Ugh, you get one high LDL-C result on a lipid panel and the pharmaceutical industrial complex wants to pump you full of statins.
Discussion
If anyone wants to dive into the technicals of why statins are net negative: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-do-statins-cause-diabetes-jack-kruse
Not sure that reduction in cardiovascular events is a net negative...and development of insulin resistance and hyperglycemia is a possible side effect in a small amount of patients. Also easily monitored so can be adjusted if necessary.
What do I care about cardiovascular events if all-cause mortality isn't down?
Careful citing peer-reviewed scientific literature among this group. If it doesn't fit their narrative to eat 3 helpings of red meat every day, it's probably BS government propaganda.
I hate how the ven diagram of Bitcoin and crazy is 2 almost perfectly overlapped circles.
Ok, that's news to me. I heard a lot of talk about CVD "event" benefits at the cost of other issues with ultimately no benefit to all-cause mortality and I myself did experience strong muscle pain from statins. This meta study certainly is quite solid in favor of statins. What I find crazy scary is that by my reading, statins help everybody and non-CVD patients even more than CVD.
When I was prescribed statins and immediately developed muscle pain I did search for others in the same situation. I found a platform where thousands had rated my product abysmal with horror stories of death and pain with an occasional 5-star rating. I know this is totally anecdotal but I e-mailed one of those 5-star raters and asked how it's going. He told me he gave the 5-stars after a week and stopped using the product after two months due to problems, too.
People certainly can have those side effects. If you are trying to get your levels of cholesterol down there are excellent alternatives. PCSK9 inhibitors are the most potent. They are quite expensive often due to being on brand still.
No mention of lifestyle changes being adopted at the same time the statin is prescribed. 🤔
I find it odd that the simpler studies with statins show no benefit but incredibly complex ones somehow prove their benefit.
Anyway, I think about these charts a lot. 
The bottom line is you will never get your cholesterol levels down as low with lifestyle as you will with a statin and in this case lower is better.
There is no good evidence that lowering cholesterol is an improvement to one’s health. In fact, the opposite may be true.
https://x.com/mangan150/status/1682046284071583745
The truth is that nobody really knows yet what part of the modern lifestyle causes heart attacks, but at this point there’s reasonably strong evidence that cholesterol is not a causal factor.
That is completely false. We know exactly the pathology of a heart attack. Have you ever looked at an autopsy of the coronary arteries of someone who died of a massive heart attack. The pathogenesis lies in the accumulation of cholesterol in the wall of the arteries.
And what causes the accumulation of cholesterol?
True
Good thing you can simply tell them to fuck off
I wouldn't take any statins or any other drugs I don't really have to take.
The for-profit medical industrial complex has been changing what's normal for many years.
They keep lowering normal values so that everyone sounds sick. And if you refer to a recent medical textbook it has the same corrupted values.
For example, 120/80 BP has been considered normal for decades. While 140/90 was considered pre-hypertension that did not need pharmaceutical treatment.
Now they try and classify that as hypertension and treat everyone with pharmaceuticals..💉💊🤑💰💲💸💀
Research other options.
Statins are the most profitable drugs in history.
Which if anything should be a predictor for benefits not the opposite.
That said, I tried statins, had terrible muscle pain, found tons of others with horror stories and dropped it.
Stat.
HDL is more predictive.
Are you actually an MD??
Yup. But I’m a radiologist. We generally don’t care much about the subtleties of cardiac risk factors…but even I know hdl is more predictive than ldl…
I don't mean to be rude, but you have no idea what you are talking about.
You’re right. I’m only basing this off of the cardiac risk factor website for patients that some cardiac society has online. I went through it when I got my labs last year and played with the variables. HDL has way more effect than calculated ldl
Trained at a well known multi specialty private group practice with a world wide reputation located in south west Minnesota. IYKYK.
Are you an MD?
I know! Love your humor and humility💜✌️
They make a big deal about not using their name publicly. It’s a wise position that makes a lot of sense. It is an amazing institution and I would never wish to do anything to bring even a smidgeon of disrepute to the venerable clinic.
I'm a DO, trained in internal medicine and geriatrics and have been in practice for 10 years.
Credentialism is overrated. Appeals to authority are weak arguments. Read “The Clot Thickens” By Dr Malcolm Kendrick if you want to know the truth/facts.
You mean triglycerides / HDL?
I remember seeing a study on how men admitted to hospitals with a cardiac event actually had surprisingly low LDLs on average. The conclusion? Was it that maybe their correlation assumption was off?
no, of course not! It was "We need to lower the threshold to start administration of statins."
i just received the same prescription recommendation. what are my natural alternatives?
While LDL-P is the actual important value
Try Citrus Bergamot
📠
Be sure to get an NMR particle size evaluation. Statins up-regulate LDL receptors, but usually the higher readings come from oxidized LDL which doesn’t fit in the receptors anyway, so statins lower something your body needs and begins to produce in increasing amounts. Vicious cycle. Intermittent fasting, long enough to achieve autophagy will help with oxidized LDL levels.
Follow-up:
I got a CT scan of my heart and my calcification score is 0.
Getting advanced lipid panels ordered soon.
Don't trust doctors, verify their assumptions.
Cholesterol is a faulty predicter of cardiovascular disease.
Check for insulin resistance (fasting insulin) and inflammation (inflammatory marker panel), instead.
IF, animal based eating, and seed oil disrespecting will resolve in short order, if issues emerge. Prolonged fasting necessary for some depending on how advanced.
I no longer trust any centralized doctor regarding chronic diseases/conditions.
The NIH stopped reporting prevalence of at least 1 chronic condition among US adults in 2018. That should be a massive red flag…
No one knows better than nostr:npub1ce9hun4wrcyz245d82ne4eq64rd8afu6zut0efcx088c7dtvekzs236q9r that the whole LDL cholesterol = bad narrative is BS in otherwise healthy individuals.