"Statins! I must report my own experience. I have had high LOW AND HIGH CHOLESTEROL pretty much all my life. Being very active (one hour of sport everyday over the past 40 years) and not a smoker, I felt this was genetic and never felt the necessity to rely on Statins to take away the guilt of having ice cream at times.

"But this was before I went to a new doctor in New York, just before Pfizer was to lose it's license to generic. It took him 1 year to convince me to take the (damn) pill, following an enormous blitz from the college of medicine in NYC including questionnaire sent to you about how good was your doctor for warning you about the risks of heart problems, etc... I took the prescription reluctantly on a trial basis, went to a vacation and immediately felt severe pain in my front neck muscles, I tried to ignore it, and one day worried about the constant pain, I threw the pills in the garbage.

"On my return, went immediately to my doctor, told him about the pain that he had never mentioned including also the warning that I discovered on the internet that grapefruit (I ate one each day for breakfast). His answers were miserable. I gave up the pills, changed doctor (she also was after me for statins but I ignored her) and decided to live with my so called heart risk. To finish, the pain has never left me entirely, and I experience from time to time near blackouts! So caveat emptor for me and may this be an eye opening for readers."

David Fuller's view Thanks for your testimonial on statins, which are certainly heavy medicines, although reactions to them vary. Also, apologies to younger subscribers - I too would have been bored reading about this, until I unexpectedly became a candidate for statins.

These are often over prescribed and I would get a second opinion if you do not knowingly have heart problems. For instance, I know and have also read about people who have high LDL cholesterol (the dangerous one) which is more than offset by high HDL (the safe one). The key test is whether or not your arteries are being clogged by cholesterol. Over 50% blockages are a clear warning.

For instance, I had high LDL and insufficient HDL, so some of my arteries were being all but closed off, and I was shocked when pain and breathlessness came on suddenly about 5 years ago. Despite never smoking, plenty of exercise and a reasonably good diet, I had to have a heart bypass operation. Today, I still need a drug (fortunately no longer a statin) to control the LDL, despite eating very sensibly.