Joe P

[1Joseph1]

I must take a statin drug because I have medicated stents. All statins make me dizzy and one called pravastastin almost gave me a stroke last year. Now my doctor told me I Must take pravastatin or another one or I will get a heart attack or a stroke becasue of the medicated stents. I was wondering what is the connection between statin drugs and strokes. Txs.

[sandybrown]

Please consult your cardiologist to get a satisfactory answer!

[cyclist3]

I agree you really should speak to a medically qualified expert about this, taking advice from a site like this could be dangerous to your health as there are too many individual unqualified opinions.

[bernardwilliam]

Hi

Could magnisium replace statins i use sorbit '

[CDreamer in reply to bernardwilliam]

Magnesium is very helpful for people with heart disease, however it can cause muscle weakness in some people - like me!

Whilst I believe there is a deficiency of Magnesium in our food supply, mainly due to intensive farming over millennia (talk to any beef farmer) Magnesium is not easily absorbed orally, is very hard to get into the cells where it is needed and will give you side effects if you don't need it - so caution - do your research thoroughly as there is no 1 fix for all.

[CDreamer]

I think it is very frightening when Drs tell you this so believe it important for you to understand the reasoning. From my limited knowledge (not a medic so usual provisos apply) the Drs will be coming to that recommendation through statistical analysis of how many people in similar circumstances will have stroke or MI. Your individual risk will depend on your physiology, however they will have a good knowledge of the how a medicated stent will complicate the issue so ask why? If you understand why you are more likely to take their advice. What will happen if I take it or not take it?

If it is just to lower your cholesterol and you have FC I would take it - if it were me.

If you do not have FM then I would look at life style and diet changes first. There is a lot of evidence that eating at least 1 apple a day can lower cholesterol at least as well a statin, especially if you add in the plant based substances they add to spreads and advertise as lowering cholesterol. At the same time look at an anti-inflammatory diets - basically cut out all processed foods, sugar, anything white and look for foods like pulses, whole grains and high fibre content as that is known to help absorb cholesterol from the gut.

nhs.uk/news/2012/07July/Pag...

The body is a very complex organism which behaves as if it were a complex system so no one can really predict what is going to happen to you, but the more information you have, the more informed your decision will be.

[bobski1 in reply to CDreamer]

although I mostly agree with your comments Cdreamer your falling into a trap of a lot of people on here namely that a lot of people have not a clue what fc,fh and all the other little non medical things are.

If anyone has a medical condition due to some thing please name it in full.

[CDreamer in reply to bobski1]

familial hypercholesterolemia. My understanding is that this is an inherited condition which diet and lifestyle changes will not lower your cholesterol, no matter what you do, leaving you at much higher risk. I have always had high cholesterol but it has just increased over the magic no of 7 (270 odd US).

I have a very healthy diet and cannot see what more I can do so my GP suggested seeing a genetesist for testing. If it comes back positive, because of my own and family history I would probably give in and take the dammed drugs! Not that I want to.

In the meantime I am eating as many apples that I can, by the way there have been quite a few studies showing similar results with apples.

[OliasOfSunhillow]

I agree with the last poster. I had a stent fitted 2 years ago and took the anti platelet drug for the minimum required duration of 6 months. With regard to statins I dropped them after 1 month. The reason I did this was because it became evident to me that telling me to take a statin is based on a number of things. Firstly that I am the average person who will make little or no changes to their lifestyle, this is wrong I am prepared to carry out anything that will help but not harm me. Number 2 assumption is that statins are for Cholesterol lowering and inflamation reduction and that there are no natural alternatives just as effective. Research has shown that other methods eg take a look at the Lyon heart study in which the Med diet out performed statins, that are not equally effective. Third assumption is that statins actually offer via cholesterol reduction any benefit at all. They do show improvement when taken by those who have experienced a heart attack but that is hardly surprising given their anti inflamatory properties. Bottom line is that if you want to keep eating the westernised killer diet then take all the drugs the docs throw at you and dont complain about the side effects. If you are willing to make radical life changes then many of us, backed by research, believe there are natural alternatives.

[fenbadger]

You need to interrogate the doc as to why, and make it plain to him or her you're concerned about a possible stroke caused by the medication. this forum is not really the place for advice of this serious nature. All I can offer is support and wish you good luck.

[sandybrown]

There are different type of stents, as you say, you have a medicated one, this is to help with smooth blood flow. Statin as a secondary medication after any heart procedure is necessary again to help with blood flow!

Statin has many side effects and this side effect vary person to person.

If you go back to your cardiologist he may look at offering you different statin.

There is also green leaf food intake to repair heart's health. Have a look at Nitric Oxide and heart's health repair.

You need to work very closer with your cardiologist to get better and enjoy life.

Good luck.

[bernardwilliam]

Thanks for the information gratefull ben

[OliasOfSunhillow]

The trouble with working with your Cardio or Doctor as I found is that they are only interested in Pharmaceutical solutions. If you want to discuss diet or the role of various vitamins then I found that not only are they not interested but they are also reluctant to carry on treating you. This means that you have to do some work yourself regarding what is best. Lets take as an example Homocysteine levels, shown by many research studies to be linked to HD. Doctors generally are not interested in discussing it because it easily treatable with vitamins B2 B6 B12 and Folate. A study (Lange 2004 New England Journal) showed that patients with elevated homocysteine had greater chance of restenosis after stent fitting and those who were then treated found there restenosis rate drop. Do you know your Homocysteine level, judged by references to it on here I would guess not. Do you know your cholesterol level, why of course because we are bombarded with this measurement by you know who.

[1Joseph1]

Thank you - and everyone - Very much for the info. Will begin looking into it right now.