Why take a statin drug?

[vocalEK]

Calculate your 10-year risk of heart disease or stroke using the ASCVD algorithm published in 2013 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Assessment of Cardiovascular Risk.

cvriskcalculator.com/

My LDL (bad stuff) is “near optimal” at 109 (100-129). Optimal is <100. My HDL (good stuff) is optimal at 65 (>=40)

Calculator won’t let me enter total cholesterol below130, even though my lab result is only 127 (optimal = <200).

Stupid. No matter how low I put total cholesterol or high I put HDL in the calculator, risk never goes below 12%. What the heck is the purpose of putting me on a moderate to high intensity statin, if it can’t possibly lower my risk?

Only when I tried lowering my age did the heart risk go down. Unfortunately I know of no way to become any younger.

BTW: I began taking Cytomel (T3) about 6 months before that fasting lipid panel.

The year before this, my numbers were LDL=121, HDL=57. Total cholesterol was 200, and on the most recent test it was down to 192 (optimal = <200) . So everything now is either optimal or near optimal. But nevertheless I need to get myself onto a moderate to high dose of a statin drug, or else I'm going to drop dead of a heart attack any day now. --Unless, of course, I figure out a way to become younger.

[humanbean]

The heart risk calculators are rigged to make people think they need all sorts of drugs, including statins.

And as you've discovered, once you reach a certain age (which in some types of risk calculator is only 50, but in others is higher) you can never get your risk below 10% no matter what your results are.

The risks of heart disease are also massively inflated. I have read that risk is multiplied by four over what the true risk is.

[userotc]

As both humanbean and yourself have demonstrated, the CVD risk factor is just an algorithm with little benefit (except maybe to sell statins). And did you know there are several CVD algorithms? So, if you live in the UK you may exceed the dreaded 10%, but if you live elsewhere your risk of CVD can reduce significantly...according to another algorithm! I did the calculations a while ago using my mum and dad's data.

Clearly health should not be measured like this so it's NOT a real health tool.

[helvella]

With cholesterol at bottoms of ranges and blood pressure at 90/60, I still get told I need statins as soon as I change age to 63 or older.

So, effectively, age alone dictates statin use!

[helvella in reply to helvella]

Just looked up my fairly recent cholesterol results:

Result           Healthy level     My Results

Total cholesterol       5 or below       3.0

HDL (good cholesterol)     1 or above       1.2

LDL (bad cholesterol)      3 or below       1.5

Non-HDL (bad cholesterol)   4 or below       1.8

Triglycerides         2.3 or below      0.7

The "Healthy level" bit is taken from this NHS page:

nhs.uk/conditions/high-chol...

Can't help wondering where they would go if I took a statin!

[Marz in reply to helvella]

I always remember Dr Kendrick speaking at the Thyroid UK Conference a few years back. His opening sentence - " there is no such thing as good or bad cholesterol ! It is a chemical and cannot be both good and bad "

I know you know the detail - only posting for the benefit of other readers !

The term good/bad was an invention of the Big Pharma PR gurus and caught on globally - job done ! Sounds familiar ??

[vocalEK in reply to helvella]

Yes. That's essentially what their calculator told me. Age alone dictates we get onto their products. As we Baby Boomers age upwards, the profit potential is enormous for Big Pharma.

[posthinking01]

CoQ10 does the same job reduces blood pressure too - I know I took it when I was 'adrenally' and nearly keeled over because it took my blood pressure down even further - so proved it does reduce blood pressure.

[Barb1949]

I stopped taking statins when I discovered my risk of heart attack/stroke was only 10%. That was about 10 years ago. I tend to think it is lower but at 70 the figures are stuck there as you found. I used to see a dietician at the hospital who told me it isn't cholesterol that clogs the arteries anyway. I am struggling to remember what it was he said did but brain fog is bad tonight.

I had an ecocardiogram last year for something unrelated and my arteries are entirely clear. The cardiologist said my heart was better than some 20 yr olds he has seen, lol. My personal.opinion is statins are just another money maker for big pharma. X

[humanbean in reply to Barb1949]

I used to see a dietician at the hospital who told me it isn't cholesterol that clogs the arteries anyway. I am struggling to remember what it was he said did but brain fog is bad tonight.

I would suggest it could be calcium. Do some research into the Coronary Artery Calcium (CAC) score. Ivor Cummins talks about the CAC score a lot.

biohackerslab.com/ep89-ivor...

[Barb1949 in reply to humanbean]

You are quite right Humanbean, that is exactly what he said. I have read the above, my brain just wasn't functioning earlier in the week. Thanks for the prod