Statin Drugs Most Common Side Effects Discussed

[Music] [Music] hi welcome to another episode of talking with docs i'm dr brad weaning i'm dr paul zalzel talking with doc's where we basically talk with doc today it's just the two of us were going to do talking with doc but it was very boring to hear one person talk so we decided to do talking with docs with more than one doc we got a cool topic today this one uh you know has some personal um annotations connotations here close to my heart yes uh we're talking about the side effects of a certain type of medication and the side effects of that medication that we're talking about is statins and i bet if we said side effects of medication like if we google that term yeah statins might come up stands comes up okay so this and and we were inspired to do this talk because a lot of our viewers left some comments on some of our other videos where we talk about cholesterol and talk about the use of medications some kind comments some productive comments some really angry comments that's fine the reason for that is because of the pharmaceutical industry which has not historically been totally transparent or honest i think generally speaking their goal is to do to do good yeah but it is still a business and the business of statins is a big one there's a study that reviewed statin consumption in sales between 2002 and 2018 in the u.s to an average yearly sale price uh wait for it 24 billion billion billion that's a b so that's a lot that's a lot of money it was like 22 million prescriptions in a country that has like 330 million people so so it's a big deal and recently there have been some articles one that we're going to do a little journal club on soon that have called into question a how low does our cholesterol have to go how important is the ldlc how important is that and and how significant is the benefit of taking a statin so we're acknowledging the fact that this is an evolving area of science it is not an exact one um so definitely before you make a decision to not take statin you definitely should review this with your family doctor your cardiologist we're just talking about hey if you're gonna take satin these are some things that you may be presented with yeah and statins as you know are medicines that are used to lower cholesterol right um we're not pro pharma we're not against pharma we're just neutral pharma neutropharma and and statins block a substance that is required by your body to make cholesterol so a lot of the cholesterol that we have in our body is made by our body so the statin stops the ability to make more cholesterol so it reduces production as opposed to uh getting rid of it that's right like a lot of the other things that's right and um it's important before we go into this topic to mention an interesting phenomenon now you've all heard of the placebo effect yes and placebo just means i think it's latin is it latin yes pleasing or pleasant accepting yeah try it as a compliment next time you see someone you're very placebo i don't know if it'll work actually don't try that but anyway so placebo effect as you know is um it's basically the effect where someone perceives the benefit of a treatment just because they're on the treatment not necessarily because of the treatment right okay and and the placebo effect we've talked about this before is significant it's up to thirty percent yeah in some ways yeah and that's great you know they want to get better you want to get better if you're taking a pill it could be a sugar pill or or a placebo pill and you do perceive some benefit right is that a bad thing i don't think so i think personally i think if you're feeling the you know the relief or the an effect that's good enough whether it was from the medication or not it's controversial right it's funny and it's you know the placebo effect we always think of as you know pretty good thing if you're getting some relief right now like everything in the universe there's balance so the placebo is a good thing the opposite of it is the no sibo effect that is not a very common word not a common word but it is a thing okay it's placebos evil twin sibling and they were separated at birth like an anime movie then they get reunited in the second act and battle it out in the third act the cain and abel there you go so the nocebo effect is perceiving harm because you know there's a risk of harm from it okay so by nature of us presenting you with the side effects of statins a certain percent sure of p viewers will [Music] feel these side effects sure um even though you maybe don't even have them even if you don't have them but if you feel it does that mean you have it kind of certain ones anyway so certain subjective side effects because of the nocebo effect you will perceive that you have them right you know keep that in mind that's a problem because whenever we present uh you know administer treatment we always want to talk about the risks and the benefits so when we talk about the benefits we do run the risk of inducing the placebo effect of those benefits whenever we talk about the risks we do run the risk of inducing the nocebo effect well to be honest i think with particularly you have knee replacements we talk a lot about risk of blood clot we worry about it a lot we're really careful about it so i think a lot of people come in and i'll see them regularly if you've got a book think of a book cloud and i'm like yeah you might have looked like maybe do an ultrasound or something to rule out but most often they do not have a blood clot yeah but i think you plant the seed so everyone's it's like hyper aware well on the knee replacement topic we do tell a lot of people that some people still have pain after the knee replacement aren't happy you might not have so perfect like are we inducing that outcome by telling them about it possibly according to the nocebo effect we are inducing a certain percentage to have a bad outcome by telling them that a bad outcome is a chance however we have to give informed consent together we have to get informed consent so we have to tell you about that so well keep that in mind rabbit hole keep that in mind when we're talking about these side effects that just by the nocebo effect some of you may experience them just because you we just said it and that's the thing i think in 2013 uh in britain there was a media release on the side effects of statins yeah and from it based on a study then all of a sudden the reported incidents of side effects went way up and the use of statins went down uh well that's maybe not a good thing right so anyways placebo no sibo keep that in mind before we talk about this okay so quickly before we talk about the specific side effects of stats we're talking about some risk factors that increase your chances of experiencing some of these side effects okay so there's seven of them number one uh high dose okay a high dose of the medication then your chances of having a side effect of that medication are higher that makes sense okay number two is if you're taking multiple cholesterol medications so if your cholesterol doesn't go down with one sometimes you'll be added a second or a third just like blood pressure this increases your chances of having a side effect probably because it's like having to do more stuff to your body uh next one is increased age right if you're over 80 there's going to be a higher chance and that makes sense because as we age our physio physiology changes we excrete medications maybe not