Statins are bad for the brain.
I'm not gonna second guess him...and I'm certainly not gonna take advice from the NY Slimes.
Stop right there. Do a calcium CT scan of any 76 year old white man and you'll find that more than 90% of them have calcium deposits in their coronary arteries.
I would define that as "heart disease", even if it has not yet manifested itself as a heart attack. These men would benefit from a statin, studies show.
Not a fan of statins.
rhabdomyolysis
If you are over 75 and not a revenue stream for the big-government/big-pharma criminal complex you should be ashamed of yourself.
Statins are poison.
Always.
I don’t like them, but the doc put my mom on one after she had a stroke. So I dutifully give it her every night.
There's a great page on cholesterol myths by Dr. Uffe Ranskov, a researcher who "studied the studies." Dr. Ranshkov took all of the studies out there that said high cholesterol leads to heart disease and re-examined them. After taking out all of the high risk people from the studies -- smoking, obese, bad diet, sedentary lifestyle, etc -- Dr. Ranshkov discovered that the vast majority of patients who died of heart disease HAD LOW CHOLESTEROL.
he has a lot of data to prove his point on his website at:
I’m in that category, I’ll ask my cardiologist if he’s taking that stuff. Same age as me.
Im not that old, but a few medical people have tried to get me to take statins, I told them no way. They are pill pushers.
I think it’s goofy to take any medication RX or OTC that is not truly needed which are almost all of them since changing eating habits and sleep or exercise can usually make huge improvements.
The body wasn’t designed to work best with foreign substances that are not food. Just because a chemical drug in your system can get your lab report to read a certain number does not mean you have improved your health and also does not indicate if the side effects happening in your body from the regular use of Rx or OTC is creating some other issue.
God designed almost every persons body to work best ingesting food substances and water. There are very few real exceptions though every person you ask will say their body is different, needs lots of coffee, or need Rx and OTC, etc.
And I know someone who died at over 95 with a cholesterol of over 350. For years worth of blood work.
I’ve had friends who quit statins after scary and awful side effects-including hallucinations and suicidal ideation.
that said, I believe in people making their own choices about all things-especially since what may be okay for one may kill another-one size does not fit all, and each person knows their body better than anyone-after all they live in there...
I’ve never taken any drugs, and I will not-I don’t even eat processed food, sugar or frankenfood-physical job, and I workout 3x per week, natural supplements and remedies-the natural lifestyle is my choice and it works for me.
There are literal billions of dollars made every year prescribing statins to “lower” cholesterol. The problem is that cholesterol is necessary for life, that it is synthesized by the body and that most forms of it in the body are either benign or helpful. Worse is that the standard three-panel test for cholesterol (LDL, HDL and Triglycerides) is worthless because the triglyceride number is not directly measured and only one subtype of LDL is harmful in the body! The only meaningful test is one that is much more expensive and thus rarely used. At the same time statins have a litany of side effects that are in and of themselves dangerous, including cognitive impairment and muscle damage(Rhabdomyolysis, Myositis), some of which can be permanent.
Cholesterol is necessary for cellular metabolism and there is no evidence that the presence of high blood cholesterol levels causes hardened arteries. There is, however, plenty of evidence that inflammation leads the body to respond by attempting to encapsulate the inflammed tissue — this is the ordinary and normal response that heals injuries. Many studies, including recent ones out of UCLA, indicate that cholesterol is NOT accumulating on the inner lining of arterial walls but WITHIN the walls itself. Considering cholesterol is a very poor infiltrator of tissue via blood, it appears it’s presence within the walls is a systemic/genetic issue causing said arterial inflammation.
Obesity is without question a major factor in heart disease and stroke. Obesity is also a major factor for high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes. In short if you’re fat the odds are all tilted the wrong way when it comes to your health in both coronary and stroke-risk factors.
Finally, statins also carry warnings that high blood sugar and TYPE 2 DIABETES are possible side effects.
One doctor explained that cholesterol (which is the mother of all hormones, so in and of itself is not “bad” - in fact, it is essential for life) is dangerous only if it gets damaged by inflammation in your body. Once it gets damaged, it becomes the plaque that clings to your arteries. He also said there is little evidence that - absent from heart disease - statins affect mortality in any significance. However, if one has has had a heart attack, it then becomes beneficial.
One other doctor suggested that donating blood twice a year is beneficial. Maybe because you will get rid of the damaged cholesterol by doing so? He did not explain why.
My cholesterol is around 250, and my doctor wanted me on a statin. My gut feel was that I did not need to do that since I exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet. But to make sure I was not deluding myself, I had a scan done on my carotid artery (I will be 67yo next month). Had perfectly-normal blood flow, so I believe I am good to not take the statin. I guess time will tell! Ha!
Probably prescribed because the doctor invested in statins
I’m a healthy 74 year old and take 40 MG of Lovastatin daily.
Three dirty little secrets about statins your doctor won’t tell you about:
1. Increases your chance of Type II Diabetes by 1/3.
2. Interferes with the production of CoQ10, a substance utilized by the heart muscle more than any other part of the body.
3. Possible benefits of statins are not the result of lowering cholesterol, but from their anti-inflammatory properties. Non-statin cholesterol-lowering drugs taken without statins, such as cholestramine and ezetimibe (Zetia) will lower cholesterol but do NOT improve overall mortality and morbidity, therefore it is well known that simply lowering cholesterol does not prolong life.
‘m 65 - for several years, my doctors have “recommended” statins even though my cholesterol is at low levels - they claim that even with healthy cholesterol, men and men of my age, have ‘points added’ for what seems to be a “just because we’re supposed to push statins” type reason. I told them no thanks as I see no valid reason to put poison in my body because some recently revised charts say that I should take something that actually has no record of increasing life span or quality of life....we compromise as i will let them take blood next year to check my levels.....
Statins attack a symptom - collection of cholesterol in the arteries, by lowering the level of cholesterol in the blood by reducing the production of cholesterol by the liver. Upon finding the collection of cholesterol in the arteries, the assumption was made that “too much” cholesterol was produced. The other source of blood cholesterol, from the diet, is not effected by statins, and conversely diet alone can reduce the blood cholesterol levels without statins, as well as partially defeat the use of statins by consumption of too much high cholesterol foods. The total blood cholesterol is a combination from diet and what the liver produces. Statins only control the liver.
But it must be asked, first, is the liver off kilter? You have “high cholesterol? Not on statins? Try diet modification and see if you can get the numbers down, first. You might never need statins.