Using a statin to battle high cholesterol or to prevent heart disease?

[TheDebbieDee]

Apparently, statin use is directly proportional to the risk of the development of diabetes. I missed this one...........

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/opinion/the-diabetes-dilemma-for-statin-users.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I take a statin, and I'm doing well with it.

These studies are important, but people need to talk to their doctors about their individual needs. I plan to continue to take my statin.

[Wilms]

2. It's Not Dementia, It's Your Heart Medication: Cholesterol Drugs and Memory

...Nevertheless, many experts are starting to believe that a small percentage of the population is at risk, and they are calling for increased public awareness of the possible cognitive side effects of statins—symptoms that may be misdiagnosed as dementia in the aging patients who take them.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=its-not-dementia-its-your-heart-medication

[MiniMe]

3. Not to mention the pain that they cause

I can't take a lot of statins because I feel like I have been hit by a bus when I take them. Took a while to find one that I can tolerate, and at the right dosage. I can't take lipitor or crestor, I seem to be OK with Zocor (simvastatin). But I got in an argument with my cardiologist about the dosage. After my heart attack, they put me on 80mg, which is the maximum. I started getting those deep muscle aches that I got on lipitor, and then the FDA came out with something about if you were having pain at that dose, to go to a different statin, or lower the dose. My cholesterol went down to 147, and I talked to my cardiologist about the dosage and the pain I was having. I'll spare you the details, but getting him to understand that the pain was severe and I wouldn't take it at that dosage any more. I changed doctors after that, because I feel like if my doctor won't discuss things like that with me, he doesn't really care.

[sense]

4. I was on statins for 25 years.

I developed diabetes and depression... exhaustion, trouble thinking, memory loss and excessive sweating..... I took myself off them after doing much research and discovering that not a single study showed any benefit for women! Within 3 days I was no longer sweating or depressed and my memory was returning. My brain fog is gone now. I also cured my diabetes and increased my energy levels by changing my diet, which my doctor told me wasn't possible. I fired her. My labs and cardiac CT show no signs of heart disease at all.

My grandmother had high cholesterol her entire life. She lived to be 94 with no heart disease and was cognitively all there until she was overmedicated in a nursing home. We need to question everything.