Your approach, i.e. avoid medication for as long as possible, is a common one and makes sense.
The issue is of course that you have an increased risk of cardiovascular events, and if the statins lower that risk then they should be considered.
As someone who in their mid-30’s had the sudden onset of Hypercholesterolemia and who worked with cardiac physicians, I got schooled really quickly, and now have had great results with the statins for over 15 years.
With that said, the research surrounding statin usage is pretty strong, however Type 1 diabetics are a special case, with less overall research being completed. Were it me, I would tell my younger self to see if the medication helps rather than fight it. If it doesn’t work for you, then you will feel ok quitting.
I think of it this way. Cardiac events are one of the primary causes of mortality in general, and having diabetes elevates this risk considerably further, so reducing our cardiac risk is low-hanging fruit. Avoiding cardiac events is a big opportunity to significantly improve our longevity and quality of life. Since lowering LDL is well associated with lowering cardiac risk, we are especially recommended to take statins. We get a relatively larger benefit from statins because we have so much extra risk to mitigate.
No, not directly. Although prescribing something tends to make the patient feel like they are being taken seriously and treated well, so the successful physician may be motivated to do so. And lets not get into the drug company advertising budgets, both to physicians and direct to the consumers. Substantially larger than their research budgets, if I recall.
Same here. I still avoid analgesics and the medicines sold to reduce the symptoms of colds. My friends think I’m odd that way.