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 ...
If you have zero ischemia you’re damn lucky and don’t need statins for sure
Thank your DNA and ancestry
I’ll tell you a corallary I’ve noticed
Folks with high collagen naturally tend to have ancestors who live much longer than usual and low rates of cardiovascular disease
My ex wife has it and her folks and grandparents have live 92-104
My second rib Annette had it on her dads age and she too shows not much aging and low blood pressure
Course she is a yoga addict for 25 years and eats little junk
Just an observation on the collagen
Probably prescribed because the doctor invested in statins
and your muscles and joints. The pain is absurd! Forgetfulness and dementia can be caused by these drugs. Are they really that great?
***and I’m certainly not gonna take advice from the NY Slimes. ***
They probably want to kill you (and me) off to save on Social Security and bring in a young dreamer.
No offense but carotid effacy tests have nothing to do with occlusion of heart muscle arteries
Total cholesterol of 250 is high unless you have some off chart HDL reading
You want high density cholesterol high....that is the good stuff
The low density is bad
And inflammation markers too
It’s your call
My carotid is perfect
My heart not so much
Nobody in their 60s has zero occlusion but cardiologists find 30-40% or less occlusion unremarkable for stentiing
However a big enough clot or thrombosis breaks off upstream it’ll kill even folks with relatively minor occlusion if it’s the lower anterior descending or right coronary artery
Not much you can do to thwart that aside from carrying a heparin drip bag around and hope you don’t cut yourself..lol
Doctors don’t offer statins cause they are trying to kill you
That is great-I know people who take the red yeast rice with good results. I’m not into cholesterol; numbers or any of that-I manage me and the only carbs I consume are the occasional potato I bake myself, brown rice or in winter a slice of bread I bake from stone ground 7 grain or rye flour or a homemade corn tortilla-I avoid processed foods, margarine, etc. My guy told me before he went natural, a doc told him not to eat shrimp because of cholesterol-he dropped docs, processed foods and drugs right then-he’s been great ever since.
Most of the people I know-myself included-use an L-Arginine Alpha lipoic supplement like NO2 or one of the other brands it was originally developed as a workout supplement because it is a vasodialator that increases stamina so you can build more muscle mass, but later medical studies showed it has other cardiovascular benefits as well-and helps you maintain a healthy weight and energy level for exercise. With a high metabolism, I’ve never had a weight problem, but I’ve been using it for nearly a year and have improved my workday and workouts-you might check it out if you’re so inclined.
I took them for a few months at the recommendation of my GP.
I felt like an old man, lots of aches and pains. I decide I would rather live with less discomfort and quit.
Age happens
at least that’s what some people tell me
I’m a healthy 74 year old and take 40 MG of Lovastatin daily.
Yes.
I take 5,000MG Vitamin D daily and 100MCG K2.
Depends if you are talking about primary prevention (people without a history of cardiovascular disease), or secondary prevention (people with established cardiovascular disease). When used for secondary prevention there is definitely data demonstrating reduced mortality. Most of the studies are based not just on mortality, but combined endpoints (e.g. cardiac events, requirement for revascularization, mortality), but there are studies that show a reduction in total mortality while using statins for secondary prevention.
You’d be better off losing a few pounds, eating better and getting in shape.
“but it is the mk7 type”
really, that’s the only form worth taking.
I tried statins, but I did not like side effects.
What is the red yeast rice.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/cholesterol-drug-shows-promise-to-help-reverse-heart-disease-1.3161611
???
“What is the red yeast rice [extract]”.
years ago, it used to naturally contain a substance similar to lovastatin, a statin.
However, the statin drug companies demanded that the FDA shut down the sales of this supplement:
Legal Status of Red Yeast Rice
“In 1998, the FDA determined that a red yeast rice product that contained a substantial amount of monacolin K was an unapproved new drug, not a dietary supplement. On several occasions since then, the FDA has taken action against companies selling red yeast rice products that contain more than trace amounts of monacolin K, warning them that it is against the law to market these products as dietary supplements.”
Now, it’s a total crap shoot whether ANY red yeast rice extract contains more than trace amounts of lovastatin, and thus would be useless for lowering cholesterol.
BTW, my one and only attempt at taking a statin was red yeast rice extract BEFORE the FDA removed the effective versions from the market, and I got every nasty side-effect in the book for statins, including muscle weakness and pain, and very fuzzy thinking and cognition. When I quit, all the negative side-effects went away, and I never considered taking a statin again.
I wasn’t keen on taking a statin, so when my GP suggested it I said “no thanks”. I was getting a lot of exercise and eating wisely, and my cholesterol was only borderline high in the low 200s, with a high HDL reading.
His argument was that cholesterol thickens the blood, like paraffin, and makes the heart work harder to push it through small arteries. I wasn’t impressed.
But then my readings shot up to around 400 no matter what my diet and exercise. Turned out to be a symptom of an unusual kidney ailment, where the main risk is clots and stroke. So I had to concede defeat and take their stupid statin. Of course my total cholesterol is now like 130 and I have no side effects, so their attitude is “See? I told you to take it”
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.
My cardiologist is 65 (I'm 58). He suggested I take a statin. When he ran the numbers (height, weight, age) we both had a 7.5% chance of a heart attack in the next 10 years. I wasn't real keen on the idea, so I asked him if he was taking a statin. He said no. My colesterol is only 181 (down from 231 when I first visited him a year and a half ago), and the LDL is in the range suggested. Just cleaned up my diet a little bit and I passed on his suggestion to take one.
“1. Increases your chance of Type II Diabetes by 1/3.”
Yea, but diabetics are GREAT for the medical profession - they spend a ton of money trying to manage their disease.
Anyway, I had a friend go on statins in his 30s, 10 years later, yep, Type 2...with no family history at all. Hard to blame it on anything else - and now, they are just starting to admit to this ‘minor’ side effect.
Also, a cousin of mine when on Statins in his late 30s and got cataracts in both eyes within a decade. At least that’s treatable...but people in their 40s don’t just get cataracts - something caused it. And yes, they’re also starting to admit that cataracts is a side effect.
...a VERY NASTY line of drugs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.