Should You Take Cholesterol-Lowering Medications?

Hope you've had a great start to 2024! 💊 MicroVitamin (multivitamin & mineral that I take): drstanfield.com/products/microvitamin 📜 Roadmap - how to look young & feel strong: drstanfield.com/pages/roadmap

Rosuvastatin 2.5mg and 5mg ezetimibe took my ApoB from 116 to 43 and Ldl-c from 99 to 35. No side effects.

This was so well-articulated. Your analysis of these important studies was easy to understand and extremely informative. Your recommendations are spot on!

Always very informative. Thanks from France!

Your videos always help me better understand my health and supplements that are beneficial. I am shocked that you have not addressed my problem with taking statins and often happens to others. I have taken Pravastatin since I was 28 years old and thought I did not have any side effects. Then one day when I was cleaning up outside I tore my bicep from my elbow. I have since had the tendon replaced with an Achilles tendon because there was nothing left of the old one. It was my cardiologist that informed me that it was likely the statin I was taking. Can you please create a follow up video discussing this? Please.

Hi Dr. Brad. Thank you for you do and really appreciate this video. Can you please share what blood tests you are doing to help you decide if should add Ezetimibe?

Thank you for this information. This helps a lot.

Great video!!👍

Thanks Brad, you've excelled yourself with this highly informative vlog...

Good information thank you. I just added Zetia to my 5mg of Crestor and my LDL dropped significantly. I’m also on a low carb diet, which apparently helps the Zetia work even better.

Thanks Brad for another great video. Any guidance on how to convince GP to prescribe statins in Australia or NZ if your LDL is normal according to the guideline but far from ideal?

Hey Brad Which of those 4 medications is generally speaking overall the safest/ the one with the least amount and severity of side effects? (if one only cared about this fact)

Indian gooseberry (Amla) and bergamot both have small, but reasonable studies that show LDL cholesterol and cardiovascular risk factor reduction similar to low dose statins. In my statin intolerant patients I consistently saw 20to 35% reductions in LDL cholesterol levels, reduced triglycerides, and increased HDL levels.

I am female, almost 70, eat a very healthy Mediterranean diet, exercise daily, and maintain a lean bodyweight and have no family history of early heart disease. My LDL is always high, but mostly all of large particle size. My HDL is usually around 100, give or take a few points. Given my strange numbers over the years, my cardio doctor suggested a cardiac calcium test. My score was zero, and my heart is pretty strong from decades of distance running (now race walking). We are taking a 5 year wait and see approach.

I looked at the PESA study referenced. It doesn't have any data on VO2 max or other tested fitness metrics. It does mention a self reported vigorous physical activity stat, but most people think they're in better shape than they are. I think there are much better studies on fitness vs. CVD risk. Also, absolute values of all cause mortality should be included in any studies like these.

Thank you for this information. I have struggled with finding anything to help guide my decision making about taking my statins. The muscle pain was so intense on simvastatin that I couldn’t take it. I’m now on a low dose of rovistatin and it is not causing any muscle pain. I’m going to keep taking it.

Thanks for this. This was timely for me, as I just got my latest blood tests yesterday. Good on most items, high HDL (85) I take Omega-3 maybe that does that, low triglycerides (80), low CRP / low inflammation, but high LDL-C (146) and ApoB at 104 mg/dL which is borderline high. I want to lower Apo B to below 80 mg/dL, which would be in ~10th percentile of US adults my age, but don't want to over-medicate. Tests say my CVD risk is below average but would be lower if I could get ApoB/LDL down. your video confirms low-dose Statin + Ezetimibe is a decent approach for someone in my situation. I will talk to doctor about it.

Thanks for the informative video. Ok, high ApoB resp. LDL cholesterol is strongly associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease and a respective mediction is accordingly associated with risk reduction. But how can this be reconciled with the studies that have shown, for example, an increased all-cause mortality risk for middle-aged, non-statin taking men with an LDL-C below 70mg/dl (Sung et al. 2019, n~350,000)? Also other studies seems to point to a rather protective effect of higher cholesterol levels in older patients. How sure can we be that lowering cholesterol levels with medication is really beneficial for a person with otherwise no particular cardiovascular risk factors?

Great content Brad, it's good to hear an influencer being positive about statins, I'm 61 years old and I work out hard, cycling, running, and weights, I exercise at least 1000 minutes a week and I'm a very healthy weight so you would expect my cholesterol to be fantastic but no my cholesterol was high which was down to genetics and also a high protein diet, also I eat plenty vegetables, I take Rosuvastatin 10mg every other day and Ezetimibe 10mg every day which got my LDL down to 62.62, what's more, no side effects and feeling very healthy, I will continue with the medication for the rest of my life.

LDL was 190. I received a stent due to high calcification. I went on Rosuvastatin 20mg and Ezetimibe. LDL went down to 84. Adjusted my diet, exercise a lot more, switched from coffee to green tea and 2 teaspoons psyllium every day. Now my LDL is 79. I'm eager to try Bempedoic Acid when it becomes available in Thailand hopefully in fall 2024