Differential effects of simvastatin and pravastatin... (Statins)

Inhibitors of HMG-CoA reductase (statins) are widely used medications for reduction of cholesterol levels. Statin use significantly reduces risk of cardiovascular disease but has also been associated with lower risk of other diseases and conditions, including dementia. However, some reports suggest that statins also have detrimental effects on the brain...

...Our data suggest that simvastatin and pravastatin differentially affect expression of genes involved in neurodegeneration and that statin-dependent gene expression regulation is cell type specific (excerpted)

I have taken 80mg of pravachol for 14 years and have a lipid profile like a 12 year old.

having been born with a malformed heart they important to me.

a few folks have bad side effects and folks think that means everyone it doesn’t

i have seen folks get quick muscle weakness but many studies show that they are easily tolerated by the vast majority of those who take them...men more than women

niacin is nice but it ain’t pravachol or crestor etc results wise...nor is red yeast etc...

and then some here get on this Drug companies are the enemy rant and sound like Dem talking points...ridiculous for a conservative site

i don’t doubt for a second you did not tolerate them but most do...most folks tolerate Red Bull, I don’t.

most folks tolerate cold meds.....I don’t.

and so forth

that does not mean it’s bad for everyone

this same sort of hysteria killed NSAIDs, DDT, paregoric, second hand smoke epidemics and so on....h.

Linking that article show your lack of knowledge about what you are so adamant about...statins. Statins work to reduce cholesterol production in the body. That article is not the least bit about Statins. Zetia is a different drug class from statins like sulfadrugs are to tetracyclines. Same general purpose but way different actions.

Zetia and Vytorin are cholesterol absorption blockers working primarily in the intestines.

Zetia is proven very much so to improve lipids ( i can explain what that means precisely if you need me to) but it HAS BEEN DISAPPOINTING (which is what your link is about) in studies to reduce atherosclerosis of the cardiac muscle arteries...NOT THAT THEY DO NOT REDUCE CHOLESTRAL...they are quite proven to do just that.

and they are tolerated well by folks who need to take them...very few folks cannot tolerate them.

maybe you should ring up Harry Reid and vent all your drug company angst to a sympathetic ear.

I and my large family are grateful God has provided them to help keep me alive. I would disagree with Doc a bit. My cardiologist at Vandy who btw is extremely conservative does not believe that diet and exercise alone can reduce more than mild hyperlipidemia...they advise that as well though.

The Scottish study on pravachol is pretty sound and I can tell you my lipids are incredible...and they need to be...two open hearts in 13 months to correct an intraseptal LAD is not for sissies.

If I recall correctly:

The study compared Vytorin with a combination of Niacin and Statin. Niacin and statin were found effective in lowering cardio vascular diseaase (CVD) whereas the Vytorin was not.

The question that this study brings us is, what are statins doing to prevent CVD other than just lowering cholesterol? Vytorin lowers cholesterol just fine, but is not lowering (CVD). Answering this question will lead to the development of better drugs with lower side effects in the future.

I have no problem with statins in general. One of our friars here has extremely good results with them. Good. It sounds like you have really good results with them. Good twice.

On the flipahdeedoodah side, some of us have REALLY AWFUL results with them. I would say various physicians' insistence that I try 4 different statins has cost me a year of compromised productivity, relationships, sleep, etc. And one, now my FORMER GP, was obviously angry at me for my failure to respond as desired to his treatment.

Further, I don't know. It stands to reason that crud building up inside blood vessels would be a bad thing. And reducing that amount of crud to build up certainly seems like a reasonable approach. But there seem to be many unanswered questions, and some people seem impatient with even the asking of the questions. Why do people have such differing responses to cholesterol and cholesterol meds? What are the relationships of cholesterol, inflammation, mood, mental functioning, neurological functioning generally?

We seem to have a very good hammer. It drives nails well in many cases. In other cases it fails, and the failures are of the kind that a lot of physicians would not notice them or would tend to attribute them to other causes.

I cannot convey the fear I still feel when I remember how deeply into trouble I got with my first go 'round with these drugs. I was very close to committing myself to a mental hospital. I was making a cup of coffee and I was going to sit down with the phone book and figure out which hospital would work with my insurance. And that was because suicide was beginning to seem attractive and reasonable.

I invite you to wonder what would have happened had I committed myself. There goes the exercise of my right to keep and bear arms. There goes my credibility in many things.

Also, please think what my wife and child would have gone through had I killed myself. And then wonder with me if ANYONE would have considered that I had been poisoned inadvertently by my physician.

I'm not advocating hysteria, but I think that with the data about bad reactions to statins, the teaching of patients and pharmacists is criminally insufficient. Some kind of caution needs to be provided. And shaking your head and saying, as my doc did, that, I was one of the very few, extremely few, people who have neuro-reactions to these medications doesn't really do the trick for me.

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