Statins: 2024 update

[Maxone73]

they seem useful, even if it’s not an interventional trial

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/381...

[MrG68]

Here's it's in more detail so you can see the limitations etc.

wjmh.org/DOIx.php?id=10.553...

[Maxone73 in reply to MrG68]

Thanks!!

[Don_1213]

There have been several papers quite recently on studies with the combination of a statin and metformin. The studies mostly looked at recurrence of cancer after treatment.

If I remember them correctly (I meant to post them here, but that didn't happen with Christmas and a 4 year old attacking me - great fun..) they studied the results of people who took a statin alone, and people who took metformin alone, then people who took the combination.

Both the statins and metformin improved recurrence numbers, but the combination of the two exhibited a synergy that made the combination much more powerful than either of the components individually.

One statin was found to not help - and perhaps be less than helpful - I recall it being Rosuvastatin - but don't hold me to that. I know atorvastatin was a good one (since I take it I paid attention..)

I just went and looked for the papers I'd read - there are a bunch of papers on the topic going back to around 2014, a flurry of them around 2020, but I couldn't find the most recent one that I'd read which were 2023 papers... in any case - the conclusion of almost every paper I scanned (and I didn't go into great depth crunching the numbers) - statins + metformin are a good thing if you've had a PCa diagnosis. Good chance of an upside, low chance of a downside - Snuffy Smith liked metformin, I wonder how he'd like the combination?

By chance I've been on statins for a few decades now, and as soon as I was diagnosed with PCa, I heard about the metformin connection and convinced my primary care doc to prescribe it since I qualify (we probably all do) as a potential "pre-diabetic" (which mostly has to do with reimbursements from Medicare - some medical procedures and treatments are reimbursed to the doc at a higher rate if you're diagnosed as pre-diabetic. My MD isn't dumb.)

[Seasid in reply to Don_1213]

I am on rosuvastatin and I don't see why wouldn't it be as good as the others.

Actually Crestor is the most effective statin. My GP recommended it to me long time ago and I am taking it at the highest dose 40mg ones per day without visible side effects. I would not change until I will switch to Nubeqa and I have to stop with rosuvastatin (Crestor) then.

I would only consider stopping statins during summer in order to increase natural vitamin D production by my skin from the in the skin accumulated cholesterol and with the help of the sunshine.

[Don_1213]

Seasid - I have no idea why rosuvastatin wouldn't be as good as the others (and again - the specific statin that doesn't work is from a fuzzy memory, I might do some more searching when it's not 1AM..) but I'm just reporting what I read. If you have an argument with that I'd suggest the researchers who published the paper(s) might be the people to address your feeling with, not me. I'm the messenger - you shouldn't shoot the messenger.

[Don_1213]

BTW - I'll attribute it to Repatha - which I'm now injecting to lower LDL-C (bad cholesterol)..

My PSA has been steady at about 0.21 (+/-0.02) for over 2 years. Just got back a read from a blood draw yesterday - it's down to 0.15 now. The only real difference in my meds or anything else was the Repatha that my cardiologist put me on.

I'm a case of 1 - so ignore this if you like - but a direct link between cholesterol and PSA - looks like it to me. Does that mean less chance of recurrence? Dunno, but I'll be discussing it with my med-onc next week.. and he's a pretty bright guy.