Are lipid-lowering statins safe?

The safety of statins has always been a hot topic of concern. Statins may cause elevated liver enzymes and muscle enzymes, and in some cases may lead to serious complications such as myolysis. But generally speaking, long-term use of statins is safe, and we should not refuse to use statins because of over-emphasis on their adverse reactions, because if used reasonably, the benefits of statins far outweigh the risks.

Some people once suspected that statins would increase the risk of cerebral hemorrhage, so people were more concerned about using statins after cerebral hemorrhage. However, there is currently insufficient evidence to limit the use of statins after cerebral hemorrhage. Considering that cerebral hemorrhage is closely related to hypertension, if patients with cerebral hemorrhage use statins, they should pay more attention to blood pressure control.

Considering that statins have certain adverse reactions, during treatment, if the monitoring indicators continue to be abnormal and other influencing factors are excluded, or if the corresponding clinical manifestations of abnormal indicators appear, the drug should be reduced or stopped for observation in a timely manner; elderly people or patients with severe organ dysfunction should start with a low dose. Currently, in clinical practice, if liver enzymes exceed 3 times the upper limit of normal values ​​and muscle enzymes exceed 5 times the upper limit of normal values, the drug should be stopped for observation. Other situations depend on the specific conditions of the patients.