I had to see the diabetes nurse the other day and she told me she'd like me to start taking statins and to think about it before my appointment with the doctor next week. I've looked them up on line and all i can find is negative comments about them everything from increased risk of heart attacks to almost every other dire side effect possible. I'm really hesitate to even consider taking these and was wondering if anyone had ever taken them and if they were worth it. I will be discussing it with the doctor of course but wanted more than vague warnings and side effects floating in my head when I saw him.
I take them because I got the genetic trait from my Mum and my cholesterol level was high after the result of my blood test. As far as I know that my parents experienced some minor side effects and their doctor switched to different statin and they settled on it - no problem with them. My brother and I have been taking them and no problems so far. Anecdotal I know but my cholesterol level has come down. Even though my level has gone down, the gp still advised me to eat more healthily and exercise which I'm doing.
You can keep cholesterol down with diet. Unless your doctor tells you that you really need to take them to control cholesterol, ask about an appointment with a dietician who will be able to advise you on healthy diet that will avoid the need to take pills the rest of your life. BTW, I'm not medically trained but, my partner was an NHS dietician and nutritionist.
As always, speak to your doctor. However, the Internet is a bad selector for advice as you always get the negative comments with no filter and none of the positives. I've prescribed statins for many people, and whilst some do get minor side effects, it's simple enough to change to a different statin. I've only come across a handful of people who are truly intolerant. Simply put, statins work. They reduce your cholesterol and hence risk of atherosclerosis and heart attack. Every medicine is a balance of risk against benefit, but statins are pretty darn safe and taken by millions in the UK every single day. You need to make your own mind up of course, but I'd ignore a lot of the scaremongering you'll find on public Internet forums.
Here's one of many scholarly journals talking about the benefits of statins: http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1105635 They do carry side effects, however there are multiple types of statins which may be tolerated better by certain people vs. others.
I'm type 2 and on Metformin and Gliclazide (resist going onto that one as long as you can - weight gain) for that as well as Simvastatin for cholesterol (and a couple of other bits) and I have had no problems at all with the statin (aside from no longer being able to eat grapefruit - no biggie, hate the stuff anyway). My cholesterol is now much lower than the target level and, as I said, no side effects at all.
