Hi Chris, I have hypothyroid too and when my thyroid is out of sync it puts my blood way out of sync with the blood glucose levels going high… The other things though… I have low BP, acceptable LDL, HDL and Cholesterol levels… I have a very high A1c at the moment, but that I believe is because I need insulin to control my daytime highs… I’ve just started insulin therapy at nights and my night time highs are coming down great…
Reading all the comments on people who have answered about statins you know though, I think the risk of the side effects the statin causes when you do have lower or normal cholesteral is worse than not taking the statin.
My motto is, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!” Why introduce a toxin that can cause muscle loss etc into your body when it’s not necessary?
If you were at risk of heart desease etc, you would see from your test results that things have changed… then would be the time to be concerned and to take the statins with the risk of the side effects… but until you see signs that your cholesterol levels have changed, I would say not just yet…
I think once my BG is under control and my A1c comes down, my cholesterol levels will be even better… I’m a great believer in fixing one thing at a time and seeing if it helps with other things along the way. xx
I know the risks of having a high A1c, I’ve been trying to get the doctors to help me sort that out for the past couple of months… But all she seems to be interested in is trying to get me to take statins to bring down my non existant cholesterol levels!
My H1c levels are up because of very high stress!.. Two deaths in the last 6 months plus other Cancer related issues with close family members… and a few other issues that I won’t go into… and we all know what stress can do to BG… Also if I were going to have a heart attack and die, it would have already happened then.
Now things have quietened down and things are dropping back into place.
My health is under the microscope at the moment… I have no weight issues… I keep a close watch on my LDL’s HDL’s, cholesterol levels and BP… All are within normal range. I exercise daily… walking or running 4-8 miles so I’m very fit.
Even the Mayo Clinic says that if your Cholesterol levels are under 200 and unless you have a long list of other problems and symptoms, you may not need statins…
I know my body and I will not put toxins and poisons in there just because it MIGHT prevent heart issues… Seems to me you can take more risks with your health when you take un-needed medication than you do when taking it just incase you get something.
Cholesterol levels are easily lowered by taking natural products and keeping an eye on your diet and they have less side effects when you’re like me… Believe me, when and if I need to go onto a statin, I will do so… but I’m the driver of my body… noone else.
Hi Denise. The Zocor caused me to have an irregular heart beat at night, about 1-2 hours after taking the medicine. I stopped the Zocor but now my doctor has decided I should have a holter monitor for 24 hours to see if it was really the medicine. These docs want to put you on all kinds of meds and most of the meds have bad side effects.
I know Kathyann and I don’t always believe it’s good for you… There is a case for taking them, but you would think that it would be in the ones that need the medication the most…
Do you think you need them? What do you think of having to use that Holter monitor? It seems too much of a coincidence to me to not have it be the medicine if you havent had the irregular heart beat before.
As usual they will try and disprove it is the meds…
I’m waiting for my diabetic councellor to call me right now… and when she does we’ll have one long discussion about my doctor and her wanting me to use that Zocor… I’ve made up my mind that I’m not going to use it, so they will just have to accept my decision.
I hope all goes well for you Kathyann, let me know how you do… is there any possible way you can stay off the statins and try natural remedies or do you have too high a risk factor to not be on statins?
Just spoke to the diabetes councellor Dave… she was calling about my insulin numbers etc… we had a long talk about statins and she said I’m so near the target figure, that she agrees with me, that I don’t need to take a statin just now…
I think I’m going to have a very upset doctor…lol… x
Hi Denise, I’ll let you know what the holter monitor says but I don’t think I’ll ever go back on Zocor no matter what. I used to eat a diet high in saturated fats (before diabetes) and I’m hoping my new diet will bring my numbers down. My total went from 200 to 181 in 3 months so there have been slow changes. It’s hard when the doctor and diabetic educator are pushing on you to do things you don’t want to do, isn’t it?
It sure is, especially when you’re used to being good and going along with stuff so as not to make waves… I used to be like that, however, I’ve been really pro-active lately… sometimes I think you have to. They don’t feel what we feel when they put us on these things… we’re the ones who suffer the pains and inconveniences, so we just sometimes have to stand up for ourselves and say how we feel about it.
I know they are only trying to solve our problem and trying to do what they think is best for us, but in doing so, sometimes I think they forget that we’re people too and each one of us is different… we all have different needs. Maybe it’s just a case of finding the right one for you Kathyann.
I would try some of the natural ways to lower your cholesterol though… it might work better in the long run and it has less side effects. xx
Result from the visit with GP is : I am stopping Simvastatin for 6 months ; in summer of 2010 will do a complete Chol profile …I believe I have stated in this discussion : hair loss …she agrees, not everyone requires meds and my results are good , well within the guide lines and was ( since I stopped 2 days ago , I can say that ) on 20 mg daily : small dose .
I’ve always been the “good one” too. Compliant, not argue, but with Diabetes I’m changing my mind. They don’t always know what’s best for us. Anyway, had a mammogram today so I’m in kind of a bad mood from getting squished!
