Must you change your diet if statins are doing the job?

Cold-pressed olive oil and organic corn and grapeseed oils are my go-to fats, along with small amounts of butter. I have never been a big user of anything else because I didn't want to wade through all the arguments. We eat very little prepared food because the lists of mystery ingredients puts me off.

I think the notion of not changing (improving) your diet because statins are doing their job, disregards the other impacts of a healthy vs unhealthy diet. If the only thing at all a healthy or unhealthy diet impacted were limited to only the same things statins impact, there could be a case. However, we know diet impacts numerous other systems and factors unrelated to the measurable benefits of statins. My cholesterol is 100 due to statins. My CAC says I'm in the 99th percentile for heart attack risk. Am I free from risks of my dietary choices now? If I go high carb what happens to my risk for diabetes? Personally, my goal is overall wellness, not only the numbers we measure from statin use. I can do a lot of damage to myself, apart from measurables from statins, with a poor diet and conversely have a lot of benefits and increased quality of life from healthy eating.

The question was posed specifically regarding cardiovascular risk. If we do not look at overall wellness and limit this discussion to only cvd, the answer is, "Are there cvd factors unrelated to statin use which are impacted by dietary choices?"

I actually like whole foods, like vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and healthy fats. To me, they taste better and are more satisfying. Not loaded with as much sodium and chemicals either. Each one to his own choices, but I don’t really like fast food and a lot of processed stuff. I like the way I look much better when I’m eating right, too. My energy level is better and I’m not hungry a lot.

Oh, my total cholesterol was 160 before I started a statin last year.

@gravity3 I wasn't looking for support here, just information. Plus I almost always start with Google. I may not not be the world's best researcher, and Google seems less and less helpful in recent years, but had I found the answer there I wouldn't have come here.

I did find a couple of helpful responses, particularly Gloaming's last one, for which I'm appreciative. But I have little patience in forums like these when people post responses that completely ignore the specific questions posed. It's like these folks like to hear themselves "talk" or something, regardless of whether they have anything to contribute. Others almost address the question but don't really answer it.

Having said that, the vast majority of people in this group and others are just trying to help, so I suppose I just need a bit more patience, A trait that would probably help my heart health as well:)

Arguing and criticizing each other is not good. Also not good is not understanding the university level education/research on nutritional chemistry and Miscontextualizing the data which see throughout this thread! So let me add that your question is impossible to answer specifically because we don’t have insight to the way your body processes, the things you eat. So one person‘s genetics might not need them to change their diet, but another person‘s genetics might also add into it, their age, their activity level And their body metabolism. So wisdom indicates that changing your diet to a heart, healthy diet would be wise, wisest and consulting your doctors and getting the necessary test to understand how your body metabolizes fats is going to be important. I am very lucky because I knew my family had heart disease , and we all ate fresh food and kept process food to a minimum I exercise took nutritional chemistry in college and at 67 I found out I inherited vascular coronary artery disease. Which means plaque buildup is an issue. Most people don’t understand that cholesterol in food doesn’t directly deposit cholesterol in your body. You have to take apart the cholesterol in the food and reconstitute for your bodies unique way of making cholesterol. There’s like a signature so actually people give up things like eggs in favor of simple, bad lipids which actually make their own signature cholesterol easier in other words they eat the essential elements that make up cholesterol And bypass the work the body needs to do to break cholesterol down in order to reconstitute it so they’re doing more damage and they don’t understand. I am very lucky that I haven’t died like my cousins in their 60s my dad‘s first heart attack in his 50s and he swam three times a week . I was very lucky. I learned to take a test called LP little a. LPa is a test that tells you if you inherit the genetic vascular disease where your arteries build up plaque. I inherited it unfortunately. So I have to be very careful and I have to have more tests. So if you really want the answer to your question if you seriously want the answer to your question, you have to go take the tests and the results of the test are going to tell you if you have to change your diet. You didn’t tell us what your diet is so you left out the most important part of the conversation. How are we supposed to know if you should change your diet if you don’t tell us about the intricacies of your body health health history, family condition and what you eat every day. And let’s not leave out exercise that’s probably the most important thing that I observe now they have a variety of medicines and they don’t stay off plaque buildup necessarily. My dad took statins for 25 years and he kept having plaque buildup and needing bypass surgeries , but his cholesterol was 169 so it doesn’t help if you have coronary artery disease you have to deal with plaque not building up in your arteries and those are a different series of test just having a cholesterol test. I myself am now on LEVQIO and that has dropped my cholesterol significantly , but it also raised my LPa while I wait for the dust to settle and the plaque to leave my arteries through my bloodstream. I also don’t suffer fools lightly, but most people don’t understand what they don’t know unless they’ve had the education that I saw out early so I believe that before I criticize anyone, I have to offer them information that I have acquired by having a university education on the matter. Although it was a long time ago and medicine has improved and I’m not always current but I know the process of how the body processes things. I hope that helps and good luck.

Thanks Sue, I will post this on my fridge for my next shopping list.
Buy: Cold-pressed olive oil and organic corn and grapeseed oils😃

Are you still on statins or have a plan to get off statins, given your whole food diet plan? I'm a heart and kidney survivor (since 11/2/2022). I've been on statins since 9/26/2023. I had a rough go with my recovery since (due to a variety of situations). I had tremendous problems with eating, though I followed the standard recommendations. I adhered to a primarily Mediterranean diet. With one transplanted kidney, however, even that diet left my creatinine high and eFGR very low. I've been on a plant-based regimen for about five months. My efgr rose from about 26 to 63 and creatinine from 1.75 to 1.3. my glucose is averaging 90 on 12hr fasts and BP is stable at mid 120's over 80's. Unfortunately, my routine blood work does not have a lipid or cholesterol test but I'm hopeful that I can get off statins.

The Mediterranean diet is a bit better than the standard american diet - but no where near a whole food plant based diet.