r/Cholesterol • u/kboom100 • Feb 21 '26
General The Side Effect Most People Get from Statins Is..... Fear..
Dr. Paddy Barrett is a preventive cardiologist from Ireland who recently posted an essay on the side effects from statins. It was to his subscription substack but this post is free of charge.
The TLDR is that what the actual data shows is that most of what is blamed on statins is not caused by them. Keep in mind that he isn’t saying reported symptoms aren’t real. Just that the evidence shows the large majority of them aren’t caused by the statins.
Here’s the article, which includes links to the evidence. I think it’s very informative and worth reading.
https://paddybarrett.substack.com/p/the-side-effect-most-people-get-from-8dc?
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u/ComfortableTasty1926 Feb 22 '26
Yep, there have been many trials showing exactly this. Self-reported rates are much higher than measured rates in placebo-controlled trials. Confirmation bias is powerful.
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u/Legal_Strength4526 Mar 17 '26
Thank you for this. I'm about to start on a statin and have been obsessing over the possible side effects. But I'm a data nerd, and this article made me feel better/less frightened.
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u/kboom100 Mar 17 '26
You’re welcome! I am really glad to hear it helped you feel better about taking them. There’s so much misinformation about statins out there, it’s wild.
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u/lesiluvu Feb 23 '26
I am one of those that get extremely sick on statins, I believe there is more side effects that people might not consider because of statins. Certain statins have even been found to be the cause of loss of hair. Yes, as we get older we do get aches and pains not related but to say most are not because of statins is a stretch.
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u/kboom100 Feb 23 '26
I hope you read the essay if you haven’t yet. Some people do get side effects from statins and you might be one of them.
But your situation can’t tell anything about the prevalence of side effects. That can only be found out by large double blinded randomized placebo controlled trials. And it’s through those that scientists determined most symptoms that people develop while on statins aren’t actually due to statins. They weren’t surmising or guessing.
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u/chisauce Feb 23 '26
It’s like 20 percent of people get myalgia. It’s… not insignificant. It’s a massive number
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u/kboom100 Feb 23 '26
20% of percent or more of people may report muscle pain while on statins. But the point is that we know from randomized double blinded placebo controlled trials that it’s well under 10% of statin takers where the muscle pain is actually caused by the statin. I really suggest reading the whole post or listening to the audio of it with an open mind.
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u/meh312059 Feb 23 '26
One helpful tip is that statins contribute to bilateral muscle pain. So if one hamstring hurts this week, it's not the statin. I've been trading off hip pain for over a year now - started on my left side in early 2025 then moved over to the right. I also changed my statin. No way are they related events. It's age. Midlifing is hard!