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Statin advice

Mighty-oak

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
290
There are a group of drugs called statins that help lower cholesterol....But they seem to have a bad name and Dr's are not happy about prescribing them....What is so bad about them? I have a high cholesterol and diet has done nothing to lower it. I am 41, 6ft and 224lbs, chol' is 9.2, normal range is 3.1-4.8.
 
I dont think doctors are unhappy prescribing them. Your actual cholesterol isnt the most important anymore rather your risk for a CV event in the future. Would need to know if you have CV disease, are diabetic, have other risk factors etc.
 
They are prescribed all of the time. They are the only drugs for hyperlipidemia. the fibrates are used for high triglycerides.
 
You are right... there are quite a few: bile acid sequestrants, apolipoprotein B antisense oligonucleotides, MTP inhibitors, and of course supplements like Lovaza and niacin.
 
Yeah. Statins still first line. I think the negatives are a bit overdone but at 41, unless some serious disease state is present, may be apt to leave alone. But again, I dont know OPs history.
 
There have been studies that show that the medium chain triglycerides and tocopherol contained within them allow the ubiquinone to get abosorbed in the GI just as well as ubiquinol. I don't agree with them, but hey, they exist. The Qunol brand claim 300% better absorption and contains sunflower oil and lecithin in it in addition to the MCTs and tocopherol.
 
OP here :) Thank you all, very helpful replies. My Dr refuses to give them to me and said they are horrible drugs with heaps of dangerous side effects. My history.....Great Grandmother died aged 38 from a heart attack....Grandfather died aged 72 from a heart attack and my Dad had a heart attack about 6 months ago aged 67. I have asthma, been on prescribed benzos for anxiety/agoraphobia for 16 years....Diet is ok but not great plus I smoke 20 a day.
 
The statins are used to prevent heart attacks and similar problems from hyperlipidemias and dyslipidemias. He won't give you a fibrate even?
 
Maybe get a second opinion? This is a real doctor with legitimate schooling right? Not some quack with an ayuverdic and naturopathic backround I hope. I have a hard time believing he's denying them to you if you need them unless you are just obsessing over it and don't really need them. Statins can rarely cause life threatening side effects but statistically having high cholesterol is more likely to lead to a heart attack or stroke.

Statins can be bad but like all medicine you take them if the benefits outweigh the risk. If there's no risk of side effects it's not real medicine. Obviously you might try eating really healthy maybe even specific foods and exercising maybe even some natural herbs but only if they have a strong evidence based proof behind them. But even this might not work because of genetics. This method is different than a b.s. "natural" cure because you actually give yourself tests every so often with a legitimate dr to find out if it is working.
 
Thanks. Indeed he is a legit Dr, although sometimes I wonder! This Dr stopped my Clonazepam dose which was 0.5mg so the same as 10mg Diazepam and gave me 10mg of Amitriptriline and said that I would be fine just stopping the Clonazepam and going straight on the Ami', I took his advice, a week later I felt so so ill, called him up and told him my situation and he said that it was all in my head and was not prepared to give me anymore Clonazepam, so I had to source some from the net.

I have told him my family history of heart attacks but he said statins are very very dangerous to take and that I am not allowed them, so interesting to read the replies here as they dont seem that bad. Could statins make anxiety worse though?
 
Thanks. Indeed he is a legit Dr, although sometimes I wonder! This Dr stopped my Clonazepam dose which was 0.5mg so the same as 10mg Diazepam and gave me 10mg of Amitriptriline and said that I would be fine just stopping the Clonazepam and going straight on the Ami', I took his advice, a week later I felt so so ill, called him up and told him my situation and he said that it was all in my head and was not prepared to give me anymore Clonazepam, so I had to source some from the net.

I have told him my family history of heart attacks but he said statins are very very dangerous to take and that I am not allowed them, so interesting to read the replies here as they dont seem that bad. Could statins make anxiety worse though?

0.5 is not 10mg diazepam. It is 2mg of diazepam. the equivalency charts are wrong. klonopin max daily dose is 20mg. so by this logic that is equal to 400mg of diazepam. Does that make sense?
 
Thanks. Indeed he is a legit Dr, although sometimes I wonder! This Dr stopped my Clonazepam dose which was 0.5mg so the same as 10mg Diazepam and gave me 10mg of Amitriptriline and said that I would be fine just stopping the Clonazepam and going straight on the Ami', I took his advice, a week later I felt so so ill, called him up and told him my situation and he said that it was all in my head and was not prepared to give me anymore Clonazepam, so I had to source some from the net.

I have told him my family history of heart attacks but he said statins are very very dangerous to take and that I am not allowed them, so interesting to read the replies here as they dont seem that bad. Could statins make anxiety worse though?
Afaik 10mg diazepam is around 1mg of clonazepam. The charts are off sometimes.
If you have a family history of heart attacks Amitriptyline isn't the best choice, given that it's a tricyclic antidepressant. Those can be pretty bad for your heart.
The known contraindications of amitriptyline are

Hypersensitivity to tricyclic antidepressants or to any of its excipients
History of myocardial infarction
History of arrhythmias, particularly heart block to any degree
Congestive heart failure
Coronary artery insufficiency
From wikipedia
 
0.5 is not 10mg diazepam. It is 2mg of diazepam. the equivalency charts are wrong. klonopin max daily dose is 20mg. so by this logic that is equal to 400mg of diazepam. Does that make sense?


In the Ashton manual and all the benzo groups 0.5mg = 10mg Clonazepam (Klonopin).... I went from 25mg of Diazepam to 10mg with no troubles at all, took me 6 months to do it.....It has taken me just over a year to get from 0.5mg to 0.25mg of Clonazepam, seriously strong drug :(
 
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