Your cholesterol levels should drop within 4 weeks, if you take your medicine regularly, as prescribed. AND… “ LDL cholesterol has an important role in the immune system and likely protects against death from some infections” including cancer and The higher the LDL cholesterol in people over age 60, statistically the less likely they were to die based on a study of over 70,000 people

Pioppi Diet: The 21-Day Anti-Diabetes Lifestyle Plan as The Pioppi Diet: The 21-Day Anti-Diabetes Lifestyle Plan as

A patient may still decide to take a statin, based on their individual risk factors, perhaps "a family history of heart disease" – but his mission is "informed consent for patients." Too often, he says, there’s little discussion. June Davison puts some of your questions to Professor Richard Hobbs, head of Primary Care (Health Sciences) at the University of Oxford and a part-time GP.Atorvastatin works by stopping the liver from making cholesterol. This lowers your blood cholesterol level. It is quite understandable to have questions if you need to take a new medicine. Statins are the most widely used medicine to lower cholesterol and they have been around for a long time. There have been a lot of news stories about them which sometimes puts people off taking them. These are very powerful drugs and in the early days of statins, understandably, some people were concerned about potential undiscovered risks associated with them. They’re now one of the most investigated drugs, and we have lots of reliable data – some of which originated from work that’s been funded by the BHF – that show they are very safe and effective to take. How will taking a statin help me? We've followed an eight-step process to make sure this content is reliable, accurate and trustworthy. Learn how we make our health information reliable and easy to understand.

A Statin-Free Life by Matt Addis | Hachette UK A Statin-Free Life by Matt Addis | Hachette UK

Losing some weight, if you’re overweight, can also help. If your cholesterol is not coming down enough, your doctor may prescribe the drug ezetimibe for you as well as your statin to further lower your cholesterol. This helps to prevent your intestine from absorbing cholesterol. As well as taking a statin, it’s important to keep active, eat well and if you smoke, stop. Statins are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the world. Yet many report unacceptable side effects and a US survey revealed that 75 per cent of respondents stopped taking them within a year. Statins are effective at lowering cholesterol and most people will not get any side effects while taking them. Talk to your pharmacist or doctor if you are concerned about the safety of statins. Also his repeatedly pointing out that doctors must discuss the real benefits of statins and the risks associated with them with their patients before putting them on statin therapy is very useful as it comes from a doctor.He says statins are vastly over-prescribed. He believes debilitating side effects are common, mainly muscle pain and fatigue. (This remains another highly contested issue. An Imperial College London study in 2020 showed that side effects are rare and even caused by a ‘nocebo’ effect – symptoms brought on by the belief a pill will cause you harm.) Dr Aseem Malhotra FRCP is an NHS-trained consultant cardiologist and visiting Professor of Evidence Based Medicine, Bahiana School of Medicine and Public Health, Salvador, Brazil. He is a founding member of Action on Sugar. In 2015 he became the youngest member to be appointed to the board of trustees of UK health charity The King's Fund. Lifestyle choices, such as whether you eat fatty foods, smoke, drink alcohol and don’t exercise enough increase your chances of having high cholesterol. Even if you’re in good health, you may be prescribed a statin if you’re at high risk of developing cardiovasculardisease. So what is the evidence for their benefits? Dr Aseem Malhotra, author of the bestselling The 21-Day Immunity Plan and co-author of the bestselling The Pioppi Diet, examines the claims for statins and their role in lowering cholesterol and preventing heart disease. He introduces us to his targeted heart-health plan, which, with a diet plan, recipes and advice on reducing stress and increasing movement, can help us to live statin-free and take control of our own health.

A Statin-Free Life by Dr Aseem Malhotra | Waterstones A Statin-Free Life by Dr Aseem Malhotra | Waterstones

Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest Yellow Kite Books news, author exclusives, offers and competition details Depending on your cholesterol levels and how healthy you are otherwise, you and your doctor or nurse might want you to try to bring your cholesterol levels down with a healthy diet and lifestyle first, before starting statins. If you are at risk of developing heart disease Our vision is a world free from the fear of heart and circulatory diseases. We raise money to research cures and treatments for the world’s biggest killers. Learn more about us In the world’s ‘blue zones’ – areas of notable longevity and almost no heart disease – "They weren’t pounding in the gym, running marathons. They were just moving all the time, not being sedentary." Nor he adds, were they taking statins.An exceptionally rare, but serious, side effect is severe muscle damage, producing pain and weakness in the muscles. It can be reversed if treatment is stopped and most people who develop it make a rapid recovery. It’s important to take your medication as prescribed. Your doctor may recommend you take your statin at a certain same time every day as this keeps your blood levels even. If you decide to take a CoQ10 supplement, tell your doctor or pharmacist. Supplements can affect the way other medicines work.

A Statin-Free Life: A Revolutionary Life Plan for Tackling A Statin-Free Life: A Revolutionary Life Plan for Tackling

Ultimately, whether you choose to take statins or not, Dr Malhotra says, "Please, please, please do not neglect the lifestyle aspect, because eighty percent of heart disease is environmental and lifestyle related." He hopes people will read his book, consult their open-minded medical experts, and make informed decisions. Muscular aches and pains are the most common. It’s natural to associate symptoms with a new tablet but we all get muscle aches from time to time, so it’s difficult to know if they are due to medication or just to do with everyday life. Most people experience no side effects from statins. For some, though, they are an issue. If this is the case, ask your doctor about trying a different statin. Atorvastatin may slightly increase the hormones released into your system from some contraceptive pills. You will still be protected from pregnancy, but this could increase your chances of side effects from contraceptive pills. If you have any side effects, talk to your doctor or pharmacist. You might be offered a statin if you have too much LDL-cholesterol (bad cholesterol) in your blood - whether it’s caused by your lifestyle or by genetic conditions which are passed down through families. If you take simvastatin, you shouldn’t drink grapefruit juice as it increases the concentration of the drug in the blood stream, increasing the risk of side effects. If you take another type of statin, limit your intake of grapefruit juice to very small quantities or you may want to avoid it altogether. I’m on 80mg of atorvastatin but my cholesterol still isn’t low enough. What else can I do?

Simultaneously, "if the damage and repair mechanisms in the body are overridden - if there’s more damage than repair - then within the heart arteries you can develop these deposits that are full of cholesterol, actually a response to the injury - but also inflammatory immune cells."