Posted on 01/28/2008 10:35:58 PM PST by neverdem
Statins are among the most prescribed drugs in the world, and there is no doubt that they work as advertised — that they lower not only cholesterol but also the risk for heart attack.
But in the fallout from the headline-making trial of Vytorin, a combination drug that was found to be no more effective than a simple statin in reducing arterial plaque, many people are asking a more fundamental question about statins in general: Do they prolong your life?
And for many users, the surprising answer appears to be no.
Some patients do receive significant benefits from statins, like Lipitor (from Pfizer), Crestor (AstraZeneca) and Pravachol (Bristol-Myers Squibb). In studies of middle-aged men with cardiovascular disease, statin users were less likely to die than those who were given a placebo.
But many statin users don’t have established heart disease; they simply have high cholesterol. For healthy men, for women with or without heart disease and for people over 70, there is little evidence, if any, that taking a statin will make a meaningful difference in how long they live.
“High-risk groups have a lot to gain,” said Dr. Mark H. Ebell, a professor at the University of Georgia who is deputy editor of the journal American Family Physician. “But patients at low risk benefit very little if at all. We end up overtreating a lot of patients.” (Like the other doctors quoted in this column, Dr. Ebell has no ties to drug makers.)
How is this possible, if statins lower the risk of heart attack? Because preventing a heart attack is not the same thing as saving a life. In many statin studies...
--snip--
One big concern is that the side effects of statins haven’t been well studied. Reported side effects include muscle pain, cognitive problems and impotence.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Yep, I was taking statins and quit when I started experiencing the pain and weakness in the muscles. The benefits don’t balance out the bad things in my opinion. Also, there have been studies that say the opposite of what this article states, that lowering cholesterol, with statins, doesn’t actually reduce heart attacks. The study on Vytorin they site actually showed that the combination drug reduced cholesterol but failed to reduce clogged arteries.
Muscle and back pain for me have to be balanced with lowering my cholesterol (which was near 300). There are weeks when I’m hobbling along with muscle spasms, but a heart attack would be worse. Maybe I should cut back from 20mg per day of Lovastatin to 10 mg.
Many think the clots are formed when an irritant is attacking the vessel wall. These irritants could be from almost anything, maybe allergies or a genetic inability to fight something off. If most Americans have hight blood pressure and high cholesterol, then maybe its not those reasons that cause the attacks. If you have 100 people with high cholesterol, and a majority of the attacks happen with high cholesterol subjects, they take it for granted that cholesterol levels are the major reason for the attacks. But what they are finding is some of the attack happen with low cholesterol subjects and they can't just say it's stress or some other factor that caused the attacks.
How many of our parents ate eggs and bacon every morning and fought over the fat pieces of meat at the table? My grandmother on my mother's side ate everything she wanted and would rather eat the fat of a pork chop than the actual meat. She cooked most things in bacon grease or lard. She lived to be 96 and was in reasonable health until about 94. She had no strokes or heart attacks until she was 96. She outlived 3 husbands, however, and 2 died of heart attacks before 60, and the other cancer at about 70. My Grandmother on my dads' side died at 85 with a heart attack, and my dad died at 85 with a heart attack. My mom fed him low fat foods and watched his diet. His mother ate what she wanted and never had an attack till she died. He had 2 heart attacks before and got a bypass and a stent. Maybe its more about genetics and hard work than diet.
If you care about your cholesterol, wouldn't it be better just to change your diet than take a pill that may damage your body?
Statins lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Most patients do very well on statins and overall are well tolerated. Studies have shown this for years.
Speak to any cardiovascular surgeon about the effect statins have on the number of surgeries they perform. They are way down. This is also due to better stents, etc. What does the NY Times expect statins to do to improve quality of life ? Pay your bills, make your marriage better. Come on.
A study recently came out showing cancer rates were reduced for patients taking statins.
It's not as simple as that. Statins do work for the folks described, folks who had a history of coronary artery disease. Somebody can have sudden cardiac death because of other reasons. Maybe only an excellent autopsy will determine the real cause.
If you have CAD and are one of the fortunate ones that did not have a heart attack by virtue of being diagnosed and prescribed a statin, be THANKFUL.
My husband had a heart attack and as a result suffered irreversable damage to his heart muscle.
Hang in there on those days when your side affects seem to make you miserable. I can assure you it’s better than the physical and physcological agony that come with having a heart attack and by-pass surgery.
As a side note, for those not diagnosed with CAD, taking a statin, IMHO, is like taking insulin and not being a diabetic.
Genetics is a huge reason many people have high LDLs. Diet will only lower your “bad cholesterol” only so much. Yes, some patients have side effects, but most tolerate statins very well.
If your parents had bad cholesterol levels and heart disease at a young age, you better take it seriously.
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I believe you've misinterpreted the writer's points, which I'd sum up as follows:
1. Statins have been shown to lower the risk of heart attack in those (particularly men) who have CAD.
2. Statins have not been proven to the lower the risk of heart attack in those who do not have CAD.
3. Statins are widely prescribed for those who have high cholesterol, but do not have CAD.
4. It is reasonable to question the advisability of prescribing statins for those who do not have CAD, since the medication has undesirable side effects without any measurable benefit.
I wasn’t big on statins, but they sure helped my brother-in-law who had 900+ cholesterol due stemming from Downs Syndrome. The statins brought it under control.
I wasn’t big on anti-biotics, either, but when I had Lyme’s Disease, ten dollars worth of anti-biotics saved the day.
All of these things have a place, use your head with medication.
And TGAs and cancer and rhabdomyolysis.
There was a time here in NJ when the lefties wanted to tell people how to cook their eggs and whether to eat them at all. Somehow I got into a discussion with my rabbi's wife about this, she taking the position of the left. I ended the conversation with a very simple question: How could anyone who believes in G-d, think that eggs could be bad for you?
(One could ask a similar question about cholesterol, and very soon carbon dioxide.)
ML/NJ
“If you care about your cholesterol, wouldn’t it be better just to change your diet than take a pill that may damage your body?”
No. It was my liver that was MAKING cholesterol, causing a count of 280. Taking Zocor dropped that level to 160 for me.
Try taking a CoQ10 supplement.
“I pretty much avoid red meat, eggs, dairy, cooking oils - and my cholesterol is still an issue.”
The same thing happened to me. I was racing mountain bikes and eating wholesome foods and little meat. It turned out that my liver was making the cholesterol, NOT WHAT I ATE! Zocor dropped it from 280 to 160.
There has never been a direct link made between heart disease and stroke and cholesterol.
There is no such thing as “bad” cholesterol.
Lowering cholesterol generally does more harm than good.
When high-risk lifestyle patients are removed from the sampling (overweight, smoking, sedentary lifestyle), the bulk of those who die of heart attack or stroke actually had LOW cholesterol.
Cholesterol is a very necessary component to your body’s health.
See http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm
Don’t buy into the hype. Cholesterol lowering drugs are a multi-billion dollar business. There’s a reason to keep you in the dark. Mark my words, with the recent Vytorin news, you will see many more studies and articles come out that will question the true effectiveness of Statins.
Here’s another that just came out yesterday:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/opinion/27taubes.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
LEARN and be healthy.
Eat in moderation.
Keep your sugar intake down.
Exercise (real exercise - not a walk around the block once a week).
Get off your butt.
Don’t smoke.
Stop putting chemicals (legal and illegal) in your body. Lower your weight (most folks don’t need to be fat - stop telling yourself your fat butt is genetic).
If you do all of this - and you are fortunate to have a nicely balanced genetic makeup - you’ll live to a nice ripe old age.
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