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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]what's wrong with statins.  In my experience anyone who is ranting about statins is an uninformed dotard or some "big pharma" conspiracy theorist.[/quote]

I’m the PP who mentioned statins. There is nothing wrong with them if you really need them. It seems like a lot of people need them though. So, I wonder if there is a way to not need them.[/quote]

I had near-optimal LDL, terrific lab results in general, and I exercise regularly, eat well, etc… but I take a statin because doctors discovered I have very common heart defect that’s been there since childhood — basically a bit of extra tissue that causes no harm…unless an ordinary clot happens to hide beneath it, in which case the heart’s usual filtering process won’t clear it.

If someone just looked only at my lab tests, they’d be like, “this person doesn’t need a statin! That’s absurd!” And yet I do. (I also take a daily aspirin).

Point is, doctors are managing all kinds of risks that we can’t see. It’s easy to be cynical, but bodies are complicated, and early death and debilitation used to be the norm. [/quote]

You are in the category of people who really need them. That’s exactly what it’s for. Like you said, it can have nothing to do with outside appearance or lifestyle choices. But, generally speaking, statins are heavily prescribed. There is nothing wrong with statins or any other medication. But Americans take a lot of pills without a corresponding long lifespan for equivalent countries. This isn’t MAHA or anything like that. If anything, it’s curiosity. [/quote]

I’m the PP (good lab work, needs a statin anyway). I think the whole experience of discovering I need a statin — when that certainly wasn’t what I expected or how I thought about myself — has made me feel much less qualified to judge what is “overmedication” vs just medication. Never would have expected that I’d need a statin, but I do. So why wouldn’t I presume other people also need theirs?

Maybe on a population level, we could have fewer risk factors if people were healthier, but shouting “willpower” rarely works, and doctors aren’t in a position make the kind of large scale population-based changes that would actually help with population-based improvements. They treat individuals and try to mitigate individual risk using the toolkit they have,, within the context of the world that we have.

Fwiw, I’ve never had a doctor *not* ask about lifestyle diet, exercise, alcohol, smoking, etc. Maybe I’m lucky. Regardless , I guess I give the benefit of the doubt more than I used to.
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