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.
Ornstein continued, "It's illegal to give kickbacks to a doctor to prescribe drugs, but it is legal to give money to doctors to help promote your drug. Some doctors make tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year beyond their normal practice just for working with the industry."
Statin Therapy May Be Overprescribed in Healthy People Without Evidence of Diseased Arteries, New Study Shows.
Rarely, statins can cause more-serious side effects such as: Increased blood sugar or type 2 diabetes. It's possible that your blood sugar (blood glucose) level may slightly increase when you take a statin, which can lead to type 2 diabetes. This is especially likely if your blood sugar is already high.
Nexletol also blocks cholesterol production in the liver but in a different way than statins and without that muscle side effect. The new five-year study tracked nearly 14,000 people who were unable to tolerate more than a very low dose of a statin. Half got daily Nexletol and half a dummy pill.
Nexletol Could Be Alternative Cholesterol Med for Folks Who Can't Take Statins. March 6, 2023, at 8:43 a.m.
It's important to know that stopping statins cold turkey, or even gradually, can cause serious health problems and you should talk to your doctor before doing so.
Statins can stabilize cholesterol plaque already attached to artery walls, making it less likely to get worse or rupture, causing a heart attack or stroke. "Statins also help remove cholesterol from you blood by causing the liver to express more LDL cholesterol receptors that take cholesterol out of your blood," Dr.
Statin use has been linked to a higher risk of developing diabetes because the medication can fuel mild glucose elevations in predisposed individuals — an effect that can often be countervailed by exercise and losing as little as a few pounds.
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 benefits greatly outweigh the risks. Muscle aches are among the most common complaints.
Over 20 percent refused to take statin medications when first offered the medication even though they were all considered high risk. Women were 20 percent more likely than men to refuse initially: 24.1 percent versus 19.7 percent.
The report released by pharmaceutical lobby group Medicines Australia has revealed some drug companies are spending more than $700,000 a year on payments to doctors. From October pharmaceutical companies will have to reveal any payments they make to a doctor whether the doctor likes it or not.
Do not start a statin in patients ages ≥ 75 years who do not have known vascular disease or type 2 diabetes; start or continue a statin in all patients ages 75 to 84 with type 2 diabetes to prevent cardiovascular events and mortality; and start or continue a statin in patients ages > 75 years who have known vascular ...
Providers prescribe statins for people who: Have high cholesterol (LDL above 190 mg/dL) that exercise and diet changes couldn't reduce. Had a stroke, heart attack or peripheral artery disease. Have diabetes and an LDL of at least 70 mg/dL and are 40 to 75 years old.
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.
You usually have to continue taking statins for life because if you stop taking them, your cholesterol will return to a high level. If you forget to take your dose, do not take an extra one to make up for it. Just take your next dose as usual the following day.
A person is considered at high risk for developing heart disease if their total cholesterol level is higher than 240 mg/dL, LDL levels are higher than 160 mg/dL (190 mg/dL is even higher risk), and if the HDL level is below 40 mg/dL.
Specifically, lipophilic statins (those that dissolve more readily in lipids such as oils and fats) may be more effective for preventing liver cancer than hydrophilic statins (those that dissolve more readily in water).
As a result, less cholesterol is taken to the liver, which therefore increases its efforts to take more cholesterol out of the blood. Ezetimibe is not as effective as most statins but will reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or 'bad cholesterol' by 15 to 22 per cent.