Statin Guide

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Risks to Quitting Statins

Before stopping your statin, talk to your doctor, especially if you have had a heart attack.

A study in the August 2008 issue of the European Heart Journal found that patients who discontinued their statin after a heart attack were twice as likely to die during the following year compared with those who had never been on the medication. Researchers studied data on almost 10,000 British patients who had survived a heart attack.

“If you have an indication to be on a statin, it would be an uncommon situation where it would advantageous to come off it,” says Christopher B. Granger, M.D., FACC, director of cardiac care at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

“Even with exercise, diet, and stopping smoking—even if you do all those things—you still get an additional benefit from the statin, ” he says.

Cardiologist Melissa Walton-Shirley, M.D., FACP, FACC, co-director of the cardiovascular lab at TJ Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow, Kentucky, says when you stop taking a statin, don’t be shocked to see your cholesterol climb. “It can be as high as it ever was two weeks after stopping,” she says.