Nowadays, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease is still the number one "killer" threatening human health. As the cornerstone drugs in the cardiovascular field, statins and aspirin are what many patients are taking for a long time. Because they need to take them for a long time, the side effects of the drug have become the most worrying problem for patients. What happens if you take statins and aspirin for a long time? Can you stop the medicine?
73-year-old Uncle Liu is a patient who has taken statin and aspirin for a long time. Now he has been taking these two drugs alone for 12 years, while he has been taking antihypertensive drugs for 18 years. From the initial diagnosis of hypertension to the later diagnosis of cerebral infarction , Uncle Liu also spent every day in panic. Fortunately, after the doctor's guidance and self-adjustment, he came out of it and lived to this point. He became more and more confident as he lived. He often told people that he would live to the age of 100. Who said that hypertension will not last long, and cerebral infarction will definitely recur? Uncle Liu used his own experience to prove that in the face of these diseases, he can still live a normal life. The key depends on how you do it.
Summary of so many years of experience, Uncle Liu feels that the reason why he is so calm and confident is because he knows his condition, because he has always insisted on taking medicine, living a healthy life, and taking regular reviews. He knows that his blood pressure is well controlled, and his blood vessels are very healthy. As for the side effects of the drugs that everyone is worried about, he has encountered them before, but he can deal with them correctly every time, so he lives up to now.
Uncle Liu used three sentences to warn patients who took statins and aspirin for a long time, hoping that it would be helpful to patients.
1. Risk and benefit coexist, the key is to
I had muscle soreness after taking statin for half a year. My approach was to go to the hospital for examination immediately and found that creatine kinase was only slightly elevated. After I told the doctor that I was using 80mg of atorvastatin, the doctor changed me to 5mg of rosuvastatin and told me to come and have a follow-up examination in a month. I took rosuvastatin for a month and my symptoms did improve. I found that the creatine kinase had also dropped to normal value after the review. Since then, I have been taking rosuvastatin until now. This is just a small episode in my medication process. I have experienced many problems like this. I went to see a doctor every time, so I had no worries.
Doctor said: Long-term use of aspirin and statins, the risks and benefits exist at the same time. The risks lie in the side effects of the drug itself and the consequences of the wrong medication. The benefits lie in the effect of the drug on the treatment of the disease. In general, the benefits must be greater than the risks. I am afraid that the patient will not listen to the doctor and make decisions, which will lead to a disaster. The most correct thing Uncle Liu did is to find a doctor if you have something to do.
reminds patients that the most common side effects of statin are muscle damage and liver damage. It may be just a transient increase in creatine kinase and transaminase, or severe rhabdomyolysis and liver failure. The most common side effects of aspirin are bleeding, which may be just a slight gastrointestinal reaction, or severe gastric hemorrhage and cerebral hemorrhage . To avoid serious consequences, the easiest and most effective way is to have a regular review, especially in the first month of the initial medication use. Remember to do a detailed examination. The examination items include monitoring of indicators such as creatine kinase, aminotransferase, blood sugar, blood lipids, , coagulation function, etc. After that, the medication plan can be adjusted according to the examination results and the review time can be determined.
2. Don’t stop taking the medicine easily, nor do you refuse to stop taking the medicine
As a conventional medicine, aspirin and statins are relatively safe drugs, but nothing is absolutely true. Some patients do have problems with taking the medicine and can’t take it anymore, so they can only stop taking the medicine. I am quite lucky. Although there were problems, they were not big problems and were solved soon. I once met a patient who almost died because of taking statins. He is a patient who is intolerant to statins. He developed muscle soreness shortly after taking it. Unfortunately, he did not pay attention to it because his blood lipids did not meet the standard and he even added the dosage of statins to the maximum, which almost caused a disaster.His experience told me that aspirin and statins cannot be stopped easily, but they should not be taken blindly.
Doctor said: is a medicine of three parts, not to mention that taking so many medicines at once, you have to take them for life. The problem exists, but patients cannot stop the medicine without authorization, but must actively solve it. Some patients may have a slight intolerance, which can be solved by adjusting the dose, so there is no need to stop the medication, but some patients are indeed severe intolerance, so they can only stop the medication and change to other medications. All this must be done under the guidance of a doctor, rather than being good at making decisions, and you should not underestimate the abnormal manifestations in the body, delay treatment, and even more serious consequences should be caused.
reminds patients that when taking statin, it is found that creatine kinase is increased to more than 10 times the normal upper limit, or the aminotransferase is increased to more than 3 times the normal upper limit, or severe muscle soreness, rhabdomyolysis, liver damage, etc., and the medication must be stopped immediately; taking aspirin to cause gastrointestinal bleeding, cerebral hemorrhage, or blood pressure continues to rise, and if the medication is above 150/90mmHg, the medication needs to be stopped.
3. Taking medicine is very important, and there are equally important things
At the beginning, I also thought that controlling blood pressure, listening to the doctor's words, just take medicine well, but even so, I couldn't avoid cerebral infarction. Why do I get a cerebral infarction? It has nothing to do with taking medicine, because I haven't missed it for a day, and the doctor asked me to take as much as I could. The key to the problem is that I overlooked two things. One is that I did not measure my blood pressure frequently, so I don’t know how to control my blood pressure. The other is that I didn’t pay attention to my mouth and still like to eat some heavy-tasting foods. I had pickles every meal and had high salt and high oil cooking. The key is that I couldn’t quit smoking and alcohol. Since I had a cerebral infarction, I have completely understood that taking medicine alone is not enough in . Whether it is controlling blood pressure or preventing recurrence of cerebral infarction, it is inseparable from the management of lifestyle. Of course, regular reviews are also important.
Doctor said: In , patients often complain about why I took medicine every day and ended up with a cerebral infarction. Is it useless to take medicine? Taking medicine is definitely useful, but medicine is not omnipotent. Just like statins and aspirin, it can control and stabilize plaques and prevent thrombosis. However, it will accelerate the growth of plaques in life, and risk factors that induce thrombosis can also be seen everywhere. If you only know how to take medicine and ignore the existence of these risk factors, the two will be counterproductive, and the risk will prevail, and the disease will still occur. Therefore, improving lifestyle and avoiding risk factors are as important as taking medicine. Regular reviews are to discover potential risks and respond in a timely manner, which is also a necessary part. In short, if you want to stay away from diseases, either of them is indispensable.
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