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High Cholesterol: how do you control it?

Heart & Blood Health | Last Active: Jun 20, 2022 | Replies (49)
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@harolddr

I'm a 75 year-old woman with no health issues. My cholesterol numbers are - Total 204, LDL 122, HDL 62, Triglycerides 94. One of my Doctors is like yours, advising don't worry about it. Another Doctor wants me to take statins. I've read that statins do nothing for women but help only middle-age men. Does anyone know of qualified sources or studies that could confirm this as the side effects could outweigh the benefits derived from taking statins?

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Replies to "I'm a 75 year-old woman with no health issues. My cholesterol numbers are - Total 204,..."
John, Volunteer Mentor | @johnbishop | May 31, 2022

Welcome @harolddr, I have not heard that statins do nothing for women but help only middle-age men. I chose not to take them but to instead work on lowering the numbers with lifestyle changes. My decision was based on studies showing statins can induce neuropathy. Here are a couple of references on your question:

-- Women Versus Men: Is There Equal Benefit and Safety from Statins?: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26782824/
-- "Specifically, for every decrease of 40 mg/dl of LDL (bad cholesterol) when on treatment with a statin, the risk of major cardiovascular events was decreased by 16 percent in women and by 22 percent in men, which did not represent a statistically significant difference between the benefits in men and women." -- Efficacy and safety of LDL-lowering therapy among men and women: meta-analysis of individual data from 174 000 participants in 27 randomised trials: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673614613684

Have you discussed alternatives like lifestyle changes and diet vs taking statins with your doctor?

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