Dynamic Statins

Ok, this is worth knowing.

Statins (as I understand it, drugs given to help lower cholesterol), are also very useful for those who are healthy. Read all about it. How healthy one has to be, I do not know. It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. There’s lots to discuss there, but I don’t have the time.

Let me quote the article. ‘Overall, the chance of a heart attack, stroke, hospital admission for chest pain or death from cardiovascular disease was cut by 44%, researchers said.’ And this is for a large group of 17,800 men and women.

Well, as I teach statistics, I often cringe when I see them reported. In the marrying of precision mathematics and precise language, reporters often have to choose between making an article exciting or accurate. You can’t have both, which is one reason why maths coursework has been axed. Anyway, I took a look at the claim. A lot of healthy-ish people were given a drug they wouldn’t normally be prescribed, and in the event, their chance of dying from a heart problem was dramatically cut.

In other words, you could take drugs which you don’t officially need and still have a heart attack. This is enough to put some people right off, but then some people still play the lottery. Overall, however, most people would seem to do better for it, and the side effects are minimal with this particular statin.

‘So, where do I get some?’ I thought to myself?

Then I realised the shocking truth.

I am probably Not That Healthy.

I have not been in full ownership of my body for (12 + 9 =) 21 months now, but recently stopping feeding Lily might help that. Even so, I could have been exercising, but I have not been. I could have been changing my eating patterns, but I still eat unhealthy foods. I could have made sure I drank enough water, but I haven’t been.

I am the kind of person who thinks that the public ought to meet the NHS halfway. Smokers ought to make serious efforts to quit, that sort of thing.

So really, I am being a hypocrite if I say that I ought to sign up for statins as soon as I can, if my lifestyle is not suited to developing a healthy heart.

It begins with me.

But I’m not feeling all that well today, so I will put it off a bit.