Ecosprin and Statin for narrowing of carotid artery?

All drugs carry some risks, and not all patients tolerate any given drug. Those on statins report all sorts of ailment and changes in wellness that they attribute to a new statin prescription, and if their doctor agrees, they try another one. It's the same with heart rhythm medications; some people feel so poorly that it scares them and they beg to try something else. A helpful doctor will have numerous others to try, and this often solves both problems, intolerance and the condition meant to be treated in the first place...which is still the goal.

Yes, you do need to take the drug. Statins not only minimize the liver's production of CPSK9, the cholesterol producing protein, but they also raise calcium scores in the blood, and you WANT THAT. The whole point of raising your calcium score is to help to harden, or to cement, or to mortar, the plaque that is already extant in your various arteries, and you do have more of it than you might appreciate. You don't want it to flake off and to travel, like a clot does, and to cause a blockage, say in the heart or in the brain. That is almost a death sentence. So, at our age (I just turned 72), and if we enjoy the grandkids, and would like to continue for at least another decade, you buy the insurance policy...and currently that is a statin. Note that this assumes you are already living a marvelously risk-free life with an amazing diet and that your genes would be the envy of every human on the planet. If none of those is true, then a statin is likely to help you to stay alive for the next decade or two.

Just my way of looking at this. I am on apixaban, a DOAC (direct oral anti-coagulant) due to having an arrhythmia previously, but also due to my age and being male, and I take 40mg of atorvastatin each day. I don't like it, and would much rather not, but it's a small thing to minimize my risk of being dead at 78 and not at 88,

Thank you very much indeed for your detailed reply. That statin helps harden the existing block in the blood vessels is new knowledge for me. I do not know that it is not the plaque itself but the rupture of the plaque and the consequent body’s mechanism to fix it that leads to heart attacks and strokes.

Thank you again for your kindness and time.