as quickly or efficiently so the chance of getting a side effect is higher females have a higher chance of having side effects and there's no specific identification of exactly why this is but likely relates to hormonal differences the next one is increased alcohol use okay uh makes sense because al increased alcohol use can interfere with your liver function yep liver function uh liver dysfunction can interfere with the metabolism and excretion of a medication so that can increase the chance of side effects and that kind of ties into people with pre-existing kidney and liver issues so because of the way this is processed if you have pre-existing issues this can aggravate those uh last one would be if you have a history of hypothyroidism or als yeah for some reason those conditions also increase your chance of a side effect okay so those are the risk factors that you might have to get a side effect a side effect and we're finally going to get to the side okay so the number one that you'll hear from someone that's taking statuses talk about about muscle issues and this is muscle soreness muscle fatigue uh muscle tiredness and this can be from mild to severe and is present in up to five percent of people like this is a very real thing now you were kind enough to share that you have taken us down i'm on a statin do you have some of that when i started the medication i i did feel like i had some muscle aches and pains now and i wasn't sure if it was you know i was working out is it is it did i change my workout or something is it the nocebo effect just because i knew that that was one of the side effects so i you know of course i felt like yeah i got my seatbelts in pain who knows but i did right now do i still feel it i've been on stands for about a year um no i don't think so okay but it's hard to tell because if i change my workout then i do feel muscle aches and pains and would i have felt those if i wasn't on the statin who knows and rarely can lead to something that's life-threatening it's something called rhabdomyolysis where the muscle breaks down and because of one of the components of the myoglobin that goes to your kidneys it actually causes kidney failure it's very rare but it's also very serious so if you do have significant muscle symptoms talk to your doctor and definitely be assessed so that they can decide what to do okay next one number two liver damage yeah okay you can damage your liver by taking any medication that is excreted by the liver for example acetaminophen excessive doses of acetaminophen can lead to liver damage well same with a statin right excess doses or being on it for a while can damage your liver and that's why you'll see if you get started on a statin some of the blood work that you're right your primary care physician will order uh is to look at your liver function to make sure you're not hurting your liver by taking it right okay number three is elevated blood sugar and transitioning into even borderline type 2 diabetes so because of the way that sugar is metabolized than the role of the liver and the role of cholesterol in this this can potentially cause this problem so obviously like uh paul said once you're taking these medications you're going to be having regular blood work that include blood sugars to find out whether or not that has changed in you okay and the next one what's the next one again oh yeah memory loss and confusion let's see what i did there i did seriously i can tell see i can every time you do that on purpose because sometimes you do do that normally because i'm on a stat no you i feel like you did it before you're out of state and i feel like that's a no seemable effect i think so you just demonstrated is it no effect or an excuse yeah cousins those are yeah cousins it is a fine line okay so memory loss and confusion and that's a weird one because a lot of uh studies have suggested that being on a statin can help reduce your chances of developing dementia because of keeping the blood vessels you know patent in your brain yep um but listed as a side effect is memory loss and confusion right so now you know who's at risk of getting statin related side effects you know the top kind of four last one oh that's awesome memory loss and confusion i'm just kidding you know the top four side effects that you do get the take-home messages yes medications have side effects this one has some very specific ones that are not particularly uncommon if you have concerns about them please do not stop your medication abruptly on your own volition talk to your family doctor your cardiologist discuss this and have have a plan to deal with your other medical issues as a whole yeah and keep in mind that the risk of these side effects are very low yes so the overall risk benefit profile of statins is we think quite high right based on the evidence available to us yep um however there are some controversies that exist with ting statins which we've talked about in other words in a recent article that we're going to review pretty soon yeah that shows that maybe the benefits aren't that great yes um so definitely talk it over with your doc with your cardiologist before you make your decisions uh with this medication and any medications i feel like the cholesterol issue is not quite solved yet no it's not so no smoking that one's solved yeah smoking cancer bad that's a good one that showed that i feel like i feel like alcohol is getting closer to being solved you know i'm bringing it back that's right we're gonna keep it low cholesterol is certainly still up in the air we're trying to figure it all out and and just for us for the viewers that are watching we just want people to be healthy so if that means eating different stuff or exercising or taking medication we just want to be healthy we have nothing to gain we're not in the pocket of big pharma you know the statin people aren't giving us checks every month no one is for that matter so we just want people to be healthy so we're trying to provide the information for you to make an informed decision we are not sponsored by dark green leafy vegetables right we are not sponsored by your coronary arteries right we're not sponsored it is what it is so if you like this video please like it subscribe to our channel share with someone and leave some comments talking about your experience with statins and i think we're going to be overwhelmed with comments remember sharon is karen i don't think i think karen is a negative thing that karen is like a statin nowadays unfortunately for people named karen that's i mean it's not fair people how did that even happen yeah sorry karen don't please don't ask your name is karen leave a comment yeah don't don't ask to talk to the manager that's right remember you are in charge of your own health and according to the nocebo effect you are partially in charge of some of the side effects that you see perceive next time

Channel: Talking With Docs

Views: 280,861

Keywords: statins, statin, statin side effects, statin drugs, statin intolerance, statin hepatitis, statin meds, statin therapy, statin alcohol, statins heart, statins risks, dr berry statins, statin medication, statins vitamin d, statins benefits, statin medications, how do statins work, do statins, statin wars, are statins, statin liver, statin facts, coq10 statin, co q10 statin, statins and cholesterol, statins uses, statin kidney, statin fatigue

Id: 0nFI3m9LiAs

Length: 13min 39sec (819 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 19 2022