This was an interesting exercise. However, it still doesn't change my personal view of risk. I definitely wouldn't take statins to live on average an additional 22 days. But I also would not accept the risk of adverse effects from statins hoping that I will be among the 495 people who take statins for 6.1 years just to live on average an additional 6 months or so. I still don't see that as a sufficient benefit. Especially when I have a higher probability of being in the group of 4,000 people in either group who did not die during the 6.1 year period whether or not they took statins.
Thanks for weighing in. I agree, this may not change the equation for many of us. It's too bad we can never know how it will help an individual and we are forced to base our decision on basically our personal values in light of shaky statistics, including the probabilities of a degradation of Quality of Life. I certainly haven't changed my position either.
@@mystatinfreelife Well I haven't dropped statins yet but I am about to. I just have some concerns about it because I am trying to switch to carnivore.
@@JohnA000 I suspect that your doctor will have a fit - on carnivore I suspect your trigs will decrease, and HDL will increase, but so might your LDL. It may be Pattern A (or transform towards that eventually) but most Primary Care Doctors really don't care about that. It's even possible that your Lp(a) may decrease, though that effect may be minor.
Please consider doing a podcast with the original authors of the bmj 2015 Study. Your audience i think would like an expanded discussion of some of the key statin studies such as this one. You would be very good as a host of this. And it would benefit the science by keeping key studies "alive".
Some time ago I was reading a definition of 'science', probably by a philosopher of science. A requirement of science is that experimental data should be openly shared, so that other scientists can replicate the experiments and verify results or disprove. By that reason I would submit that much of 'medical science' is not actually science! It has aspects similar to alchemy... 😄
Why I take a multi-pronged approach to heart disease not relying on anyone factor. But I do believe that Linus Pauling is one of the smartest men that ever lived in the last 1000yrs to be one of the largest factors in the reversal of my heart disease.....
Intellectual honesty….. what a rare thing. You may be right… You may be wrong…. Being willing to attempt to call BS on something that would confirm your own bias is what science is all about, (and why good science is kinda rare). Kudos.
Well, applaud! The same way you can calculate how statins would shorten the lifespan and combine it together. The only question is that there is no data about that. Cherry picking data does not allow to fairly generalize pros and cons
I took atorvastatin and had bad muscle pain in my neck muscle, the next day , I could tell, take low dose it goes away faster, I rather exercise and diet in low carbohydrates , drink water and walk 30 minutes a day for 7 days , It worked for me, I see my numbers going down slowly but surely , especially my LDL and hdl
I have found my LDL goes down if I hike for days on end. That's probably my body's appropriate response in that case. I think we really need to gain an understanding of why our cholesterol levels are what they are, instead of defaulting to "higher is bad". I can keep my PCP at bay by simply having my blood tests done after a backpacking trip (10 days or more), but that doesn't rally give me the understanding.. something I'm still trying to figure out.
@shawnfallahi5616 I have no medical training, so I would not advise anyone with (or even without) known heart disease on getting off statins. I can only point out what the studies say, and how strong or weak such studies are. For someone with heart disease the decision is incredibly complex and unfortunately very difficult to get truly unbiased information on. And of course, I have biases too.
It's certainly possibly but entirely speculative and impossible to determine. I wish we had an objective test for such things, but we don't, and aren't likely to have one anytime soon (for anybody.)
I got off statins at the beginning of June. I no longer have the bad muscle pain and tingling I had. I am relieved.
Very common experience. I went from being barely able to walk on some days to pain free in a short time.
@@mystatinfreelife Thank you for your videos...they made me realize it and I feel better!
I enjoy your considerable effort to bring up dificult topics in statin analysis for our benefit.
@@tallgrass9366 Thanks!
This was an interesting exercise. However, it still doesn't change my personal view of risk.
I definitely wouldn't take statins to live on average an additional 22 days. But I also would not accept the risk of adverse effects from statins hoping that I will be among the 495 people who take statins for 6.1 years just to live on average an additional 6 months or so. I still don't see that as a sufficient benefit. Especially when I have a higher probability of being in the group of 4,000 people in either group who did not die during the 6.1 year period whether or not they took statins.
