Posted on 01/06/2018 6:40:14 PM PST by nickcarraway
Should a 76-year-old who doesn’t have heart disease, but does have certain risk factors for developing it, take a statin to ward off heart attacks or strokes?
You’d think we’d have a solid answer to this question. These widely prescribed medications lower cholesterol to reduce cardiovascular disease, the nation’s most common killer, and get much of the credit for the nation’s plummeting rates of heart attacks and strokes.
When they entered common use in the 1990s, “it was very exciting,” said Dr. Ariela Orkaby, a geriatrician at the Harvard Medical School and lead author of a new study on statins in older adults. “Suddenly you had a drug that could reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke by 20 or 30 percent or more.”
So current medical guidelines recommend statins for people in that no-heart-disease category, a strategy called primary prevention — but only for those up to age 75. Yet almost half of adults aged 75 and older take statins, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported.
Some of those people probably are taking drugs that aren’t helping and can cause problems, researchers and geriatricians say. On the other hand, some older patients who likely would benefit from statins aren’t taking them.
“This is a situation that makes most doctors very uncomfortable,” said Dr. Sei Lee, a geriatrician at the University of California, San Francisco. “Some feel these drugs have been successful used in younger patients, so why not use them?”
So why not? “We don’t have good specific data for people without known heart disease over age 75,” Dr. Lee said. “Are statins helpful or harmful for them? The honest answer is, we don’t know.”
To be clear: Statins make sense for adults of any age who already have heart disease, who have suffered a
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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.
Trump does take them. I wouldn’t mind if he stopped, those his brain is just fine, and his sense of humor MUCH better than those who cover him. Cofefe.
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.
10-4
Why do you take them? Because science shows there is no overall reduction in mortality. But if you want to brag about cholesterol numbers, maybe they are okay.
Not a fan of statins.
“I’m not gonna second guess him...and I’m certainly not gonna take advice from the NY Slimes.”
Me neither.
I read the entire article and it was meaningless to me.
I take statins and have for quite a while-——and will continue to do so.
.
How would they benefit from it if their is no reduction in overall mortality? Why is cholesterol even a good measure when it’s been shown to have low correlation with heart problems?
I'm not a physician.I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn last night.But I have worked for decades with some of world's finest physicians and surgeons.As a result I'm very strongly inclined to trust this physician's judgment.
I'm also strongly inclined to trust the judgment of senior pilots who fly for major airlines.
Average 46 year old American male will have unremarkable coronary eschemia at best and frequently worse just waiting for a nice clot
This steady statin demonization here is nutty science
If you can tolerate them there is no question they effect lipids profiles
In fact there are new statins being used that show promise as ischemia reducers
Which folks like me hope to try asap in large dose cath injections
Might save my life
prescribed by a senior physician at a world famous hospital.
**********
Was that Hospital in Houston, Tx?
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.
Here is some science for you:
(From JAMA Cardiology Jan 2017)
The conclusion: Maximally tolerated doses of high-intensity statins may confer a survival advantage to patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, including older adults.
The hint is in my screen name.What state has a nickname that sounds anything like "Gay State".
New York is the Empire State...New Jersey is the Garden State...the ball's in your court! :-)
I’d get a CT calcium scan before starting a statin.
If the score is zero, then your warranty period for that score is 15 years (if you are not diabetic - if you are, then the warranty period for that zero score is only 5 years).
I wouldn’t take a statin if there is no coronary calcium, as primary prevention of coronary events in this population is of very low yield. If there is calcium, there is better evidence that the statin will confer a benefit.
Then take Vitamin K2 to get rid of that calcium:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4566462/
Statins are poison.
Always.
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