Statins shouldn't be taken if you have severe liver disease or blood tests suggest that your liver may not be working properly. This is because statins can affect your liver, and this is more likely to cause serious problems if you already have a severely damaged liver.
Fear of side effects and perceived side effects are the most common reasons for declining or discontinuing statin therapy. Willingness to take a statin is high, among both patients who have declined statin therapy and those who have never been offered one.
Side Effects of Statins: Risk Versus Benefit
Like all drugs, statins bring the risk of side effects. Muscle pain, liver damage, increased blood sugar, and fuzzy thinking are the most common – which can scare some candidates off.
Statins, in rare cases, have long been known to cause a side effect called rhabdomyolysis, in which the muscles are literally eaten away. One statin, Bayer's Baycol, was withdrawn from the market because of this side effect, as was the top dose of Merck's Zocor.
The most commonly reported side effects of statins are muscle-related symptoms, including muscle pain, cramps, and weakness. But for many people, their statin may not actually be the cause of these symptoms. Serious statin side effects, like muscle, liver, and kidney damage, are extremely rare.
Bempedoic acid (Nexletol), a cholesterol-lowering drug intended for people who can't or won't take statins, was shown to reduce the risk of heart attack by 23 percent, according to a late-breaking clinical trial recently presented at the American College of Cardiology Conference and published online March 4 in the New ...
Most people can lower high cholesterol with lifestyle changes, like prioritizing heart-healthy foods, quitting tobacco products, exercising regularly, and sleeping enough. Making changes to lower your cholesterol might mean you don't need to take cholesterol medication anymore (or deal with the side effects).
If you're taking a statin medication to lower your cholesterol, you will need to keep taking your prescription, or your cholesterol will likely go back up. Stopping your statin can put you at risk of having heart disease and other preventable health problems like stroke and heart attack from high cholesterol.
A low-dose statin like atorvastatin (Lipitor®) is safe for most patients, including those with mild liver enzyme abnormalities.
The American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association developed some prescription guidelines. Typically, if a person's LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) is 190 or higher, they're often advised to start a statin.
And so, in general, although there are some potential side effects long-term for statins, in most cases, if your doctor has identified you as having high cholesterol and needing a statin, the risks greatly outweigh, or sorry, the benefits greatly outweigh the risks.
A newer drug called Nexletol was approved in 2020 by the FDA to treat high cholesterol, but the new study published in NEJM shows that the drug also reduces the risk of heart disease. Researchers believe this data supports using Nexletol as a safe and effective alternative for many people who cannot take statins.
Within a month of starting statin therapy, they may feel aches or weakness in the large muscles of their arms, shoulders, thighs or buttocks on both sides of the body. About 5 to 10% of people who try statins are affected. It's more common in the elderly, in women and in those taking the more potent statins.
Joseph A. Hill, M.D., Ph. D. The controversy in the United Kingdom started in 2013 when the British Medical Journal (BMJ) claimed statins were being overprescribed to people with low risk of heart disease, and that the drugs' side effects were worse than previously thought.
Statin use is associated with increased calorie intake and consequent weight gain. It is speculated that statin‐dependent improvements in lipid profile may undermine the perceived need to follow lipid‐lowering and other dietary recommendations leading consequently to increased calorie intake.
Some of the examples of medications which can cause problems include erythromycin antibiotic, certain blood pressure medications, like diltiazem or verapamil, and even some foods, for example, grapefruit juice can cause increased side effects with statins.
So, why do people take statins at night? Many statins work more effectively when they are taken at night. This is because the enzyme which makes the cholesterol is more active at night. Also, the half-life, or the amount of time it takes for half the dose to leave your body, of some statins is short.
The rule of 6 is that when we double the dose of a statin, we only get another 6% LDL lowering.
Adults age 75 and older may not need statins.
Their doctors usually prescribe statins to prevent heart disease. But for older people, there is no clear evidence that high cholesterol leads to heart disease or death.
If your risk is very low, you probably won't need a statin, unless your LDL is above 190 mg/dL (4.92 mmol/L). If your risk is very high — for example, you've had a heart attack in the past — a statin may be helpful even if you don't have high cholesterol.
Because many factors are involved, your cholesterol numbers may be considered normal and yet you may still be found to be at an elevated risk for heart problems. As a result, statin medications are now used to lower the risk of heart disease and heart events in most anyone found to be at high risk.
High cholesterol levels are considered: too high: between 5 and 6.4mmol/l. very high: between 6.5 and 7.8mmol/l. extremely high: above 7.8mmol/l.