Side effects of statins in women that you should hear about
This post will go into detail on the side effects of statins in women that you should hear about because statins are prescribed frequently as the wonder heart drug with over 6 million people in the United Kingdom taking statins for high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. However, a recent study has shown that the side effects of statins in women that they experienced could be worse than the benefits of the statin drug.
More women feel worse on statins
During the clinical trial, more than 300 women were randomly given an average dose of a statin or a placebo as part of a bigger trial. When the results were collated it seems that stronger side effects were reported for those women taking simvastatin in the form of fatigue and muscle pain. One in ten reported feeling much worse while two out of five reported increased fatigue.
So why are the side effects of statins greater in women?
Most people are under the impression that cholesterol comes from our diets, and that is partly true but the majority of cholesterol is produced by our liver, statins are prescribed because they work to block enzymes that are involved in cholesterol production.
It’s thought that oestrogen synthesizes cholesterol but statins play a part in reducing its effectiveness, oestrogen is good for sleep one of the side effects of statins in women is a disruption to sleep patterns leading to tiredness.
Even more, worrying the list of side effects of statins in women continues to grow and now includes headaches, upset tummy, insomnia, muscle aches, hair loss, memory problems and depression.
Statin trials
The majority of statin trials have been done on middle-aged men the findings can’t be used for women especially pre-menopausal women that may be at a lower risk of cardiovascular disease because of higher oestrogen levels and a healthier lifestyle, oestrogen increases HDL or good cholesterol and protects the heart.
Scientists did some research at Harvard medical school on eight major statin studies they concluded that there was little evidence that prescription statin drugs worked as a preventative measure for cardiovascular disease in women (Kendrick 2007) Nutrition and exercise are thought to be the best ways to reduce cholesterol prevent cardiovascular disease and reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke.
Do you stop taking statins?
Is it a good idea to stop taking statins research would suggest not, so how do you combat the side effects of statins in women, especially muscle pain and energy deficiency?
Have you heard about Coenzyme Q10; did you know that 90% of your energy is produced by this enzyme in the mitochondria, especially in your heart muscle?
Coenzyme Q10 can be found in some of the foods that we eat for example fish and organ meat, CoQ10 is required by most of the cells in the body to produce energy.
Statins block Coenzyme Q10 production so does the ageing process one particular study showed that Coenzyme Q10 levels fell by as much as 50% inside the first 30 days of statin medication (2007 Littarru)
How can you offset the side effects of statins?
The recommended Coenzyme q10 supplement therapy is to take a highly bioactive form of ubiquinol to help with fatigue and support a reduction in statin medication.
Research points to a daily dose of up to 30 mg being safe to take and beneficial in supporting heart muscle side effects associated with statin drug use. (2007 Caso)
Conclusion
Side effects of statins in women are many, muscle pain and a loss of energy would seem to be the most widely reported taking a Coenzyme Q10 food supplement can help to offset these side effects.
References
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0b013e31820faaf8
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0140673614613684
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