I am a 40 yr old Type 1 diabetic and my cardiologist recommended that even though my numbers are good, they still highly recommend all diabetics take statins to help them from having problems with their blood. I have had no side effects and have been on them for about 2 months. If they want you to take something that will help, it’s a good idea to do it.
Here are the facts. There is a known, proven link between cholesterol and heart disease. Statins have been shown definitively to lower the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. There are very well known side effects from statins (muscle pain and breakdown being the most common). If you tolerate statins with minimal to no side effects, the protective benefit is immense. Diabetes, like dyslipidemia, is a known cardiac risk factor. If you can control both, you are controlling two established risk factors for cardiovascular disease and lowering your overall risk of death from heart disease.
That being said, do statins ALWAYS prevent heart disease? No. Does everyone with high cholesterol and diabetes NEED stains? No. Certainly diet, exercise, genetics all play a role. But it seems that some well-intentioned folks have “cherry-picked” the literature to suggest that cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease.
Simply because someone has been fine without statins does not mean that statins are not necessary/good/useful. Just b/c thousands of people ride bikes without helmets and have not died from head injuries does not mean that bike helmets aren’t useful. In much the same way, simply because there are thousands of diabetics without cholesterol problems not taking stains does not mean that statins are not useful in preventing heart disease.
If you’d like to read a wonderful science-based commentary on cholesterol skeptics and why they are misguided, here is a link: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=22
Do we have all the answers? Of course not, and research is on going. But all of the current EVIDENCE strongly supports the use of statins.
Tim, I competely agree with everything you just said. I just want to add that one’s benefit from statins will depend on their risk of heart disease. The higher the risk the more benefical the treatment will be. Statin therapy can decrease your risk let’s say by 30% but if you risk is only 3%, it will be decreased to 1%. But if your risk of having heart attack is 10% and you will decrease it to 3% - that is significant difference.
So, one’s decision on taking statin should be individualised based on your risk (in addtion to having diabetes). Do you have a strong family history of heart disease? elevated blood pressure? protein in yout urine or kidney damage from diabetes, retinopathy? Then, you are at higher risk. In this case benefit from taking statins will outweigh insignificant side effects (if any).
Marina, fantastic points. The risk reduction will certainly be relative to your baseline risk. And I forgot to mention previously, I am also a T1D on statin therapy (along with ACE-I).
First, I’m sorry for all of the difficulties that you’ve had. I wouldn’t wish for anyone to struggle with their health.
I don’t want to comment on all of your specific examples, not because they are not important, but rather because they don’t address the issue of cholesterol and statins, but I will say this: there are myriad examples of failures in medicine and science. This does not mean that we reject science, as you seem to suggest. To use the bike helmet analogy again, if someone dies from head injuries they sustained while wearing a bike helmet, we do not then suggest that no one wear a helmet. Additionally, I never suggested that science had the answer for everyone, and in fact, I specifically noted that there are bound to be exceptions to the rule.
You can personally choose to not take statins if you feel that they are wrong for you, and certainly you have every right to tell of your bad experiences with statins if you’ve had them. But to suggest that there is no link between cholesterol and heart disease is simply not correct. Further, to suggest as a blanket statement, that there is no benefit to statins would also not be correct. The science, as we currently understand it, overwhelmingly supports the use of statins in diabetics.
I think for people who are at a low risk of heart desease and who have diabetes, Doctors are too fast to suggest that they go onto Statins. If someone has low or borderline cholesterol levels the first thing that doctors should suggest is a change of diet and more exercise.
My doctor wanted to put me onto statins just because I have diabetes, but my test results showed that my Cholesterol levels were normal… so I’ve been refusing, and my Diabetes Councillor agrees with me that I don’t need them as long as I stick to my present diet and exercise programme… If I were at risk I wouldn’t argue… but until I see evidence that I am, I refuse to add another medication to my body, especially when it so clearly isn’t needed.
So yes… I agree if you have high cholesterol and can’t lower it by natural means then a statin is useful in doing that… but for us folks who really don’t need them, they shouldn’t push them onto us.
Well, just because you don’t have high cholesterol doesn’t mean you wouldn’t benefit from a statin…
You’re probably right about clinicians’ overuse of statins, in some cases. But we also have to remember that this much more complicated than high vs. low cholesterol. That is, high cholesterol is not the one and only reason to prescribe a statin. Statins lower CRP, reduce vascular inflammation and constriction, and a number of other “cardio-protective” properties.
Remember, diabetes itself is considered a cardiovascular risk factor, much like hypertension, obesity, etc. Certainly tight control mitigates some of this risk, but it’s there nonetheless. (I don’t care how tightly you control your sugar, you’re not doing as well as your pancreas would.)
So, if you’re diabetic but you don’t have high blood pressure, you don’t smoke, you’re not overweight, under the age of 40, and have no family history of cardiac disease, etc. you may not need a statin right away.
However, if you have diabetes and you’re in your forties or you meet any of the other increased risk criteria, the evidence supports taking a statin (even if you don’t have high cholesterol).
she was calling about my insulin numbers etc… we had a long talk about statins and she said I’m so near the target figure, that she agrees with me, that I don’t need to take a statin just now…