Do you have high cholesterol?? Did you decide to take statins and if so why? or why not?

[Owl9to5]

Mine is high, 7. Ratio of 4. But my triglycerides are low. Blood pressure low. Blood sugar normal. I don't smoke, not overweight. I eat very healthily with my cholesterol in mind. I walk everywhere. Mindful of gut biome, eat in a 8 hour window. There's nothing else I can do.

does high cholesterol in isolation matter? 2 thirds of people who have heart disease have diabetes or pre-diabetes. I don't. Not everybody who has a heart attack even has cholesterol?

Statins have so many awful side effects.

I don't want to argue with a doctor because of youtubers saying that statins are a con. But on the other hand, how much do you trust a doctor? always? blindly?

I don't know why doctors spend so many years qualifying to be a doctor when their patients know better

DH had a silent stroke. He didn't know he had had a stroke until he had a CT scan for something else. The occasional episode of cramp is far better than suffering from another stroke.

My friend's DH suffered a cardiac arrest at 50. He was skinny, very fit and healthy. He didn't know that he had familial hypercholesterolemia until he was tested for it. Doctors then tested the rest of the family and it was discovered that other family members had it so they were immediately prescribed statins.

Doctors don't prescribe unnecessary drugs. No drug is side effect free.

If you are at high risk of stroke or heart attack why wouldn't you take preventative measures if the problem is genetic and can't be addressed by lifestyle changes?

mine was 6 and becuse we have a family history, doc told me best to take these so I did - its now below 5 and has been since taking med a few years ago - I am mid 60's

I get a bit worried about threads like this because Ive never even been offered statins even though my cholesterol has been above normal, currently 5.6 and I think it might have been over 6 at one point

My ratio has been over 6, its currently 4.5 I think, or round about there after significant weight loss but I dont eat a low fat diet by any means

I obviously want it under 4 as NHS guidelines.

I used to have very high blood pressure too and was given blood pressure medication, my BP is now ok but Ive been told to stay on the BP meds.

Should I be on statins? Currently trying to investigate low thyroid too, which I hear can cause high cholesterol.

You're missing the point. Doctors, many of them do prescribe drugs that may be unnecessary. They do this without the testing that would determine if they are necessary.

My doctor is presenting it to me that high cholesterol = atherosclerosis. Full stop. But that is not a given. High cholesterol + poor metabolic health is a high risk for atherosclerosis.

They treat populations. You have to look at yourself as the individual you are. Because your gp isn't doing that.

Statins are a drug known to benefit very few of the women who take them. You can shrug and say fine I might be one of the few needed this drug.

This also runs in my partners family. He and his brother have it, unfortunately his brother died a couple of months ago due to heart disease (he wasn't great at taking the statins and smoked!) he was only 36.

My partner is on them and is very healthy, he's 34.

Children are being tested this year.

That's interesting, thanks. My practice nurse gave me the hard sell on statins when I came in for my blood pressure test, but my Q score is below 5, and the NICE diagrams only go down as low as 8. I'm a bit reluctant.

@Owl9to5 we have an excellent GP and DH was fully tested after the results of his CT scan. He also has regular blood tests.

He has had cancer as well as a stroke and he is very much on our GP's radar. Our GP won't prescribe drugs unnecessarily.

Even with statins, my cholesterol is nearly 6. The specialist says it is “acceptable”.

I was put on statins about 2 years ago. After a few weeks I started getting the muscle aches which got worse every day to the point that I couldn't sleep because of it. It started in my thighs and then all down my legs and then my back. I was taking painkillers but they didn't really help. My doctor stopped the statins and put me on Ezetimibe which is not as good as statins for reducing cholesterol but obviously better than nothing. I have to follow a low fat diet.