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Comment by pstuart | Hacker News Reader

A key takeaway is: don't be afraid of taking statins if you need them. I fell for the "statins are bad" BS for years and have paid the price.

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My dad would disagree--he's 84, was on statins for years and they did terrible things to his body. I'm sure the drugs kept him alive, but the side effects, as he describes them, particularly to his legs and kidneys, were pretty severe. He only got better when he stopped taking them.

I believe statins reduce risk by about 30%, so there's a roughly 30% chance the statins have done good things for your dad.

(I think that's what the stats mean, right? I'm open to correction on this. I do believe the statin studies, I'm not a science denier. I think what I've said matches the science, as far as I understand.)

The risk reduction is relative risk not absolute

You're right. The absolute risk reduction would be more appropriate here.

Obviously we all differ in how we respond to medications -- apparently it's 10% - 15% that have issues with statins.

I think a pragmatic approach would be to try them if warranted by testing and be prepared to stop or change them if it has issues.

We're learning more and more about the mechanisms of cholesterol and there's a variety of medications out there: https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/cholesterol/preventio...

And that doesn't address the role that fiber plays in managing it (and the virtues of fiber for health in general that are coming to light at a rapid clip)

What price have you paid?

I now have a cardiologist and just had an MRI to check on the state of my aorta, as a recent calcium scan brought up concerns.

I've now been on rosuvastatin and ezetimibe for several years with zero noticeable negative effects. I'm hoping that this with other behavior modification can help stave off further damage for a while.

I recommend the same. There are other interventions, but these two medications are straightforward to obtain with low or no side effects.

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