Thanks for weighing in. I agree, this may not change the equation for many of us. It's too bad we can never know how it will help an individual and we are forced to base our decision on basically our personal values in light of shaky statistics, including the probabilities of a degradation of Quality of Life. I certainly haven't changed my position either.
what about the 70% increased risk of developing diabetes.
@@JohnA000 I cover that here to some degree: czcams.com/video/4d3C3TUyf7s/video.html
@@mystatinfreelife Well I haven't dropped statins yet but I am about to. I just have some concerns about it because I am trying to switch to carnivore.
@@JohnA000 I suspect that your doctor will have a fit - on carnivore I suspect your trigs will decrease, and HDL will increase, but so might your LDL. It may be Pattern A (or transform towards that eventually) but most Primary Care Doctors really don't care about that. It's even possible that your Lp(a) may decrease, though that effect may be minor.
Please consider doing a podcast with the original authors of the bmj 2015 Study. Your audience i think would like an expanded discussion of some of the key statin studies such as this one. You would be very good as a host of this. And it would benefit the science by keeping key studies "alive".
I remember solving physics problems by first doing a 'unit analysis.' That what you just did. Good job.
Some time ago I was reading a definition of 'science', probably by a philosopher of science. A requirement of science is that experimental data should be openly shared, so that other scientists can replicate the experiments and verify results or disprove. By that reason I would submit that much of 'medical science' is not actually science! It has aspects similar to alchemy... 😄
@tmad-sb6mj Lack of transparency of the data is one reason why I am suspicious of all the studies.
Russ, thanks for the video. Remember that we are all born to die. Quality of life and side effects of medicines are also variables.
Yes, I hope the message here is seen as be wary of any individual data point and consider all aspects.
Why I take a multi-pronged approach to heart disease not relying on anyone factor. But I do believe that Linus Pauling is one of the smartest men that ever lived in the last 1000yrs to be one of the largest factors in the reversal of my heart disease.....
My father always said, no matter what you do you'll never get out of this world alive.
@leonfuerst4790 no a problem but I rather get out later than sooner!
I love your review here. Excellent work.
Another informative video. Thanks Russ.
Intellectual honesty….. what a rare thing. You may be right… You may be wrong…. Being willing to attempt to call BS on something that would confirm your own bias is what science is all about, (and why good science is kinda rare). Kudos.
Well, applaud! The same way you can calculate how statins would shorten the lifespan and combine it together. The only question is that there is no data about that. Cherry picking data does not allow to fairly generalize pros and cons
I took atorvastatin and had bad muscle pain in my neck muscle, the next day , I could tell, take low dose it goes away faster, I rather exercise and diet in low carbohydrates , drink water and walk 30 minutes a day for 7 days , It worked for me, I see my numbers going down slowly but surely , especially my LDL and hdl
I have found my LDL goes down if I hike for days on end. That's probably my body's appropriate response in that case. I think we really need to gain an understanding of why our cholesterol levels are what they are, instead of defaulting to "higher is bad". I can keep my PCP at bay by simply having my blood tests done after a backpacking trip (10 days or more), but that doesn't rally give me the understanding.. something I'm still trying to figure out.
You mentioned this,so I want details of damages caused by statins.
The details are spread over several videos. I will try gathering them in some coherent fashion into a unified video in the future.
would you take someone with heart disease off their statin?
@shawnfallahi5616 I have no medical training, so I would not advise anyone with (or even without) known heart disease on getting off statins. I can only point out what the studies say, and how strong or weak such studies are. For someone with heart disease the decision is incredibly complex and unfortunately very difficult to get truly unbiased information on. And of course, I have biases too.
@@mystatinfreelife Understood. thank you for the reply and have a great weekend.
Russ, do you think that STATIN therapy might be contributing to President Biden's cognitive deterioration?
It's certainly possibly but entirely speculative and impossible to determine. I wish we had an objective test for such things, but we don't, and aren't likely to have one anytime soon (for anybody.)
I had similar thoughts.