Cholesterol

I had a health scare around 4-5 years ago where they suspected I had angina, it turned out it was inflammation in my chest after a fall several weeks earlier, but whilst in hospital the Cardio Nurse said I should be taking a statin as I'd had type 1 for 30 years and was at a greater risk of CVD (must stress this was before the results of my angio/echogram later in the week).

At the time my TC had gone up to 4.3 where it's usually between 3.5-4.1 but I wasn't too concerned, but when I was discharged I discussed statins with a diabetes consultant who had not seen before, he was of the opinion that all long-term type 1's should take a statin and sent a letter to my gp to prescribe a drug called Simvastatin.

The prescription was sent through the post so I booked in to see my gp and discussed my recent angiogram results and cholesterol history, he disagreed that I should be taking a statin as my hospital results were fine plus I'd never had high cholesterol before, he said as long as I kept to a healthy diet and continued to exercise regularly he was happy for me to continue as I was, we agreed to agree to leave it at that and would review things again in a few years time.

Since then my TC has been below 4 and my lipids are all in range so noting has been mentioned since, hope that helps somewhat @PseudoBob77 but I must stress that I don't have any issues with taking a statin and if my cholesterol levels were to rise I'd take one to bring them back into line (if dietary measures didn't work), both my mum and a brother took a statin for high cholesterol and both had no side-effects.

Hi. You need to make your own decision on this as there is so much nonsense out there. NICE recommends (rightly or wrongly) that diabetics need statins if their cholesterol is over 4 so that gives you one answer. Total cholesterol has no real relevance but the medics don't seem to realise this. What matters is your HDL and LDL ratios and Trigs as these influence the risk of cardiovascular deposits etc. If you look around the forums and the web you will find what the target LDL/HDL ratio and trigs should be. If this breakdown is available to you from a fasting test then you can discuss these with the consultant. Note that having a total cholesterol too low increases your risk of heart disease as the body needs cholesterol for repairs.