The second crucial point is hiding in plain sight in Pfizer's own Lipitor newspaper ad. The dramatic 36% figure has an asterisk. Read the smaller type. It says: "That means in a large clinical study, 3% of patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a heart attack compared to 2% of patients taking Lipitor."
Now do some simple math. The numbers in that sentence mean that for every 100 people in the trial, which lasted 3 1/3 years, three people on placebos and two people on Lipitor had heart attacks. The difference credited to the drug? One fewer heart attack per 100 people. So to spare one person a heart attack, 100 people had to take Lipitor for more than three years. The other 99 got no measurable benefit. Or to put it in terms of a little-known but useful statistic, the number needed to treat (or NNT) for one person to benefit is 100.
This , of course, is the difference between absolute and relative risk and this should be explained to everybody who is prescribed statins so they are able to make some form of informed choice.
However, I do not think you can include in this people at very high risk because their cholesterol levels are pathologically high because of FH and they have a family history of early heart disease.
Have just had my annual check for diabetes. I have refuse statins for about 4-5 years now and bp tabs for longer and this is recorded on my notes!!! Asked if I knew WHY I was offered the medication I was able to answer correctly 'strokes and heart attacks!'' .But covered the reason for my decline in that I did not wish to live longer but with a hacking non-productive cough and sever pain. Statistics lead to targets that doctors have to reach - not patient comfort and quality of life!!! Luckily we can have informed choice with a bit of self research and forum groups like this.
Keep up the good work in number crunching, sadness, One day we may be given unbiased results
It helps so much that someone who is or has been in the nursing proffession to help us who are suffering from all the side effects from statins as when you speak to the proffessionals in person they look at you as if you make things up or there is something else seriously wrong with you .As soon as i started questioning, he got on the defencive and said "i have only ben doing medicine for 20 years ",and then he made me think yes i have only found out i have got this genetic high cholesterol high triglycerides causing type 3 hyperlipidemia for 2 years so who am i to question .
But the more research i have done has made me strong and question more would all these doctors take them ?or give them to family ?
I do intermittent fasting every day 11am-7pm and recently my levels have come down 7.9 to 6.2 2.9 to 2.5 now to repair the damage that statins have done to my mental health and bones and muscle at my cost as they still say its not statins .
Do they or are they not allowed to read all these websites ?
Can i ask sadness can your levels become too low ?
Why do you do intermittent fasting is this a religious thing?
The best time for you to fast is in the night as that is the natural time not to eat. It's very important that you drink plenty of water (filtered) or if you can afford it get a good mineral water rather than water from your tap. Please don't go without a good diet of natural food, not cheap processed meal from the supermarket. Don't starve yourself just to try to drop your cholesterol, as a low level is just as bad as a very high level. Look up and read all the information on the web about really why the body makes and uses cholesterol. You might find some difficult descriptions of medical language hard to understand, but don't give up as most of us have the same problem.
You must decide on the following: Do you really want to enjoy your life and feel happy with yourself or do you want to endlessly wonder if your illness should take over the whole of your life?
Statin are in our life's for a purpose, it's up to you whether you want them in your life?
no its not religious it gets my cholesterol down without hurting me
i eat porridge at 11am dinner wholemeal banana sandwiches at 12,yoghurt at 1pm ,fruit at 4pm ,my tea at 6pm chicken with veg and a supper either toast or some snack .
I have been doing this for nearly 4 months and im fine in myself except the damage that the statins have done
my left arm gives me pain ,my thighs have changed shape it looks like the muscle drops and i have confidence issues these i never had for all of my 46 years then suddenly taking statins i get all these and other things a list nearly as long as my arm this is only after 2 years on and off statins if i wasnt as healthy as i was i reckon i would either be dead or in a wheel chair
Good luck suki65 in your quest for life. My last cholesterol check the number was 8 and my doctor told me I should change my diet. I told her that my high fat diet was my business and nothing to do with her. I said I was happy and fit and that's the way I want to live.
There is a difference between a metabolic disorder such as type 3 and people who have higher levels of cholesterol. There is a danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater here.
We all have to make decisions based on our individual circumstances, family history, primary or secondary prevention, age lifestyle and so on. To do otherwise is frankly dangerous and I am slightly disturbed that this forum is becoming slightly unbalanced and anti medication. I am not pro statin, I think they are over prescribed and I had very bad side effects, but that doesn't mean that they are "bad drugs" (maybe pushed too far, I grant you) and they have their uses.
As I've said before, medication is not the route to perfect health. If by some chance the pharmaceutical and food companies had our best interests at heart and the health of the general population was on an upward curve I might agree. However, the shift in the consensus, and I agree it is there, is because people are questioning the status quo and taking their health into their own hands rather than meekly acquiescing to the 'statins good, saturated fat bad paradigm.
im not pro -statin if it makes you better, but if it causes you to become ill in other ways ,like depression ,muscle aching ,bones aching ,muscles shape ,cramp,numbness,osteoarthritis .
why does no one help you when they give you statins that make you iller then have to take other medicine to put what is now wrong ,my vitamin d is low now 17 oh what a shock i wonder if statins are to blame .
There's a bit more to the FH thing than just an excess of cholesterol. As I understand it FH is a condition where there is a genetic fault with the receptors that draw cholesterol etc into the cells. As there is a deficit in the cholesterol getting into the cells, the liver overproduces in an attempt to rectify the situation. As such, the excess cholesterol could be seen as a marker rather than a cause.
In much in the same way the body of a type 1 diabetic goes into overdrive to rectify a total lack of insulin and thus cellular sugar to burn. By desperately replacing it with ketones (ketoacidosis) perhaps we should be looking at FH from a different viewpoint. After all there were, and are, people with the commonest form of FH living long and active lifespans before statins came along.
What info do you have ,i have done lots of research .
Can you also explain what is meant by "Type 3" and "E2/E2" gene as I can't find any credible information other than Dr. Suzanne de la Monte was doing some research in 2012?
This is how i feel they give you medicine to make you better then the medicine works but makes you ill in other ways but they keep telling you we need to find the right statin but in the meantime your head is getting messed up your having to take other medicines alongside the statins to help repair the damage done by the statins but you end up trying to sort everything out alone as they dont elieve statins are to blame .
do they not look on these sites and see what people are experiencing ?
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Being treated for FH but no marker gene found when tested and have stopped statins
Cholesterol Meds, to take or not to take?
If one has serious side effects such as muscle cramps in lower back due to 5 mg tablet of atorvastatin what alternatives can be tried?
80 mg Atorvastatin and Anxiety
Why are drugs sometimes over-prescribed? This video may help explain.