Conclusion: Statins lower blood pressure by cholesterol-independent mechanisms, and the reduction is larger in individuals with higher blood pressure and those with low HDL-C. Statins may be beneficial in preventing hypertension and may contribute to better blood pressure control in hypertensive patients.
“We found that statins lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and that the effect extends to patients with pre-hypertension, those with normal blood pressure and persons not on blood-pressure lowering medications,” said Golomb.
Statins help lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, also known as “bad” cholesterol, in the blood. They draw cholesterol out of plaque and stabilize plaque, Blaha says.
While statins are highly effective and safe for most people, they have been linked to muscle pain, digestive problems and mental fuzziness in some people who take them and may rarely cause liver damage.
If you're taking a statin medication to lower your cholesterol, you will need to keep taking your prescription, or your cholesterol will likely go back up. Stopping your statin can put you at risk of having heart disease and other preventable health problems like stroke and heart attack from high cholesterol.
The American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association developed some prescription guidelines. Typically, if a person's LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) is 190 or higher, they're often advised to start a statin.
Statins don't just lower cholesterol levels but also reduce the risk of fatty plaques breaking off from walls of your arteries, reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke.
You usually have to continue taking statins for life because if you stop taking them, your cholesterol will return to a high level. If you forget to take your dose, do not take an extra one to make up for it.
So, why do people take statins at night? Many statins work more effectively when they are taken at night. This is because the enzyme which makes the cholesterol is more active at night. Also, the half-life, or the amount of time it takes for half the dose to leave your body, of some statins is short.
If you have high cholesterol and are at high risk for cardiovascular disease, you should consider statins. That's because the benefits of statins greatly outweigh the risks. Statins reduce the risk of serious cardiovascular events like heart attack or stroke by up to 25%, and death by 10%.
In vitro (15–19) and animal (19–23) studies suggest biological mechanisms through which magnesium may prevent or reverse plaque formation and calcification.
Researchers say prescribing statins along with blood pressure medications improves the survival odds for people with hypertension. The number of deaths from stroke and heart disease could significantly decrease if people are given statins in combination with medications that lower blood pressure.
Does lowering your cholesterol lower your blood pressure? Certain lifestyle changes that lower cholesterol can also lower your blood pressure. Such as: eating a healthy diet and exercising can help lower both cholesterol and blood pressure.
Statins work by reducing the amount of cholesterol made by the liver and helping the liver remove cholesterol that is already in the blood. Statins may also reduce inflammation in the artery walls. This can lead to blockages that damage organs such as the heart and brain.
Statin use is associated with increased calorie intake and consequent weight gain.
One alarming study of 28,000 patients found that 3 in 10 stopped taking their statins because they presumed the aches and pains they were experiencing were due to the drug. The result: 8.5% suffered a heart attack or stroke within just four years, compared to 7.6% who continued taking the drugs13.
According to a research review people who take simvastatin (Zocor) or pravastatin (Pravachol) may experience fewer side effects.
Which cholesterol-lowering drug is the safest? Overall, statins are safe as a class of drugs. Serious adverse events are very rare. Among the individual medications, studies have shown that simvastatin (Zocor®) and pravastatin (Pravachol®) seem to be safer and better tolerated than the other statins.
Lowering your cholesterol levels through diet, exercise, or weight loss could eliminate your need to take statins or other cholesterol medications. If you can do that, that's great!
As evident from periodic liver enzyme estimations, we can say that alternate-day statin therapy is at least as safe as daily treatment regime. While there was one instance of myalgia, on daily atorvastatin treatment, alternate-day dosage of the same was well tolerated.
After having their cholesterol tested, seniors should be given a number between 190 and 260. Healthy seniors should keep their total cholesterol below 200 and their LDL cholesterol around 100. If your elderly loved one's LDL cholesterol level is above 160, he or she must start making sweeping lifestyle changes.
Fifty patients met study criteria, and overall most (37/50; 74%) tolerated the once-a-week regimen (Table 1). Among those who experienced myalgias from previous statins, 71% (25/35) tolerated once-a-week rosuvastatin.