Statins and Levothryoxine

[Spottyskin]

Hi Guys, looks like I will have to start taking Statins. Are there any that better than others. Has anyone found any issues whilst taken Levothyroxine.? I take liquid 4ml Levothyroxine as had issues with tablets and mega rash. There are loads of different Stains are there some better than others to take. ? Thanks Guys. x

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Spottyskin

Are you female?

If so I've read here that statins aren't really recommended.

Why has GP said you need them? High cholesterol or high triglycerides?

Also, are you optimally medicated thyroid-wise? See:

nhs.uk/conditions/statins/c...

If you have an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism), treatment may be delayed until this problem is treated. This is because having an underactive thyroid can lead to an increased cholesterol level, and treating hypothyroidism may cause your cholesterol level to decrease, without the need for statins. Statins are also more likely to cause muscle damage in people with an underactive thyroid.

Read more about the side effects of statins - nhs.uk/conditions/statins/s...

[Spottyskin in reply to SeasideSusie]

Hi, female, high cholesterol 7.2 I have always had high cholesterol look 2018 6.8 2019 6.7 not tested since Thryroid Cancer . My age is 68 and my cardiovascular risk percentage is 22.54 anything above 10% is not good increasingly the possibility of stokes/heart attacks. Saw my oncologist who is brilliant, talked it through with him, and is take on it, before making a decision.

[humanbean in reply to Spottyskin]

They use the QRISK calculator to work out your risk of cardiovascular disease. The latest one is QRISK3. Anyone can try it out :

qrisk.org/three/index.php

I can't remember what age this occurs at but there comes a point where they calculate a score over 10% just because you've lived beyond a certain age, and nothing you can do will reduce the level QRISK3 tells you. I think it is just fear-mongering.

Oh, and the QRISK calculators (all versions) vastly over-estimate risk.

From this link from Dr Malcolm Kendrick (worth reading, even though it is a few years old now) :

drmalcolmkendrick.org/2016/...

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‘A widely recommended risk calculator for predicting a person’s chance of experiencing a cardiovascular disease event — such as heart attack, ischemic stroke or dying from coronary artery disease — has been found to substantially overestimate the actual five-year risk in adults overall and across all sociodemographic subgroups. The study by Kaiser Permanente was published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The actual incidence of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease events over five years was substantially lower than the predicted risk in each category of the ACC/AHA Pooled Cohort equation:

For predicted risk less than 2.5 percent, actual incidence was 0.2 percent

For predicted risk between 2.5 and 3.74 percent, actual incidence was 0.65 percent

For predicted risk between 3.75 and 4.99 percent, actual incidence was 0.9 percent

For predicted risk equal to or greater than 5 percent, actual incidence was 1.85 percent

“From a relative standpoint, the overestimation is approximately five- to six-fold,” explained Dr. Go. “Translating this, it would mean that we would be over-treating a good many people based on the risk calculator.”’1

So, you feed your risk factors in a risk calculator that took many years to create, using data carefully gathered by experts from the world of cardiology, and your true risk is overestimated five to six fold. Excellent. That mean millions upon millions of people have been told to take a statin based on a calculation that is so inaccurate as to be virtually meaningless. [This was always going to happen, because risk was established using clinical data from decades ago, since when, CVD rates have fallen dramatically]

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[greygoose]

Have you had your FT3 tested? High cholesterol is usually associated with low FT3. Raise the FT3 and the cholesterol will drop, no need for statins. It doesn't cause heart attacks or strokes, anyway, they're just saying that to frighten you into taking statins so Big Pharma can make more money.

Look up Dr Malcolm Kendrick, read his blog and his books on the subject. It'll change your life.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

What are your most recent thyroid and vitamin results

How much is your liquid levothyroxine equivalent to in levothyroxine tablets

Bloods should be retested 6-8 weeks after each dose change or brand change in levothyroxine

For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 plus both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested.

Very important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 at least once year minimum

Recommended on here that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally before 9am and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test

This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)

Are you in the U.K.?

Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or all relevant vitamins

List of private testing options and money off codes

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

Medichecks Thyroid plus antibodies and vitamins

medichecks.com/products/adv...

Blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold includes antibodies, cortisol and vitamins

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk...

If you can get GP to test vitamins and antibodies then cheapest option for just TSH, FT4 and FT3

£29 (via NHS private service ) and 10% off down to £26.10 if go on thyroid uk for code

thyroiduk.org/getting-a-dia...

monitormyhealth.org.uk/

NHS easy postal kit vitamin D test £29 via

vitamindtest.org.uk

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

It might be worth you reading these past posts (just a couple of many):

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[humanbean]

I think you might find this article of interest before deciding whether or not to take statins :

Title : Do You Worry About Low Brain Cholesterol Levels?

Link : lowcarbusa.org/low-brain-ch...

Personally, I actually worry about my brain more than I worry about my heart. I know I have to die of something, and I would prefer to die of heart disease than dementia (if I only have the choice of those two things).

[arTistapple in reply to humanbean]

This is a pretty good synopsis of the available info on the subject. Many of the errors associated with statin research would appear to be very similar to that of thyroid medication. No-one seems to be attending to or understanding the maths. There is an interesting programme on BBC I think (you will get it on Catch up) re: maths and risk factors in cancer treatment. Hannah Fry (I hope she will forgive me if I have got this wrong) herself a cancer sufferer and a mathematician covers it interestingly. Gosh doctors are not mathematicians and it turns out that is pretty important for treatment of patients.

[Miffie]

Hi I take a statin as I was diagnosed with Familial hypercholesterolemia some years ago. Although adequate thyroid hormone replacement is a constant battle with my GP surgery ( no choice in rural location so can’t change) I find cholesterol genetics are in play no matter how well my thyroid is treated. I went though a few before I found Rosuvastatin suited me, no others did. The favourite starter seems to be Atorvastatin. I cannot tolerate it at all.

However I think like levothyroxine it’s not a one brand suits all with a shared condition. Good luck

[arTistapple]

My husband works that out at a 77.46 chance that you won’t have an incident. Sounds good to me. There is absolutely loads of good research now which rebuffs the ‘holy grail’ of statins. Some are in your replies above.

[tattybogle]

has your thyroid hormone replacement been properly sorted out first ? this should be done before statins are considered .

Last post your dose have been reduced to 75mcg which is not a large dose for someone without any thyroid ~and for some reason (? injections? )your TSH was ' 20 something' ... hopefully that was either an incorrect TSH result / or your dose has since been increased .

Do you have latest TSH / fT4 / fT3 results for whatever dose you now take ?

[Spottyskin in reply to tattybogle]

Yes