Has your doctor recommended statins?

[Shetlands]

In the last 18 months my cholesterol has gone down (deliberate weight loss and healthier diet) but my doctor thinks I should consider statins at my age (early 70s).
My results were/are as follows:

Total cholesterol was 5.9 now 5.5
Non HDL was 4.4 now 3.9
LDL was 3.8 now 3.5
HDL was 1.5 now 1.6
Triglyceride was 1.3 now 0.8

My blood pressure and pulse are on the low side, which is normal for me. I don't have any health problems. My BMI is 23.

I'm wondering whether it's possible to reduce the cholesterol to below 5 just by diet and exercise and whether that would be just as beneficial as taking statins. I've done the QRISK3 test online and had a result of 12.9% risk of heart attack or stroke within the next 10 years, which maybe what the doctor is concerned about?

I will be having this conversation with her of course but just wondered what other people's experiences are and how to manage the potential side effects.

That's quite a high Qrisk score, it's not just about cholesterol.
My qrisk was 15, partly because I have rheumatoid arthritis, my cholesterol was 3.1.
I was very resistant to taking statins because I have to take SO many other drugs. However I agreed to a low dose because I wouldn't want to feel I hadn't done my best to prevent heart disease / stroke.
I have had zero side effects from statins unlike every other drug I take.

The standard is to recommend statins to anyone with a q risk over 10%. Yours will be up there because of your age (and maybe med history). Lowering your cholesterol through lifestyle may slice a bit off but you need to balance statins vs lifestyle changes. FWIW I take statins and have had no negative effects.

Thank you very much for those replies - very helpful!

My DH was told by his GP that he needed statins. He didn't want to take them so asked if he could have six months to try to improve his situation before starting them. GP said he wouldn't be able to change his results and that any change would need to be permanent.

DH immediately completely changed his diet, lost 2 stone, upped his exercise and quit alcohol. Six months later his readings were entirely different. No need for statins. Five years later he's kept it all up.

Anecdotal obviously, but it's what happened to him. I guess not everyone could or would want to make the necessary changes and to stick with them permanently.

If you're young and healthy you can certainly reduce risk without stains but as I posted before it's not just about cholesterol. Mine was low, I'm a healthy weight and fit. Age and other health conditions have a large bearing on risk.

Yes, I was on a low dose for about 6 months with no issues or side-effects, but the GP did another blood test and said I needed to take a higher dose. They doubled it.

About six weeks after that I developed some worrying symptoms (including extreme weakness and muscle wasting) so I read the leaflet that came with the medication and looked at the list of adverse side-effects. Hmm. Iwent to see a pharmacist as there were no GP appointments available. They listened to my concerns, I described my symptoms and they told me to stop taking them immediately.

That was about 9 months ago and I have not yet been back to see the GP. I wouldn't be happy taking statins again.

You're a woman in your 70s? Statins will be of minimal benefit to you. That's a research conclusion, not a personal view.

@isitmyturn my DH was late 50s when he made the lifestyle changes. I don't know if you consider that old.

@NorthernDancer Why is that please?

Just done my qrisk and it’s 5.9%. I was prescribed statins 6 months ago and I haven’t taken them - I don’t smoke, drink about 2 units a month, have low BP and exercise a fair amount (I’m early 60’s) - I have lost about a stone and hoping that does the trick as I hate taking any medication unless it’s really necessary

Maybe another way of looking at it is that there is an 87.1 percent chance that you won’t have a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years? I wouldn’t be taking them if I were you, but it is, of course, a personal choice.
As it happens, I do take other medications to lower cholesterol as I have a genetic predisposition to very high cholesterol. No amount of lifestyle changes would bring mine down to an acceptable level. I couldn’t tolerate statins as I had a rare adverse reaction, but am doing fine with the alternative medication.
Most people I know seem to tolerate statins well.

Thanks for the replies, which are helpful. I drink very little alcohol, I don't smoke and I'm not overweight. It'll be interesting to hear what the doctor has to say in a week's time.

Thanks. Do you have any links to the research?

I'm 68 now. I've had highish cholesterol for a number of years and was advised to take statins. I didn't want to due to the possible side effects which I had seen friends suffer from. Doc not happy but I stood firm, he said there are statins out there that do not have as many side effects. I still refused them.

Anyway, five years ago after many years of the elevated cholesterol readings I was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation. It is not heart disease but an electrical fault in the heart! During the hospital admission for this they tested every goddam bit of me, including echoes, stress tests, ECG, the works, to make sure the ticker was Ok apart from the Afib. It was.

I also had a Calcium CT scan which checks for calcium deposits in the arteries (that statins help prevent if you are at risk). Despite my high cholesterol for many years, I had a ZERO calcium score which meant that my arteries were totally clear, the best result I could get.

At my age and given the Calcium CT result I won't be taking statins no matter what the result! I do take low dose aspirin for the Afib, I don't have to take other blood thinners like Eliquis since I had a Watchman device fitted. I'm happy enough. Cardiologist signed me off and I now see Electrophysiologist once a year instead (he's the person who would do an ablation if necessary).