I am a woman in my sixties, slightly overweight. In March, I had a balloon dilation, after which I started cholesterol medication. Now I fear for my liver.
The expert answers:
The MOST important cholesterol medicine is statins. After balloon dilatation, they are included in the treatment, even if the cholesterol values are in the “normal range”, because the evidence of their benefit in preventing blockage is solid. Statin treatment has been shown to prevent one cardiovascular or vascular event for every three people treated, and liver damage to occur in only one out of a million people treated. Liver damage is extremely rare in statin therapy and monitoring of liver values is no longer considered necessary. There may be small increases in values, but they are often transient.
Statins are also used in the treatment of patients with liver disease, of course depending on the situation. Mild increases in liver values usually settle on their own, and their causes are often fatty liver (obesity), other drugs, alcohol and natural products.
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People with fatty liver have seven times the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to liver disease, they can safely use statins.
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The list of side effects that comes with the medicine packages is extensive and does not always represent a real proven causal relationship. However, it can be intimidating and prevent the initiation of a beneficial medication. Liver damage has been in the spotlight a lot because it has increased with being overweight. After balloon dilatation of the coronary artery, the benefit of statin is indisputable in the prevention of reocclusions and heart events. I would encourage the questioner to talk to the attending physician about his concerns.
This article has appeared in Hyvä tervey magazine. As a subscriber, you can read all issues free of charge from the digilehdet.fi service.
Source: www.hyvaterveys.fi
