Do statins shorten your life?

“The study showed that taking statins for 6 years reduced death from cardiovascular disease by 24 percent, and overall mortality by 23 percent.”

What is the safest statin to take?

Simvastatin and pravastatin had the best safety profile, according to this review. Overall, the researchers found a 9 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes in people taking statins.

Should everyone be on statins?

The new guidelines, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that people ages 40 to 75 who have one or more risk factors — such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes or smoking that put them at a 10 percent or greater risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 …

Should everyone take statins?

If your 10-year risk of having a heart attack or stroke is greater than 10 per cent, you will be asked to consider taking a statin. Most doctors also recommend statins for people who have diabetes. The risks, as with all medicines, include possible side effects.

Can I lower cholesterol without statins?

Eating foods that contain unsaturated fat instead of saturated fat can actually help reduce cholesterol levels. Try to replace foods containing saturated fats with small amounts of foods high in unsaturated fats, such as: oily fish – such as mackerel and salmon. nuts – such as almonds and cashews.

Who should not take statins?

If you are pregnant or thinking about having a baby, you should not take statins. Although the effect of statins during pregnancy is not clear, research has brought up concern of birth defects. Cholesterol is a building block for developing brains, hearts, and limbs.

Why not to take statins?

Statins shouldn’t be taken if you have severe liver disease or if blood tests suggest that your liver may not be working properly. This is because statins can affect your liver, and this is more likely to cause serious problems if you already have a severely damaged liver.

Which statins have the least side effects?

Even though all statins look similar chemically, they have some minor differences that could impact how likely they are to cause muscle pain. Simvastatin is the most likely to cause muscle pain, and fluvastatin and pitavastatin are the least likely.

Are Statins really effective?

Doctors often prescribe statins for people with high cholesterol to lower their total cholesterol and reduce their risk of a heart attack or stroke. While statins are highly effective, they have been linked to muscle pain, digestive problems and mental fuzziness in some people and may rarely cause liver damage.