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Mary Kyle
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A Woman’s Heart, Possible Risk Group for Statin Use Identified

So, your cholesterol’s a little high. You have a couple of risk factors for developing heart disease. Lifestyle changes (you know….the dreaded diet and exercise) haven’t done enough yet to lower your cholesterol. Your doctor just recommended that you take a statin drug to lower your cholesterol.

What do you do? Do they work for everyone to lower the risk of heart disease? According to one group of researchers, in certain groups of people, statins may do exactly the opposite. In some people, statins may actually raise the risk of heart attack.

In a perfect world, statins are designed to lower your “bad” LDL cholesterol. They accomplish this by preventing your body from using the building blocks it needs to create cholesterol. It’s also believed that statins cause your body to reabsorb the cholesterol already in your arteries. The combination of the two (i.e. lowering the bad cholesterol and cleaning out the cholesterol already cluttering up your arteries) sounds like it ought to be a winner and as Martha Stewart is fond of saying, a “it’s a good thing.”

However, statins may not be so good for everyone.

We value and respect the experiences of all of our HerWriters, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.