I think to 64. So all markers good, and with HbA1c at 5.7% largely on diet, (only started taking 2x500mgs per day Metformin as a precaution at my request towards end of the HbA1c testing period) he thought normal risk factors largely mitigated.
 
I thought 20g was the lowest dose and wasn't aware there was a 10g statin, I'd imagine the side-effects from such a low-dose would be minimal and may be worthy of consideration for the protective measures you mentioned in your previous post.
 
Good results Nigel, if your doctors not concerned about you taking statins then presumably he believes your risk is low. I don't think that statins are a bad drug but I don't think people should take them unnecessarily.
As for 10mg simvastatin you can actually buy those without a prescription!
 
phoenix said:
I don't think that statins are a bad drug but I don't think people should take them unnecessarily.
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Yeah your probably right Phoenix!
 
noblehead said:
I thought 20g was the lowest dose and wasn't aware there was a 10g statin, I'd imagine the side-effects from such a low-dose would be minimal and may be worthy of consideration for the protective measures you mentioned in your previous post.
Click to expand...

I got side-effects on 10mg Simvastatin - mainly muscle and joint pains. Sometimes I could barely stand unaided, and getting out of sofas or soft chairs was a hilarious spectator sport.

The really ridiculous thing about it was that I had asked to take a statin as I'd come across an article saying that they were supposed to protect from Alzheimer's. I believe that is now not as certain as "they" first thought.

This was before I was diagnosed Type 2, and before I finally got my lumbar spinal stenosis diagnosis. There is no comparison between the statin pains and the LSS pains, so I'm sure I never got the two confused. I'm much better since I stopped the statin.

Viv 8)
 
My husband takes 10 mgs of Simvastatin as a preventative measure against Familial hypercholesterolemia which both his parents had and has caused heart attacks in his 2 siblings (touch wood, he's ok). I've taken 40 mgs since my stroke a year ago which is probably quite a high dose, but as I have no side-effects from it, I'm happy to take it along with a anti-clotting drug.
 


I can well understand why both you and your husband take statins Didie, good news that you suffer no side-effects.
 
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