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Cholesterol & Statins - Help

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
J

JonPlym

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I was diagnosed with type 2 in March and my cholesterol at the time was 5.7. In June it was down to 5.2 but I was put on statins because "we like diabetics to be 5 or lower". I took atorvastatin for 2 months then started feeling very bad (as though I had flu), spoke to my pharmacist who said that it was likely to be the statins. I then spoke to the GP (on the phone) who said that she couldn't advise me to stop but that I could if I wanted to - so I did. Felt better within 2 days.
Had blood test last week and a text this morning telling my that my Cholesterol level is still too high and to double the dose, which I don't want to do and I'm finding this quite worrying/stressful.
Has anyone else had this? I felt that reducing from 5.7 to 5.2 was pretty good but obviously not good enough

Any suggestions or advice please?
 
I took atorvastatin and metformin for a few weeks and was having thoughts of suicide.
When I stopped taking them I felt so much better, and when I looked for evidence of my impending demise I could not find anything to back up the idea - I did find the following on BMJ Open which might help - though I have not checked your age...

Abstract from bmjopen.bmj.com
Lack of an association or an inverse association between low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality in the elderly: a systematic review

Objective It is well known that total cholesterol becomes less of a risk factor or not at all for all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) mortality with increasing age, but as little is known as to whether low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), one component of total cholesterol, is associated with mortality in the elderly, we decided to investigate this issue.
Setting, participants and outcome measures We sought PubMed for cohort studies, where LDL-C had been investigated as a risk factor for all-cause and/or CV mortality in individuals ≥60 years from the general population.
Results We identified 19 cohort studies including 30 cohorts with a total of 68 094 elderly people, where all-cause mortality was recorded in 28 cohorts and CV mortality in 9 cohorts. Inverse association between all-cause mortality and LDL-C was seen in 16 cohorts (in 14 with statistical significance) representing 92% of the number of participants, where this association was recorded. In the rest, no association was found. In two cohorts, CV mortality was highest in the lowest LDL-C quartile and with statistical significance; in seven cohorts, no association was found.
Conclusions High LDL-C is inversely associated with mortality in most people over 60 years. This finding is inconsistent with the cholesterol hypothesis (ie, that cholesterol, particularly LDL-C, is inherently atherogenic). Since elderly people with high LDL-C live as long or longer than those with low LDL-C, our analysis provides reason to question the validity of the cholesterol hypothesis. Moreover, our study provides the rationale for a re-evaluation of guidelines recommending pharmacological reduction of LDL-C in the elderly as a component of cardiovascular disease prevention strategies.
 
Hi Jon, how do you manage your diabetes? Many find that the diet changes (low carb) they make also help with the cholesterol levels. I also take statins but luckily haven’t had many problems, is it worth asking your doc if you can try a different one as you may not get the same reaction?
 
No real advice as such but I had issue's with the statins. Stopped taking them after a couple of days as they really knocked me about and I felt it was unsafe for me to drive on them. I tried a couple of times after on a weekend when i knew i wouldn't be driving but they still had the same effect on me, So I stopped taking them completely. I have managed to get my cholesterol levels down (3.4) but it was through diet, exercise and weight loss
 
I have taken statins without difficulty, and upped mine, which brought my cholesterol back in target. At the time I was under threat of losing my Libre if I did not get the level down.
 
I'd ask yr doc about trying a different statin to see if you tolerate it better - apparently that can work.
 
Drummer said:
I took atorvastatin and metformin for a few weeks and was having thoughts of suicide.
When I stopped taking them I felt so much better, and when I looked for evidence of my impending demise I could not find anything to back up the idea - I did find the following on BMJ Open which might help - though I have not checked your age...

Abstract from bmjopen.bmj.com
Lack of an association or an inverse association between low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality in the elderly: a systematic review

Objective It is well known that total cholesterol becomes less of a risk factor or not at all for all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) mortality with increasing age, but as little is known as to whether low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), one component of total cholesterol, is associated with mortality in the elderly, we decided to investigate this issue.
Setting, participants and outcome measures We sought PubMed for cohort studies, where LDL-C had been investigated as a risk factor for all-cause and/or CV mortality in individuals ≥60 years from the general population.
Results We identified 19 cohort studies including 30 cohorts with a total of 68 094 elderly people, where all-cause mortality was recorded in 28 cohorts and CV mortality in 9 cohorts. Inverse association between all-cause mortality and LDL-C was seen in 16 cohorts (in 14 with statistical significance) representing 92% of the number of participants, where this association was recorded. In the rest, no association was found. In two cohorts, CV mortality was highest in the lowest LDL-C quartile and with statistical significance; in seven cohorts, no association was found.
Conclusions High LDL-C is inversely associated with mortality in most people over 60 years. This finding is inconsistent with the cholesterol hypothesis (ie, that cholesterol, particularly LDL-C, is inherently atherogenic). Since elderly people with high LDL-C live as long or longer than those with low LDL-C, our analysis provides reason to question the validity of the cholesterol hypothesis. Moreover, our study provides the rationale for a re-evaluation of guidelines recommending pharmacological reduction of LDL-C in the elderly as a component of cardiovascular disease prevention strategies.
Click to expand...

Just to point out that this was a heavily-criticised study. The NHS had a measured response: https://www.nhs.uk/news/heart-and-l...o-link-between-cholesterol-and-heart-disease/

The lead author is a founder of & most of the other authors are members of THINCS, a cholesterol-skeptics group, which doesn't get a lot of expert respect. See eg https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/THINCS for a negative view.
 
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the main criteria for inclusion in the study was being dead - with a secondary consideration of having lipid test results (I assume that it had to be fairly close pre mortem).
Although there might be room for a second opinion on either, I'm a bit dubious about what grounds they might be called for.
 
Thank you everyone, the GP was better than I expected and agreed that my Cholesterol was doing ok without the statins so I'm off them again
 
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